AO Florida peeps?

[Will Wood]

Well. Maine sucks.
Two friends and I moving to Florida.

WHERE is the big question.

What are the good places for living? I've been looking at houses but I'm pretty sure all the houses I'm finding are in sketchy places seeing how cheap they are. Can't really afford / spare the time to actually go down and look around, so I'm researching online and trying to get some word on the places that are good.

[bentothejam1n]

Gulf Coast= Great fishing and a lot of old people......

[ThisStarNeverFalls]

Well, depends where you want to be really...Daytona is WAY over priced, orlando is a good way to get shot and is a pain in the *** to drive in, unless your dirty or into drugs heavily tampa is no good, best idea is to find a town thats in the middle mainly...Middle towns arnt bad...

Deland
Debary
Deltona
Orange City
Altamonte Springs
Spring Hill
Etc...

[Resurection]

I have lived in Jax, Orl, and Tampa/St.Pete area...

Orlando is as described above: VERY tourist-like and horrible to get around, but there is always something to do and great for younger/college scene.

Jax is nice, and puts you within 4-5 hours of all of Florida and half of the CFOA (sp?)

Tampa/St.Pete is far from dirty, but every major metro area has dirty and scum.

Personally, I am living in Pinellas County (St. Petersburg area) and love it. Housing is decent priced, but you can find much better if you look in the surrounding areas of Tampa/St.P such as Brandon, Spring Hill, Lakeland, etc.


If you want to speak with a realtor in my area let me know, I have a few friends.

[Fred]

I've been in Sarasota about a year and a half now. Compared to Detroit, the paintball scene is pretty much non-existant. There's like 1 half decent store within a 45 minute drive. The local fields are... an hour away...

World Cup is fun, but its in Orlando...

There are a lot of geezers here, but only Thanksgiving through Easter...

I have a really nice 1400 sq ft townhouse (3Br/3Bath) that I split with two friends for 1250 a month... plus utilities... electric gets expensive (150+ per month) in the summer if you like it to be 75 or lower... water isn't that bad.

Food isn't expensive either... but buying a place? lol... average is still over 300k in Sarasota county. The beach is cool, there are a few half decent places to chill at, but nothing like Tampa or Orlando.

Good thing about FL, is that the unemployment is super low, like 3% around here, so its EASY to find a job if you're even halfway qualified.

-Fred

[Lee]

i live in pasco, about 25 miles north of tampa. this the area is growing fast and prices are going up along with it, though this part of pasco is still reasonable. i commute to tampa for work which isn't too bad. football, baseball and hockey are all within a reasonable drive as well as the orlando theme parks.

several decent and not so decent fields within an hour or so. all depends on what style your interested in. waynes world is about an hour and a half for example along with many rec and tourney style fields in between. i can think of eight fields within an hour or so of my home.

tampa has a diverse population and decent job opportunities in many fields as does st petersburg. beaches are all within reasonable drive time.

pasco is/was very retiree oriented, though it has evened out quite a bit in the last few years.

heat and humidity is brutal in the summer, but winters are very mild compared to maine. i'm an ex up state new yorker myself so i can relate to snow.

what are you looking for in work, recreation etc? what can you afford to pay for housing? that info would help us help you.

[ThisStarNeverFalls]

Id still say to try to stick more to a central area, best bet is to search the areas a bit, also if you looking at buying, my mother is a mortgage broker and will be able to place your loan almost guarenteed, and not charge you out the *** for it, LMK.

[maxama10]

Tampa was pretty nice when i lived there about 5 years ago. Although I really lived in Brandon, right outside of Tampa.