Living in Florida - Is It Good, Bad, or Just Different?

Do you live in another state and wonder what it would be like to actually live in Florida, whether if it's good or bad or just overall different compared to where you currently live? I'm going to give you some information that will hopefully give you a better idea on whether or not living in Florida is right for you.

Alright. So, living in Florida, is it good, bad, or just different?

GOOD THINGS

Warm Weather

So, let's talk about a little bit of the good things. Obviously, it's good if you like the warmer weather. I mean, Florida is known as the sunshine state, so there's lots of sun most of the year. So, if you're used to living in the cooler weather up north or way on the other side of the country like Washington State, you might not be comfortable with the warmer weather all year long. So, for instance, if you're one of the ones that lived in the Seattle, Washington area, I know they've experienced a heat wave back in last year in 2021. It was just a big struggle because no one was used to that type of heat that they had. It was, I think, in the 90's, at least, maybe even warmer than that. But, residents there were not used to that. Of course, us floridians, that's nothing to us, we're used to the 90 degree weather in the spring and summertime. However, if you don't feel like you can tolerate that type of weather for most of the year, then you shouldn't make that decision to move to Florida if you're not going to be comfortable with the way that the weather is set up here.

No State Income Tax

Another great thing I'd like to bring about living in Florida is that, there is no state income tax. So, there are nine of the fifty states in the US that don't have the income tax, so Florida is one of them. So, you will definitely be able to save some money while you're living here in area or even purchasing property. There's a lot of people that love to purchase in Florida because of the no state tax deal. So, if that's a great big deal for you as far as, if you're an investor or you're just looking to save money all around. Definitely Florida is a great place to live and purchase property in.

Great Place to Live if You Love Sports

Now, if you're a sports fan, you would definitely love living in Florida because there's a huge sports culture here. So, it's great to live in if you like to attend sporting events. Whether you're into football, basketball, or even soccer, you'll definitely have a place to go cheer on the team here in Florida. So, if you're into football, of course, we have. If you're in NFL, there's Jacksonville Jaguars, the Miami Dolphin, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Or, if you like the college football, of course, we have FSU, it's the big one. We have also the soccer teams. There's the Orlando City SC and Inter Miami, I'm saying that correctly. And if you're into baseball, there's the Miami Marlins, and the Tampa Bay Rays. Try not to get that mixed up with the Seattle team, but yes. So, if you're into any of those sports, you'll definitely have a great time attending those events here. Of course, there's going to be different times of the year where each less sporting event becomes really major. So, make sure you look into your favorite sports team here in Florida and plan out your your seasonal tickets on which ones you want to purchase?

BAD THINGS

Alright. So, let me talk a little bit about the bad things about living in Florida.

Weather

I've kind of already touched on this already, but let's talk about the weather just a little bit more. So, if you don't like the warmer weather all year long, then Florida is not going to be the best spot for you. There are a lot of people that have come in contact with that say they actually love to enjoy all four seasons of the year. They love the winter, the spring, summer, and autumn. However, it doesn't really feel like we get to experience all four of those here in Florida. Sometimes it feels like we kind of go from a fall straight into summertime. So, it might get a little bit warmer for us in the springtime. Also, it still gets a little warmer in December as well. I mean, we will still have 70 to 80 degree weather during the winter months. And also the scenery, there's a lot of people that like to see the different, you know, the trees. They bloom in the fall. You know, just the different flowers that bloom during certain seasons. You'll see some of that in Florida, but it's not going to be the scenario that a lot of people love as far as the trees like you would see maybe through Tennessee. Trying to think about other states out there, whether it's scenery is beautiful, even North Carolina, South Carolina, it's beautiful out there during the the fall. But we don't really, again, experience the four different seasons here in Florida. So, it's something that's really important to you, Florida, it might not be right for you in that situation either. Okay.

Wildlife Encounter

And also, let me bring up fact that it's not all about dolphins and fishing trips and zoo visits here in Florida. You will actually encounter wildlife in your own yard here in Florida. So, if you're a little spooked out by that and you're not really a big animal lover and you're freaked out by any sort of animal that comes onto your property that's not a dog or a cat. You will definitely want to maybe fence your yard in, to keep these animals out of your property. But there are again, still animals that can climb those fences and get in your way anyway. You'll experience having bears in your backyard, raccoons, coyotes, or even bobcats. There's been a couple sightings of that in this area as well. There's also going to be snakes too, so watch out for that. And, if you're close to water too or maybe around the golf course, you may come across little gators. There's been people with pools that are not enclosed, they've stepped outside and happened to see little baby gators swimming in their pool. So, there's lots of wildlife here in Florida. But if you're living here and you have open property, you may experience some encounters with the wildlife right in your own backyard.

Crowds

Living in Florida might also be bad for you if you don't like crowds. So, we all know that a lot of people love to come visit Florida all throughout the year, not just spring and summer. We do have a lot of the snowbirds that come down during the winter months to escape their colder weather. So, if you don't like to be around that type of crowd, depending on where you live in Florida, I mean, there's going to be a lot of tourists, touristy areas that can get congested during certain times of the year. There's a lot of festivals throughout the year that a lot of people, the locals attend. And there's a lot of out of town visitors that will come attend those festivals. Or, if you live in a town where there is a major sports team, there's going to be lots of crowds there, lots of sports fans coming out to support that team. But, if you do like more of a country quiet feel, there are of course places in Florida where you can enjoy that type of lifestyle. But if you want to live in one of the nicer well known cities, then you will have to deal with the crowds. So, if you're really not comfortable being around a lot of people, then Florida might not be the right place for you. But, again, it really just depends on the area and the city that you're living in.

Bugs

Another bad thing is that, Florida is known as one of the buggiest states. Meaning there are so many different types of bug that you might not see in other states. However, there's a lot of the more well known bugs that we're going to experience here in Florida are the mosquitoes, of course. There's lots of ants, fire ants. Be careful for those because though I've never been bitten by a fire ant but I hear it's pretty painful. And there's lots of yellow flies, bees, wasps, spiders. There's all sorts of species. I don't even know how many species out there, but you're going to come across a lot of them here in Florida. Even in the residential neighborhoods. I know whenever I go to a vacant property or a home that's been vacant for a while, I make sure I walk slowly because I don't like that feeling of walking into a spider web and just feeling like it's on my face for like two hours. There has been times where there's a huge spider web outside the back door. So, as soon as you open the back door, you're just going to come across off to the side if you step out. You're going to walk right into spider webs, that has almost happened to me. Wasn't sure what type of spider it was. I just know that it was huge. And inside the house, of course in the corners. There are a couple other little different kind of spiders that I've never seen before. But again, you're going to come across that all over the place.You're also going to come across termites. We are known for the termite issues here in Florida. That's why, whenever you do purchase property, it's always best to get your termite inspection done, your WDO inspection. Of course, if you're purchasing and your financing, is going to be most likely required anyway. But however, even if it's optional, make sure you have a termite inspection done just to make sure that the property that you're purchasing is not extremely damaged by those pesky little termites. There's also a lot of cockroaches. A lot of people are familiar with seeing the cockroaches. But a lot of out of towners also seem to believe that just because of a place or a hotel room or an establishment has cockroaches that the place is just automatically dirty. That's not really the case, I mean, like Palmetto Bugs. You'll see them all over the place, even when the place is very, very clean. It's just very common to see in this area. So, just know that you're going to experience lots and lots of bugs here in the buggiest state in Florida. Don't be alarmed if it just just becomes a issue in your property, just make sure you hire a good pest control company to take care of that for you.

WHY FLORIDA IS DIFFERENT?

Okay. So, let's talk about why living in Florida may be a little bit different. So, Florida is different for other states because it's one of the most popular states to visit and eventually live in. There's a lot of people that come to visit, and then they make that decision to purchase so they can stay here permanently. You don't often hear about people saying that they're going to move to Delaware or Iowa or North Dakota or Connecticut. But, you'll always hear stories about people relocating to Florida or visiting Florida and having a great time. So, that's kind of what makes Florida different. You hear about all the time, but not so much about those unfortunately forgotten states that nobody really mentions or visits or even relocates too. But, you'll just definitely appreciate living in Florida more because of how popular it is and how much people really do love to visit here and relocate here too. The population has definitely grown over the past couple of years here in Florida due to a lot of people relocating here. So, if you are a resident in Florida, you'll definitely be more appreciative of where you live.

Another thing that's different as far as the bad weather is that, experiencing hurricanes is different from experiencing tornadoes. Of course, I've just had this conversation with some buyers the other day. They were asking about what it's like during the hurricane season, and they're used to living in, you know, where there's that tornadoes outside of Kentucky and Oklahoma. I told them that I feel like, it's just different because at least with hurricanes, you have more time to prepare. And however, tornadoes just seem so much scarier because you really just don't have that much time to prepare for it once it hits your area. It can be very, very devastating in just a blink of an eye. So, what I explained to them is that, experiencing hurricanes will not be as bad as long as you're prepared for it. A lot of people think that just because Florida is a peninsula or what, we are a peninsula. But because of where we're located, that we are constantly being pounded by hurricane during hurricane season. Not necessarily the case. I mean, we're always in a projected path because of the, you know, we are surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. However, we just never really know which way the storm is going to shift. But again, as long as you're prepared, whether you're going to bunker down and ride out the storm or if you're going to evacuate, you really don't have a whole lot to worry about. So, if you're going to stay put, just make sure you board up your windows, get some sandbags, cover your doors, in your garage, bring in all your furniture. Make sure you have all the supplies that you would need just in case you are stranded inside your own home for a few days. You have the food that you need. Emergency supplies like first aid kits, battery, extra batteries for your flashlights. And, you also want to make sure that if you are evacuating that you gas up. You plan your route in advance because if there's a mandatory evacuation, then you're going to probably be on the road at the same time as thousands of other people. So, make sure you plan accordingly, know where you're going, know where you're going to stay for a few days, and keep in touch with anyone you know in your neighborhood that's going to write out the storm so they can kind of keep an eye on your property for you. Now, as far as the tornado, that's different because, again, you don't have time to plan, plan a route too much in advance like a day or two in advance. You don't have time to grab a lot of items and prepare to, you know, leave. It just all happens in a blink of an eye from what I've seen. So, that's what's really different about the different storms that we have here. At least, here in Florida, you have time to prepare for it.

Another thing that's different about Florida is that, it's very diverse. So, when you're living here, you're going to experience being so many different people. People from different states, people from different countries, different cultures, and religions. So, if you're like me, I was a military brat, so I've experienced a lot different people throughout my childhood and in my teens and early adulthood. So, if you'd like to meet a whole bunch of the different people from different areas, Florida is going to be great, especially if you live in a touristy area that you're going to meet people that come and go. You get to hear about where they're from and maybe even decide to visit where they're from just to have their experience with their lifestyles like. But definitely, living in Florida, you're going to have that excitement of just meeting all these great new people and I know some areas in other states. There's just, you know, people that are just like you staying the same area. And if you're just born and raised there, you might get, kind of get tired of that and just kind of want to feel what is like living in a different area. So definitely, if you like that sort of difference, then Florida would be great option for you to live in.

Well, those are just a few things that I wanted to share with you as far as Florida being either good, bad, or just different from where you are currently living. If you have any questions, feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com