Looking to get out of Florida

[Bears_Den]

This is my first summer being retired. As I get older my tolerance for heat, humidity and rain is getting less and less. Being outside is no fun from June to Oct. As a result, I'm either going to get a Part time job or volunteer so I can get out of the house. What I'd really like to do is find a place in north Georgia, North Carolina or northern part of South Carolina to escape the Florida summers. Now I know all these places get heat waves but they don't last 6 months like in Florida. Ideally, I'd like a waterfront campsite or a site in the mountains. I must say, I would not hesitate to move out of Florida but the DW is still working and we have grandkids locally. In others words, that won't happen. If you all can provide some ideas I can look on RvParkReviews.com and if they appeal to me, I would not hesitate to drive up and check them out. Thanks for the help and remember, there is no substitute for experience.

[travelnutz]

WTP-GC,

Yes local area economics, recreational opportunities, quality of education metrics, availability of needed services, and how far the actual dollar goes in comparison to the national average does make big differences. However, many of these factors are established and determined by the makeup of the people living in those various areas. They reap what they sow might be said!

You sure didn't see me saying how great the Detroit City, Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, or other similar places are great or nice to live at. If the shoe fits! Glad Florida makes you happy but this Thread's OP clearly states he's not happy in Florida with the intense heat and humidity and neither are most of our family members either now as they have traveled to other places north a lot and learned first hand the real difference and want out also! Florida is nothing like the Florida of the past and it's not for the better for sure! We have watched it happen since the early 1960's and seen it evolve. Neither is Detroit or so many other once nice places to live. Crowding, taxes, cost of living, crime, unreal regulations, decay and blight, devastated economies, and changed citizenry makeup have really taken their sad tolls and so obvious in much of Florida also. All combined to make life living in these places unbearable for many not even including weather or temps dynamics effects. Sooner or later, the final straw seals the deal for vacating!



When you say you have friends living in SW Michigan and they live in a "somewhat depressed" locality, I know just what locality you are referring to and it's the local resident makeup who have created, caused, and maintain their area issues but their dollar goes so much further than it would in Florida. Demographics has been a hobby of mine for more than 35 years now as I had an office in the Detroit side of the state and it used to bug me as why life was so different there than in the West Michigan area. So I spend countless hours to understand the metrics at play and why it was so. Don't even get me started on the very many areas of Florida that have the same or even much worse issues as I can name over 40 right off the top of my head all over the state of Florida.

You need to research the facts of the rest of the State of Michigan and especially the West Michigan area. Open the gook rather than just reading a couple words on its cover! For instance:

Our area schools, colleges, and universities are constantly rated by all reporting researchers and agencies to be in the top 5% of all schools in the entire USA.

Our cost of living which is the measure of how far a dollar goes is constantly for decades been in the 83% to 87% level of the national 100% average.

Services and healthcare in West Michigan and most of the state is very topnotch as rated by the gov and the various research rating agencies with also having the world renown universities for human health and of course the Medical Mile and the large medical research operations like Van Andel Institute and MSU Human Health operations plus others in the Grand Rapids area. Vast U of M in MI and Wayne State on the east side. MSU, GVSU, and Ferris State on the west side. Huge pharmaceutical corporations like Pfizer and Perrigo (just to name 2 of the 72 Pharmaceutical Corps in Michigan).

Don't even mention recreational opportunities as Michigan is tops as 4 of the 5 Great Lakes are on its shores and they are potable fresh water and UNSALTED, along with over 11,000 inland lakes, and a total of over 87,000 miles of rivers and streams and all are loaded with fish both very large and small and all eatable and very desirable. Many species of salmon, lake trout, steelhead, brown trout, white fish, walleye, bass, rainbows, lake perch, crappies/sunfish/bluegills, etc just to name a few of the many.

Vast boating all over Michigan and it's "FRESH WATER", not salted! We bought a very nice not cheap new boat and kept it in Florida for 19 years and learned to hate salt water as it ruins everything and the intense sun and humidity driven mold finishes what the salt misses. We miss our place in South Florida we had for 19 years like 2 broken arms and 2 broken legs at the same time. Now for the last 10 years know for sure that an RV with turning wheels under it is the smart way to visit Florida and only from December till April and load the RV with canned and dry foods from the north before leaving home as the $$$ savings alone will easily pay for a couple months of average CG fees. Then make those wheels rotate no later than April.

There's early 4,000 campgrounds as this is an RV forum site and so related. Yes, snowmobiling, snow skiing all over the state in deep winter and even ice fishing too. Try those in Florida! No poisonous snakes to worry about or fish or scorpions or alligators or biting ants or other things and just a tiny fraction of the bugs and termites also.

Economic opportunity? You really need to find out where the best place in America is as Grand Rapids area has been rated No 1 for years now for the best economic opportunity and why we here in the Grand Rapids Metro Area of over a million residents have a persisting unemployment rate of 3% or less.

Homes and land real estate and commercial (not the postage stamp size like is the norm in Florida) both new and resale are a fraction of the cost of most in Florida as is food too. We don't have depressed, blighted, or rundown areas anywhere within miles of where we live in West Michigan.

The community area we live at has been given "the Happiest Seaside Town In America" along with pages of other accolades. Look it up!

Just perhaps your knowledge of Michigan is extremely limited and you have so much to learn!

We have been coming to Florida every year since 1963 to visit family from Key West all the way to the Georgia/Alabama border and had owned lots of stuff and properties in Florida and learned well.

True happiness for being and living in is where everything that's important to you fits your lifestyle and wants and it varies so much. Perhaps, no place will fit 100% or meet 100% of one's wants, needs, or desires. However, facts are facts and not just opinions as they are just like a body's posterior evacuation item as everyone has one of them!

[WTP-GC]

Bears Den wrote:
Wow, this original post really got off track. All I was looking for were some recommendations on where to go for cooler weather during the summer.

After the first page, most of the threads on here have derailed. If it reaches 5 pages, you can pretty well guarantee its so far off-topic that its completely useless.

This thread derailed at the 3rd post. Yeah, I assisted in the full train wreck, but the very first post that provides commentary vs. a direct response is where it all begins.

[Bears_Den]

Wow, this original post really got off track. All I was looking for were some recommendations on where to go for cooler weather during the summer.

[WTP-GC]

travelnutz wrote:
WTP-GC,

FYI,

We spend 2 to 2-1/2 months in winter visiting our family members and have for decades living in Florida (we've been retired now for 18 years) from Ft Lauderdale on the east side to Naples on the west side of the state. My brother lives in Jupiter Farms on the east coast and his son is a doctor living in Tequesta. His Daughter lives in Placida on the west coast on the Gulf and another one lives just outside of Orlando and another near Gainesville. We know the state well! My brother's wife retired from many years with the Florida Department of Revenue Auditors and knew the state laws real well!

We know for certain the vast difference and see it every year in groceries costs, meat, cheese, and milk, and the big difference in fuel prices as Florida allows a 7 to 9 cents a gallon county tax charged on top of a higher state sales tax and that's on top of the extremely high rent costs, building costs, and insane insurance requirements costs. We also owned a place in south Florida for 19 years before selling it in 2007 as it was insanely expensive to only use it ourselves for a couple months but having to maintain it along with the property maintenance and the taxes and mandated insurance. Luckily, we'd sold it just before the tremendous real estate bust bombed values around a 50% drop in most of the state and yet the living costs still went higher. We are not poor but certainly not stupid enough to be ripped off either!

FWIW, our family were very longtime developers of commercial and subdivision housing developments and have over 22,000 people living in just one area of multiple developments between Jupiter and Stuart. More just south of US-192 (Disney area) and the Englewood/Venice/Sarasota areas. Also own or owned RV parks, Condo developments, 2 Marinas, and a few retail stores. They are all retired now except for some of the much younger and none of them want anything to do with feast or bust over priced marketplace in Florida and many of them can't stand the oppressive heat and humidity anymore and the very high crime rate too. There are much more affordable and comfortable places to live at in the USA!

Perhaps, you might go around the country and actually see what other places and living costs are really like for yourself and gain an eye opener!

I've been around the country and seen a lot of stuff. My overall observation is that its all relative (with the exception of California, NYC, DC, Chicago, and other major metro areas). You can't figure direct costs of items as a stand-alone factor. One has to take into consideration things like economic opportunity, recreational opportunities, quality of school choice, availability of services, and how far the dollar goes in exchange for the things you really want.

I love saltwater fishing, so perhaps its worth me paying more in a local gas tax to have that opportunity vs. paying no gas tax in say, Nebraska, and not having the opportunity. If real estate costs more in my region (which it doesn't), perhaps that's because it has greater economic opportunity than some areas with lesser real estate costs. I've heard of people who live in North FL, but cooperatively with other people own an airplane and they fly back and forth from Miami where they are employed as EMS/Firefighter positions. These are just some examples as to how there are so many factors.

We have friends who live in SW Michigan and we visit them often. I enjoy the weather and have been known to buy groceries at Meijer and transport them back to FL, but the area they live in is somewhat depressed, with very little economic opportunity.

FL is far too broad of a state to make any single judgement of COL. West Palm Beach has a high COL, but check with the people who live 50 miles directly inland of WPB. People in Gainesville don't relate to people in Miami, and folks in Orlando can't understand anything about living in the Panhandle. Its all relative.

[travelnutz]

Atlee,

We live in West Michigan on the shores of Lake Michigan and have for over 75 years. We don't have 6 months of winter as winter is only 3 months long. Seldom get snow on the ground before before mid December and then it melts or have cold winter weather either as the now warm very deep summer heated lake water in Lake Michigan give its heat upward as heat always rises and the prevailing westerly winds blows that heat over us until well into January. The Great Lakes shipping season doesn't end until about the end of January and begins again in early April. Shuts down for winter for an average of 2-1/2 months yearly.

By April 1st it's only light jacket or sweatshirt temps on averge. Very different than the true full 6 months on average of putridly hot and humid weather with so much rain which makes it sauna like for at least 6 months in Florida.

We'll gladly take 3 months of colder that we can dress for to be outside very comfortably and having lots of fun than 6 months of staying cooped up inside in blowing A/C because it's so hot and humid and rains and it's not wise to take off all your clothes and still being miserable when it's hot 6 months in Florida outside and then being escorted to the iron bar hotel and have to pay the steep bill the man provides when you leave that luxurious resort!

Here, April 1st averages in the 50's and halfway thru December averages about 50 also. Here,the 3 hottest months in summer has an averge high temp of 78-80 for daytime highs and 58-62 for night time lows. How could it be more perfect than that?

[FloridaReLoaded]

Not sure how many are moving out but an average of a 1000 a day are moving in. In Tampa they are building homes that are sold way before being completed. Its ridiculous. I'm not talking small amounts neither, I'm talking thousands of new construction homes in Pasco country alone!

[Atlee]

I'm thinking about doing something similar this winter. We live in Virginia, but if a long cold spell is predicted, say for 2 or 3 weeks, just hitching up and going south somewhere.

The trouble with that plan is there may not be any places where it's warm to spend a month. Many/most/all of them will be taken by long term snowbirds.

pennysmom09 wrote:
Common sense seems to be, if you live in Florida you are cooped up in the summer, and if you live in the North, you are cooped up in the winter. I like having our home in the mid Atlantic, and our RV to go South. Then we can follow the temps we like!

[Atlee]

Of course if you move back up north, you'll be inside during the winter for 6 months of the year. Pick your poison.

That's why there are so many snowbirds in Florida every winter.
Seems like the best thing to do is to winter over in Florida and summer over up north somewhere.

travelnutz wrote:
We have lots of family living in Florida who feel the same way the OP does. Many are moving back north now so they can be comfortable again. Also many elderly friends who had retired in Florida or Texas or the SW and they are so sick of the heat and want out! Constantly hear that being cooped up inside for 6 months each year with A/C blowing is not what they thought retirement would be like.

Most say it's much worse than having to have heat for 3-4 months as you can dress for the cold to be outside but can't undress enough outside for the constant sickening intense heat and humidity. Also that they are so tired of the tiny jammed together lot size living sites and the high prices for everything as they know the difference since they come back to the north to visit family etc almost every year and really dread going back to the southern heat and institutional type captive 6 months inside living.

7 of our friends have already moved completely back to our area alone now and several other family and friends are thinking seriously about doing so also and some have their homes for sale now! They say they want to enjoy their retirement years, not be imprisoned.

[Bears_Den]

The idea is to find a place cool to go to for the summers. Winters in Florida are fine.

[2gypsies1]

Bears Den wrote:
I must say, I would not hesitate to move out of Florida but the DW is still working and we have grandkids locally. In others words, that won't happen. If you all can provide some ideas I can look on RvParkReviews.com and if they appeal to me, I would not hesitate to drive up and check them out.

So... your wife won't move. Are you going alone? 🙂

[theoldwizard1]

NC, near the Smokies.

[JoeH]

For 5 of the last 9 years since retirement, we've spent most of the summer in Maine near Bar Harbor. We are uyp there now. Great weather and lots to do. In the other years, we've gone to Michigan UP , Utah, South Dakota and NC. In NC, we've stayed near Asheville, in Maggie Valley and Lake Toxaway. Like them all but sort of lean toward Maggie Valley as it's a pretty short drive to Asheville, Cherokee and other areas of interest. Mountain Falls is a really nice and freindly RV resort at Lake Toxaway. Cone October we'll be back to Fl and the nice weather that the winter brings... just don't like the increasing crowds and road congestion, of course that's pretty much all year long now. .

[Busskipper]

Bears Den wrote:
This is my first summer being retired. As I get older my tolerance for heat, humidity and rain is getting less and less. Being outside is no fun from June to Oct. As a result, I'm either going to get a Part time job or volunteer so I can get out of the house. What I'd really like to do is find a place in north Georgia, North Carolina or northern part of South Carolina to escape the Florida summers. Now I know all these places get heat waves but they don't last 6 months like in Florida. Ideally, I'd like a waterfront campsite or a site in the mountains. I must say, I would not hesitate to move out of Florida but the DW is still working and we have grandkids locally. In others words, that won't happen. If you all can provide some ideas I can look on RvParkReviews.com and if they appeal to me, I would not hesitate to drive up and check them out. Thanks for the help and remember, there is no substitute for experience.

Simple - really simple - Somewhere around Lake Toxaway - Cooler and Just Beautiful - OR try Colorado Mountains.

If you were to try Colorado, even for a Summer - think you might really enjoy the San Juan's, then just return to Florida for the Long Hot Winter - Colorado Mountains, Beautiful No Humidity - Cool Crisp Nights - Heaven - Especially if Florida has been you home.

Best of Luck,

[travelnutz]

WTP-GC,

FYI,

We spend 2 to 2-1/2 months in winter visiting our family members and have for decades living in Florida (we've been retired now for 18 years) from Ft Lauderdale on the east side to Naples on the west side of the state. My brother lives in Jupiter Farms on the east coast and his son is a doctor living in Tequesta. His Daughter lives in Placida on the west coast on the Gulf and another one lives just outside of Orlando and another near Gainesville. We know the state well! My brother's wife retired from many years with the Florida Department of Revenue Auditors and knew the state laws real well!

We know for certain the vast difference and see it every year in groceries costs, meat, cheese, and milk, and the big difference in fuel prices as Florida allows a 7 to 9 cents a gallon county tax charged on top of a higher state sales tax and that's on top of the extremely high rent costs, building costs, and insane insurance requirements costs. We also owned a place in south Florida for 19 years before selling it in 2007 as it was insanely expensive to only use it ourselves for a couple months but having to maintain it along with the property maintenance and the taxes and mandated insurance. Luckily, we'd sold it just before the tremendous real estate bust bombed values around a 50% drop in most of the state and yet the living costs still went higher. We are not poor but certainly not stupid enough to be ripped off either!

FWIW, our family were very longtime developers of commercial and subdivision housing developments and have over 22,000 people living in just one area of multiple developments between Jupiter and Stuart. More just south of US-192 (Disney area) and the Englewood/Venice/Sarasota areas. Also own or owned RV parks, Condo developments, 2 Marinas, and a few retail stores. They are all retired now except for some of the much younger and none of them want anything to do with feast or bust over priced marketplace in Florida and many of them can't stand the oppressive heat and humidity anymore and the very high crime rate too. There are much more affordable and comfortable places to live at in the USA!

Perhaps, you might go around the country and actually see what other places and living costs are really like for yourself and gain an eye opener!

[naturist]

I need three homes/campsites: (1) for the winter months, someplace warm, say Florida, SoCal, or southern Texas; (2) for the summer months, someplace cool, Maine, or Michigan's Upper Peninsula; and (3) for spring and fall, someplace temperate, say along the line from Northern California to Virginia/Delaware.