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I wish I had an answer for you. I know its a terrible situation to find yourself in. All of us have made serious mistakes in our life, and like your trying to do it. It is best to correct the situation as best as you can. Where there is difficulty is as we get in our older years, its not as easy to correct mistakes as when we were younger. I honestly can't think of any area in Florida to recommend for you. I know there is nonstop new construction homes going up where I am in SW Ocala. Seems as if many of the new residents are coming from areas south of Ocala, that are fed up with the cost and overcrowding of those Florida areas. It's getting seriously overbuilt and crowded here. So I'm not sure if this region would appeal to your needs.
I find Florida in general lacking in Health Conscious people, and living in Retirement communities I find very few that are. So I can sympathize with you there.
Do you think that perhaps you have exhausted living in Florida now. You most likely have seen massive changes in your time here, and now you can't find a location that is appealing. I personally think the state is very difficult, and not dealing with its over development at all. That impacts us so much in trying to find an appealing, and affordable location to live and make our life. It's something to think about as you try to make a decision. Could you or would you ever consider leaving Florida, if it seems hopeless to find an area that meets your needs in Florida?
Thanks for your thoughtful response. Even though my heart is and has always been buying a new construction home, I keep reminding myself that it could and probably will be a couple more years before I own a home again if I don't consider an existing home that's only a few years old or one that has been completely redone with a new roof, HVAC, water, heater, etc.
Could or would I ever consider leaving Florida? I hate to say that I'd never consider it or anything else in my life at this stage. I never thought that I'd do something as stupid as selling my house and ruining my life either, but that's exactly what happened!
A close friend lives around Dallas, and she suggested at some point that maybe I move there since her husband travels a lot for work. I thought about it, and sometimes still do, but I'd bet money that I'd end up moving there, and they'll move to another state before I even get settled. I've gone through so many address books in the over 30 years that we've been friends just because of her alone. Based on my observations since she's lived there, I'm also not crazy about the weather there. It gets super cold and hot. It's the cold part that I'm not crazy about.
Have you checked out Amelia Island? It's really hard to know what to recommend here.
Thanks for the suggestion, but no, not really. I don't really want to live on an island or that close to the beach. I lived through many hurricanes when I lived in Lake Mary (an Orlando suburb) so that's not the reason, although it's the storm surge of living on the coast that I don't want to deal with. There's also a premium for living on the coast and right by the beach, not only with housing prices but also home insurance, etc. It just doesn't appeal to me, especially now after living in this area for unfortunately two very long years now. I currently live within walking distance to the beach, and I can count on a few fingers how many times I've been there. It's not like I don't like the beach because I do, but the only time that I'd normally go is like at dusk or dawn, and I just don't feel safe enough around here to do that. I also grew up in Florida so I'm not as enamored by it as people from up north.
With the hope that I'll get more responses, I thought I'd reiterate what I'm looking for. I don't care about being really close to the coast/beach and actually prefer being more inland like I was before. What matters the most to me is living in a Florida town/city that has beautiful, maintained and upscale surroundings and isn't old and dumpy looking. Being around health-conscious people is essential, and I don't want to be exposed to second-hand smoke everywhere I go! I definitely want my new city/town to have a healthy mix of ages! I want to be around younger working and retired professionals again, and I want a lot of options as to stores, restaurants, doctors and other healthcare, etc., and having them conveniently located. I also need to be in an area where I feel safe.
Before I sold my condo on the river in Cocoa, I lived in Viera. I bought a new build single family home but I sold it because I was travelling weekly for work and it was just too much to care for being away so often. I loved Viera but some friends think it was too cookie cutter. If I had the chance, I could easily move back to Brevard and be happy there. Good luck with what you decide to do.
Thanks for your additional feedback. I was only there for a couple of days, but I did like it when I was there because it's a newer area, the people were nice and it wasn't run down and old looking, although I agree that it's a little cookie cutter. I didn't care for the roundabouts, and there appears to be a monopoly with the builders there so that's concerning. Someone on my post mentioned the lack of healthcare, which is something I didn't have time to look into, so that may cross Viera off my list because that's very important to me. Even though it's in a coastal area, it's more inland and far enough from the beach that I'd be okay with living there.
Thanks for the suggestion, but no, not really. I don't really want to live on an island or that close to the beach. I lived through many hurricanes when I lived in Lake Mary (an Orlando suburb) so that's not the reason, although it's the storm surge of living on the coast that I don't want to deal with. There's also a premium for living on the coast and right by the beach, not only with housing prices but also home insurance, etc. It just doesn't appeal to me, especially now after living in this area for unfortunately two very long years now. I currently live within walking distance to the beach, and I can count on a few fingers how many times I've been there. It's not like I don't like the beach because I do, but the only time that I'd normally go is like at dusk or dawn, and I just don't feel safe enough around here to do that. I also grew up in Florida so I'm not as enamored by it as people from up north.
With the hope that I'll get more responses, I thought I'd reiterate what I'm looking for. I don't care about being really close to the coast/beach and actually prefer being more inland like I was before. What matters the most to me is living in a Florida town/city that has beautiful, maintained and upscale surroundings and isn't old and dumpy looking. Being around health-conscious people is essential, and I don't want to be exposed to second-hand smoke everywhere I go! I definitely want my new city/town to have a healthy mix of ages! I want to be around younger working and retired professionals again, and I want a lot of options as to stores, restaurants, doctors and other healthcare, etc., and having them conveniently located. I also need to be in an area where I feel safe.
I am just throwing this out there as my husband and I also have a single family home that we bought new and we love everything about it but he wants to move to Florida. I have read good things about Winter Park. I see it is just south of Lake Mary so you are most likely familiar with it. Looking at photos it looks lovely.
Disney has announced layoffs (numbers not mentioned) due to losses in their streaming business that may cause some home to get listed in the area.
Last edited by Maddie104; 11-12-2022 at 02:09 PM..
Thanks for the suggestion, but no, not really. I don't really want to live on an island or that close to the beach. I lived through many hurricanes when I lived in Lake Mary (an Orlando suburb) so that's not the reason, although it's the storm surge of living on the coast that I don't want to deal with. There's also a premium for living on the coast and right by the beach, not only with housing prices but also home insurance, etc. It just doesn't appeal to me, especially now after living in this area for unfortunately two very long years now. I currently live within walking distance to the beach, and I can count on a few fingers how many times I've been there. It's not like I don't like the beach because I do, but the only time that I'd normally go is like at dusk or dawn, and I just don't feel safe enough around here to do that. I also grew up in Florida so I'm not as enamored by it as people from up north.
With the hope that I'll get more responses, I thought I'd reiterate what I'm looking for. I don't care about being really close to the coast/beach and actually prefer being more inland like I was before. What matters the most to me is living in a Florida town/city that has beautiful, maintained and upscale surroundings and isn't old and dumpy looking. Being around health-conscious people is essential, and I don't want to be exposed to second-hand smoke everywhere I go! I definitely want my new city/town to have a healthy mix of ages! I want to be around younger working and retired professionals again, and I want a lot of options as to stores, restaurants, doctors and other healthcare, etc., and having them conveniently located. I also need to be in an area where I feel safe.
Well we moved from Sarasota to Lakeland, and we love it here. Not sure it's what you are looking for but it definitely fills some of your criteria. It is a small self-contained city and convenient to Tampa or Orlando. It has many beautiful and upscale neighborhoods, loads of trees, beautiful rolling land and small hills. Loads of lakes and nature parks. A balanced mix of people of all ages, several small colleges here, middle class families and retired professionals. We do have what I consider to be good quality healthcare here. Decent restaurants for its size, plenty of health conscious people (again, loads of parks and recreational facilities, etc) We have absolutely no regrets about moving here. One of the best things is the strong sense of community here, something most of the big cities and beach towns are lacking. You might give it a look.
LF Journey, can you elaborate on what you don’t like about Venice and what you did like about Lake Mary? They are both on my short list of retirement relocation places along with; Northern Pinellas County, Northern St John’s County and Viera. You said they both couldn’t be more different and I’m curious in what ways. What I’m looking for is a safe upscale town with amenities not far from a bigger city for major airport access but not too close to be in a rat race, traffic and crowds but not too far as too be rural and in the country.
I'll preface this by saying that if you love the beach and it's the only thing that matters to you, you'll absolutely love Venice. The beaches are gorgeous in this area, and it's very close (too close for me). However, I could write a book on what I don't like about Venice so I'm going to start ranting now because you asked.
It's next to never that someone's second-hand smoke isn't hitting me in the face, and it was next to never that I was exposed to this when I lived in Lake Mary. When I first moved here, I couldn't understand for the life of me why so many people drove around with their windows down in the summer, but I quickly found out when I was constantly breathing smoke the reason why! I used to love opening my sunroof on beautiful fall and winter days in Lake Mary. I could never do that here.
There are Goodwills and other thrift stores, vaping and tatoo shops and car washes everywhere, but regular stores and restaurants are extremely limited around here, and they're not convenient. Most of the ones that are here are dumpy looking and smell. Restrooms in the stores are mostly filthy and disgusting. Prices often ring up wrong, which I rarely had happen in Lake Mary. The stores that are here also have limited merchandise because they say they're a small store. I have to spend so much time going to different towns or other stores just to get what are simple things. I'm constantly amazed at how totally empty the shelves are around here. When the snowbirds are here, the stores never have anything. When they aren't here in the summer, the stores often don't have the things I want because they think they'll waste and have to throw out things because there aren't enough people here then to buy everything. It's VERY annoying. There are also countless, and I mean countless, empty and abandoned stores and buildings everywhere.
People are so rude and not friendly in stores, doctors' offices and it seems everywhere I go, although there's the rare exception. I can ask a simple question of a clerk in a store, and they'll look dazed and bite my head off like I committed a crime for asking.
The majority of the doctors, dentists and other healthcare providers that I've dealt with in this area have been nothing less than horrible. So many are semi-retired or about to retire. It's sad.
There are a lot of homeless people that hang out at the libraries and other places all day, and I see panhandlers all the time.
It's very old, junky and rundown looking. Everywhere I go I shake my head because even public areas are not consistently maintained. The grass on the medians on the roads and everywhere else seem to rarely be mowed, and I can't tell you how many times that I've pulled into a store lot where the tree limbs are hanging so far down and not trimmed that I have to be careful when I park. It took almost a category 5 hurricane for things to somewhat get cleaned up around here, and I guarantee it won't stay like that. The grass is often high and trees not manicured even at the public library!
The infrastructure is old, and there are power lines everywhere.
I have to be very careful when getting out of my car because I've almost broken my leg a few times because there are more potholes in parking lots than anything and the pavement is down to the rock where there aren't big holes!
The water is the worst, and I was diagnosed with eczema after moving here, which I've never had in my life.
I don't feel safe here.
As to Lake Mary, it's a great place to live, and I regret moving from there, but I need to find something now that I love just as much. I didn't deal with any of the things that I stated above about Venice. Everything (stores, doctors, everything) was very convenient. The only thing that I really didn't like is the Sanford Orlando Airport started having more and more traffic over the years.
Let's just put it this way...I feel constantly stressed and frustrated here for many more reasons than even this, but that's all I have time for now. I know there are people who love Venice I assume because of the beaches so beauty is really in the eye of the beholder.
Last edited by LFJourney; 11-12-2022 at 03:22 PM..
Thanks so much for your feedback. The house that I sold was in a gated community in Lake Mary in Seminole County. I unfortunately moved to Venice in Sarasota County. They're literally like night and day.
I'm glad that you at least don't hate Miami like I do here. It's interesting that you lived in Brevard because I just went there a couple of weeks ago to check out Viera that someone told me about. Do you know anything about Viera, and did you like living in Brevard? Viera is a newer area, which I like, but maybe it wasn't growing when you lived over there.
I dunno if this has already been asked, but why don't you move back to your community in Lake Mary?
Ever since the gator killed that woman in Sun City Hilton Head a few months back, some residents are afraid to walk around the grounds, someone i know who lives there wants to move back to NJ after the attack. It was pointed out in an emergency situation a person would have to be air-lifted to a trauma center since there isn't one close by.
The elderly women was on the edge of a lagoon in her back yard, slipped and fell, into the water. No one is afraid to walk around the grounds. Could also happen in FL.
As a fellow senior citizen, I understand the turmoil you are dealing with.
I hope things fall in place soon for you. (Lots of hugs)
Last edited by FloridaRetired2020; 11-12-2022 at 03:55 PM..
Reason: My question was answered by another member
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