Where to retire?

[RawNYTop]

Has the Florida condo market cooled down at all? Prices were high but came down due to the 30 year inspection fiasco.

Is the time up where they have to have the engineer reports in? I want to start looking, but don't want to be hit with the heavy assessments. I want to know they were already completed.

All the fingers keep pointing to Florida so that is where I will probably end up.

[Leather69]

I have a very close friend in Brisbane Australia.. he has moved to Thailand full time. Gets his Brisbane pension but his living expenses over there are 30% of here in Brisbane. He came back recently for medial checkups and to get his medications and today he's back over there and the picis of the boys that he plays with are ++++++++

[hntnhole]

22 hours ago, RawNYTop said:

Has the Florida condo market cooled down at all?

NO.  Real estate is really off the rails, at least in Ft. L.   I get scam calls all damn day long from realtors wanting to "represent" my house.  According to these realtors, my house is worth 4 times what I paid for it (and that's with zero improvements in the city infrastructure / services).  Tons of places on the market.  I actually saw one of these "tiny houses" being dragged into the back yard of a house in the next block.  

[wonderfulwoof]

san diego

been looking for two years

price hikes slowing n as economy gets worse i think, for me, i w get a deal

pool in backyard, walkable neighborhood, no more than 30 min to beach

[wonderfulwoof]

On 4/23/2025 at 1:07 PM, hntnhole said:

NO.  Real estate is really off the rails, at least in Ft. L.   I get scam calls all damn day long from realtors wanting to "represent" my house.  According to these realtors, my house is worth 4 times what I paid for it (and that's with zero improvements in the city infrastructure / services).  Tons of places on the market.  I actually saw one of these "tiny houses" being dragged into the back yard of a house in the next block.  

i have had a home for sale near gainesville for 8 months n now no canadians coming down

fl is a place to stay away from

[hntnhole]

1 hour ago, wonderfulwoof said:

fl is a place to stay away from

Well, there are good reasons not to relocate here ("f"l meaning Florida, or "fl" meaning Fort Lauderdale),  mostly related to weather issues.  It's true that we (collectively) have fucked our home (Mother Earth) to the point that she'd fucking us back, but there's no (habitable) place that isn't experiencing some level of M.E.'s wrath.  

There are a number of reasons to at least visit here, depending on your tastes.  There's no winter, which is a big one for me.  For example, "planting season" begins in October !!!  For folks that enjoy gardening/horticulture, Florida is paradise.  For folks that hate the cold, dark winters, it's paradise all over again.  Then there's the "No State Income Tax" thing.  

Interestingly, I just read an article about how the land-levels are sinking, all over the world.  Apparently, we (humanity) has been pumping so much ground water out (irrigation of crops, etc) that what land used to be held in place by large concentrations of subterranean water (apparently very, very deep, but now depleted) is allowing huge tracts of surface earth to be slowly sinking. 

No place is everyone's cup of shit, Florida included, but it's alright for some of us.  

 

[bbpoznow]

A lot of places on the market now as  Canadians are selling off and staying Canada . Trump has  made it next to impossible  to travel south  now , I say good luck to  every one that voted for him .

[Erik62]

19 hours ago, hntnhole said:

Well, there are good reasons not to relocate here ("f"l meaning Florida, or "fl" meaning Fort Lauderdale),  mostly related to weather issues.  It's true that we (collectively) have fucked our home (Mother Earth) to the point that she'd fucking us back, but there's no (habitable) place that isn't experiencing some level of M.E.'s wrath.  

There are a number of reasons to at least visit here, depending on your tastes.  There's no winter, which is a big one for me.  For example, "planting season" begins in October !!!  For folks that enjoy gardening/horticulture, Florida is paradise.  For folks that hate the cold, dark winters, it's paradise all over again.  Then there's the "No State Income Tax" thing.  

Interestingly, I just read an article about how the land-levels are sinking, all over the world.  Apparently, we (humanity) has been pumping so much ground water out (irrigation of crops, etc) that what land used to be held in place by large concentrations of subterranean water (apparently very, very deep, but now depleted) is allowing huge tracts of surface earth to be slowly sinking. 

No place is everyone's cup of shit, Florida included, but it's alright for some of us.  

 

Oh, I do love you but, Christmas without snow is just not Christmas. I love warm/hot (yes I know where your mind has retired too♨️🤣) as in Thailand but, even thinking about getting pissed, let alone ALL (hot & sweaty🍆) when it's 40°C outside (in the shade) is not my idea of fun. We get the hangover before we even crack the first "tinnie" open.

No, I'll take - 40°C, for Christmas ANY TIME & Thailand (beaches, sun & tropical plants) for the rest of the year. 

[ellentonboy]

I would just say, at this point, you are better off buying a single family home (3 bds/2 bths)  then a condo - for the resale value only.  I have a friend who has five properties in an upscale area of Sarasota.  She lives in one and makes a small fortune using the others for Air BNB and VRBO.  She has no problems with HOA's telling her she can't, which amazed me.

I toured all five properties this weekend but she's reluctant to sell me one as each of them are worth so much money on the Air BNB market.  She's in a beautiful area of Sarasota, but far enough from the water they had little damage after last year's storms, just lack of power for a day or two.

Still, she's wealthy and if they jack up her homeowner's insurance she can deal with it.  However someone on a fixed income may not be able to deal with that.

Unless you are wealthy, I would think very hard before deciding on Florida.

[RawNYTop]

On 5/12/2025 at 4:10 PM, hntnhole said:

There are a number of reasons to at least visit here, depending on your tastes.  There's no winter, which is a big one for me.  For example, "planting season" begins in October !!!  For folks that enjoy gardening/horticulture, Florida is paradise.  For folks that hate the cold, dark winters, it's paradise all over again.  Then there's the "No State Income Tax" thing.  

 

These are the main reasons I want to come there. I love to garden and landscape. (If I had a condo, I would have the prettiest balcony). Currently own a home with pool in NY, Love how pretty my yard is and wish I could have that all year long, instead of 3 months of the year.

[wetbred]

On 5/13/2025 at 5:09 PM, RawNYTop said:

These are the main reasons I want to come there. I love to garden and landscape. (If I had a condo, I would have the prettiest balcony). Currently own a home with pool in NY, Love how pretty my yard is and wish I could have that all year long, instead of 3 months of the year.

Georgia is a great alternative. It's not 12 months of summer like FL is, but it's damned close in and around Savannah. I spend my time between Atlanta and Savannah, and have no complaints, other than the nights I don't have loads in me. LOL 

[barefucker44]

4 hours ago, wetbred said:

Georgia is a great alternative. It's not 12 months of summer like FL is, but it's damned close in and around Savannah. I spend my time between Atlanta and Savannah, and have no complaints, other than the nights I don't have loads in me. LOL 

Sounds like a good place.

[SomewhereonNeptune]

On 5/13/2025 at 11:24 AM, Erik62 said:

I love warm/hot (yes I know where your mind has retired too♨️🤣) as in Thailand but, even thinking about getting pissed, let alone ALL (hot & sweaty🍆) when it's 40°C outside (in the shade) is not my idea of fun. We get the hangover before we even crack the first "tinnie" open.

No, I'll take - 40°C, for Christmas ANY TIME & Thailand (beaches, sun & tropical plants) for the rest of the year. 

Do y'all remember back in July of 2022? Especially if you lived in the UK? That was my vacation. Wouldn't have been so bad in Florida, but much of the UK does not have air conditioning. Plus part of my plan was first to visit friends in Lincolnshire, then hop a train to Edinburgh before I learned that their rails seem to warp and airport tarmac tends to really soften there. So it can get hot anywhere. It's more who is prepared for it.

On 5/13/2025 at 12:05 PM, ellentonboy said:

I would just say, at this point, you are better off buying a single family home (3 bds/2 bths)  then a condo - for the resale value only.  I have a friend who has five properties in an upscale area of Sarasota.  She lives in one and makes a small fortune using the others for Air BNB and VRBO.  She has no problems with HOA's telling her she can't, which amazed me.

Still, she's wealthy and if they jack up her homeowner's insurance she can deal with it.  However someone on a fixed income may not be able to deal with that.

Unless you are wealthy, I would think very hard before deciding on Florida.

I'm not far from Sarasota and came through the hurricanes in '24 unscathed (mine went through the eye as it passed overhead). Depends where you are and how you're built, and I find my place is different from most in Florida. I'm knocking wood because my homeowners actually decreased a bit on renewal this year.

But Florida homeowners insurance is hitting hard in (a) many older homes (over 25 years), (b) those not built to the Hurricane Andrew (Cat 5)/Miami-Dade building codes, and (c) those hugging the coast. Places like Sanibel/Captiva, Fort Myers Beach and a few other Gulf islands are still dealing with damage from '22, and even Punta Gorda from '24 (my aunt hit all 3 of the criteria above in Milton, her house and pool levels were the same as her canal at one point, fun times). 

Basically, you either like Florida or hate it intensely. My alternative was NY, so...I lean more to liking it. 

[hntnhole]

On 5/12/2025 at 2:06 PM, wonderfulwoof said:

According to these realtors, my house is worth 4 times what I paid for it (and that's with zero improvements in the city infrastructure / services)

Actually, that's entirely likely.  I get similar phone calls all the time*, and it's a fact that (apparently) I could easily get 4x what I paid for my place.  The issue is, assuming one wants to stay in the area (I do), where to move to and a) stay alive, and b) not blow all the profits on a new place.  There are a handful of area in greater Ft. Lauderdale (but not Ft. L. proper)  that are simply not safe at all. 

As to the "improvements" issue, the mayor (one of us) held a function in this 'hood several years ago, promising this and that, none of which has yet materialized.  Apparently, gay mayors get the same "tell em what they wanna hear" illness that seems to infect most mayors everywhere.  

*that's about the only thing I like about cellphones:  we can "block" the number and not hear from the caller again.  

[RawNYTop]

On 5/14/2025 at 5:14 PM, wetbred said:

Georgia is a great alternative. It's not 12 months of summer like FL is, but it's damned close in and around Savannah. I spend my time between Atlanta and Savannah, and have no complaints, other than the nights I don't have loads in me. LOL 

I actually considered Savannah, but didn't thing there was a large gay population there.