Anybody who moved from Northern California to Sarasota? (Bradenton: section 8, apartment)

[lagarcia15]

We are a family of three (our son is three years old) considering a move to Sarasota. Now if you ask us why, the answer is we are sick of having to pay so much for everything, specially housing. To think we could sell our 600 square foot home here and buy a bigger home somewhere else, now that's really tempting. We do love CA but have been looking and reading a lot about Sarasota this last week. Anybody who went through the same situation? Impressions? Feedback?

Thank you!!

[dAqS6R0gRQet]

well first off a 1 bedroom apartment in the Sarasota/Lakewood/and now most of Bradenton starts at $1000 unless you're in a 55+ community or section 8, or in the crime ridden areas

and rental increases are usually indicative of property tax increases but aside from that....but assuming the costs to maintain your life are going to be SIGNIFICANTLY lower.....this is going to be a long rant but as somone who lived 20+ years of their life in Jersey which has similar climate to cali in terms of humidity i feel its something most people dont realize when they think "sunny florida, oh it'll be just like summer in my area but just for more months! yay!"

also the fact that the houses are cheaper because of the whole lottery you play with mother nature 9 months out of the year sandy's cloud cone was literally touching east florida before it turned north and prior to that there was the other one that still caught some of us but moved towards Louisiana like a year ago (and im not talking about Katrina but obviously that too) and it wasnt much prior to that when that whole 2004 year of fun happened.. ect... but even tropical storms that DO happen every year like the one that got stuck in the panhandle cause of northern fronts keeping it stationary for a week and dropped tons of rain and high winds just below "technically hurricane speeds" flooded the entire north FL and surrounding states area but its cone of cloud coverage was over us in the sarasota area too hitting us with 50+ steady winds, flooding and knocking out power for days straight, ect...


just make sure you're ready for the climate, florida is tied for the 2nd worst in the nation for comfort (annual dewpoint) which is how "muggy" it will feel in hot temps and since the weather hardly ever drops below 70 unless theres a MAJOR storm up north that happens to blow some cooler air down here for maybe 1-2 days its too uncomfortable to leave the windows open and you're running A/C 300+ days a year.

and its not like "floridians" get used to it, you'll see 99% of the cars on the road all have the windows up while driving unless its an older looking car that probably just doesnt have working A/C.

my boss has lived here almost 15 years and complains about it "still being 80 degrees in Dec/Jan", the old people wearing huge winter bubble jackets cause its 60 degrees are outliers


also dont let the "low temp" on the weather sites fool you, its 70 most of the night, then maybe around 4 or 5am it'll finally drop to whatever "low in the 60s" it says on the forecast, and as soon as the sun hits your house its 10 degrees warmer, 20 within 2 hours after sunrise

example of the hourly forecast right now: LA on the left, Sarasota on Right (this was the same damn temps as 3 months ago)




its 72 and 95% humid right now as i type this and my AC is running and i see its 54 in LA right now, which means probably 5-10 degrees cooler in norther cali




so if you're a fan of peacefully sleeping in one day only to wake up sweating cause it was supposed to be cool at night and now its 9am an 80 w/ 90% humidity but nobody got up at the crack of dawn to close all the windows an turn the AC on (assuming you havent reached that point of just give-in and leave it running 365)


i just reran the list on Sperling's and its pretty much the entire south east just with the one thing it leaves out is that the list is only based on the July dew points (hottest month nationwide) but those other states get relief for a few months of colder drier weather, Atlanta, Dallas ect. get snow/ice annually and the state of cali is within the top 10


23 Louisiana
27 Texas
27 Mississippi
27 Oklahoma
27 Florida
29 Arkansas
30 Alabama
31 Georgia
31 Kansas
32 South Carolina
33 Missouri
36 Tennessee
36 North Carolina
38 Kentucky
40 Nebraska
41 District of Columbia
42 Illinois
42 Iowa
43 Delaware
43 Indiana
43 Maryland
43 Virginia
45 West Virginia
45 South Dakota
46 New Jersey
46 Ohio
49 Hawaii
50 Pennsylvania
51 Connecticut
51 Minnesota
51 Wisconsin
52 Rhode Island
52 North Dakota
53 Michigan
53 Massachusetts
53 New York
53 Arizona
56 Vermont
56 California
56 New Hampshire
57 Maine
65 New Mexico
67 Utah
67 Colorado
69 Oregon
70 Montana
72 Washington
73 Wyoming
73 Nevada
74 Idaho
87 Alaska


and for reference i just checked the actual metro areas for LA and its rated 50 with the further north you go it goes up significantly with the Sacramento and San Fran/Jose metro areas over 60+, so if you visited LA in the summer and thought it was bad, just magnify that 2x more muggy but never ending 10+ months outta the year. on top of the volatile and unpredictable weather since the stations will say a % of rain just on sheer odds and after your first torrential downpour walking to your car from work cause it was sunny all day and the % of rain forecasts are unreliable and your clothes are literally soaked by the time you get to your car, you'll then be carrying an umbrella everywhere...because its never just a "light shower" when it occurs

i would consider North Carolina or South Carolina so you're a bit further up and will get relief for more months out of the year, its still gonna be humid tho, as you see form the list its not till you get into Virginia, Maryland/Deleware an Jersey where it starts to get better

if the water doesn't matter, there are tons of better options for climate and housing including the eastern side of Oregon or Washington (which is where im moving) if you're worried about the increase of rain on the western side, Albuquerque/Santa Fe New Mexico after doing research for my move would be the furthest south state i would ever suggest, based on climate and lack of annual threats to natural disasters outside of their monsoon season, but you're 2000ft above sea level vs 30 like on the coast of Florida

Salt Lake was going to be a top contender cause of climate and fiber internet infrastructure till i found out about the horrible air quality ratings, Boise would have been a great option but theres zero fiber internet infrastructure present at all, east Washington is already fully laid out in droves with residential gigabit options already being offered or planned which was a key component to me as a young guy who knows the importance of internet in today's society along with getting away from natural disasters, the fact theres also hardly no snow or rain fall is just a added bonus unlike like the states parallel to Washington on the east of the rockies

[Nancy in Nokomis]

Remember - houses are cheaper but home insurance is MUCH higher - I was shocked.

[Avalon08]

Originally Posted by lagarcia15

We are a family of three (our son is three years old) considering a move to Sarasota. Now if you ask us why, the answer is we are sick of having to pay so much for everything, specially housing. To think we could sell our 600 square foot home here and buy a bigger home somewhere else, now that's really tempting. We do love CA but have been looking and reading a lot about Sarasota this last week. Anybody who went through the same situation? Impressions? Feedback?

Thank you!!

Dear Lord, just got done reading the anti-FL rant above....sheesh. Anyway, I have friends, lifelong Northern Californians, who moved here from Santa Cruz because they were retiring and their money could go much further here. Living fairly close to the Gulf, they have no problems with the weather or humidity. In fact, they said the Santa Cruz beach was constantly shrouded in fog. Yes, the sun is hot and you're not going to stand in the direct sun in the summer months, but in the shade and with a coastal breeze (which there is, much of the time), it can be quite pleasant and the Gulf water is BEAUTIFUL in summer....quite different from that year-round cold Pacific ocean.

[stumble]

We moved from the Bay area. Winters are better here. Summers are better there. COL is substantially less here given similar size / type of housing. We maintained our standard of living on about 50% of what is cost us in the Bay Area. Tax savings are substantial, with the exception of property taxes. But a 1 million dollar + place in the Bay area would be 350 K or so around here, so even though property tax rates are higher in FL, our bill is less. Finally, I miss the access to the mountains. It was not an issue to drive a few hours to Yosemite, Lake Tahoe or even Monterey Bay and Big Sur. Florida has no such geography.
,

[lagarcia15]

Thank you, everybody! dAqS(...), thanks for all the details! I forgot to mention I grew up in Brazil, so even though I've been living outside of there for a while now, heat and humidity wouldn't be foreign to me at all. Stumble, how uplifting to read about living on the same standards for half the cost. Then again yes, living thousands of miles from the closest mountain is a con. We really enjoy all the surrounding nature here in CA. Avalin, I was surprised when we moved from Palo Alto to SC with how many sunny hot days we have here. Honestly, the top reason we are thinking of a move really is financial. It's just ridiculous how much one has to pay here for a shoebox sized house. And of course I wouldn't mind not having to think about earthquakes anymore. At least one can be warned about hurricanes. We may be soon landing in Sarasota and staying for a few days to check it out. Any more feedback will be appreciated. Ah! Do gators stay cozy in their lakes and ponds? Are considered a threat to kids at all?

[gypsychic]

Gators are not really a big threat - leave them alone and they leave YOU alone. As long as people don't try to feed them (which is illegal) they are afraid of people.

On another note, there are MANY Brazilians living here - I have met and befriended quite a few of them - great people! I love my Brazilian friends.

[stumble]

Dogs maim a lot more children than Gators. It is not even close.