Moving to Florida

Hi there,

I am contemplating on moving to Florida (West Palm Beach) from Vancouver, Canada.

I have enough money to fully pay for a 2500sqf townhome in a nice area.

Now what I want to know is this:

1) Is the economy there improving?

2) What are the chances of me landing a decent job in the finance field given that I have a finance education/background?

3) What industries are booming there?

4) In general, is it a fairly safe and nice place to live?

Thanks

Hmm.. Take this with a grain of salt as I have only been here for 6yrs.

1) Is the economy there improving? - YES. Not tremendously but you can tell it is, houses are selling now.. and people are starting to go out more.

2) What are the chances of me landing a decent job in the finance field given that I have a finance education/background? to be honest, jobs are a bit more of a difficulty. A Friend of mine graduated a few months ago with a 4yr CPA Degree (not cost per action lol). he is having a hard time finding work ATM.

3) What industries are booming there?- well the tourism industry is picking up again, this has got to be florida's #1 source of revenue. Thou to be honest with a 10.9% unemployment rate, the highest since 1975 - booming may be the wrong term.. you may want to state that question.. What industries are SURVIVING there? and a few are just not many.

4) In general, is it a fairly safe and nice place to live?- Having come here from NY 6 yrs ago, in my old town the median income was 70k a yr and anyone under that was on welfare.. I love it here. The move allowed my 40-50k online income to keep me very happy here as opposed to broke there. I find the people are MUCH Nicer here in a down south kinda way without the redneck attitude. There is a lot of cultural diversity here and you can see it in the stores and restaurants. NY had this as well but here it just seems better accepted. IS it safe? well no matter where you go you will have crime in the bad spots and no crime in the good spots.. so move carefully. I live in a median income area, houses go for 90-140k and I can leave a bike at the end of my driveway for a week and it will still be there.

Keep in mind I do live in the Orlando area thou, about 175 or so miles north from where you plan to move. Just like most places the further toward the city the worse the crime will be.. usually. Not to sway you but perhaps you should look around the state a bit more? there are some fantastic home deal going on in the Brandon, Flagler and Orlando counties. Feel free to PM me of you have any specific questions.

-Mus

Why do you need a job anyways dude with all the info out there to be implemented?!

Thanks for the detailed response. I don't like how it is tough for a CPA to find a job there... definitely doesn't sound good but I guess he is a new grad. It kind of sounds like finding work in Vancouver which is almost impossible too for new grads.

The weather change will be an enormous shift for me too lol, it is already like 10 degrees celcius here and raining every friggin day and it is dark as hell, almost like night time all day. I heard it is extremely humid in the summer in Florida.

I have a few more questions:

1) How much are the ferries/cruises to the caribbean there?

2) If I do not speak Spanish will it be a problem? I come from Ukraine originally, I am basically a white guy who speaks English and Russian.

3) Is there a large Russian community there?

4) What is the overall intelligence of people there? I know it's a bad question but you know what I mean. Is a white guy with an education going to do well there in general?

THANKS!

kumansk said:

Why do you need a job anyways dude with all the info out there to be implemented?!

Click to expand...

I am not an IM pro at the moment dude, I want to be in the future, but right now I need to work to survive. Working to survive means I do not have much time to study IM so my progress is slow.

drey2k said:

Thanks for the detailed response. I don't like how it is tough for a CPA to find a job there... definitely doesn't sound good but I guess he is a new grad. It kind of sounds like finding work in Vancouver which is almost impossible too for new grads.

The weather change will be an enormous shift for me too lol, it is already like 10 degrees celcius here and raining every friggin day and it is dark as hell, almost like night time all day. I heard it is extremely humid in the summer in Florida.

I have a few more questions:

1) How much are the ferries/cruises to the caribbean there?

2) If I do not speak Spanish will it be a problem? I come from Ukraine originally, I am basically a white guy who speaks English and Russian.

3) Is there a large Russian community there?

4) What is the overall intelligence of people there? I know it's a bad question but you know what I mean. Is a white guy with an education going to do well there in general?

THANKS!

Click to expand...

Well know that florida is the lightning capitol of the world(or the US at best). NO need to worry about spanish,lol. Russian community? Google russian community in west palm beach see what pops up. Better yet google for realtors in that area. I am sure they would love to help you find a russian community.

NOTE: Oct-may is the best times to be in florida barring hurricanes(hurricane season is right now).

Good luck

P.S. Florida is not doing good and econmist forcast it will be that way for several years. People are moving to other areas of the U.S. so it maybe a shift where people decide to retire in the future.

farfetchedmoney said:

Well know that florida is the lightning capitol of the world(or the US at best). NO need to worry about spanish,lol. Russian community? Google russian community in west palm beach see what pops up. Better yet google for realtors in that area. I am sure they would love to help you find a russian community.

NOTE: Oct-may is the best times to be in florida barring hurricanes(hurricane season is right now).

Good luck

P.S. Florida is not doing good and econmist forcast it will be that way for several years. People are moving to other areas of the U.S. so it maybe a shift where people decide to retire in the future.

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You lost me with that one... do those things relate somehow?

drey2k said:

You lost me with that one... do those things relate somehow?

Click to expand...

facts and tidbits thats all

Florida home to the retired and vacationing.

get on


and see what is available, maybe even get a job before the move.

Monster is another option but don't like that site as much, If there are no jobs on there for what you want, there more than likely will be NO JOBS.

muslickzz said:

Keep in mind I do live in the Orlando area thou, about 175 or so miles north from where you plan to move. Just like most places the further toward the city the worse the crime will be.. usually. Not to sway you but perhaps you should look around the state a bit more? there are some fantastic home deal going on in the Brandon, Flagler and Orlando counties.
-Mus

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Hey, I can second that. We live right outside of Orlando and LOVE it here. We came from the snowbelt in Michigan (lived there 10 years) and do not miss it at all... Not a bit.

Tourism is keeping things alive in this area, but not so sure with the rest of the state. Disney does very good at attracting people from other countries that have money to spend. Not so much in the USA right now. (My wife works for Disney). She says there has been a major shift in the people coming through the park. Most people are from outside the USA now.

A lot of restraurants in the area have closed, but there is still a LOT of growth in the area. Seems to be a lot of jobs in the area, too. Probably due to the tourism still streaming into Disney.

BTW, today is the first day I've worn pants all yearlong.. (I wear shorts everyday). Got down to 63 today, Brrrrrrrrrrrrr.... Supposed to get back into the 80's this week, tho.


Hey Mus, were you using Embarq DSL by chance?

>>Is there a large Russian community there?
sunny isles beach has a large one, but you can check here also which is rather right on the money http://www.epodunk.com/ancestry/Russian.html

>>NOTE: Oct-may is the best times to be in Florida barring hurricanes
yep it's nice during that time, hurricane season is aprilish to novemberish

>>How much are the ferries/cruises to the Caribbean there?
from FTL, you can get a round trip for about 50 to 100 to the Bahamas

I live very close to sunny isles beach, and the weather is completely different down here every 50 miles. don't forget this is all flat land, I live 15 miles from FTL airport and I can see the planes land perfectly well, I got friends that can see both MIA and FTL from there condo's on clear weather days.

Jobs are hard to come by, but if you got number skills then the palm beach - fort lauderdale area is the area for you.

Something about people in Florida ( the natives ), they don't know how to drive, and they don't like driving long distances, Also if you have friends that are 50 miles from your home, don't expect them to visit. They just don't like to drive.

I live in Palm Bay/Melbourne Florida and I love it....great to see you coming down here. We moved from Oregon 7 months ago.....enjoy the lovely weather

noob411 said:

I live in Palm Bay/Melbourne Florida and I love it....great to see you coming down here. We moved from Oregon 7 months ago.....enjoy the lovely weather

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Jody?

drey2k said:

Thanks for the detailed response. I don't like how it is tough for a CPA to find a job there... definitely doesn't sound good but I guess he is a new grad. It kind of sounds like finding work in Vancouver which is almost impossible too for new grads.

The weather change will be an enormous shift for me too lol, it is already like 10 degrees celcius here and raining every friggin day and it is dark as hell, almost like night time all day. I heard it is extremely humid in the summer in Florida.

I have a few more questions:

1) How much are the ferries/cruises to the caribbean there?

2) If I do not speak Spanish will it be a problem? I come from Ukraine originally, I am basically a white guy who speaks English and Russian.

3) Is there a large Russian community there?

4) What is the overall intelligence of people there? I know it's a bad question but you know what I mean. Is a white guy with an education going to do well there in general?

THANKS!

Click to expand...

The St.petersburg area of Florida has a high population of Russians as does the surrounding Clearwater, Largo and some parts of Tampa.

Crime not so bad in some parts of those areas.

of course theleadsource I am jodyq least someone knows me?

Smeltzer said:

The St.petersburg area of Florida has a high population of Russians as does the surrounding Clearwater, Largo and some parts of Tampa.

Crime not so bad in some parts of those areas.

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I live in Clearwater, own a rental property in Largo and had no idea that there is a high population of Russians over here.

lol maybe it was a joke seeing that st petersburg is in russia last time I was in st pete there was a high pop of afro american not russia

noob411 said:

of course theleadsource I am jodyq least someone knows me?

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Responded to your PM.

I'm planning on moving to Florida soon as well (six months or so). sounds good. You can really charter a ferry to the Caribbean for 50-100? wow.

west palm beach is a rich area, you'll see like over 2 lambos parked on the same road in cityplace. i know a lady who works at a salon or whatever and she gets fat tips from the old ladies or something, so you get the idea.