People who moved from Connecticut......please!

[dedemoving]

Your husband may have some wisdom after all: there is no way that Florida summers are anywhere close in heat/humidity to northern summers. As a certified NJ girl, I arrived here on August 17th. I did not breathe normally until sometime in mid September. Maybe as Fauve said it is because I live in the western suburbs, however, my glasses constantly steamed from the time I opened the front door at 7:30am to get the kids to school. My kids could not ride bikes at first because of the intensity of the heat & humidity. In NJ you may have 100F during the day maybe 8 days out of 3 months but it almost always cools off by at least 20 degrees in the evening and after the rain there is a break in the humidity. That does not happen here!
We will see how this summer goes - however I have already planned several weeks in Maine in July to visit family (& get the heck out for a while!)!
The sun is more intense, there is more humidity and there is less shade. Those are my observations. (But I thoroughly enjoyed the last few months).

[Raffeer]

Took me a full year to acclimate but now I love it, miserable days and all

[trishbert]

I don't have a lot of knowledge of the Weston area, living in Tampa. But, in general, Florida is very patchy throughout. Poor zoning, poor management of growth. If you have school aged children, dig deep on the Florida Dept. Education website and you can get a lot of demographic and FCAT scoring information on your new potential school districts. As for the weather, I believe you are doing yourself a disservice by traveling here in February and March. Those are the best months of the year that we have here in Florida. You should really visit in the summer. The extreme humidity begins in May - sometimes, right around Easter time - and continues through October. The summers are unbearable. At first, they are unbearable, then you adjust a bit, and then they wear on you. I think people are thrown by the temps. For instance, here in Tampa, it hardly ever gets above 92 degrees, but the sun is so strong, and almost any trees that might have provided some level of shade have been removed, and humidity is almost always north of 90%, so it's hotter than you can understand by visiting this time of year. My 8 year old struggles to play soccer for an hour in April and May. It is truly that hot. The only thing to do in the summertime is swim, for limited time, and seek air conditioned entertainment.
Also, dig deep on the cost of living. It's not as inexpensive as it seems at first blush. Look at your neighborhood costs, whether they be HOA fees, CCD fees, or a combination of both, as well as property taxes, and homeowners insurance which is pretty expensive here in comparison to someplace like Connecticut.
Best of luck with your decision.

[hat456]

Hi, I am the OP here, and thought I would update our situation.

We have decided to look back at Raleigh, NC. My wife just can't seem to feel comfortable with the atmosphere in Florida, and thinks that a move there is for later in life. Raleigh seems better for young children to grow up in, by what we have seen and read.

I will be in Raleigh in two weeks, and will check out my areas of interest again.

Thank you so much for all of the info on the Ft. Lauderdale area!