Living in Florida Pros and Cons List
Florida is one of the top dream living destinations, with its beautiful shorelines and glorious tourist activities. It is also an area of potential severe weather threats, scorching suns, and insects galore. Decide if Florida is really the place you dream of by reading these pros and cons by longtime residents of the sunshine state.
What Are The Pros of Living in Florida?
1. Florida is an absolutely amazing place to be and many residents simply love living here. In most areas of Florida the current housing market is extremely cheap with average purchase prices being in the fifty thousand dollar region on decent homesteads. There are no state income tax in Florida, allowing for prices to be even lower and keeping more of your hard earned dollars in your wallet.
2. Year round golf. And swimming, beaches, parks, theme parks, snorkeling. There is just about any activity year round that you prefer to enjoy on a sunny day. Visiting a theme park during the off season is phenomenal, a completely different experience than during tourist season. An experience you have to live in Florida to truly recognize.
3. The rest of the country is virtually always jealous of Florida’s weather with a year round average of eighty degree temps. Florida boasts many hidden springs that have underwater caves that are amazing to explore while snorkeling. The beautiful weather allows Florida to provide the entire country with oranges. And those awful rainstorms that we hear so much about aren’t really that big of a problem. Rainstorms in Florida typically last no longer than a couple of hours.
4. Florida is home to Cape Canaveral. If you’re wondering, that is the place that launches space crafts into the sky. An awesome experience for the entire family, so close to home. Another beautiful, close to home attraction that becomes so easy to explore when you live in Florida are the Everglades. The wildlife and nature in the Everglades are so diverse it is mind blowing. And while we are discussing the amazing close to home attractions, Florida also contains the Morikami Museum. This museum is the only one in the entire county that is dedicated solely to the living culture of Japan. And yes, while you may visit some of these spots as a tourist, there is no experience like the one you will receive during the off season as a resident of Florida.
5. Florida is the sunshine state, boasting the best of what is under the sun.
What Are The Cons of Living in Florida?
1. Florida is known worldwide as the sunshine state, but some residents believe that the name was adopted during the treacherous summer months of June, July, and August where it becomes so hot and humid that it literally feels as though you are living on the surface of the sun.
2. While the housing market is nice in Florida, you will most likely end up desiring a much larger home that will be drastically raising those mortgage payments. This is due to the fact that once you live in Florida, it is guaranteed that every family member and friend you have known will be calling on you to host them while they vacation to this fabulous sunshine state. It can be extremely hard to tell Nana no, so expect to be opening up your own privately run and personally funded bed and breakfast.
3. Another downfall of those seemingly inexpensive housing prices, the insurance to cover houses in Florida is astronomical. And that is when you can find a home insurance company that will even offer you insurance. If you are lucky enough to dodge both of those bullets you could end up struggling to pay those bills simply for lack of funds. The job market in Florida is even lower than the housing market making it very difficult to find work, let alone steady work, in the sunshine state.
4. While the weather may appear pleasant with an average of eighty degree temps, the average is not the norm. The peninsula of Florida has a huge hurricane potential. While this may be hit and miss, if you are a resident of Florida you will most likely experience a largely destructive hurricane.
5. Once you have become accustomed to the heat and humidity of Florida anything below sixty degrees will feel like you are freezing to death. But if all that hasn’t made you think twice about making Florida your new home the insects just might. The water bugs, mosquitoes, snakes, and other creepy crawly slippery slimy creatures are everywhere. And these aren’t just your typical bug, these are bugs on steroids. These bugs and snakes have lived in the ultimate climate for year round growth potential. And that is not even going into the alligators. As a resident of Florida, be prepared to watch out for alligators on the way to the mailbox, the car, the bathroom, and literally every other place you may step during your waking hours.
In Summary
Truthfully, there are pros and cons to anywhere, which is just the natural way of things. Now that you have the down low from true residents of Florida you can decide if the sunshine state is really for you or not. The most important thing before moving to a new region is to do your homework. Research the state diligently studying the culture, weather conditions, dangers, and benefits. It is also important to find information regarding the specific city in which you are looking to live in and learn what type of culture you will be facing as well as the school systems and crime rates. With all this information in hand you will be ready to make a decision that you won’t regret.