Florida...to live

We live on the Space Coast (Atlantic ocean side), about 20 minutes from the beach. Our county offers a lot and I really like living here. 80 minutes from Orlando and theme parks, sports are not too far away, some good restaurants have opened recently, good weather (most of the time... right now it’s hot and sticky), traffic isn’t too bad, although it’s picked up in recent years. Housing prices and property taxes are low. My kids go to a great school. PM me for exact location. Plus, our county has its own hospital/clinic/doctor’s office network that employs 3,000 people and they are in desperate need of nurses!

My niece is a PICU nurse in Ft. Lauderdale. Keep in mind an hour to the beach could be 10 miles..just saying.  She was/is licensed here in NYS. She started as a travel nurse and that was her first stop. She went to a couple other places but loved Ft. Lauderdale. Met her fire fighter hubby there and is expecting child #2. She loves it

We've lived in the Tampa metro area (SW of the city) for 6 months now, and are very happy so far. I do agree that the medical care overall leaves a lot to be desired. There are LOADS of doctors and hospitals, but if you read reviews, a very high percentage are sub-par. The heat and humidity haven't bothered me yet; I'm mostly indoors anyway and the air conditioning works great. People here are pretty laid-back, except for some of the drivers, who are absolutely insane. There's a lot of traffic, but it mostly moves pretty well; it's far easier to get around than in the Seattle area traffic.
I've yet to feel unsafe here. Wages are lower than much of the country. If you buy a house there are expenses not necessarily seen in other parts of the US (we just had to have our entire electrical system checked and partly redone due to a lightning strike; the excessive rainfall leads to structural issues in houses quite easily; auto insurance is more expensive here than anywhere else we've lived). During the rainy season it rains a LOT. Most days. And some of the downpours are severe (like 1-3").Mostly the water drains off well, though. There are lots of critters and bugs, but with our monthly bug service we've kept them at a minimum. The almost daily thunder storms can go on for hours (personally I think it's cool).
The beaches in the Tampa/Clearwater/St Pete area are phenomenal. And I know the water both in Tampa Bay and in the Gulf is currently in the mid to high 80's. Wow!

There is a large Mayo Clnic in Jacksonville. (The hospital itself is actually not far from the beach area.) There are quite a few hospitals in the area and many many clinics. Jacksonville has nice areas and some not so nice areas..like any city.   The beaches in the area are quite nice, IMO. I like the beaches slightly north of the city on Amelia Island best.

I have family who live on the Gulf Coast in the Sarasota and Venice and Naples areas. They are all very nice, IMO. The beaches Sarasota and south are amazing. None of them have had any trouble getting good health care at all.

I had a relative who lived in Fort Myers and hated it.  She never felt it was very safe. She moved to another city on the Gulf Coast.

As with any oceanfront area, generally the closer you are to the beach, the more expensive it will be. The trade-off for the money is access due to travel time to the beach. So anyone looking to be "near" the beach needs to decide how close they need to be versus how much money have to spend. I know many people who live 30 miles away who never go to the beach more than once or twice a year due to traffic and parking problems. (Just like I know people in the suburbs of amazing cities that only go in to take advantage of the options only once or twice a year for the same reason.)

If you don't have enough money to afford a place close to the beach,  you might as well look further inland.

No state income tax. Much lower property tax. Higher auto insurance. I don't find the bugs to be a big deal as long as you get your residence sprayed. We had way worse mosquitoes in the upper midwest -- could not really use our huge yard in the summer due to them. I think this year there have been less than 10 days when the flying insects were that bad. compared to 90 days up north. Yes, it is hot and humid in the summer, but again, we had the nearly the same temps and humidity in the upper midwest (it really doesn't matter if it's 95 or 100, there is no real difference). The difference is we don't have 6 months of freezing or ice/snow/sleet. As I always say, you don't have to shovel sunshine.

Rain amounts vary depending on which part of the state you are in. 

I do not want to move back to FL because I saw two of THE WORST drs ever while we were living there. I am convinced that all of the drs there suck. I am quite comfortable in my overgeneralization of my opinion toward Florida medical professionals based on conversations with friends who have also seen terrible drs there (different specialties). We lived in Tallahassee at the time.

The people were nice enough. It was unbelievably humid in the summer. It rained/stormed for at least 30 minutes almost every day while we were there. I don’t mind rain, or the heat, but both of those factoids were surprising to me when I moved down there.

The public schools are hit or miss. If you live in a more affluent area, the public schools are better. If you live in a lowers SES area, there is some serious shit happening in those schools and I would not want to send my kids to them. (We used to work in a wide variety of the public schools in Tallahassee and in Quincy-we saw A LOT).

On long weekends we would head down to St George Island to hit the beach. It was lovely. I have heard from other friends that a recent hurricane has done some major damage there though, and I don’t know how their recovery has been.


ETA: oh god the bugs! I don’t do bugs, and really lost my shit every single time a palmetto bug got into our townhouse. I can’t do that again now with little kids.

Palmetto bugs are a nicer version of cockroaches, and they are everywhere you see palm trees. Gross.

I just wanted to update you on the rain and storms here in SWFL. We're here for (ugh!!) over 8 years and so much has drastically changed!!! It did used to get dark, pour rain for about 30 minutes and then get sunny. That was the rainy season down here. Not too bad. We'll, for the past few years, the rainy season (6 Mos or so!!) has changed. It's pitch black in spots and we have monsoon rainstorms for entire days now!! It's honestly been more rain filled than NY in April. Seattle is probably drier than during the current rainy season here!!!

Regarding the "beauty" of Clearwater Beach, no thanks. Yes, it is a bit more normal there vs where I am, but since my 32 year old wonderful neighbor got struck by lightning On Clearwater Beach and died a few weeks ago, we all have a new respect and fear of the weather here. (He and his gf were only 10 feet from refuge from the sudden thunder when it got him. Sadly, I know quite a few people here whom have witnessed or know people who were killed by lightning here).

I didn't even mention the humidity (literally sets me off, medically). Not for me!!!!!!!!

Wish I knew all of this before agreeing to try it out here. We're still trying to get out!!

One last thing: there are some outstanding surgeons here, but it's rare. I had to wait 3 years to try to find one who was experienced enough to take my case on. She lived and worked at the Mayo Clinic in MN. Many great doctors and surgeons are at USF in Tampa, where I go. I am grateful to have met my surgeon. So there is some good here, but I'd love to leave as soon as I'm done with my surgeries!!!!!

We moved to FL 2 years ago from NY. We LOVE it! We first looked on the west side, no further south than central FL but didn't 'feel it'. Then we looked on the east side. We liked that much better. The east is also less expensive than the west... at least that's what we found but it's where we looked I guess. We started in a condo in Ormond Beach. We were about 7 miles from the beach. We chose that area because it reminded us of 'home'. There's a lot of walking/biking trails, festivals, restaurants etc. We love Ormond Beach. We ended up moving 10 minutes south to a house in Daytona Beach. We still spend most of our time in Ormond Beach.
Both of those areas have easy access to the beach. Traffic hasn't been a problem. The parking for the beaches is free and we've always found parking spots.

There's 3 hospitals close by.


We have been very happy with the doctors that we chose. Of course there's good and bad ones, like anywhere. You just have to do your homework. I did have a dermatologist that I wasn't happy with but found another one and am very pleased. I recently had surgery for an aggressive melanoma on my head. From start to finish, I was extremely happy with my primary care Dr, surgeon, oncologist and hospital staff.

We love the rain. We're in the rainy season right now. We get heavy rain for about 10-30 minutes almost every afternoon. We know it will happen so we do all of our outing things in the morning and early afternoon, before it rains. The rain will cool things down too.
As far as hurricanes go, we've been here for 3 of them. While the areas near the rivers and ocean might get flooded, we've never had that problem. We're about 2 miles away from the river. We've had worse hurricanes and damage while living on Long Island in NY. Of course I'm only speaking on my experience here. Other areas have had lots of flooding and damage.

I think living in different areas of FL suit different personalities. We're very simple people. We don't enjoy fine dining. We like kicking back at a pub with outdoor seating. We like the heat but not a ton of it so wouldn't go too south. We have seasons here. We're outdoor people and this area has tons of things to do outside.
We have a friend who lives in Coco Beach. They love it. Another friend lives in Del Ray Beach. Loves it. It's all what suits your daughter's personality.

I'm glad my legit neighbor Zella weighed in as she came from about as different a place from here as possible. While I love Tampa, if you want to live near the actual beach around here it is quite expensive. Mileage wise, we aren't that far from the coast but with traffic it would take me over an hour to get to any of the "real" beaches. Sorry, Apollo Beach. In this area, I'd recommend avoiding New Port Richey. Many, many Florida man stories come out of the NPR. Ask Zella....lol.

My guess is that the East coast or panhandle would offer the best "beach life" at prices that are more reasonable. This linked article has a list so maybe she could have a look at some of these and see what she is interested in. photos.orlandoweekly.com/25-stunning-florida-beach-towns-you-can-actually-afford-to-live-in/?slide=1&deerfield-beach-florida

We are weird in Florida and it isn't for everyone. If she's interested, she should definitely come and check it out and if it isn't for her, at least she tried it out.

ETA:  Here is my thing I didn't know before I moved here.  Alligators.  I knew Florida had them but they are really everywhere.  Any body of water bigger than a puddle, there is probably at least one alligator there.  They're generally pretty shy and avoid people...I found this out when I would get out of my car to try to get a picture of one sunning itself on the edge of a pond.  Even though I am very safely far away, they tend to go back into the water to hide out very quickly.  That said, it is inevitable that when out of state guests come to visit and want to see an alligator, you will not be able to find a SINGLE gator to show them. 

I’m in St Pete and it’s definitely an area for young adults. Tons of restaurants, beautiful beaches, hospitals.
It’s also expensive, crowded and prone to nasty weather.

Pensacola has changed a ton over the past decade. There has been a lot of revitalization of the downtown area, and there is a thriving social scene for young professionals.

That being said, I am on my way out of Florida!