Has Anyone recently migrated to Florida?

[Revlefty]

It is Florida and it is total coverage including hurricane.


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[Sarah in SC]

Our coastal insurance has been going up substantially. We don't have to carry flood, but the wind and hail is 80% or so of our premium cost on the HO3 policy.
Can't imagine what it would be if we still lived on a barrier island. Our insurer is in Florida, ASI, and I worry if a big storm wipes out enough of their policies, we will be shopping again.


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[Lucantes]

We downsized last year and purchased our villa home in Viera,FL which is in Brevard County.

Yeah Brevard!

 

[beltonr]

I finally got fed up with working for a living in September 2014. We decided central Florida was the place to be in a +55 community. Started researching using 55places.com as a start point which provides a lot of good information. Turns our there are 45 +55 communities in central Florida. Put together a matrix and started comparing, whittled it down to the top three. In November we made a trip to visit the top three, ended up choosing Lakes of Mount Dora in Lake County. Initially thought we would build but also looked at resales. The absolute perfect (for us) house in Lakes of Mount Dora hit the market three days prior to our trip. It looked great on the internet, but of course one has to see it in person. We had a Realtor show it to us, but he said the house was so attractive two potential buyers were racing to put a contract on it. We said OK, too bad, keep us posted if anything like it comes on the market. We looked at some others but nothing else grabbed us. We went home, two days later the Realtor contacted us to say both prospective buyers had snags getting their contracts completed. I decided to jump on it, by the end of the day we had a signed contract. We close on 14 January 2015. Now we have to sell our current house (not a contingency on buying the Florida house) and plan to move as soon as we can sell or by the end of February. I will give two weeks notice to retire on 30 January unless the house sells earlier. I intend to be an early member of the class of 2015!

 

[bgscms]

When I moved to FL in 1991, we lived in Lake county for 5 years. We rented in Tavares and built our house in Mt. Dora. Lots of snow birds come to the area in the winter. Good luck with selling your house.

 

[Sunset]

I have learned one thing in reading on FL, you get a homeowners exception/deduction on property taxes if you own a home Jan 01, and its your permanent residence.

So if that is true, I'll try to be sure I close on a place just prior to Jan 01 if possible.

 

[harley]

Well, I just spent my first ever birthday in warm weather. Pretty sweet, walking on the beach and watching the sunset instead of huddled inside the house. Even good weather on my birthday usually meant sunny and pretty damn chilly.

However, as far as migrating to FL, I've recently been (and still am) dealing with some nasty insurance issues related to being a FL homeowner and resident.

Before I had my primary residence in VA, and a second home in MD. No problem, Allstate covered both, as well as riders for jewelry, flood insurance where needed, umbrella, etc. But once we declared FL our PR, we had to get a homeowner's policy with Joe's Insurance (Federated, really), because none of the big names do homeowners in FL. No big deal. But a bit of a pita. We turned the VA house into a rental, and it's out of this story now. So a couple of months ago my Mom died, and I inherited her house in VA, as well as her wedding ring. She was insured by USAA, but I'm not eligible for it, so they notified me they'll be dropping her insurance as each policy expires. So I called Allstate to see if I could add these items to my policy up there. That's when things went to hell.

Turns out when they cancelled my VA house as a primary residence, they also dropped the liability on the MD house. And the jewelry riders. And the umbrella. Because those things all hang off the primary policy. They can't insure a second home alone for those things if they don't have the PR. Federated can't do anything for me because they're mostly only in FL, and there are other details like the value of the FL (PR) house being so low and the value of the MD house being so high. And the one possible policy I found was asking for a $12K/year premium, which is insane.

Long story short, we haven't had liability or jewelry or umbrella coverage up north for almost a year, and we're having a huge issue trying to get it. I've talked to Allstate as well as an independent agent, and it's just not working out very well. If I could find a company that does homeowners in both places I'd switch to that, but no luck so far.

So, if you are making FL your primary residence but keeping another home, be careful with the insurance issues. Personally I think my Allstate agent dropped the ball by not letting us know about this when the policies changed last year, but I'm somewhat to blame to for not reading the policies. I will find a way to get this all cleared up, but it's been a big enough hassle that I'm considering changing my PR to MD. My income is low enough that the income tax savings of being a FL resident is being overwhelmed by the additional insurance costs. Nothing's ever easy, I guess.

 

[MRG]

I finally got fed up with working for a living in September 2014. We decided central Florida was the place to be in a +55 community. Started researching using 55places.com as a start point which provides a lot of good information. Turns our there are 45 +55 communities in central Florida. Put together a matrix and started comparing, whittled it down to the top three. In November we made a trip to visit the top three, ended up choosing Lakes of Mount Dora in Lake County. Initially thought we would build but also looked at resales. The absolute perfect (for us) house in Lakes of Mount Dora hit the market three days prior to our trip. It looked great on the internet, but of course one has to see it in person. We had a Realtor show it to us, but he said the house was so attractive two potential buyers were racing to put a contract on it. We said OK, too bad, keep us posted if anything like it comes on the market. We looked at some others but nothing else grabbed us. We went home, two days later the Realtor contacted us to say both prospective buyers had snags getting their contracts completed. I decided to jump on it, by the end of the day we had a signed contract. We close on 14 January 2015. Now we have to sell our current house (not a contingency on buying the Florida house) and plan to move as soon as we can sell or by the end of February. I will give two weeks notice to retire on 30 January unless the house sells earlier. I intend to be an early member of the class of 2015!

We did a 2 or 3 night visit there few years ago, same development. Nice homes, very well built. The building process was scary for DW(never done a new build), although I know the process is well defined and more than adequate. So we wanted to stay on the resell side. We didn't find "The House" while we were there. Maybe another time.

Best wishes on your retirement, home sale, and move.

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[Texconsin]

You'll have to wait another 19 years, but...

Has anyone recently migrated to Florida? I am curious---
How do you find the TOWN?
How do you search for apartment/condo or house?
I have been living in St. Louis for the past 36yrs, and am curious how to explore relocation?
Any good suggestions will be appreciated.
Thanks
Raj Singh

My brother bought a home in The Villages and he golfs for free a few times per week. Each of the four town squares have live music, every night of the year. The favorite mode of transportation is the golf cart, but many are customized to look like Model T's, '57 Chevys, etc.

I'm considering the move but, as the final quarter is filling up, new homes that were $185K just a couple years ago are now $235K...the old supply/demand thing. Too bad I didn't buy in 2012 and rent it (or even just let it sit vacant). I heard the owners were looking into doing one near San Antonio, Texas, but that was a couple years ago, too, so who knows?

Unfortunately, Raj, you (or your spouse) must be at least 55 years old. Even their under-55 employees must live off-site. But just think: NO KIDS. It's like those people already died and went to Heaven!!!

 

[Texconsin]

My brother and his girlfriend LOVE it!

Mother in law lives in The Villages. One of my least favorite places.

He owns the winter home in The Villages; she owns the summer home in Madison, Wisconsin. Wish I could afford it...guess I need to find a FIRE Asian girlfriend. (Not following in his footsteps; his girlfriend is a midwest blonde...to the best of my knowledge, of course. )

 

[Silver]

We are driving to Mt. Dora on Monday for a couple of days. We live just outside Orlando in a 55+ community and enjoy going to Mt. Dora around the holidays for the shopping and lights. We stay at a B & B on the lake. We alternate between Mt. Dora and St. Augustine each year around Christmas. Both are lovely.

Welcome to central Florida. We love it and hope you will as well.

 

[Sunset]

harley

I hear your pain, I have a little place in another country and this year the ins company told me via the broker they would not carry it. Even though I had never filed a claim in 20 years!

Only 1 place would take me, and it was so expensive, I went for 20K coverage (which is not really coverage at all), just so I could get the 1MM liability coverage on it.
That coverage cost me 1K
It was such a scramble too.

 

[Bamaman]

I have spent 4-5 weeks in Florida working for a number of years. There's no substitution to taking a week or two driving around the state looking at cities you can afford.

Warm winter weather is why so many people like to retire to Florida--and the lack of state income taxes. But remember that you've got to be south of Orlando to be assured it's going to be warm in Winter. The panhandle is a very cold place in Winter--a big surprise to many.

Right now, property values in Miami are high. Jacksonville area houses can be more reasonable in price. There should be a bunch of condos in Daytona available for bargain prices.

My step daughter lives west of St. Augustine in a very nice neighborhood. Her $356K house is now worth $185K, and the property taxes are still $2500. HOA fees are another $2000. People in her neighborhood cannot even sell their houses due to these expenses.

My favorite area is Ft. Myers/Naples. I also like Sarasota.

 

[JAB1950]

Wife and I started renting in Jupiter FL each winter as soon as I retired in Dec '12. Now in our 3rd year snowbirding we enjoy the community, the people, and the activities so are buying our own place. Winters on beach in Jupiter, summers on beach at NJ Shore, nothing could be better!

 

[sengsational]

It was nice in Jensen Beach over Christmas. I didn't pick-up any real estate books, but I walked around in a neigborhood across the street from the inlet and it looked like the houses could be comfortable (not super nice), but based on the cars in the driveways, quite affordable

 

[Bamaman]

Jensen Beach is one of the places where you can go out on the beach at night and not see any lights.

It's not the Panama Beach/Myrtle Beach kind'a place with all the putt putt golf, pinball palaces and big hotels. It's the real Florida.

 

[Indiana Randy]

I'm moving to The Villages area as soon as my house sells. I will be selling real estate until I accumulate enough $$ to buy in The Villages.

I've visited that place twice a year for over 10 years since my parents live there and love it. They are both 84 and very active.

 

[MRG]

Jensen Beach is one of the places where you can go out on the beach at night and not see any lights.

It's not the Panama Beach/Myrtle Beach kind'a place with all the putt putt golf, pinball palaces and big hotels. It's the real Florida.

Do you mean Jensen Beach or Hutchison Island Fl? We used to go out to Hutchison when my parents lived southwest of there. Not as familiar with Jensen. Any ideas appreciated.

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[Bamaman]

Jensen Beach is NE of Stuart--same place as Hutchinson Island. It's just east of Port St. Lucie.

After spending so much time in the Daytona area, I wasn't prepared for the dark, quiet beaches around there. But that was a number of years ago.

We get to Florida maybe once per year, but it's not for the beaches. We live 20' from the Tennessee River with a 6 mile water view to the sunset. We can afford homeowners insurance and property taxes are low--something not experienced in The Sunshine State.

 

[MRG]

Thanks Bamaman. I don't know when they started doing it but some of the Southern Atlantic beaches are dimly lit. It's to provide the sea turtles a better environment for breeding. We were on Vero beach last year and they had signs all over telling you to turn off outdoor lighting. I guess turtles like the lights off.

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[Sarah in SC]

The turtles need the "land side" to be dark when they hatch. Normally the moonlit ocean is what they walk toward and if there are lights, they can get confused by them.

Glad to hear that Florida beaches mandate the same "lights out for turtles" that we do along the SC coast.


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[MRG]

Thanks Sarah that makes a lot more sense. I know Vero had signs all over as did Melbourne beach. Sounds like further south as well.

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[HFWR]

Thanks Bamaman. I don't know when they started doing it but some of the Southern Atlantic beaches are dimly lit. It's to provide the sea turtles a better environment for breeding. We were on Vero beach last year and they had signs all over telling you to turn off outdoor lighting. I guess turtles like the lights off.

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Since turtles don't have beer goggles, turning off the lights is their only option...


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[MrJohn]

I am glad to see a thread about retiring in Florida that is not all doom and gloom!!

We own a home in Orlando that we use for vacation. We love going there often and thought about moving there for work but salaries are pretty low compared to west coast.

Is there anybody who snowbirds in ER between Florida and other states/countries?

That is our current plan. Move our primary residence in Florida in ER and travel to Europe to see the family and friends we still have there.

 

[wrigley]

I'm moving to The Villages area as soon as my house sells. I will be selling real estate until I accumulate enough $$ to buy in The Villages.

I've visited that place twice a year for over 10 years since my parents live there and love it. They are both 84 and very active.

My uncle retired from the Chicago police department after 33 years and moved to the Villages. He told me the Villages has the highest STD rate per capita of anywhere in the country.

Mike