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Hi all! I am just new here!
Where are the best places (for retirees) to live in Florida? I would be very much grateful if you could give your suggestions. I am currently jotting down my plans for my retirement. Please help me finish my checklist. Thank you in advance! I am excited to read all your recommendations.
We live in northeastern Florida, but one thing is for SURE..........Florida isn't the retirement state it use to be! There are a number of retired folks here that have a second home here, but not nearly as many, as a person might think, that live here full-time anymore. From what we've seen anyway.
When we've been to the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa, we seen a ton of retired folks, so that could be one area of Florida that has many there.
We spend 4 months in the FL Keys every winter, in a motorhome. It is expensive and shopping is so limited it is pathetic. For us it is warm and we have great friends who also winter here. We have noticed each year watching the news down here that crime and motor vehicle accidents have increased.
Friends who had moved to FL when they retired have found themselves widows or widowers and moved back up north to be near family as they age. Something to consider.
Naples is very nice but very crowded and heavy traffic.
We could not live here all year. Heat becomes oppressive and bugs are voracious.
My question to you is....what are you looking for?
For my husband and me we wanted to out a little bit. We are retiring from the DC area, so we don't need to be in a busy city, although we want to be close enough to one for concerts, plays, and festivals. We want to be able to get to Disney in less than an hour. We didn't need a golf course community because neither one of us golf. We decided on Leesburg, Fl it's northwest of Orlando, so we have a city within 45 mins of our house. We can get to Disney in 40 mins. Oh, and our community is nature themed which is important to us.
Hi all! I am just new here!
Where are the best places (for retirees) to live in Florida? I would be very much grateful if you could give your suggestions. I am currently jotting down my plans for my retirement. Please help me finish my checklist. Thank you in advance! I am excited to read all your recommendations.
It looks like your in FL already(?). Just like any place, it will be what you make of it, and FL is like any other state, lots of options and pros and cons. For us, we haven't moved yet but we've visited lots of places in Fl over the past 15 years and we were drawn to the Gulf Coast in the Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, Englewood area. It's more laid back than the east coast, much quieter than the tourist district of central FL, yes its mostly retirees, and its snowbird country. But coming from the rat race metro NY area, we're looking to slow down and enjoy the solitude. That's our paradise, what's your's?
If I was going to stay in Florida for my retirement I would move back to Vero Beach. Even though it has grown since I left, it still has, to me, a bit of a nice laid-back atmosphere. And even through the hot summer, you can almost always feel the bit of sea breeze to make it bearable. Depending on what you like to do, there is the beach, fishing, plenty of golf, Riverside Theater, lots of restaurants and (at least to me) enough places to shop.
I grew up in Broward County near Fort Lauderdale and thought it was nice ... preferable to living in Miami. Now I'm not so sure. The whole "Gold Coast" of Florida - the Palm Beaches, Lake Worth, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach, Pompano, Sunrise, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, Miami and Miami Beach strike me nowadays as too crowded, too much traffic, over developed and quite frankly, expensive.
Last year I vacationed on the Gulf Coast in St. Pete and I was impressed. Very beautiful. Just south of there was Sarasota, where I spent a day, which was absolutely lovely.
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