Property Taxes and Hurricane Insurance...Can someone clarify?

[jerseygirl25]

Wow,
10k a year in taxes & 10k a year in insurance just seems CRAZY to me!!!
I live in NJ & this is supposedly the state with the highest property taxes & car insurance rates. I really want to move to miami, but I don't see how it will be doable at all, with those high costs plus the low wages : (

[Dave037]

Originally Posted by jerseygirl25

Wow,
10k a year in taxes & 10k a year in insurance just seems CRAZY to me!!!
I live in NJ & this is supposedly the state with the highest property taxes & car insurance rates. I really want to move to miami, but I don't see how it will be doable at all, with those high costs plus the low wages : (

People can afford it here because they purchased their homes prior to the big real estate boom in 2004. I purchased my 5 bedroom house for 240,000 in 2000. My property is homesteaded so my property tax hasnt gone up much since 2001 (It's $5000 now and it was $4200ish in 2001). I have USAA homeowners insurance (current or ex-military only) and that's about $2400 a year. However, if I were to sell my home today, it would go for around $440,000, the new homeowner will pay about $8000 in taxes and at least 4-5 grand in homeowners insurance (just a guess).
Property taxes in Fl works much differently than in NJ. I know my mother in NJ pays like $15,000 a year in prop tax for her 3 bedroom in Ocean County and that has gone up significantly in the past five years. In Fl your kinda grandfathered in if you qualify for the homestead exemption and the state can't increase your prop tax that much. Call some insurance companys and a realtor and get some figures on what you'll be spending on taxes and insurance.

The big benefit to Fl over NJ is you don't pay state income tax. But because of that the state is underfunded (Schools are much better in NJ and state/gov't jobs pay very well up there. Its hard to get a job in NJ as a teacher, police officer etc. In Florida they can't get enough people to fill these positions and some of the state/gov't dept's are absolutely terrible (eg Dept of Children and Families).

Do you research and it will take the guess work out of your living expenses and then you'll have a better idea if you should move or not.

[lionking]

JERSEYGIRL.If you want to come to FL I suggest looking at Orlando or Tampa surrounding areas.

I grew up in Miami.I sold my house(it took me a year to sell) this April because I was sick of Miami but also I saw the writing on the wall that the way things were headed I wasn't going to be able to make my mortgage in the future.

I think it's much better up here,and I'm actually making just about as much pay scale as I was in Miami(surprise surprise),yet overall things are cheaper up here and people seem a little nicer.

Miami is a place anymore to vacation,but living there sucks unless you are way above a middle class income.