Here's a South Floridian's favorite way to describe Florida to others.... Florida is like a coffee filter... All the grinds collect at the bottom! You get a lot of low-lifes drifting down here and never leaving. Lot's of scum. Then there's Miami... Where it's anything but an American city. Cuban, Haitian combo is much more like it. Take our word(s) for it.... Be another "snow-bird" and only come down here for the winters. You'll thank us... believe me. Though, I gotta also say that the west coast of Florida is much, much more tolerable.. Even though I got away from the east side, I still look forward to getting out of here all together.
hey pabst I think you described sarasota pretty well. Great place to raise a family but I am not sure you would want to be a single guy here.
Thank you all for your replies. It appears that South Florida isn't such a good place as I thought. I do, however, want to move away from NYC. I had two places in mind, South Florida & Southern California, with a bias toward Florida - no state income tax. But I'm having a second thought about the place now. Could anyone share some insights into Southern Cal, specifically around L.A. and San Diego? What's it like to trade and live there? I'm an early bird, so working from 6 a.m. L.A. time doesn't bother me at all. I imagine Southern Cal has much more to offer than South Florida.
The weather in So Cal is just plain awesome. I grew in OC. Just left 3 years ago because a fixer upper is 600k. That is for a 40 year old 1400 sf house. This is pretty much the norm. I just got tired off it and needed a change. People are a bit self centered and in a hurry to get places, but sometimes can be quite flaky. SD is much nicer the LA, depending on where you live. LA is weird. You can be in Manhattan Beach, just beautiful, and just east by 5 miles is Inglewood where Crips and Bloods just thrive as well as other gang bangers. Taxes are outrageous 10% state tax if you make 100k. This an approx, before write-offs, but you get the point. Traffic is just sick, no public transportation to speak of. Everybody drives everywhere. Only poor and Mexicans take the bus in OC. If you are buy light rail in parts of LA, looks pretty good, although I didn't take it myself, I was in outside sales so I had to drive everywhere. It's all about the weather. Forget getting up at 4:30 to trade the bonds and the Euro RTH, you can have it friend. I look to move farther East. But as the saying goes to each his own. I hope that helps a bit. I am sure others can chime in.
Vegas dude....go to LA on the weekends (only a 4 1/2 hour drive) and do not pay any state income tax. You can stop trading on Fridays by 10:00 am and be at the beach by 3:00 pm.
All things being equal I would just as soon live in SoCal than SoFla. Things are NOT equal though. LA is 50% more expensive than Miami. SD is somewhere between LA and Miami prices. In SoCal one has the same problem as in Miami. Either pay up and live near the ocean (or in LA on the westside) with the Anglo folk or you'd might as well be living in Tampico or Seoul. Throw in California's income tax on top of it and it's a sad proposition. Guy's are going to come on here telling you how great Pacific Beach is for a single guy ect. First off PB has WAY more crime than Miami Beach (I can think of THREE home invasions there in the past month) and it's not inexpensive. Someone is sure to come on here saying "well La Jolla or Carlsbad are safe". True. But so is Palm Beach and Naples. At some point 99% of America is on some kind of housing budget. If a guy can afford $2400 a month for a 1bd in LaJolla village then that's the way to go. If one can only spend a thou a month then SD looks as bleak as Miami. Funny but no one talks up Chula Vista, eh?
pabst man how do you know these places so well. heck I visted chicago a couple a times a year when the clearing firm paid for it, I do not even remember the name of the place where I had the best steak I have ever eaten. You seem to know SD as well as a guy who lived there 14 years. (and is probably going back.)