SoCal or SoFl???? (Miami, Sarasota, Wellington: section 8, rentals, car insurance)

[bocamom]

I am one of the few who actually does go to the beach every day. Our beaches are great, so long as you avoid inlets.

Highland Beach is beautiful, but there aren't many kids. There are little areas where there are houses on the beach, but unless you are very wealthy you won't be able to afford a house there and will be west or in multifamily. There are multifamily developments like Toscana that are pretty desirable, though.

We have neighborhoods like Camino Gardens that are fairly affordable, have great public schools (so I am told), where you get a yard and a dock for your boat and the kids play in the street and everyone looks happy. In Boca you get a beach pass for about $35 and then you can park at almost all of the beaches free and there is ample parking. No hassle. Add more money and you can upgrade to the Sanctuary and have deep water dockage and a sweet spread and walk to the beach and be behind a live guard gate.

The north end of Delray on the beach has some sweet houses, again very expensive, and you would likely consider private school.

I have tried swimming in SoCal and it is shivery cold! It is often warmer in the water than in the air on a summer evening here. The surfing here often involves a long board and a paddle. Seriously, our waves are a joke compared to SoCal. I was scared to surf there! It was awesome. I loved California. But I have never wanted to move there. I like swimming in the ocean, I like the way people sort of zone out in the hot months and barely interact at all and then change personalities completely for social season, I like not being expected to get much done, I like clean air. . .

There are a lot of things I don't like too, but if you have read much on here you have already figured that out

[phillip2]

Thanks again for all of your useful input.
Ognend where other than SoCal or SoFl would you consider?

We have spent some time in SD so have a feeling for it.
With 3 kids in school we dont have the luxury of spending extended periods in various places to assist in the decision making process.

[ognend]

Originally Posted by bocamom

Where would you go? Bermuda looks pretty sweet.

SoFL is full of aged New Jersey and New York types who come here to play with their ever abundant money. There is a huge disparity between money and no-money here. 5% own the lawn, 80% mow it for them and the rest is some kind of barely existing middle-class. If you are a professional this is NOT the place to be. If you are a Wall St. guy looking for a 2nd or 3rd home, yeah, nice place. But it gets treated as such too. The crime is also rather crazy. And I am talking Broward and Palm Beach counties. I wont even get into discussing Miami.

SoCal I have not much experience with except that is it is California. You need to be making or having some serious money to have a barely reasonable life. That itself is a turn off for me.

[Liberty911]

I lived in SO Cal, including the San Diego area for 20 years, and in North Palm Beach County for the last 4.5. Personally, I would not live in Boca simply because I do not like the atmospher or the people. San Diego areas such as Del Mar and Encinitas can be more of a beach town and beach/ocean access is much better than Boca. Boca is more of a New York plastic attitude. It all depe4nds on what you want.

I spent about three months in South Africa about 10 years ago. Based on my limited experience, and assumption of your lifestype based upon the area, if you lived in an area such as Joberg, Boca would be more up your alley. IfF you lived somewhere like Cape Town or Durbin, San Diego would probley better suit your lifestyle.

[WilliamHarman]

San Diego is great place to live. Overall the weather is probably nicer in SD, with less humid heat. The problem is, as far as I can tell real estate is about exactly double of that in So Florida. Double as in really twice as much for a comparable home. In Wellington a $250,000 home would run $500,000 plus, easily in SD.

[firsttimer99]

I completely agree with you William Harman. The price is about double when you match neighborhood and home size etc. Definitely a consideration!

[Synergy1]

My wife and I just love the SD weather and area. The prices were around double that of where we retired to in SE Florida. We could have lived almost anywhere we wanted but SE Florida just got us hooked on their weather. Bad weather does come and go but we still love Florida. Also when we considered the homes compared to SE Florida and SD or Arizona, we did not see many as nice as most SE Florida homes.... However, the weather in SD is unbelievably nice along with their beaches. .

I guess the guys in SD just have more available cash to sink into a home. We like our freedom to travel, cruise, or even motor anywhere we would care to go because we believe our retirement money just goes further in Florida and we had a home in Ft Lauderdale from 1984 till 2004 when we built a new 4bdrm/ 3bath 2car garage home on the water with a pool. I just cannot imagine what the same would cost in SD....

Originally Posted by Liberty911

I lived in SO Cal, including the San Diego area for 20 years, and in North Palm Beach County for the last 4.5. Personally, I would not live in Boca simply because I do not like the atmospher or the people. San Diego areas such as Del Mar and Encinitas can be more of a beach town and beach/ocean access is much better than Boca. Boca is more of a New York plastic attitude. It all depe4nds on what you want.

I spent about three months in South Africa about 10 years ago. Based on my limited experience, and assumption of your lifestype based upon the area, if you lived in an area such as Joberg, Boca would be more up your alley. IfF you lived somewhere like Cape Town or Durbin, San Diego would probley better suit your lifestyle.

[TriMT7]

San Diego is supposed to basically have the "best" weather in America.

But it comes at a steep price --- home prices, and TAXES TAXES TAXES (property, income, and sales tax) galore.

[THX 1138]

Welly World has high property taxes, but it's no joke you can buy more home in SoFla then anywhere in CA right now. Also don't forget, PB County is proposing a double digit property tax increase so things are about to change.

I would have to say there are more high tech jobs in California and salaries are considerably higher but it's all relative.

You can expect California'ish climate during our winter months. SoFla is a tropical climate, so humidity is a part of the package.

SoFla has changed considerably over the past 10 years, it boomed based on wealthy baby boomers who drove up the cost of living considerably, home prices were artificially inflated. With all the growth and perceived prosperity, there was no influx of companies and/or corporations into the area that brought along high tech/high paying jobs. Biotech was the hot topic and it was widely toted as the panacea for the county. Now it's being heralded as something the county tax payers can't afford to pay for, but we are.

[800acess]

Originally Posted by phillip2

We will be moving from South Africa to the USA soon.
We have spent a lot of time investigating San Diego and not enough time taking a look at the Boca and surrounding areas.

If anyone was able to compare the way of life between SD and Boca then how would one generalise between the two?

eg. earth quakes vs hurricanes, cost of property, weather (temperate vs high humidity), schooling (private and public), tract vs non tract housing etc. etc.

In SD we would look at North County eg. Carmel Valley, Del Mar, Encinitas etc. Where in Boca would the equivalent areas be?

Sorry if the question is too general but any input would be useful.

Of course we will visit the Boca in due course to see for ourselves.

I live in South Florida for 11 years. I would move out in a sec if I could. I lived in SD for 3 years. Friendly people, good food and just an hour drive to LA.
Florida is a dump. Overpriced houses, corrupt polititians, a huge number of police officers ready to write a ticket and a very high crime rate <they are writing tickets>.
If you read the Palm Beach Post you will see that they are ready to raise property taxes 25%.
People talk about the beaches. The nice ones, you have no acess and no parking. The ones that you can go, bring a kilo of coins, you gonna need.

My advise, read the Palm Beach Post, Miami Herald and Sunsentinel online.
I'm sure that you don't want to give your kids this type of life.