[dreamofmonterey]

Always a problem, but heck, you were living in Florida. Except for the occasional hurricane, tornado, bugs, snakes and gators, who the heck cared. Wages didn't pay much, everyone was looking for a cheap house in paradise, cultural offerings were few. Who cared. You could die in Florida and never have to shovel a driveway.
______________________

yes- hiknapster- and how dare us younger boomers want something good out of life- as jbravo curtly suggested--- we should all just accept the economy of service jobs and SUCK IT UP

What a tired placebo. I frankly dont picture boomers at age 50-60 in Fl saying...hmmm, I am bored maybe I'll help out and start waitressing....or teaching.....or work in a dead end office job like they had 25 years earlier...

lol.

[john1963]

move to knoxville...it is really beautiful and cheap, esp. housing prices and insurance

[Rhett_Butler]

Gotta be ahead of the game as far as I can tell..... People looking at NC and TN are a day late and a dollar short (almost). Hunch is that West Virginia is the next escape. CHEAP CHEAP housing, though good paying jobs are lacking.... Still think retirement housing in the mountains will start a boom there in the next 5-10 years...

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by john1963

move to knoxville...it is really beautiful and cheap, esp. housing prices and insurance

They aren't paying here, either, Bubba! In fact it is the biggest WHINE from the people moving in here. We actually have people buying that have never seen the property. Incredible.

Then they complain because they are in the ghetto or next to, gasp, rednecks!

I've always said that most of the people, now, have more money than brains.

I think that the bubble created a lot of white trash with a decent bank account.

[dreamofmonterey]

well- Starwood and Windham resorts (time share cold calling)- people are touting these as great jobs on Orlando sub-forum. lol.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by sunnyhelena

well- Starwood and Windham resorts (time share cold calling)- people are touting these as great jobs on Orlando sub-forum. lol.

In Gatlinburg, too. They think they are great jobs here, too.

[lovely in linen]

Don't get me wrong. . . Florida was very good for us for a long time. But once we started a family, we knew it was time to go. Our main reasons:

1) Public education: low quality (relative to other states) and poor planning (our brand new neighborhood elementary school lost its schoolyard to "portables" in its first year because the school was shamefully undersized for the masterplanned community for which it was built)

2) Gangs, crime and drugs (yes, our $400,000.00+ community had three active international drug gangs in full operation)

3) Loss of civility -- Floridians used to be known for their friendly, "no worries" attitude. What every happened to that?

4) There ARE better places to live! Really. I know that this is heretical, still, for many Floridians. You have so bought into the notion that Florida is the only place that has quality of life. You have come to believe that cold weather and snow are Nature's character flaws. While this may be what many around you believe, Floridians, this simply isn't true!

We've moved to Colorado, and it will be a long time before we come back.

[bale002]

The basic answer is that some people can no longer achieve their goals in Florida, mainly because of the change in the cost structure and the quality of life.
This category may include people who were used to a low-cost-of-living lifestyle, by now subsumed by the circumstances, and *former middle class families (*now being formed into an amorphous "globalized" mass) looking for a more affordable, less congested and less crime ridden place to live, thus the exodus to the southeastern mountain states and elsewhere.
In my case, I left Florida because I have high savings goals and from my perspective, despite a relatively successful internet-based business, because of property taxes, home owners insurance, and health insurance (a serious issue, and increasingly not only for the self-employed), Florida is no longer competitive compared to other states with low or no state income tax.

To be sure, the cost-structure and other problem issues can be overcome by those who want to stick it out, possibly because they love the temperature, the beach, and Florida's other natural amenities, but for others these amenities are not worth the price with respect to other goals in life.

At the same time, other people continue to come to Florida because, from their perspective, the cost structure and the quality life meet their expectations and goals. This category may include wealthy retirees from mainly the northeast and midwest snow states, and maybe a relatively few wealthy Europeans and increasingly Russians, on the one hand, and immigrants mainly from Latin America, on the other.

So, the fact is that Florida is growing on the two extremes of the socio-economic spectrum and relatively contracting in the middle segment of the spectrum.

Good luck!

[Suncoaster]

Originally Posted by lovely in linen

Loss of civility -- Floridians used to be known for their friendly, "no worries" attitude. What ever happened to that?

Maybe it's the problems that we're all experiencing - and a lot of people reacting to the stress of it. Insurance costs, both health and HOI, taxes, crowding, traffic, noise, crime. Back in the early 70's, it was a much less stressful place - you might not have high wages, but if you loved a simple life, you could have it here.

No, there wasn't a "thriving cultural scene" except for the college areas. But the beauty of nature was all around, it was to some of us, idyllic.

Many areas had little crime, not nearly as much traffic - remember when driving across the state, it was all orange groves and cattle farms? FL was second only to TX in cattle. The coastal areas were so much nicer; they weren't all lined with high-rise condos.

But then the population exploded. Traffic increased exponentially. Mom and pop motels were replaced by glitzy resorts. Little mobile home parks and cottages gave way to huge gated communities. The HOAs moved in. And more people. And with them, bigger and more stores. And the new arrivals wanted more, more, more. "Exclusive" communities. "Amenities." Bigger homes. More demands for "services." So there was more. More development, more traffic, more crime. Everyone wanting to escape the high taxes and high cost of living up north just drove the taxes and costs of living higher here.

The skyrocketing increase in costs put increasing pressure on stagnant wages, squeezing the people in the middle. The rat race was on.

And that's what happened to the nice "no worries" attitude.

[daniellefort]

"white trash with a decent bank account with more money than brains"....

Ouch! that's quite a harsh statement. Is that now what defines "white trash" People with money and no brains? Come on now...First of all, they can't be that brainless. Obviously they had enough good credit to buy in the first place (which a lot of people don't have that ability to do) and obviously these people were smart enough to cash out and are probably living better than some of us. Just sounded like some anger coming out of that comment.