[UmRTg26u33367Ye]

I live in Sarasota County, FL and work remotely for a company in San Francisco that everyone here knows about. Sarasota is a city of less than 60k inhabitants, but the surrounding area houses <250k people. I live in a somewhat suburban part of the county that trails off into farms less than a five minute drive from my house. The Gulf of Mexico is less than 15 minutes away with traffic. There are lots of great restaurants, and the arts scene pre-pandemic was booming.

20 minutes from me is an international airport, and New York City is this less than 3 hours away. Tampa is an hour to the north by car, and Miami is a 3 hour drive away. Orlando with its theme parks is 2 hours away, and I like to visit the Space Coast to watch rockets go up from Cape Canaveral.

Now that you know where I am and what’s here, let’s talk about who’s here. I’m old enough not to care that the median age of residents in my area is about 50 years. If you’re looking for a humming dating and club scene (modulo pandemic), you’ll likely find it somewhat lacking. There are plenty of young people, but not in the numbers you’d have seen if you had gone to New York City in 2019.

I find it refreshing that I don’t bump into engineers, VCs and project managers on every street corner. I know people in non-tech occupations, and their perspectives help me stay grounded in the real world. The mid-to-upper social class here is much more diverse than in NYC or SF. People’s occupations range from industry to sports to medicine. They hold diverse political opinions and vote accordingly. No one’s at anyone’s throat all the time because of “inconvenient” politics: we coexist peacefully with each other, left- and right-leaning alike. This is a kind of diversity you won’t see in big coastal echo chambers.

Proximity to nature is another aspect that I find quite important. Between the ocean and farms and state parks, there’s no shortage of green space and fresh air. I know some Amish farmers who supply me with fresh eggs, pork, veggies, and chickens. There’s a large locally owned dairy operation (Dakin) whose milk dominates the local market.

You might be surprised to find out that when people’s living quarters don’t occupy every inch of land in sight, it turns out that everyone can live comfortably and cleanly.

In closing, I’ll say that this lifestyle suits me a lot. I don’t miss the “tech city” I moved here from, and I enjoy working from home using the office setup of my dream, for which I have space without inconveniencing my family.

P.S.: Gators don’t bite if you don’t get up on their faces.

[ayyy]

Howdy neighbor! I also work for an SF company everyone knows about and I moved to Sarasota a couple of years ago. It's the best financial decision I've ever made. Your analysis is spot on, and the Amish food is amazing.

Also, I'm a night owl and now I can work from like 12pm-9pm. Working on west coast time while living on the east coast is a major life improvement for me.

If anyone is considering moving to FL and buying property, Sarasota is the obvious choice. The amount of construction going on here is incredible. I wouldn't buy anywhere else in Florida.

I also looked into Austin TX and Vancouver WA as possible destinations, but the real estate values seemed more predicable in Sarasota. If you get in at the beginning of a construction project here, you're pretty much assured to make money. I bought my house as new construction at the start of a new development and it was worth more than I paid by the time construction was complete.

If someone is considering moving to FL but wants more of that "tech city" vibe, you can rent a really nice place up in St Pete where there's much more happening, but I wouldn't buy there because the whole thing is a flood zone.

[lostmsu]

I have recently started considering Florida (from Seattle). What is the advantage of Sarasota over larger metropolitan area like Tampa? We are in early 30ies, and would love to be able to walk to the ocean/gulf beach a few times a week, have a symmetric fiber Internet at home, and people to hang out with for music/games/geekery.

[0xbadcafebee]

In general you want to pick where you live based on property values, flood zone, average hurricane damage, proximity to work, and convenience to other things (like the beach you mention). But almost universally you will be driving everywhere, so don't worry too much about it. Florida is one giant concrete strip mall on top of a swamp. So in general, figure out where you will hang out the most or with whom, and be near there. But also plan to drive a lot. Do you want there to be sidewalks connecting you to the beach / grocery store / etc? Again you'll have to search for those, as it's weird not to drive everywhere. And people on bicycles are seen more as target practice than pedestrians.

Large metros like Tampa are full of crime and traffic. If you want a "nice" walk to the beach, or you don't want your car broken into, you are much better off in a less dense area like Sarasota, Fort Myers, etc. But if you want to hit a few bars/clubs, get a little drunk, and have a short cab ride home, you'll want to be closer to a metro area. Otherwise you may have a 50 minute drive home after hitting a bar with some friends.

Florida is famous for attracting just a few kinds of people, so if you aren't in a part of the state full of your kind of people, you may bump up against culture clash. Research neighborhoods in each area to see which one you might fit in with. But also remember that the "Florida Man" isn't just a meme, it's one of your neighbors.

I grew up in Florida, and I really hate it. I don't understand why anyone but a retiree would move there. There's nothing to do other than sit in your sterile air conditioned house, go to the beach, go to a bar, or get high. And the people are terrible. I still go back for vacation though. It's like a bad ex I keep texting just to remember why I left. Oh, right... you're dead inside.

[BugsBunny1991]

My parents are on the verge of retiring in Clearwater and they're trying to persuade their children to come with them. My sister and her family are already considering it. I'm pretty skeptical about the whole thing, being single, nearing 30, and having lived in a city (Chicago proper) for the entirety of my life. It seems like a good move, financially, though I know two people who say they hate Florida (one from Tampa who couldn't wait to leave) and I can only guess that it's as terrible as you say. Should I suck it up and move anyway? I'm already somewhat socially withdrawn and it would be good to be near my parents in their old age.

[0xbadcafebee]

Why not live somewhere where you can enjoy your life, and fly down to visit your parents? Flights to Florida are dirt cheap from the northeast or Spirit hubs (like $30-$120 round trip, you can't even drive to NYC from DC for that).

Even if you're socially withdrawn (hell, I am) you can get so much more out of life even on your own in a place where there's nature, culture, diversity, nice people. Where you don't have to drive four hours to get to another large metro area. And that's just one area of the U.S.

It's a big world out there. Moving to Florida is like throwing the world away. You only get one life, don't waste it.

[lostmsu]

Are you saying Tampa has no descent concert venues? What about local bands?

Maybe I am misreading, but the only downsides in your comment are crime and hurricanes.

[0xbadcafebee]

I sort of meant to include music as part of "going to a bar". You can find good live music in some parts, depending on the genre. Like bad college jam bands? Move to Gainesville. Like afro-funk, punk and indie? Move to Miami. Like bad cover bands? Probably all large cities in Florida got you covered. Alternately, few national/international bands actually tour down into Florida, or only hit a few towns.

As someone who moved from Florida to the Northeast, the biggest drawback to Florida is the outdoors. It's warm, humid, there's showers half the time, bugs everywhere, there are no seasons or elevation. So what you're left with is water sports [minus surfing].

It also lacks culture. Not so much music, but any other form of art that isn't centered around Wynwood only exists as much as the elderly will invest in it. Compare to Baltimore, a tiny northeast city with a crap economy, which has probably more arts diversity than all of Florida combined [outside of Miami]. Why? Everybody sits in their house or goes to the bar. Why be an artist when you can do heroin on the beach?

And the people really are garbage. I was one of those garbage people. I changed so much after moving away. I don't even know why. I just know when I left, everywhere I went, people seemed nicer.

If you just want to live alone and still be able to go to the beach, there are an infinite number of cities on either coast where you can do that without all those downsides. I dunno. Maybe there are reasons people move to Florida other than the weather. I personally cannot fathom it.

[ayyy]

^^ That is all very much correct.

> I don't understand why anyone but a retiree would move there.

Taxes and cost of living.

[smcg]

Problem is you end up with a 'community' that only likes low taxes and doesn't give af about anyone else.

[ayyy]

The problem with FL real estate is that flood zones and old construction are everywhere. You probably don't want to buy a house in a flood zone. Also, because hurricane codes were updated recently, you want to buy something recent-ish, definitely nothing older than 2002. The windows in my place are rated for a Category 5, and I'm at 50ft above sea level.

In most of Florida, Sarasota included, if you go with a traditional home, you'll want newer construction in a community. The HOA takes care of all the outside stuff like landscaping, so it's pretty much condo living except without shared walls. All the houses look similar.

The HOAs usually maintain some kind of "activity center" where you'll have a gym, pool, common area, tennis courts, etc. Again, it's pretty much like living in an SF condo, except instead of all that stuff being downstairs, it's down the street, and much larger.

If you prefer to live in an actual condo, there's plenty of those too with a walk-able downtown area, but I like not having shared walls. Also downtown is in a flood zone, so you might need to evacuate if we get a bad enough hurricane. I wouldn't be too concerned about flooding if I was buying several stories up though.

As for internet, frontier offers decent symmetric fiber (previously fios). I'm on gigabit with them and it's been fine. It's in most of the area.

Also, as a rule of thumb, you want to buy when a new community is just getting started or just finishing up. You'll get a better deal if you're one of the last houses before they shut down the sales office, or if you're one of the first to buy. Construction takes 8-12 months usually, but it's perfectly fine to have the house built while you're remote. I lived nearby with family while mine was being built, and me walking the construction site periodically wasn't particularly useful.

Hope that helps! Happy to answer any other questions you might have.

[rlt]

How much, and how large, are typical new houses?

[lostmsu]

Are waterfront houses not usually built to withstand flooding?

[asiachick]

> You might be surprised to find out that when people’s living quarters don’t occupy every inch of land in sight, it turns out that everyone can live comfortably and cleanly.

I'm not sure how to take that. Given the rest of your post I took that as people are at each other throats because they live too close but there are plenty of big densely packed cities were people get along with each other and "live comfortably and cleanly". That SF or NYC is not one of those has nothing to do with density.

[sologoub]

Awesome perspective!

Must say the gator situation was hilarious when we first visited a customer in Tampa - half-way through discussions one surfaced in the water right outside the conference room window. Everyone not from FL immediately reacted, but the local team didn’t even flinch and continued on. Made for some great beer talk afterwards!