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Should my family & I move to Florida?

  • Yes

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  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%
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I've been living in the Big Bend area of Florida, which is a couple hours east of Panama City for about 12 years. If you can take the heat in the summer, it's great. My two favorite things about living in FL are not scraping the windows of my car in the winter and being able to say to someone living up north in January, "Your 17 degrees sounds cold, yesterday I was wearing shorts and driving around with the windows in my truck wide open..."
 
I was born and raised in South Florida, I guess it's different than the Destin area, but I would never go back, even though there are some real nice places around the Ocala National Forest. For a SHTF scenario, I don't think living near populated places in Florida would be a good idea. I would be headed toward Kentucky, carve yourself out a little homestead.
 
fmendez said:
I lived in FLA for many years and if you like hurricanes, heat, humidity, flat landscape, alligators, mosquitoes, Palmetto bugs, kudzu, poisonous snakes and now anacondas in the Everglades; you will love the Sunshine State.
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You forgot Pythons and All sorts of carnivorous lizards. I am born and raised in Florida. Its hot, but it doesn't snow. Concealed carry extends to auto knives, and the only knife law for non autos says its legal if its a common pocket knife. North Florida is different from south and central Florida. I spend a lot of time on the east coast. Bike week is a blast. Spring break is a nice view, but they are typically drunk and disorderly. the best months of the year are "winter" and "spring". If you live near the water, you get a reprieve in the form of a sea breeze. Visit before you buy to make sure its for you.
 
K9-Handler said:
I've been looking at places in FL also, but on the East Coast. Some of the things I've discovered are: be careful if there was a build/renovation from the late '80s thru early 2000's due to Chinese wallboard woes. The offgas isn't just deadly, it corrodes electrical connections and the only way to fix it is to gut down to the studs -- including electrical and plumbing! If you're in a condo all the units have to be done at the same time or you get the gas from your neighbor and you might as well not have done it at all. Hard to get everyone on the same track.
Check insurance. A friend's uncle had a high-rise condo unit that got damaged by a storm and was without a home for a year. His unit was insured, but the damage to the common areas resulted in a $30,000 "assessment" for repairs because the condo association was under insured. A year later another storm came through and the same thing happened. He ended up just walking away.

There ARE hills in FL -- near Brooksville. I'm leaning toward Ormond Beach, north of Daytona.
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K9 I grew up in Daytona. Actually I'm going back next week for a HS reunion (25) :eek:
 
Born in Tallahassee, got family in Panama City and Destin. Go down there a dozen times a year. Love it. The Emerald Coast cannot be beat for its beauty. Couple hours east and you've got Appalachicola, oh man the oysters. Youll have unlimited outdoor activities and you're in an urban environment so there are the luxuries there. It does get crowded around the holidays and spring break but you just work around it. And 30A has
my favorite places in the world. Get down there.
 
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Paws said:
Born in Tallahassee, got family in Panama City and Destin. Go down there a dozen times a year. Love it. The Emerald Coast cannot be beat for its beauty. Couple hours east and you've got Appalachicola, oh man the oysters. Youll have unlimited outdoor activities and you're in an urban environment so there are the luxuries there. It does get crowded around the holidays and spring break but you just work around it. And 30A has
my favorite places in the world. Get down there.
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Oh yeah.... Best oysters in the world... So big, we call 'em cow tongues.... Mmmm with hot sauce and beers...

Great hunting up there too... I have killed lots of hog and deer up there.

Doc
 
There are lots of jobs around the Tampa, FL area and I think we may end up looking there.
Tampa/Clearwater
Thanks for all the great info guys! I'll let you know what we decide in a couple of weeks! (after we get back from vacation down there)
 
Doc_Savage said:
Well, for what its worth...and you can do what you like.... Don't buy anything with an HOA... Dumbest idea on the planet... Condo association, is nearly the same thing as an HOA, but necessary I suppose if you want to go the condo route, but it ain't for me...

Oh, and I know a thing or two about them both...

But is just my humble opinion.

Doc
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So true. The HOA down there are out of control! Some of them tell you whether you're allowed to have trees in your yard. Craziness.
 
.357 said:
There are lots of jobs around the Tampa, FL area and I think we may end up looking there.
Tampa/Clearwater
Thanks for all the great info guys! I'll let you know what we decide in a couple of weeks! (after we get back from vacation down there)
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I have lots of family down in that area, and we love to go back. The more you can avoid the main parts of Tampa, though, the better. Wesley Chapel is pretty nice.
 
So, we passed on the opportunity to interview with a company in Tampa and proceeded to try and buy a house in KY. Well, buying the house fell through, and now we are really regretting not interviewing with that company and moving down there, so here I am back looking at jobs in Tampa again, sigh...
 
I love it here. Been here my whole life. Great place but everywhere you go there is going to be weirdos and crime. That's why you have beckers and guns to help protect you from zombies and what ever else comes
 
We vacation in Florida (north of Clearwater) when we can. My wife says she wants to move there as well. I also like SW Alaska in the Kenai Peninsula. Either way I would die a happy man!

I do think it was hotter here in St. Louis than it was in Florida this summer.
 
I live in Dothan Alabama just north of the Florida border. You will probably pass me on the way to PC. We love it there. Great fishing, snorkeling, food, and boobs.
 
Been there on vacation a few times. Great to visit but I can't live without real mountains, trees and the like. Just depends on what you like, I hate cities, crowds, condos etc. I've looked at Alaska many times. A million things to do, cheap property. Gun and knife laws are about as lax as you can get.
Something about running around with a super redhawk on one hip and a reinhardt kukri on the other is extremely appealing.
 
I voted No also, for all of he reasons listed above. I have lived in the Panama City area, and my grandpa used to have a place in central FL that we visited every year.

I also prefer mountains and trees, and a change of seasons, so I would stick with KY, but If I was told I had to live in FL, I would go with the Tampa area. It is the one part of FL that I like. Gun & Knife laws and taxes are another plus. I'm not a city guy, though, so I wonder if Tampa would't get old. I'm pretty sure after a while I'd be longing for my Kentucky cabin in the hills.

The weather in the wintertime was not that warm to me up north, i.e. not warm enough in Jan to lay on the beach in Panama City, which was pretty much shut down from Oct-Feb anyway. The stink from the paper mill in PC Beach made life miserable when the wind was from the wrong direction, which was about every other day.

Check out the hurricane evacuation route(s). When I lived in PC, it was a single two-lane road as the only road leading north. I'm sure that works out well. :rolleyes:
 
I live in Panama City Florida. When I leave I will never come back. I hate everything about fl
 
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