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Best place to live in Florida?

D

dzoo

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I am considering moving to Florida can anyone offer advice on the best areas to look at?

Some criteria would be:
1. Affordable housing and/or land
2. Would like a rural are with agriculture zoning yet not too far from civilization, colleges, hospital, airport etc.
3. Animal / Herp/ Bird friendly
4. Good climate for keeping tortoises outdoors for most of the year.
5. Nearby areas for outdoor activities, boating, field herping, bird watching, Scuba, hiking etc.

I saw a place on line in Hernando FL, Citrus county, any comments on that area?
 
Mark Bell told me there are some real deals to be had around the Naples area. You might want to talk to him a bit....
 
I live in South Florida right near the Everglades.

Check out Davie Florida or Hollywood FL but there is no such thing as a place cheap to live in South FL unless your in the hood. You need to pay minimum $1200 rent to get anywhere mildly decent.
 
Well, right now i'm paying $1200 for a 2 bedroom apartment in the Sunrise/Plantation area (Southeast). I think the one bedrooms go for about $900. However, I have a washer and dryer in my apartment, I have a separate reptile room, the entire place is repainted and carpeted yearly at no expense to me, and they are pretty easygoing about dogs and cats and animals in general.

I know that the further up north you go, the less expensive it tends to get. I hear that there are a lot of really inexpensive places in the Jacksonville area.
 
Just north of Tampa is inexpensive and total farmland yet still only 20 mins to get into downtown. Tampa is great, been here 5 years and never happier.

Tampa is Hillsborough Cty, north of Tampa is Pasco Cty.
 
Pasco County is not even comparable to South Florida.

I was born and raised in Pasco county and have now lived in S FL for 2 years and I would never go back to Pasco.

There is a ton more scuba diving here, a ton more parks, and a ton more wildlife. And an absolute ton more of hot women and things in general to do.

In winter time you will want to kill your self if you live in pasco county. They get so many old farts from michigan that invade that county like a plaque during winter for 6 months. Just getting to the beach will take you 45 minutes.

your 15 minutes from anything and everything down here year round.

-Jeff
 
I live in cape coral. Market crash really got a toll on housing market. A 500k houses for 100k with pool and saltwater canal as back yard and I bought my self a 70k house and paying 600 includes everything for 3 bedroom and 2 full bathrooms.

Anyways check it out your two hours away from Miami and two from Tampa right in the middle.

Glassy
 
I used to live in Citrus County. Inverness.

The cost of living was reasonable, there was a lot of space to enjoy nature, and it was populated with a bunch of Michiganders and New Yorkers. Great delis.

We were 20 minutes from the beach (man-made) at Fort Island. We hunted for crabs and conchs and watched the fish.

It isn't too far away from Tampa or Ocala or Orlando so there are plenty of touristy things to do.

The landscape is green and lush. Trees, grass, lakes, and orange groves. There is no true ocean beach area there. It's marshy instead. There are lots of rivers and lakes.

The alligators at the state park were a hoot! There were "Don't Feed The Alligators" signs posted on the little beach at the lake.

I liked it because being from Michigan it felt more like home than the traditional sandy areas..
 
North Florida is cheaper, but the weather is not quite as desirable in the winter. It's not uncommon to find beautiful 2 bedroom homes for rent in the $600-$800 in palm coast. It's a slow paced community, but it's very nice and the price is right. I just moved to jacksonville. not as nice, colder, and a little more expensive, but there's more to do out here. I'd say central east coast is probably the best for the money in florida. palm coast-daytona
 
I spent the summer of 2008 in Florida and from what I gathered from both spending time down there and talking to several people,, I would live in North Florida somewhere and go on outings to the southern part if it ever tickled my fancy. From what I understand, crime increases as you go south and Miami is supposedly crazy.
 
KingBowser said:
I spent the summer of 2008 in Florida and from what I gathered from both spending time down there and talking to several people,, I would live in North Florida somewhere and go on outings to the southern part if it ever tickled my fancy. From what I understand, crime increases as you go south and Miami is supposedly crazy.
Click to expand...

Miami is a cool town to hit up every now and then but it's very expensive. I don't much like the east coast of FL, too much tourist stuff, north part gets too cold, Orlando has no water....that's why I live in Tampa.

Tampa/St.Pete has some bad parts, like any city, but it's got a lot of fun stuff at reasonable prices.

I'd rank FL cities to live in as

Tampa
Miami
Orlando
Jacksonville
 
I live in Palm Beach County (Wellington), I like it here, Wellington itself isn't bad but it IS pretty price, I'm pretty sur emost the homes are owned, there's only 2Apartment complexes here, and they're big on Polo, though it is over-run by old retirees, there's not even a tattoo parlor in my town, i'm pretty sure the oldies locked them out haha. But drugs are becoming a big problem here for the younger generations parents with money and kids, just hand them money and let them run wild >.> ...
I'd find a happy medium between here and Orlando...maybe even just the Jupiter area..
 
O-Town is where its at!!! I'm in Orlando, smack in the middle of tourist Heaven lol. 10 min from Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure, 5 min from Seaworl, 10 min from Disney, and have like a million restaraunts, shopping plazas, stores, night clubs, etc. all around me. The big airport is only a 20 min drive from me too.

Pros:
TONS of things to do. Good weather for the most part. I live in a rich community so we dont have any crime so I dont have to deal with all the morons :D More pros stated above (theme parks, more shopping places than a person will ever need), and you'll have about 100 different chains of restaraunts to pick from in the spread of about 10 miles lol.

Cons:
HOT HOT HOT weather and VERY humid! Tourists do get annoying (sorry but damn people need to learn how to drive and stop pointing at everything they see lol)! If you like forests and natural parks (which I do but I'm in Orlando), then Orlando is probably not for you unless your willing to drive an hour somewhere else to enjoy it.

Overall, I think Orlando is great! But I've been here basically all my life and I'm getting a little sick of it...
 
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