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Wife and I bought and moved to Solivita, Poinciana (Polk County), May 1. 2019. Born and brought up in Boston, left for DC in 1974, lived all over the world for years, then settled in Loudoun County, VA for 24 years. Of course we moved in preparation for retirement. We purchased in a gated 55 plus community, and I must say where we live is probably the prettiest place I ever lived. We love it. I was very lucky to have stumbled upon a house built in 2015, CCD paid in full, and purchased well over $75K below asking, with my VA zero down, and seller paid all the costs. Here are a couple of photos, cost $321K. This is a fraction of what a house of this same caliber costs in the DC/VA/MD area. I got over a quarter of an acre, with a 740 square foot, 3 car garage, three bedrooms, and open space, with Liana. House was in BRAND NEW CONDITION, as former owner was snowbird, only owned it for 2 years, and I am second owner.
WE ARE EXTREMELY HAPPY, and LOVE FLORIDIA. The heat and humidity does not bother me, after all lived in DC, and spend years overseas stationed in the Congo, and Middle East. I plan to retire 02 June 2021, after 48 years Federal Service, USCG, CIA and DHS. The real estate taxes on nothing compared to DC/VA/MD. OK we live inland, by design. Being in the USCG I have gone through many hurricanes, and know the coastal areas are more prone to damage, not just hurricane, but due to the sand and salt, they eat way on just about everything. You can watch aluminum turn to powder, and metal rust. I just soon drive to the beach or spend and long weekend or several days, after all I will be retired. So we chose to live, inland, reside permanently, and be part of a community of people our own age in a secure, and beautiful place to live, and we are happy, very happy. The only down part of all of this, the Corona Virus, has isolated us for the most part. We rarely leave but to do shopping, and home building supplies, or banking. We have gone on a day trip to St. Augustine, love that place, and hope to go to Sebring in the next few weeks. We have found the people who are Floridians, to be very accommodating, and polite, however the younger ones seem to be disrespectful and rude, but I thing that is everywhere now. Driving is a challenge, some of these people are nuts, I never have seen more people passing on double lines than down here. As far as bugs, sorry we really don't sit out in the open at night, and I have seen a lot of dragon flies, butterflies, and wasps. I have seen and killed fire ants. Yes we have alligators, but we do not other them and they leave us alone. I have seen so many birds, many of the wild birds like the Sand Crane, are use to people. Seen, wild turkey, deer, armadillo, rabbits, bobcat, eagle, osprey, and snake. Removed a large copperhead from near house, and a black racer, both were easy to deal with. I have a snake grabber, living in Africa, second nature.
We live 20 minutes from the Disney Gate, have Florida Resident Passport Tickets, have been few times before the virus hit. Will go once again when it is safer. Eating places, well that is issue, as there is really no good restaurants in our immediate area . But we are a stones throw from Kissimmee, and Orlando, so not a real big issue. Our development, Solivita has two Golf Greens, and so many pools, gyms, and clubs to join. Also have a small Bistro shop for sandwiches and pizza, and a Sports Bar called the Grill for dinners and a bar.
OK, back to Florida I feel so lucky to have been able to move here and escape the DC/VA/MD area. Its so much more laid back, and I do what I want which now is so many house projects. We love our live, our house and the community we live in, and its all thanks to FLORIDA... one other tidbit. It took us two hours to register the two cars, and get our Florida Licenses, all the same day, for a fraction of what it cost to do the same in Virginia. TWO HOURS, I have waited 5 house in VA just to get license renewed. They are efficient down here. However, service is a little more laid back, so you have to understand if you are coming from a big city, its much more relaxed and not so hectic or rushed.
Limitations are in shopping, only one supermarket chain, Publix, and once and while you run across a WIN Dixie. You do pay a sales tax on everything, but to me almost equal to Virginia's tax. Roads are decent, no really big pot holes. In our area because of the theme parks, traffic is issue early morning and late afternoon, but you learn to work around it. Where we live you really have to drive to get to malls, and shopping, but Lowes and Home Depot are down the street. It has some drawbacks that I am sure you read in previous posts, but for us, the drawbacks are nothing compared to DC/VA.
Again i will close with we love it.....and we now have a golf cart, yup we are geezers, but happy ones, enjoying Mia Tias, long walks, swimming, and most of all our lives.....we love FLORIDA.
How are those Tornados in Tennessee doing, hope you have a underground shelter, I will take my chances in Central Florida, now way I will move to Tornado Alley.....
Would def like to move to fl someday areas ive focused on are around melbourne down to palm beach or if i had alot of money maybe naples area.
what are things to know about these areas? Are they safe, quiet? Close to shops and markets? Advantages? Disadvantages? Thanks.
Would like to be close to main highways.
of course its hot in fl but id take that over 6 or 7 months of horrible cold weather and snow in Ny.
I left NY back in 93 and glad I did, had places down here in South Florida since then. Now live in West Palm. Getting a little crowded here. May want to hit Jupiter/Stuart/Vero Beach, a little less crowded quiet, plenty of shopping at any place. Close to highways and beach. Plenty of clubs if into that, and lots of fresh seafood if you don't catch your own.
Interesting thread. I visited friends in Melbourne beach a few months ago and even though I swore I'd never move back to Florida, (lived in Miami 1979-1982) I have been looking at Palm Bay area. I retired back in May and am just plain tired of Georgia.......
Interesting thread. I visited friends in Melbourne beach a few months ago and even though I swore I'd never move back to Florida, (lived in Miami 1979-1982) I have been looking at Palm Bay area. I retired back in May and am just plain tired of Georgia.......
Better make your move quickly. There are lots of New Yorkers buying up anything that has a little land with it and driving up real estate prices down here, even out in the boonies where I live. Thought with the pandemic I'd see prices going down around the rural areas to the west of Jacksonville. Just the opposite has happened, and not just by a little bit. Oh well, good for me though.
I move to Flagler from NJ 3 years ago. I rented for a year while we built a new house on the Intracoastal Waterway. It's truly a dream come true... My sister is trying to get out of NJ to come here. She wants a waterfront home with a dock. The prices are going crazy now and WF houses are selling same day. Can't wait to start cruising A1A in my C8 HTC.
Northeast Florida, right by the FL/GA line on a barrier island...
Houses in our community are selling before they even hit the multi list. Guy I play golf with decided to sell and move to be with his kids. Day he signed the listing agreement, he had three offers at or above his asking price. Condos are more plentiful so you do see some of them for sale.
Northeast Florida, right by the FL/GA line on a barrier island...
Houses in our community are selling before they even hit the multi list. Guy I play golf with decided to sell and move to be with his kids. Day he signed the listing agreement, he had three offers at or above his asking price. Condos are more plentiful so you do see some of them for sale.
Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island (the barrier island) are no longer the sleepy little communities the long time locals once had to themselves. At the I-95 exit for Fernandina there is a huge new subdivision going in called "Wildlight" and new homes are selling there like crazy. Yulee, 4 miles east of Wildlight, has many new subdivisions going in. All these communities are very close to the barrier island. You've got to have some big bucks if you want beachfront, or anything nice on Amelia Island. The town of Fernandina Beach has many older homes and kind of has a Cape May, NJ feel to it. Long time locals are selling out to rich New Yorkers in droves for crazy money. Glad I live to the west of I-95 with all of that crazy unmanaged new development going on east of I-95 in our county. The newly elected anti-development county commissioners are pledging growth that pays for itself, so we'll see. Overall it's a great area with a top rated school system.
Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island (the barrier island) are no longer the sleepy little communities the long time locals once had to themselves. At the I-95 exit for Fernandina there is a huge new subdivision going in called "Wildlight" and new homes are selling there like crazy. Yulee, 4 miles east of Wildlight, has many new subdivisions going in. All these communities are very close to the barrier island. You've got to have some big bucks if you want beachfront, or anything nice on Amelia Island. The town of Fernandina Beach has many older homes and kind of has a Cape May, NJ feel to it. Long time locals are selling out to rich New Yorkers in droves for crazy money. Glad I live to the west of I-95 with all of that crazy unmanaged new development going on east of I-95 in our county. The newly elected anti-development county commissioners are pledging growth that pays for itself, so we'll see. Overall it's a great area with a top rated school system.
we are on the south end of the island. I avoid going to Yulee if at all possible. They are building like crazy there and traffic is a PITA on 200. Fernandina Beach downtown is cool with a lot of good restaurants and shops.
The were saying that a 1,000 people a day are relocating to Florida but I bet we get 500,000 this year... I love Flagler Beach... It's one of the last Old Florida towns left with very few High Rise Condos on the beach and the Cinnamon Coquina sand is amazing... You can cruise right along the beach for almost 19 miles between Flagler and Ormond combined with lots of oceanfront dining and entertainment dining where you can keep an eye on your car ...
This is a good video by one of the local realtors...
I saw reports of 300,000 new residents moving to Florida every year. The recent source was orlandoweekly.com but what was not said was the death rate off-set in Florida. And that official count stands at 206,975 for the (pre-covid) year 2019 as sourced from flhealthcharts.com (not secure). So Florida had a NET GAIN of 93,000 for 2019if my orlandoweekly source is accurate. Could be higher as you state.
I'd do it here in The Emerald Coast in NW FL, a.k.a.lower Alabama. And I'd definitely would do it in a C8 Corvette Convertible, without crashing it and becoming a negative stat like some Corvettes of the past https://forums.corvetteforum.com/sho....php?t=3945759
We started looking in Florida about 6 years ago. We went up and down the east and west coasts but never really thought to look at the panhandle because in our minds it was too far north. We were looking for a house or a lot with dockable waterfront on a canal. It came down to the Port Charlotte or Palm Coast. The Realtor/Developer we were working with showed us a lot on the west side of the ICW in Palm Coast adjacent to Flagler Beach in a neighborhood we really like so we grabbed it. We rented a house here for a year while our new house was built. We were planning to start seeing the rest of Florida from the Keys to the Panhandle this year but Covid squashed that. I do plan to get up to NW Florida next year to check it out but just enjoying it here in the meantime.
Good point you made about NW FL being too far north. It does not snow but it does get cold in the winter at times. Once I saw icicles up to a foot long hanging off the edge of the roof all around my house. My MEGA/POWERBALL solution is to have a home here (or even up north) for the summer, fall & spring, and one deep south gulf coast such as Charlotte County or Flagler County where you are. I have fellow retired LEO's scattered all over FL. I'm the only one over in the NW far as I know. What made my decision was that "Official State Visit" by yours truly to FL way back in 1990 with my then wife (she died way too early @55 of BC). That was a one sweet 10-day cruise to remember in our 76 yellow T-top. See earlier post pic taken on Daytona Beach. I could go back to DB (did once) and the background will be identical. Amazing. I did a trip years later with my current wife but the windshield of my DD was so obscured with lovebugs that I could not see. We get em here as well at times but they are almost always on incoming like Alabama cars.
So I am convinced I'd like it in Flagler or Charlotte County but I'm waiting to hit the big one to have those two homes. Beautiful place you have but like here, it appears kinda vulnerable to storm surge should you get the right hurricane hit. Reminds me of local 30A beachfront which includes Seaside, Rosemary Beach & Alys. Anyone on the Gulf of Mexico, be it here or there or Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi or along the gulf in FL is vulnerable. Because like I said before, once a hurricane gets active in the gulf, somebody will get it. It ain't turning around. Boils down to risk management and risk tolerance. And a bit of luck. Knock on wood!
Last edited by cor28vettes; 01-29-2022 at 09:21 PM.
Reason: at 0600 it was 32* plus winds at 17MPH on Jan 29, 2022 here in NW FL
So I am convinced I'd like it in Flagler or Charlotte County but I'm waiting to hit the big one to have those two homes. Beautiful place you have but like here, it appears kinda vulnerable to storm surge should you get the right hurricane hit.
I was actually just out on my covered Dock and Boat Lift securing my boat because there is a surge and gusting wind as we speak. You have to really look closely at the Flood Maps when selecting a property and new construction will always be safer. Our neighborhood was built pretty high so we should be good but the houses on the barrier island behind us are vulnerable. The potential for storms is one of the reasons we chose to live on the mainland and not the barrier island while we could have actually had a dock and walkover to the beach there. As it stands we are 1/2 mile from the ocean as the crow flies but it's a 5 minute drive over the bridge or about 15 minutes on my electric bike. Coastal living is a huge change from living in NW New Jersey and I've learned a lot.
It does actually get a little chilly here in the winter too but I prefer that to the sweltering heat in South Florida. If I were going to snowbird between Florida and NJ I would go south but for year round living central Florida is ideal.
^ ^ ^ We are like 2 miles from the gulf shore line but adjacent to a very large bay. When you look at the FL map in the far NW you see 3 bodies of water besides the gulf. Ours is the center one with a pyramid of land protruding north. My concern is the water rising in the bay. Flood zones change and I am not high enough to escape the flood zone tax anymore. If I was building today I'd be on high ground. I'd be using cinder block construction filled with concrete on-site. The county requires high ground anyway, which is a good thing. Actually, the highest point in Florida is in my county but I'm not interested that far from the beach. For now we gotta contend with Hwy 98 expansion going on & that's a pain for everyone. Someday it will be finished. We also got bridges in every direction except south of course. When the wind speed reaches 40, they close em down.
I came across an article today that is worth considering. It's about someone (and others) being tired of the new normal. As you know, out west our fellow forum members have to deal with the opposite of hurricanes and that is fires. Not just CA but the entire Pacific Coast and inland like Idaho. I've lived out in CA (Vandenberg AFB) & Spokane Washington many years ago. I recall the Greyhound bus ride from Spokane to Washington DC. Beautiful country. The point of this is be careful what you wish for and do your homework. I'm so far into this (1994) that I'm not moving. Like the area & got a nice enough home. Added great looking tile but now the carpet sucks. Easy enough to replace with wood flooring in the BR's. Wife says let it be. Everything is fine except we're old now. Should a hurricane hit just right, Cat 5 or very slow moving one with tons of rain, and the house was to go south, it won't be fun getting in line for re-builds with thousands in the same boat. Will we sleep in a tent with this humidity, like some did after Cat 5 Michael not that far away? She says no worries, never had a problem since she's lived here and that's a long long time. I'm not worried, just wondering if we too end up tired of the new normal. Here's the story... https://cnn.com/2020/09/19/us/califo...ion/index.html
Last edited by cor28vettes; 03-18-2021 at 10:34 PM.
Sure, I'll throw in some reasons to like and dislike this place we call home, along with pictures, and add to with random edits as time permits.
Under the like column:
October through April
Winter sunsets
v v v Flashback to Vung Tau, Vietnam
Last edited by cor28vettes; 10-06-2020 at 09:40 PM.
Homeowners Insurance * - Mine with Frontline just went up 60% from $3,148 to $5,046, proposed, beginning Jan 2022-2023 (no hurricane claims or damage in 28 yrs). There are currently 50 insurers. I've heard increases as high as 100%. I amended my homeowners policy twice to bring the cost down to 4.2K & increased my dwelling coverage at the same time. Good outcome under difficult circumstances. But it ain't a done deal either. Ins Co sent me a follow-up letter advising me a self survey is pending in the mail. Requires a return. www.insuranceresourcesllc.com/homeowners-insurance-rate-increases-2020/
2023 UPDATE... FL Citizens' is state-backed insurance.
* 2022 Update on Homeowners w/Frontline - Preferred Reports out of Lafayette, LA. appears to have the contract to obtain and process the self assessment survey with 38 questions and a need for 38+ pics to document the self-survey. Letter says you must complete this task within 10 days of notice. The online survey calls it your "assignment". Kinda like High School. So I got it done but it took literally all day to complete. A ball buster.
That said, I still suggest Frontline on your insurance carrier list.
Last edited by cor28vettes; 12-07-2023 at 10:40 PM.
Reason: NOAA tornado tracking since 1950
05-17-2020, 10:06 AM
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60% from $3,148 to $5,046, proposed, 
