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I get that, but we moved from the Midwest, where houses are still selling for under $200k. It’s relative.
But specifically, we could sell our house in the low $400k. The houses we would want to live in in FL would cost more than that.
Yes, I understand that coastal Florida is expensive, but I was taking issue with your statement that coastal Georgia was no longer affordable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gentlearts
We settled into coastal Georgia 14 years ago. Today, we couldn’t afford to buy a house here. We had thought of moving even further south, but we would be trading down, for more money.
15 years ago I retired from my job in the Midwest and retired to coastal San Diego. I bought a modest condo in the 200,000 range with cash. The condos in my complex now sell for well over a million dollars. I don’t know how younger people make it here unless they have highly compensated professional jobs.
What about living on a boat in a marina, or "liveaboard"? No property tax, and you're right on the water. I knew a couple (not retirees) who did this in the Los Angeles area and loved it. I guess it's kind of the marine version of a trailer park.
If I won the lottery, I’d find a Florida cracker house, steps from the beach, if any still exist, and I’d pay whatever it cost, and not change a thing.
15 years ago I retired from my job in the Midwest and retired to coastal San Diego. I bought a modest condo in the 200,000 range with cash. The condos in my complex now sell for well over a million dollars. I don’t know how younger people make it here unless they have highly compensated professional jobs.
And/or the beneficiaries of family wealth, which of course is not uncommon these days.
I don’t know about younger people living off wealthy parents. San Diego is a military town. Are they that well paid? My next door neighbor is a Navy doctor. He drives a Jaguar four door sedan. Another person is a married Marine Corps Captain. He has a Porsche SUV. His wife drives a Cadillac Escalade.
We have an underground garage so I see the kind of cars in our complex. Teslas, Mercedes, BMW’s. Another neighbor has a Bentley but he’s an older guy. I feel deprived. Poor me. My car is a ten year old Toyota Corolla. Maybe I need a better ride to keep up with the neighbors.
I don’t know about younger people living off wealthy parents. San Diego is a military town. Are they that well paid? My next door neighbor is a Navy doctor. He drives a Jaguar four door sedan. Another person is a married Marine Corps Captain. He has a Porsche SUV. His wife drives a Cadillac Escalade.
We have an underground garage so I see the kind of cars in our complex. Teslas, Mercedes, BMW’s. Another neighbor has a Bentley but he’s an older guy. I feel deprived. Poor me. My car is a ten year old Toyota Corolla. Maybe I need a better ride to keep up with the neighbors.
Ooo, you have a new one, you fancy thing. My Corolla is a 2010.
The only way that we found it to be affordable was by buying a used mobile home in a senior park. We looked at many, many senior parks in both Daytona Beach and St Pete (and ended up buying a mobile home and living in both of those Florida cities). For $10,000 to $15,000 you can get a very nice home, and the lot rentals are very reasonable. Not so in California, of course.
I know, hurricanes, right? What convinced us to buy was: while going through the parks, some of those mobile homes looked like they were 50 years old! So they had weathered storms for half a century. However, climate change is real, so when we owned a condo in Galveston and saw 8 hurricanes form in the Gulf in one year we sold our condo and moved to a Las Cruces, NM senior park. Not 2 months after we moved a huge hurricane tore through Galveston and decimated a lot of the island. People had to leave before it hit under mandatory evacuation orders, and weren't able to return for around 6 weeks.
So there's affordable, and then there's safe. If I were moving to a Southern coastal town I would rent and let the owner deal w/ all of that.
I don’t know about younger people living off wealthy parents. San Diego is a military town. Are they that well paid? My next door neighbor is a Navy doctor. He drives a Jaguar four door sedan. Another person is a married Marine Corps Captain. He has a Porsche SUV. His wife drives a Cadillac Escalade.
We have an underground garage so I see the kind of cars in our complex. Teslas, Mercedes, BMW’s. Another neighbor has a Bentley but he’s an older guy. I feel deprived. Poor me. My car is a ten year old Toyota Corolla. Maybe I need a better ride to keep up with the neighbors.
So what? There are people who express themselves through what they drive. They might dress in 10 year old fashion and subsist on Ramen just to afford that new BMW for all you know. They just prioritize how they spend their money in a different way. Another person may dress to the nines, travel and dine out a lot but be perfectly content driving a 15 year old pickup.
Last edited by Parnassia; 04-05-2024 at 03:30 PM..
I don’t know about younger people living off wealthy parents. San Diego is a military town. Are they that well paid? My next door neighbor is a Navy doctor. He drives a Jaguar four door sedan. Another person is a married Marine Corps Captain. He has a Porsche SUV. His wife drives a Cadillac Escalade.
We have an underground garage so I see the kind of cars in our complex. Teslas, Mercedes, BMW’s. Another neighbor has a Bentley but he’s an older guy. I feel deprived. Poor me. My car is a ten year old Toyota Corolla. Maybe I need a better ride to keep up with the neighbors.
Military doctors, between salary, retention bonuses, cost of living allowance, housing allowance, subsistence and other incentives, depending on rank, can make well over 200k a year, much of that is tax free.
A Captain, over 6, base pay alone is about 7k per month, plus a lot of what I listed above. Generally, Military Officers do quite well in compensation.
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