Pulaski

The AVERAGE condo in Manhattan is going for over $2million these days.

robin1234

I think I'd tire of Orlando sooner than I'd tire of NYC.

Pulaski

I don't think I could live in Manhattan. Even living 45 minutes north of GCC for eight months just about drove me bonkers.

scrubbedexpat097

This is not being disrespectful to the OP but I too wonder, why Florida.

You have to remember OP, we see hundreds of posts every year of people wanting to move to Florida just because of the beaches, the water and the weather. Most of them because they have vacationed there and imagine an iydilic life away from drab cold UK!

You may have chosen Florida for totally different reasons but just for a minute step back and think.

We have been here for 27 years. Here is Texas, we chose Texas because of family reasons. There was no job to dictate to us where we were going. Real life was certainly different from the vacation we had spent in Texas. School systems were hard to figure out, although we were lucky to be in a very good school district. And we had to work, so lots of fun adventures we had dreamed about before our move didn't happen for a long while.

Then life got easier and we thought about moving somewhere other than Texas because, as much as I like it, it is not always the best place to be! But then you realise life has taken over and you can't just up and move especially when it involves kids and school, work etc..

What I'm saying and what Adobe Pinon is saying is..look at the big picture. You obviously have choices because of your husbands business so don't settle for the something just because on the surface it sounds like the Magical Kingdom, keep an open mind.

(And to all the Floridian's on here, I am just trying to make a point. I'm sure most of do not regret your choice. Just as I don't regret mine, I just wish I had seen more of the other states before we settled!)

Steve_

As I said in the third sentence of the post you quoted, Arizona is a different kettle of fish. It gets way hotter there than in Florida. I can't ever remember it being 37 when I lived in Florida. And it gets far hotter than that in Phoenix.

In Florida it gets hot, but it's more humid and it rains a lot so that combined with AC and it's not that bad really. Phoenix though, well it's 45 today and it's not even summer.

Steve_

Sorry to be pedantic, but that doesn't really make a difference to what I said. You can't be a one-man band on E-2, can't be a subsistence business. I suppose you could on L-1 but then you'd be limited to 5 years. So like I said, location becomes important to comply with the visa requirements. The calculation is different.

Anyway now people are confusing the OP even further by going on about other places in the US.

Florida is a perfectly okay place to live, if you are in the web design business I'm guessing you're not making a lot and Florida overall has one of the lowest tax burdens in the US and also has a low cost of living, so it does make sense to move there. Where in Florida is more subjective.

Texas has really high property taxes for example. I think the only States that can compete with Florida on taxes and cost of living are Nevada and South Dakota. New Hampshire has lower taxes but a higher cost of living.

Bob

Also really high property taxes compared to earning potential.

As for CoL in Florida...Naples is really lovely, but you'd need to be banking rather a lot to live in a part of it that wouldn't be shit and scary. Downtown, lovely, but a bit condo heavy but you can walk a parallel street away and it be a complete ghetto and rather scary.

indigogirl1976

I live in the Tampa Bay Area and absolutely love it. We have kids similar in age to yours and really haven't found the school district to be as bad as everyone outside of Florida assumes it is. We love our kids school. My son struggled academically this past year and the amount of extra help and resources he got was amazing to me. We have annual passes to legoland and seaworld which you can reach in under an hour and a half from here. The beaches are awesome and Clearwater beach offers a good pedestrian experience (which is sometimes hard to get in Florida). The town I live in is also very pedestrian, very family friendly. We walk or bike everywhere. We are also a 5 minute drive to pretty much every type of store/ restaurant you could want. If you want more localized advice about the the area join The Dunedin Moms meetup group on Facebook. I'm sure there are similar groups for Sarasota or St Augustine. You can ask more specific questions about schools, houses, family activities on there from people that live in the area.

It's by far my favorite place I have lived in the States :-)
Good luck.

themadpooper

Having lived there myself, having a mom in law who retired there and close friends I regularly visit down there, I was gonna write an exhaustive post similar to yours. There's far too many stereotypes about Florida, often thrown about by people who've only ever been down their on a random vacation. My advice mirrors yours, identity the things of most importance (schools, beach, shops, etc) before seeking advice because Florida is two thirds the size of the UK so generalizing about it is silly. Pretty much the only constant is the heat and even that differs from one part of the state to another, with hurricanes and thunder/lightening being a serious threat in some parts vs others

Pulaski

Where is TMP, and what have you done with him?

TimFountain

In answer to the OP, Birmingham would be my recommendation. That or Solihull. Or maybe Wolverhampton. Kettering at a push. Not Northampton or points south. Too many gators.

robin1234

I assume he adjusted the meds

themadpooper

Grow up, old man

RainyDays

Either Jacksonville area of Clearwater area (Palm Harbor). Depends on jobs. You?

zzrmark

I'm just north of Sarasota.
Great place to spend the winter, it's recognised as the USA's #1 top cultural small town. weather might require the occasional wearing of a jacket and I get to dig the jeans out of the back of the closet. Tampa is close by and it's an easy haul to Cape Canaveral (just beyond mouseworld but that's not my type of thing)

It's summer now. The place is empty (compared to when the snow birds hit town). If you want anything more culturally stimulating than mouseworld then you are screwed. I work outside, 32C today and it's now raining again, the previous 36 hours we had just over 10" of rain (250mm if you are too young to remember imperialism ) and on Monday evening in the midst of the storm it sounded like a jet passed close by (probably why Panavia called their jet a tornado). On the bright side it doesn't matter if it rains or not, I finish every working day just as wet, and I never feel cold. We lost the power for an hour or two Sunday evening, not nearly as common an occurrence than if you head for a smaller inland town or rural residence.

4bed, 3 bath home in a nice subdivision sets us back $1600 a month. Cable costs a fortune as do mobile phones. Water quality varies from county to county.

You'll be astounded at the number of reported road accidents in the general area (inc Tampa). In the last three years I've lost count of the number of school friends funerals that my step children have been to - one died two days ago and the last funeral was only a fortnight ago. Driving is an eye raising experience every time I hit the road ( and I was once a multi-drop driver in the UK and a class1 HGV holder). Probably goes a long way to explain why the most basic car insurance policy here costs an arm and a leg.

Heat. I visited Austin, Texas, last summer. Temps were over 100F dry heat, I found it far more pleasant than 80F high humidity as found here (on the flip side my wife, who has several generations of Floridian ancestry, found Austin hotter than hell). Most locals spend their waking hours indoors or in their A/C equipped cars so it isn't too grim unless you like spending time gardening, walking and generally getting out and about.

Research cycle ways and pedestrian access, this area is quite forward thinking and has quite a few sidewalks that make for pleasant walking and cycling (even if you do have to brave the odd crosswalk on a busy 4-way stop every so often). We have quite a reasonable bus service throughout the area, although my wife forbids me to ride them thanks to the local policy of homeless shelters giving their customers free tickets to get them away from the hostels.

Education is hit and miss, research it carefully. As I mentioned in an earlier thread, my wife's large, nice, high school doesn't include geography in the standard curriculum - the state of Florida doesn't require it, so many schools don't teach it.

We'll be headed North in a few years time (nearer Pulaski-land ) where the land is cheaper, the population less transient, less swamp, more hills and four seasons in the year.