Moving to Florida (OT & some vent)

Rescue mom

Just because I’ve heard a lot about this lately IRL, and a bit here about moving in general (and DH is asleep and I have a down moment):

Florida has had a huge uptick in people moving here the last couple years. Many cite their former state’s costs, and Florida’s “no state income tax.”

But now there’s big pushback from newcomers, growing fast,  over other soaring *state* costs, including property insurance, property taxes, state gas taxes, water and sewer taxes, electricity and solar taxes, and “fees” state requires for every proceeding/document/license you never thought of. Insurance more than doubled in one year, and flat cancelled for many. Etc.

And most cost complaints come with complaints about no services: overcrowded roads, water use limits, drainage failures that cause flooding,  long waitlists  (about a million statewide, qualified and waiting) for Medicaid housing facilities. No fire protection. No/few building safety inspections, despite condo collapses. Much more.

All state-funded services, all falling short of demand.

So, people say they came to save money via no income tax, but they find themselves actually paying more. Plus they can’t even get water pressure/a drive without traffic jams/decent hurricane shelters or an evacuation road, or a parking place at the beach. Or care help for their LO with dementia. And more.

AARP a year or so ago ranked FL dead last in providing necessary services —such as ALs or day care—for seniors with dementias. Now the lists may be shorter, because a new law limits knowing how many people are actually on the wait lists. Many other rankings also put us in the bottom 5 or so of states.

Anyway, if anyone thinks moving to FL will save money —maybe it will, for you, and maybe there’s other important reasons—think hard about the money part. 

 We’ve been here, and had family here, for generations, or it’d be unaffordable. (Moving away would be tough too, now.) But so many are still coming here. It’s just disheartening to hear so many newcomers say they came mostly because no/low taxes, then complain so much about no services—which affects us all, regardless of how long we’re here.

toolbeltexpert

Rm lots of folks are coming to TN as well because of low real estate prices, which has caused a price increase on houses. If I was gonna sell I think it the time,my not be much longer with mortgage rates climbing.

You make a good case for people to examine  closer what are the real costs. 

I am originally from Massachusetts or should I say taxachusetts, they have a tax for everything you can think of. They do rank high on heathcare. Wheni was younger I spent a considerable amount of time in children's hospital  and Beth Israel. 

Quilting brings calm

Smaller government inherently  means fewer government services.  More government services  means taxes to pay for them.  It’s not rocket science.  Yet the people who move in order to avoid income taxes never seem to understand that,

My state charges about $150 for a license plate sticker each year, but the car does not get property tax.  The state next door charges about $140 less for plates/ stickers but charges about $300 or more in property tax on your car every year.   

There are services that the state/city  provides to the people as a whole which is the only real conceivable way to do it.  Road repair, water and sewer, national defense, education,  caring for the poor, disabled and elderly for example.   Another example, I don’t know how many years here that people kept voting down an increase in the school property tax while complaining that the school building needed repaired and  the textbooks were old 

Crushed

Florida is a third world country in some ways

It has a relatively low GDP per capita
USA Average 68K per capita
Florid is 56K  
So it gets federal welfare payments on Medicaid

So you should not expect the kind of public services you get in a more productive state  
like New York or Massachusetts  which have a per capita GDP over 90K  

Joydean

Rescue Mom, we are having a lot of people from California and New York and other places move here in Texas. People selling property are having biding wars. The property values have more than tripled just this year. Sad thing is those that have sold are having to pay even more for their new home. I know they should have had their purchase price locked in.(new house was under construction) but for a lot of us all it has done is raised our taxes out the roof. We live on county road and it’s so full of potholes you have to drive like a drunk , all over the road. Ever service , like trash once a week is now added fuel charges. Roads don’t get repaired, most don’t want to work so too many businesses are closing because they can’t get employees. Hospitals are short staffed, and even ambulances are now adding fuel changes!  Sadly Texas is spending too much tax dollars on trying to protect the boarder! It’s a crazy world we are sadly now living in.

toolbeltexpert

Joydean same in Tenn. The guy at the end of our driveway sold his house, no inspection, and thousands over his asking price. Sold in a week. I met a couple from California and they bought their house from Facebook. And while I was talking with them their friends from California drove up.

Crushed

toolbeltexpert wrote:

Joydean same in Tenn. The guy at the end of our driveway sold his house, no inspection, and thousands over his asking price. Sold in a week. I met a couple from California and they bought their house from Facebook. And while I was talking with them their friends from California drove up.

overwhelmingly these movers are retirees   You  make your pile in a high income state and move to a low income one  to retire

  Here are the cheapest states to retire to 

its not rocket science   Now compare it to low income states that get the biggest medicaid subsidy  

• 1. Mississippi
• 2. Alabama
• 3. Oklahoma
• 4. Arkansas
• 5. Georgia
• 6. Tennessee
• 7. West Virginia
• 8. Indiana
• 10. Iowa

Biggest federal payments subsidy for medicaid
  
 

Joydean

Most of the people I have meet moving here are young with their school age children.

Stuck in the middle

Thanks for the warning, Rescue Mom.  I have heard the same from friends who have lived in Florida and would like to return, but say they can't afford to live there.  

One of the networks ran a news segment this evening about the rising rents in Florida cities.  People who can telecommute are moving south for warm weather and lax covid restrictions, according to the newscasters, and the increased demand for housing is doing what increased demand does in any market.

Crushed

Joydean wrote:

Most of the people I have meet moving here are young with their school age children.

Texas is not a retirement mecca.  Different issues.  Like any nation. that can pump wealth out of the ground  it does not rely on solely its worker's productivity
Oil pumps up  the Texas economy   it is between 10 and 25 percent of the state GDP
Texas also has one of the highest percentage of minimum wage workers and as a result its median wage is below the US average.  However housing is cheap

TEXAS work force higher education level is below the USA average.  So they have to import educated people.  

As a low income state Texas medicaid share is subsidized by the federal government