I got the heck out of SE Florida almost 20 years ago. It would take a very large fortune to make me go back. I am a native Floridian but I really cannot see how I would ever move back to the state. I love the state but what it has become is not for me. One set of my grandparents moved to Florida after WWII and spent their working lives in FLA. When they retired they moved to NC. ALL of their immediate neighbors in NC were retirees from FLA.
SE FLA is full of transplants from NYC. The people in SE FLA are the rudest people I have ever met. Dade county aka Miami is a foreign country. English is a second language in Dade county. I am NOT kidding. Broward county, Ft Lauderdale, was just turning this way when I left. SE Florida has its own mix of cultures. Not bad. Not good. But different. Spanish language skills would be a plus and are required for many jobs.
SE FLA is over crowded. It is just one big city from the beach to the Water Management Areas aka the Everglades. If you like horrible traffic, horrible people, rudeness, overcrowding, and a VERY expensive place to live then SE FLA is just for you. Check out the cost of car insurance. At the time HALF of the cars on the road did NOT have insurance which made those of us with insurance pay through the nose. Also look at how expensive it will be to get house insurance. If you can even get a policy. While FLA does not have income tax check out the property taxes.
Some areas in Broward and Palm Beach have huge developments with names like Leisure Ville and Century Villas. These developments were built for Snow Birds and retirees. There were certain intersections I would avoid as much as possible because of the number of nearby retiree developments. Many of these people should not have been driving. They were a real danger and going through that intersection I would have to take action to prevent them hitting me or I would see them hit someone else. I am NOT kidding about this either. Did I mention the high cost of car insurance?
I used to travel frequently from SE to SW Florida. The difference between the two coasts was like night and day. I remember getting gas in Ft Lauderdale to get to Ft. Myers and Sarasota. The clerk in Ft Lauderdale was "What do you want?" when I went to pay for the gas. Getting gas on the west cost of FLA the clerk was "How are you? Have a good day."
At the time SW Florida was still sorta rural and small. It really boomed after I left. Cape Coral was not fully developed at the time and there were quite a few open lots over there. I think this has all changed. I would not live on Cape Coral. From what I could see it was a flood plain for Hurricane storm surge. Marco Island is the same unless you go afford a house built on the shell hills made by Indian's a zillion years ago. Pretty place but I would not live there. Fun place to visit though.
Alot of land in the Ft. Myers area is swampy which is true for must of south Florida on both coasts. Be very careful and verify if the area is prone to flooding in hurricanes. One area I lived near in Broward county was putting in McMansions. They had to bring in sand to build the houses off the natural grade since the land was so low. The land was usually flooded until they somewhat drained the area with canals. The area had very few pines and mainly Cypress. Cypress loves water. Pines, not so much. Tis a clue.
Now most of SE FLA east of I95 was drained land but the place I am talking about was even worse. A major canal was just to the north and as a result the area was expected to get the worst flooding in a bad hurricane because the canal would overflow. But that did not stop them from building some VERY expensive houses in a flood plain.
Be VERY careful with real estate in SE or SW Florida. I think right now there are some very good deals to be found since the housing bubble popped. But Florida is always having housing bubbles. There was company, I think it was GDC, General Development Corporation, that went under around 1982ish. They had bought up huge parcels, run utilities and paved streets. No houses. They had developments along I195 and I75 that you could drive by for minutes and see only stop signs, roads, and transformers. No houses. Eventually that land did grow houses but it took a couple of decades. I mention GDC as a warning.
Central and Northern Florida used to be different at least people wise. But Orlando is super big now. I remember when it was a small itty bitty citrus town. Not now. People here complain about traffic. I laugh. Trying driving I95 in SE Florida or I4 at "rush" hour. There ain't no rushing going onthat is for sure. Tampa is just as bad if not worse. Lived there as a little kid and as an adult. The traffic is just horrible. Though the Cuban food is good like in SE Florida!
If I HAD to move back to Florida and someone paid me a fortune to do so, I would look at South West Florida around Ft. Myers and Sarasota but my feeling is that it has just grown up and it would be too crowded for my liking. Central Florida away from Orlando would be good. Or northern Florida away from Jacksonville and Gainesville. Maybe the panhandle but I have never really been up that way.
But check out property taxes, car and house insurance.
NC is filled up.
Seriously though I thought AL or MS was one of the cheaper states to live. I have family that somehow ended up in AL and the dollar sure goes far down there compared to where I lived in FL or here in my area of NC.
Later,
Dan
