The Future of Florida
 

What's your gut feeling about the future of state of Florida?

Maybe it's something at our age we shouldn't concern ourselves with now because we'll be long gone,
but my list below seems to be coming faster every year.
The population growth from people moving in the state is running wild which effects:

traffic, (including golfcarts and water sports),
crowds at entertainment venues,
prices of housing,
Unemployment,
crowded health care centers,
overcrowded restaurants with poor service or food,
rising sea water reducing building lots,
out of control insurance rates, home and auto,
increase in crime.

Have been in Florida for over 40 years and same things you mentioned were here 40 years ago. The only thing that did change is we now have the mentality of a deep south state with the latest migration of people.

The future of Florida will hinge on the foresight of our elected servants. As long as they don't give away the store trying to out-virtue one another, things should be fine.

Do you have tomorrow's topic picked out yet?

Will split into two states, the new one is the State of the Villages

I was born and raised in Jacksonville and lived here most of my life. I would say the most dramatic changes in my life time have occurred from Orlando and north due to growth. Orlando used to be nothing before Disney and all the other amusement park companies moved in. South Florida has always been a “pit” in my opinion (and my wife was born and raised in Miami). Florida will remain a destination for retirees and tourists as long as the COL remains affordable compared to where they came from.

All the other “issues” you list have been here forever. None of us have a crystal ball to say what is going to happen so we might as well enjoy this beautiful place that we live in and enjoy the time we have left on this earth.

:1rotfl:

OP should specify it is mostly the Villages area not all of Florida. Specifically most of Florida doesn’t have sports pools, golf cart or entertainment Venus

Do you really believe what you just stated?

Homeowners and automobile insurance will make Florida unaffordable.
 

Homeowners and automobile insurance will make Florida unaffordable, unless your income is over $400,000 a year, then you should be OK.
Many homeowners associations and condominium associations are receiving double and triple their previous premiums. And by law even if your unit has no mortgage on it, you still need to pay your condominium/HOA
insurance premiums. This is going to change Florida's affordability index by "a lot ".

Most, if not all, of these issues affect the entire country. Crime, even major ones, now go unpunished/under punished … crime goes up and gets more violent … outcome as expected. The government pays more to stay home than to work .. many stay home .. expected…. More people than ever fleeing to Florida to avoid high taxes, crime, woke politics, inclement weather, etc … while it is sometimes frustrating locally it is better than the overwhelming number of alternatives … aka .. NY, NJ, Chicago, California, Portland, Minneapolis, …. I could name quite a few more …

I'd agree with your list and add worsening weather/storms. But not in TV, please?!.....

And that is a huge problem.

just buy on the FL/GA line it will be ocean front property sooner or later

Full disclosure - I turned 60 a few months ago.

Around 1990 or so, when I thought of retirement, I thought of Florida. As a child in the 60s, I lived in Miami Beach for a while. I'd been back to Florida a few times and liked it. I'd look at a map and found what I thought was the perfect combination of what I was looking for when it came to location. Claremont FL.

In 1991, I found my birth parents (I was adopted) and it turned out my father lived in Florida. I went for a visit to Inverness and noticed that I could take a route through Claremont to get there from where I was (on a leisure trip for a convention). I liked what I saw and I kinda stored that away for future reference..

Set the wayback machine something over 15 years later. Again, I'm heading to Inverness. Again, coming from the Orlando area (I live in NH) I decide to go through Claremont.

It was... Depressing. All the orange groves were gone. Strip malls, parking lots and cookie cutter developments blanketed the area. I literally felt the little dream I had evaporate in my head as I drove through.

So, I have no idea where I'm going to retire to... And I'm running out of time to decide...