Originally Posted by JilianBlue
Re: Florida - I lived there for 10 years - from 2004 - 2014, I'm happy to answer any questions. We lived on the SW Coast in a town called North Port - it is in between Tampa and Fort Myers. It wasn't for us. Florida is a beautiful place to vacation, but a tough place to live year-round. It gets unbearably hot from May - October. You just shuttle yourself from air-conditioned location to air-conditioned location. We love outdoor life (hiking, kayaking, etc) and that was dangerous there. There are fire ants in the grass - look them up if you haven't heard of them. Their bites are incredibly painful and they swarm you and you can easily get multiple bites before you realize you're being swarmed. We regularly had bobcats in our yard, diamondback rattlesnakes, and scorpions in our home a handful of times. Wolf spiders are common and get into your house - they're as big as a hand in some cases and FAST. Freshwater almost always has gators in it. And Florida seems to be the sex offender capitol of the US. There were a disproportionate number of sex offenders and predators in our area. Then there are the hurricanes, the very expensive insurance and the inflated home prices. With FEMA and some other agencies who help during natural disasters losing funding & employees - hurricane-hit areas are going to have a tougher time than usual this hurricane season. You may want to wait one hurricane season and see how that shakes out before deciding.
Good luck with your decision!
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