How are you dealing with the low salaries?? (Miami, Tampa: 2014, rentals)

[Swimmom32]

I am so surprised that you find it more expensive on housing in Tampa? we lived in charlotte for 5 years on and off from NJ and lived on the east coast of florida, and there its expensive but our housing costs were very comparable to Charlotte..when we left NC the cost of living had gotten outrageous.We are looking to move outside of Tampa and from my mortgage connections there and housing connections it will cost us less than charlotte...we are back in NJ and are excited to get back to Florida...Good Luck to you

[PDF]

Why aren't you living with a roommate on that kind of money? At any rate, you are doing far better than a lot of other people in your situation.

[paradiselost]

Hillsborough County has some of the highest car insurance rates in the country and its For a reason! its full of fraud filled scammers and accidents! No one knows where they are going, the roads cant hold the traffic and the new commercial development is in areas the roads cant support! its a recipe for disaster! The growth is too much too take in and some newbies just look at some weird statistics online and never lived there! Wow a palm tree, warm winter weather and its cheaper than Charlotte from a random website! South Hillsborough in the next 5-10 years is going to become worse with crime and traffic. Everyone from the Northeast and Midwest is targeting that area because there is available land and its close to Tampa. Just wait to see your commute to Tampa in a few years you think its bad now just wait!

[Swimmom32]

I think its all realative to tell you the truth...people want better quality of life than where they possibly live now...when we moved to Charlotte the traffic wasnt horrible people werent rude and the cost of living wasnt that high...Now as we have been gone 2.5 yrs although go visited often I almost died when I saw the prices of homes and property taxes have definately gone up and people are still flocking there...Florida is no different...Living in Boca our Car insurance was absolutely insane and groceries were higher than NJ now NJ has gotten pretty high however my car insurance is lower here for 3 drivers and 3 cars than it was in Boca on the East Coast...

[CRG22]

Originally Posted by paradiselost

Hillsborough County has some of the highest car insurance rates in the country and its For a reason! its full of fraud filled scammers and accidents! No one knows where they are going, the roads cant hold the traffic and the new commercial development is in areas the roads cant support! its a recipe for disaster! The growth is too much too take in and some newbies just look at some weird statistics online and never lived there! Wow a palm tree, warm winter weather and its cheaper than Charlotte from a random website! South Hillsborough in the next 5-10 years is going to become worse with crime and traffic. Everyone from the Northeast and Midwest is targeting that area because there is available land and its close to Tampa. Just wait to see your commute to Tampa in a few years you think its bad now just wait!

I have 2 trucks in my name, comp/coll/PD/BI, a bad driving record and pay $160/month. My GF has a $40k brand new car and is 25 and pays $110. Is that high to you? Debbie downer, I don't think you are going to convince anyone. Tampa has one of the highest growth rates of the nation. So where are you moving with low home prices, good weather, low crime, and no commute? You seem to not want to be near people. Move to the country then.

[bobandsherry]

Originally Posted by CRG22

I have 2 trucks in my name, comp/coll/PD/BI, a bad driving record and pay $160/month. My GF has a $40k brand new car and is 25 and pays $110. Is that high to you? Debbie downer, I don't think you are going to convince anyone. Tampa has one of the highest growth rates of the nation. So where are you moving with low home prices, good weather, low crime, and no commute? You seem to not want to be near people. Move to the country then.

Based on my experience I would say what you are paying, and now what I am paying, for auto insurance is high. You don't mention what value of your vehicles are, nor what coverage and deductibles you have or even what insurance company you have. Saying you pay $960 without that information is useless information, but as I'll show below, it's well above what I and my family pay.

To give an idea on how expensive the auto insurance is here, we are in our early 50's, perfect driving records with no ticket/accidents. When I lived in suburb in Chicago (where there is still plenty of traffic and congestion), we had 2 cars (2014 Cadenza and 2015 AWD Explorer). We had 100/300 coverage with $500 deductible. We were paying $340 for 6 months for both of us. We moved here in February, the same vehicles with similar coverage and deductibles would have been $1,200 (3.5x more). This was with same insurance company, Geico, which is one of the largest in Florida.

We decided we don't need two cars, especially an AWD so we sold the Explorer (we didn't have to pay to ship it too). The best rate I could find is with Progressive, our next 6 month premium will be $550 for one car, while coverage is similar the differences in Illinois vs Florida coverage requirements made some minor differences. That's still more than I was paying for 2 cars when I lived in Chicago area. BTW, Geico for one car was over $800.

For full disclosure/comparison our coverage in Florida is PD $100, BI $250/500, UM $100/300, Comp/Coll $500 deductible (also includes PI, Med Payments, and rental (now more necessary as we have one car).

To give another comparison point, my daughter moved to Vegas area. She's 28, clean record and driving a 2016 Ford Escape. She's paying $380/6 months for full coverage 50/100, $500 deductible (also with Progressive).

So "paradiselost" is spot on regarding the high cost of auto insurance in the area. Even your GF rate of $660/6 months is about double what my daughter of similar age.

[Tim Tim Tim]

I agree that auto insurance is nuts here. We lived in Salt Lake City for a while a few years back and our vehicle insurance was less than half what it was here for the same car, same coverage.

[paradiselost]

But I am always wrong! Are some of these people in a fantasy world in Tampa..

[MortonR]

Originally Posted by paradiselost

But I am always wrong! Are some of these people in a fantasy world in Tampa..

You're wrong in the sense that we have the highest insurance rates in the nation. We don't.

True, compared to the Midwest and some western states our insurance is expensive, but we're nowhere near the top state of Michigan, which is over $1,000 more a year average than Florida.

If you open up that range a couple hundred bucks, the size of the pool gets even larger, with nearly half of the states falling into it. That means that Florida is as expensive as half of the 50 states.

Car insurance rates by state: Most and least expensive

If Tallahassee would get its act together and dump or clamp down on PIP, our rates would drop a bit, as that's one of our largest costs.

RM

[Spring Hillian]

When people who have lived in non-urban areas and relocate to an urban area it seems shock sets in.

Traffic, crime, housing costs, insurance costs, all become a huge surprise. Once that realization sets in they find fault with it all because telling the world about their findings eases the shock.

It plays out here time after time. They come, their bubble bursts and they cry incessantly.

Originally Posted by MortonR

You're wrong in the sense that we have the highest insurance rates in the nation. We don't.

True, compared to the Midwest and some western states our insurance is expensive, but we're nowhere near the top state of Michigan, which is over $1,000 more a year average than Florida.

If you open up that range a couple hundred bucks, the size of the pool gets even larger, with nearly half of the states falling into it. That means that Florida is as expensive as half of the 50 states.

Car insurance rates by state: Most and least expensive

If Tallahassee would get its act together and dump or clamp down on PIP, our rates would drop a bit, as that's one of our largest costs.

RM