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Originally Posted by bruinsfan
We've lived in Florida for over 20 years and would come up "home" to NH for a few scattered weeks-months every year. Florida is nice. Used to be nicer. Florida is hot. Very hot. It gets old. We lived in Southwest Florida and I can tell you that there were windows in our house that had never been opened....ever since the house was built. Not to mention the ANXIETY every time a hurricane passes through and you have to get things fixed or rebuilt. I hated the thought of losing everything as result of a storm; and no, insurance doesn't pay out like it used to. You can thank Hurricane Andrew (1992) for that. The flat scenery gets old. As does the beach and the same strip shopping centers one right after the other. You can only shop so much. If you're into fishing, it's great. Everyone has a boat. Everyone. If you enjoy boating on Lake Winni on a 4th of July weekend, you’ll love boating in Florida year round. If you're a golfer and not willing to join a club, be ok with golfing in the summer; winter is for those with money to waste. Public courses as well. Tee times are crowded as is the course....move along and play fast. We couldn't wait to get back to NH for good. We can actually enjoy Florida now that we only "visit" for 5 or 6 weeks every year. We go when and where we want and enjoy the different parts of the state. That's my two cents. Good luck!
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I've lived in tropical or sub-tropical climates most of my life. I wouldn't have picked SW Florida to live. In a discussion with then-Governor Claude R. Kirk, I learned that the SW Florida coast wouldn't be developed because of "the sand fleas". Even today, sand fleas are a good reason to stay indoors all day--every month--in the A/C!
IMHO, Florida's best weather is found in Miami. (But it might be crowded there).
Hurricane Andrew struck well south of Miami, in an area of heavy residential development.
From the 1970s, new houses were built "to code"; alas, individual builders kept defeating efforts to keep its code strong. One fatality (caused to a next-door neighbor
) was blamed on a weak, but rebar-strengthened concrete roofing sill.
Following Hurricane Andrew's
much-copied building codes, the same problems can be traced to SE Florida's municipal code inspectors!
After Hurricane Irma, I asked a neighbor why she was already replacing her new metal roof. She replied, "Because it had been struck by a chunk of
her neighbor's metal roof".
From Rhode Island to West Texas, coastal hurricanes have been a fact of coastal life since the 1500s.
Since my birth, the US' population has more than doubled. Guess to which Eastern states that new population growth has been gravitating?