moving the family from the boston area (Jacksonville: credit card, houses)

[majormove08]

I am looking to move my family of 5 from the greater Boston area to either northern florida or the Charlotte area. We are moving mainly for quality of life - we want a warm area where we can enjoy the outdoors. Also, we are looking for a real change in environment, since both of us have lived in the northeast our whole lives. I was wondering if I could hear from families who have made a similar move. How easy was it to find work? My husband is in finance and is well paid. I don't expect Boston money, but can he find a well paying finance job in this area? Also, do I need private school for my kids? All 3 are in grade school, what are tuitions like? Lastly, we want to stay in the mid to upper 300's for a house - is this reasonable? Thanks for any input!

[apvbguy]

Originally Posted by majormove08

I am looking to move my family of 5 from the greater Boston area to either northern florida or the Charlotte area. We are moving mainly for quality of life - we want a warm area where we can enjoy the outdoors. Also, we are looking for a real change in environment, since both of us have lived in the northeast our whole lives. I was wondering if I could hear from families who have made a similar move. How easy was it to find work? My husband is in finance and is well paid. I don't expect Boston money, but can he find a well paying finance job in this area? Also, do I need private school for my kids? All 3 are in grade school, what are tuitions like? Lastly, we want to stay in the mid to upper 300's for a house - is this reasonable? Thanks for any input!

it's a fine idea but do your homework, salaries may not be all that great here, there are a couple of decent private schools here, tuition can be as high as 15k a year, if you move to st johns county the public schools might work for you

[travelingfood]

300K for house is definitely possible in current JAX market. You can get a new construction for that price as well. Just depends how big of a house you wanted. There are PLENTY of houses to go around right now.

[rtt]

From what I hear, Charlotte is a major finance area these days. Jacksonville isn't really at all. As PVBguy said, do your homework before you get here.

[agreatlife]

Citibank has a big center here - mostly the credit card division. Also BofA is here as well as Wachovia. Citi has a lot of job postings right now, you might want to check their site, or CareerBuilders.com I don't know if BofA or Wachovia are hiring.

[travelingfood]

those banks just fired tons of people. but maybe they're hiring higher management positions.

[Jarndyce]

Yeah be careful about applying at Citi/BofA/Wachovia...Citi unloaded 17,000 employees a yr ago, recently fired their ceo, hired a new one, and I believe are about to layoff 10,000 more.

BofA laid off 3000....Wachovia announced 3000 layoffs a month ago (I believe).

Look to private Fin Services or community banks for the jobs...

[agreatlife]

Originally Posted by Jarndyce

Yeah be careful about applying at Citi/BofA/Wachovia...Citi unloaded 17,000 employees a yr ago, recently fired their ceo, hired a new one, and I believe are about to layoff 10,000 more.

BofA laid off 3000....Wachovia announced 3000 layoffs a month ago (I believe).

Look to private Fin Services or community banks for the jobs...

Yup, but as soon as they unload em, they put new postings up. I worked for Citi (no I didn't get laid off). And, BTW, private community banks are ripe for merges. IMO Citi won't be leaving Jax, their whole credit card division is pretty well established here, and they closed another site in favor of this one. Change I think is the nature of the financial services industry. You take them for a ride before they take you, and you move on.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by agreatlife

Yup, but as soon as they unload em, they put new postings up.

They absolutely do! Amazing, isn't it?!

[riveree]

I'm going to put my responses inside of your post since you had a lot of Q's:

Originally Posted by majormove08

I am looking to move my family of 5 from the greater Boston area to either northern florida or the Charlotte area. We are moving mainly for quality of life - we want a warm area where we can enjoy the outdoors. Also, we are looking for a real change in environment, since both of us have lived in the northeast our whole lives. I was wondering if I could hear from families who have made a similar move.
I moved as a single from NYC and yes, you could expect a total change - weather-wise and other-wise...if you want change, head South!

How easy was it to find work? My husband is in finance and is well paid. I don't expect Boston money, but can he find a well paying finance job in this area?
A lot of the major banks/finance institutions are here as described by others above - Citi, Fidelity, Bank of America, WAMU, Wachovia...
It's not too difficult to find work with these companies, but a lot depends on timing. They're hiring, then there's a freeze, then they're hiring again and a month later there's a freeze again - it's a constant cycle. Also, the interview process can take a looooong time in Jax for the higher paid positions...they're not in such a hurry down here.
Positions in the $30k-$40k range are plentiful, $75k-$200k are there (usually in sales), higher management tends to be sourced from outside the city, from what I know of it.

Also, do I need private school for my kids?
For grade school level, you probably don't need it, but since they are coming from Boston schools you might want it to keep school challenging for them.

All 3 are in grade school, what are tuitions like?
For Prep school you could easily be looking at $10k-$20k/yr or more, pretty comparable to the NorthEast. There are non-prep private schools for less and parochial schools too.

Lastly, we want to stay in the mid to upper 300's for a house - is this reasonable?
Definitely, you can find a nice home in that price range.
Thanks for any input!