What is your price range?
I will post some feedback I have got from other brokers and colleagues so far as well which are as follows with likely more to come (each seperated by different people giving feedback)....
St John's County has some of the top ranked schools & that area is hot right now!
I love Tampa but Orlando has great berbs like Winter Garden, Clermont, and Hamlin…
I live in Viera (Melbourne area). Up and coming area with great schools! We are like 45 min away from Orlando, so close, but not too close and way less congested than Tampa.
Tampa area is fire but school system is hit or miss. I tell a lot of people “buy the less expensive house just outside of the city and the extra money goes to private school”!
St Augustine or Jacksonville suburbs (st. John’s )
south Tampa has amazing schools. Super pricey tho. Westchase, waterchase, Odessa areas have great schools and are more reasonable. Still pricey but much less than south Tampa.
My range is $400,000 - $600,000K on a house. I really like the renting idea to kind of scope out the areas.
If 3 bed, 2 bath is good enough, you have a shot here in Central Florida of getting something "non-fixer-upper" in that range....most around $400K are going to need a good bit of work and count on your home insurance being a minimum of $3-4K IF your roof and hot water heater are relatively new. Otherwise add a couple thousand. You'll be between 2300-2700 square feet on average. Anything bigger or more rooms is going to be out of that range unless you're willing to do a good amount of work.
We have a 4br, 3ba, 2100 sq ft row and my wife wants to down-size, so yeah, a 3br, 2ba would do fine.
BACKSTORY: In 2016, I sold my house and my family (wife and 3 kids) moved in with my MIL for what I thought would be a year before we would buy a house either in New Jersey or the Philly suburbs. About 6 months in my MIL lost her job, had some health issues and could no longer work. So instead of moving, we bought her house, tore it down and rebuilt it from a 2 br, 1ba row, to a 4br, 3ba row home. For the last 18 months, I have been saving up to buy a summer house at the Jersey shore. So my house is new, I have a 7 years left of a 10 year tax abatement, I live in one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city (lots of sports guys lived here Rhys Hoskins, Jason Kelce, Connor Barwin a block down the street from me).
BREAKING NEWS: I have been working from home since COVID started. Our firm allows us to come into the office if we choose. Last week my employer sent an email to a group of us because we haven't been into the office since they went remote. I emailed back asking if remote work would be permanent for our group. Employer replied, at the present, they have no intention of bringing us back to the office, but if I wanted to move to a non-commutable location to touch base with them first (our firm does have others that they have allowed to work remotely from non-commutable locations even before COVID so this isn't unprecedented). My wife is a nurse so she wouldn't have any issue finding new employment if we moved.
MY QUESTION: I'm considering a move to move to Florida. I have one kid who is a sophomore in High School and one who is in 5th grade. So I would like to live in a decent school district. I am also looking to live in a suburban area near a large city (was thinking maybe Tampa area). I just need suggestions of what cities in Florida to look for houses in?
One thing that you didn't mention is
why you want to move to Florida. Do you just want to get out of NJ so there are other possibilities?
Florida can be kind of polarizing for a variety of different reasons so I'm always interested in knowing the reasons why Florida is the desired destination for someone. Granted, we have our own considerable problems down here and I get that no place is perfect however are you just substituting one set of challenges for another?
I currently live in Philadelphia. So I'm looking for a suburban area. New Jersey has tax disadvantages that prevent me from moving across the river.
1. Lower tax rate. In Philadelphia, I currently pay $125 a check for Philadelphia city wage tax and about $3000 for state income tax. So I figure I could save around $5000-$6000 a year on income tax. I haven't really dove into the taxes for retirement, I still have probably 20 years before I would retire.
2. Lower crime rates. Philadelphia crime has soared under the current liberal leadership. My car sits out on the street (I live in a row house so I don't have off-street parking). I had my catalytic converter stolen, my tires, my car broken into. Drugs are rampant here, homeless people panhandling on every corner (this is not an exaggeration). I've been a victim of armed robbery. One of my family members was murdered. It's time to leave the city, nice place to visit, not to live.
3. Weather. My dream is to sit out on my pool deck, pop open my laptop and do my work. I figure I could do that for 9 months out of the year in Florida as opposed to 4 months out of the year here in the Northeast.
4. I'm looking for a more slower paced life with the ability to still move fast if I choose. That's why I'm prefer a suburb of a large city.
