cost of living in Tampa - relocating from the Midwest

[ladsed]

Originally Posted by melovescookies

You could survive on $30,000 a year here (assuming it's just you) but your not going to live super comfortably. Your not going to find any place for $400 a month. Realistically, expect to pay at least double that.

My daughter lives in a half way decent one bedroom apartment & pays $730 a month for rent. Rent includes water but not electric. It's not a great area but it's not the hood. It not the kind of place where you would want to take an evening stroll alone but there's not drive by shootings happening or anything that extreme.

Hope that helps some. Good luck.

That's what I'm looking for! haha

[ladsed]

Originally Posted by Beachgoer44

I currently live in the Midwest and will be exiting myself soon. The thought of being stuck here is depressing, and I am fortunate to have options.

To the OP, like most have told you, it is probably a good idea to live closer to where you work, if that is possible! Good luck!

Thanks, Good Luck to you as well! It's hard to leave family, but I'm ready for a change..lol

[ladsed]

Originally Posted by Jimrob1

I just moved to Florida and I live in Lakeland. Which is just east of Tampa. I bought a home because I didn't think, that rents were really all that inexpensive down here. At least in area's I'd feel safe in. Remember you can get lower rents but only you can decide, if you would want to live in some of these areas of Greater Tampa. I find after housing not much of anything else is really cheaper. In fact in many ways it's more expensive.

Car insurance is very expensive here, as is any kind of insurance for that matter. I have a perfect score for getting car insurance, and I nearly fell on the floor when I was given my quote from Allstate. The same policy I had in Arizona went up almost $200 per 6 month policy here in Florida. I say things like it is. You can blame all the trash, that drives on the roads here for this type of ripoff. Severe amount of car accidents here as well as thefts. Registering a car is quite expensive here, at least for the first year. I paid $400 to register my Ford Focus. That was to transfer registration from out of state to Florida. Utilities are costlier. The Electric companies here seem to charge a higher useage rate. At least the one I have Lakeland Electric. They want big deposits, and don't seem to care if you have good credit from previous electric companies. Cable TV, internet. I don't know about Tampa itself, but I am forced to use a company called Brighthouse. I am paying almost $50.00 a month more, for the same service I had with Cox Cable before moving to Florida. I ended up having to get a bundle package, phone, internet and cable to get the price down somewhat. I generally don't get a landline phone, here I have one. I don't know if Cox and Comcast are in Florida, but they don't seem to be in the Tampa area. Brighthouse seems to dominate, although I think some area's have Verizon.

Otherwise Florida is nice to live in, but the initial cost seems high when getting settled in I guess over time you just get use to the cost. It's like anything there is an adjustment period, and you just go with it. What I gave you is an actual accurate cost of expenses, that I incurred moving here on March 1st. Thankfully I like it here, but I don't think it's all that cheap here. Buying a house is cheaper for many of us, but not much else.

Best of Luck

Thanks for the honest answer. I'm really trying to find a place where some of those utilities are included that don't break the bank. Most of them either are sublease situations or cause almost 3000.00 a month. All I can do is pray and research

[Jimrob1]

Originally Posted by ladsed

Thanks for the honest answer. I'm really trying to find a place where some of those utilities are included that don't break the bank. Most of them either are sublease situations or cause almost 3000.00 a month. All I can do is pray and research

I hope you will find something that is affordable for you.