You guys got any advice? I've been doing some job hunting down there as well as houses. The mrs. really wants to move on down to be closer to her family, and I wouldn't mind being a little further away from the winters You guys have any advice in what to look for? What's housing like? Taxes are outrageous here, how are taxes near Clearwater? Home owners insurance? Owning a vehicle, inspecting, etc...?

I was gonna post this in the regional area, but it looks like a ghost town there!

Thanks,
Shawn

 

Don't forget about Hurricanes

 

They can't be any worse to deal with than a good old fashion blizzard that we get on a weekly basis up here!

Shawn

 

Jobs suck, unless you are a mexican, of coarse, low pay at best. Property taxes are way up. Insurance is through the roof, if you can find it that is, yes hurricanes have eliminated most insurers. FL blows, but we are stuck here. Clearwater is about 45 minutes from here, emissions test only, but you can register your vehicle in another county no problem there.
Its 90-100 most of the time here with 100% humidity, hope you like feeling like you have a wet blanket wrapped around you in a sauna .
Did I mention it blows here?

 

I have a question for you, since you are from NY.
Every NYer I have ever had to deal with, has always told me how much bigger, better, and cheaper everything is in NY.
So, if that is true, why on earth would anyone want to leave NY?
I have never understood that, just curious. LOL !

 

What do you do? I'm from Fl, my dad owns an ag construction business down there, we're always recruiting...

 

Field engineer for a building automation company. I do design, install, start-up, and service work for all of the controls.

What's bigger better and cheaper? Sure you're not thinking of Texas? A 125k dollar house up here is a 1200 sq ft ranch, .25 acre, and 5500 in taxes. Rochester is a great place, but comparable housing in Florida is much nicer with much smaller taxes. I understand though that property insurance is astronomically more.

New York has incredibly high income taxes, sales taxes, fuel prices, etc...The only thing bigger we get up here is land and trees.

Cheaper? I couldn't find MY truck for less than 26-27k in NY. I had to travel out of state to get it, and the past 5 vehicles I've owned and the I still saved money including travel costs.

Shawn

 

I lived in Jacksonville about 1 1/2 years. I had just graduated from Wyoming Tech with a degree in diesel tech. I took a job at RingPower (HUGE! Cat dealer) for $7.00 hr.That's OK I'm just out of school and not a lot of experience. Then I found out other techs working there with 20 - 30 yrs experience as Navy diesel techs making only $10 to $12hr. I was shocked! Their field tech's only made $14 hr. Most people I met had to work two and three jobs and have a roommate just to afford an apartment. Also the native Floridians were not real friendly to yankee's. Again this was in J'ville and I can't speak for anywhere else but that was my experience with Florida. The only good thing about living there was I met my future wife who was teaching 3 rd grade. She was from Johnson City,Tn. This was in 1987 to 1988. Don't know if it's any better. Just thought I'd share this with you.

 

I live just outside St Augustine. The wages are fairly low here because of the sunshine tax (everybody up north coming down for the sunshine). That creates a large labor pool with limited openings. Supply and demand keep wages low. Property tax is high but no income tax. Kind of a wash there. Insane drivers, just like a lot of places, with average fuel prices. Right now jobs are tough to find and going to get worse! The further south in the state you go the more it costs to live. Go online to the local paper of where you are interested in. Read the employment ads and rentals, that should give you some idea of what you are looking at.

 

I checked out some online job posting sites, and to do similar work to what I do now I found some that pay more, some that pay less, and it didn't seem like the more specialized jobs were very "scarce".

What's expensive for property taxes? I don't know any realty sites for clearwater or surrounding areas, but I found some with google I've never heard of. Some houses I found had taxes anywheres from 2-4k a year. To find taxes like that here, it would be a 60k dollar house in the slum.

We're not looking to do anything immediate, but she has a guaranteed job working for her uncle while she finishes school. He owns 3 medical facilities for the elderly down there. Tampa, Clearwater, and "xxxx" hill? Once she graduates for PT, he already has said she will have a position available with him.

Tough to move though if only one of us will be able to find a job...Guess I'll keep looking.

Thanks for the tips guys, keep em coming!

Shawn

 

I live in south fl and most people are doing just fine. I know im blessed my welding buisness is booming thank God. There are jobs and as far as huricanes go. You get used to them. If your buying a house CBS construction is the way to go . Youl love the weather, mud pits, swamp buggys ,air boating,hunting, car shows, FL is great and of course boats and fishing.

Good luck moving man

 

Now that's the kinda insight I was hoping to hear! Need something to replace my snowmobiles....

Already told the Mrs. if we move I require a house, a motorcycle, a boat, and possibly another toy of my discretion.

Her response? "If you move, I'LL buy them!"

Shawn