OT: Florida...., living in.... Options

[MarkG]

Looks like a pretty good chance I will be leaving HP come October (voluntary early retirement w/a years pay severance), looking at options of places to live.....

Any input from current or past residents of Florida needed; I have friends there (Melbourne) and family members that live here in the Arctic with me visit Florida twice yearly and love it....

Pros....Cons....heat doesn't bother me (my other option is Vegas....) but humidity will take getting used to.

I'm thinking how much better my car would run @ Sea level too......

[JohnB]

Hey, Paul, Temple Terrace is nice. I've had family there forever.

Seriously;

I grew up in Jax, I've visited a lot of FL, and Tallahassee has the most interesting geography if you like/need hills. Melbourne is still my favorite area. A buddy of mine just moved there and he's not working for NASA or the retirees (he's a techie, though) but defense/NASA and the retirement services are the major employers in that area if you're a tech guy.

Tampa is a great town and growing but I'll let the other folks who know it better give you their impressions.

Jacksonville has a pretty good economy and gets more of the 4 seasons but the coast is definitely better than the interior if you want to avoid the worst of the heat and humidity. You'll never escape it completely. Last week it was in the low 90's when we were there and that's normal. The humity was well above 50%. They have a monster Jazz fest every spring and a pretty good Blues festival as well. The Jaguars and the annual FL-GA football game (also known as the worlds largest tailgate party) are attractions if you're into football (and everybody in FL seems to be). Heck, there's even a pro hockey team in FL now! Brumos is in JAX, too, if you bring your fat wallet.

And then there's the bugs. The only way to get rid of 'em is to move off and leave 'em. Roaches, noseeums, skeeters, love bugs; they're the price you pay for no state income tax (Redshift is right about the other taxes, though).

It also seemed to me like they shipped all the good produce to markets out of state and the local grocery stores were left with the dregs. The folks selling on the side of the road had better produce. But maybe you don't care about that.

Houses are still a relative bargain compared to most of the rest of the country even though prices have really gone up lately.

Just my 2c.