I've just returned from a week in Florida. Over the past year, I've spent several weeks in Florida. I have driven the Gulf Coast from Tampa to Naples. I have done reconnaissance on real estate from Miami to Jupiter, just north of Palm Beach. I have driven the width of the state from the Gulf to the Atlantic and from the Atlantic back to the Gulf. I have seen more of Florida than 99% of humanity and that's not even counting driving the Panhandle and the Keys on earlier excursions or travels to Orlando, Ocala, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine from times so long ago that they seem to be from another life.
The funny thing is that I've spent the majority of my adult life in the City of Chicago, and I love it in Chicago. Somewhere back there, however, Babs and I decided that we'd like to retire someplace a bit warmer. Chicago in summer is lovely. Winters along Lake Michigan can be quite another matter. "Winter. A nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." I believe the turning point came when we spent two years on a tropical island in the Western Pacific, Guam. Got ourselves a wee bit spoiled with that experience. Began to plan for a permanent move someplace warm.
The trouble with our life on Guam was that A) It was definitely not paradise. B) It was so darned far away that no one ever came to see us. C) It was really expensive. We began to consider other options closer to home. Mind you, Sydney, Australia is a lovely and not too expensive place, but see the above remark about distance from everyone and everything you know. Sydney was out of the question.
Having ruled out Australia and islands in the tropics, we began searching diligently within the borders of the U.S. for the ideal spot. Turns out Southern California has a wonderful climate, but everyone and his brother know this and have driven the price of real estate there somewhere into the stratosphere. Alas we were not destined to be Californians.
There are a lot of people who seem enamored of the desert Southwest and move to New Mexico or Arizona. Did I say someplace warm? In those places you either live in the mountains where it's cold and snowy in the winter or you live in the desert where it's 120 in the summer. Babs can't abide mountains. We're both trying to escape snow and cold. 120 degrees is way beyond warm into the ridiculously hot.
I have family in Texas. I tried living in Austin for a time. Turns out I don't have an affinity for Texas or Texans. From Louisiana to Florida along the Gulf Coast is just redneck. Seems to me that I left Arkansas when I was a youngster to avoid that. Nope, won't be moving to Louisiana, Mississippi, or Alabama.
At any rate, by process of elimination, we arrived at Florida as a likely destination. We began to seriously search the state for possible places to land. Here is what we have learned. The Panhandle of Florida is commonly known as "The Redneck Riviera." It's just Alabama with a beach. Won't be going there. We considered Key West. Turns out a lot of really rich people also like Key West and have priced us out of the market there. We turned to Florida proper.
Turns out Northern Florida is, well for one thing, still prone to having some winter, and is pretty much Southern culture complete with accents and all. Go down both coasts and into places like Orlando and Ocala and there are huge numbers of people from elsewhere and it's that other Florida, the one of retirees and immigrants who come for the weather. This is where we were drawn.
The middle of Florida, including Orlando and Ocala were clearly out. They have no beach of any sort and being in the interior are just hot, humid, and full of orange groves, alligators, bugs, and the occasional large wild cat. Not my cup of tea.
We went to Miami and found a lot of overpriced condos and people who expect you to pay outrageous prices to live in little bitty places and like it. If I liked that I would have lived in Manhattan instead of Chicago. Didn't happen. Lovely place Miami, but a wee bit overpriced in the real estate market. Thumbs down.
Drove from Tampa to Naples on the Gulf Coast side. Tampa is a good sized city, but a wee bit on the Southern side and not quite the cosmopolitan mix that places south of there tend to be. Had to rule it out. Went all the way to Naples and it turns out that it is really white, Republican, and with my gay, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Jewish, and African-American friends I might not really fit in.
On the Atlantic side we ruled out Fort Lauderdale and everything between there and Miami. On the Gulf Coast side we ruled out everything except a stretch that included Sarasota, Venice, Siesta Key, Longboat Key, and Anna Maria Island. We looked at more real estate than you can shake a stick at.
When it came down to it, we were deciding between a place with a pool and tennis courts and three or four blocks from the Gulf of Mexico on Longboat Key on the Gulf side and a place with a pool and tennis courts three or four blocks from the beach on the Atlantic side. We drove back and forth across the State of Florida, looking at both places.
For the record, the interior of Florida down around Lake Okeechobee is a sad place. There are long stretches of nothing North of the lake that are interrupted by cattle ranches and the occasional prison. There are long stretches of nothing but sugar cane and the occasional prison on the south side of the lake. The towns are little pockets of poverty with rows of concrete houses side by side with trailer parks full of old beat up mobile homes. Then you get to the coasts and there are people with money.
As it turns out we're probably making an offer on a place in Jupiter, Florida, about 10-15 miles north of Palm Beach. It had everything we were looking for, including a long stretch of beach and sea turtle nesting areas and a sea turtle rescue center. The price is right. The assessment fees for the community are lower than the place on the Gulf Coast side. It seems a little less fussy than the community on the other side where we were warned about people who complain about people trespassing on "their stretch of beach" and where it is rumored to be mostly deserted from June until November.
Is it paradise? Not likely, but the price is right and the weather is warm and we can afford to keep it up for a few years without actually living there full time. Saves a lot of time and worry about where to go on winter vacations. Gives us options for the future. Funny how life's decisions are made when all is said and done.
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