Best city/neighborhood for young family

[sid369]

Originally Posted by drive carephilly

Orlando is certainly all of those things. I don't know what fields you work in or your particular tax situation but have you considered just moving closer to Philly? I lived there for 12 years. I'd still be there if it wasn't for work. Like I said, I grew up in NJ, watching Daler Mehndi on NJN on Sunday mornings. There's no place in the US that's more South Asian than central NJ. Fremont and the South Bay might be a close second but King of Prussia and Cherry Hill are up there.

Not trying to dissuade you from Orlando, I like it here, and if you're making good money at a job you can work remotely then yes, it's silly to pay state income tax and be cold and bored at the same time.

We have been here for over 12 years now and maybe I am overlooking some of the benefits of this area, proximity to there big cities etc. But honestly, the cold weather sucks.

Forgot to ask about humidity in the summer? how does it compare to Philly summer same or worse...lol

You are right about the biggest SE population in NJ, but that taxes are just too high and we are so close that we can take advantage of the food and the concerts.

[drive carephilly]

Originally Posted by sid369

We have been here for over 12 years now and maybe I am overlooking some of the benefits of this area, proximity to there big cities etc. But honestly, the cold weather sucks.

Forgot to ask about humidity in the summer? how does it compare to Philly summer same or worse...lol

I don't mind the cold so much as the relentless gray and the short days in the Northeast. Here, on January 11th, sunset is at 5:48 and dusk is 6:13pm. In DE you have sunset at 4:59 and dusk at 5:29pm. It doesn't seem like a lot but you notice it. It's nice to leave work before it's dark out.

Anyway, you'd be trading 6-8 weeks of a/c weather and 16 weeks of heating weather for 6 months of a/c weather and 3-4 weeks of heating weather depending on the age/insulation of your house. My heat ran this morning but now I have the windows open because it's 74F outside. It gets chilly at night here and there are days where it doesn't get out of the 50s so you can't completely avoid using the heat here.

Because of the urban heat island effect, Philly is a little hotter than if you're in Newark, DE or some place like that, but the average July heat index in Philly is 97.5F while here in Orlando it's around 116F. The actual daily high temp will be over 90F from mid-May to mid-Sep without relief. It's really tough to do outdoor stuff here in the summer that doesn't involve being in the water. There's plenty of water, it's just, that's all your doing. Even getting up at 6am you're still talking about a heat index that's in the high-80s to low 90s.

It's not like up there where you have a few really hot days then a storm comes through and you're back in the low-80s. Even October, while not as hot as September, and definitely more amenable to morning or evening exercise, is still pretty sticky. Granted, my pool gets full sun all day, but we were still swimming until mid-November. That's a really a testament to how warm it stays at night more than anything. Just picture July in DE - and now picture that or hotter from May through October. It's all about the Bermuda High. Once it sets in it's hot and it's gonna stay that way for months. This past May was pretty nice. Summer didn't really kick in until the end of the month. The big break in humidity came the first week of November, IIRC. But that's the gist of it.