[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by CPD050

Unfortunately not anymore. Robberies, car jackings, thefts and some shootings. Park Ridge, Norridge, Rosemont have all now been hit with quite a few. The only way to have a chance at lower crime is to move out of Crook County.

We were in DuPage County. Itasca to be exact. I spent three months helping care for my uncle before he went into a nursing home in Itasca. This was in late Summer to early December of 1994.

It probably is a lot different. Family had been in Itasca for a few generations.

[mickey100]

Originally Posted by Eagle06

I am a “Native New Yorker” and wholeheartedly disagree with your assessment of New York and Florida. I am sure you enjoy the “No Income Tax” and “Low Property Taxes” in Florida compared to New York! Sounds like you’re one of those northerners that we like to tell, “Welcome to Florida but please don’t bring your voting mentality with you”! Luckily we still live in a “Free Country” (for the time being), you are “Free” to move back to New York. We wouldn’t want you to live, feeling embarrassed every day !

Sounds like you are pretty snarky when someone has a different opinion than you. How original, "if you don't like it you can leave mentality".. snooze

[mickey100]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Bingo. My parents live in southeastern Florida, so I'd still need to visit the state even if I didn't live in it. But for living in it - if the Villages wasn't here, we would've retired to a different state entirely.

Same here. The Villages, and our friends and activities here, make Florida tolerable.

[mickey100]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

I wouldn't pay income tax even if I lived in New York - since - I'm retired. And yes - we are free to bring our mentality down here to Florida. If you don't like it, you are free to pack up and go to a state where the mentality is not allowed.

Love this! unfortunately, I think that mentality not allowed state is Florida..

[mickey100]

Originally Posted by asianthree

Still own our north homes, love SNOW, fall colors, the multi lakes one can swim, kayak, waterski, and party on the sandbar. Not sure why one would be concerned about the home state of others

Agree.

[justjim]

Proud and not embarrassed of growing up in a small coal mining town in Illinois. I can remember going to the “company store”. We were poor but didn’t know it! Yes, Florida is a good place to retire. Illinois was a good to place to get an education and to work. We have family who settled in Florida in the 60’s and family who have lived all their lives in Illinois. Love them all. I’m not a Southerner or a Northerner, I’m an American. Fore!

[Michael G.]

Originally Posted by MrFlorida

Things change, the state you were born and raised in may not be the same state you retired in. Politics may play a big part, and since you are now retired, you are free to move elsewhere.

Also I might add
Remember that same state you moved out of, spent your whole life there, made a good living there for 50-60-70 years didn't kill you regardless of the weather or high taxes etc. etc.

[Battlebasset]

Born in MO, but college in IL, and after a stint in Germany (Army) moved back to IL, then OH, then NJ for the past 15 years until I came to the Villages.

So really from all over. I knew NJ had a bad reputation when I moved there, but my old boss took over my company's operations, so I took a flyer because I liked him. My salary did increase, as well as my title. But it needed to. Property taxes so high I had a $30,000 tax free subsidy for my 1st three years. State taxes were oppressive as well. And that got us nothing, we paid for trash, and FD was volunteer and constantly asking for donations. I had a septic system even though I was 1/4 mile from the treatment plant. Not enough capacity, and it was going to all the multifamily apartments the state was requiring my township to build in the name of "equity".

Schools were good, but no better than Ohio for half the property tax. When Covid hit, our state was the trifecta of NY, NJ, and PA that wanted to lock everything down, and, of course, sent infected people into nursing homes, resulting in 1,000s of deaths that shouldn't have happened.

We took advantage of the spike in home prices to sell our place (which never reached the price we paid in 2005) to get out and move into our place here.

So why do I dis NJ? Because it is a poorly run mess.

[manaboutown]

Originally Posted by Michael G.

Also I might add
Remember that same state you moved out of, spent you whole life there, made a good living there for 50-60-70 years didn't kill you regardless of the weather or high taxes etc. etc.

The increasing crime in Albuquerque, NM has almost killed two of my employees as well as cost my insurance companies and me many thousands of dollars in property damage and thefts. Also the ever worsening public school system (APS) from which only about 2/3 graduate (not that graduating means they can read, write and do basic math) is a tragedy. Competent repair people are hard to find. Repairs to vehicles, heating systems in homes, roofs, and so on are frequently not done correctly. I had a Mercedes under warranty needing rear wheel bearing replacements. The work was not done correctly at the Mercedes dealer in ABQ. When I got to CA the dealer there had to redo the work, again under warranty, which very rarely is necessary. Had a furnace exhaust duct installed upside down resulting in CO problems, have experienced several auto burglaries in my driveway in a good neighborhood. Some people I know have been carjacked, one couple in their own driveway in a very exclusive neighborhood. The city bus service is now free to so no neighborhood is safe. Criminals get a free ride to and from. Homeless are vanned to intersections all over the city where they beg from medians at stoplights on major streets. The Covid lockdowns were severe and long and many small businesses went under. It feels like a third world country. It is no longer safe anywhere there which is a tragedy as the area is beautiful and the four seasons mild.

[Michael 61]

Still fairly new to Florida - and love it here! There are a few things I miss about my home in Colorado (view of Pike’s Peak from my deck, a good breakfast burrito from a nearby taco truck, day’s drive to Santa Fe, Aspen, Rocky Mt National Park), but there is som much here that I appreciate that I did t have in Colorado (year round warm weather, able to wear shorts most of the year, two hours to either Atlantic or Gulf beaches, close to good, fresh seafood, able to drive to a port to catch a cruise, living is a very clean, safe and beautiful development with people who mostly share my values). At this point in my life, I feel I made the right decision moving to Florida, and I can easily get back to Colorado a few times a year to get my Breakfast Burrito fix 😀.

[Flyers999]

From Philadelphia, lived in New Jersey for 15 years before we moved to TV. Real estate taxes prevented us from retiring in NJ. We couldn't afford a house the size we have here in a good neighborhood there, but we probably would have moved here anyway. Haven't been back in a while so I'm not sure what's going on there. Prefer to think of the great life we have here.

[npwalters]

How often have you heard of a person retiring and then moving "up north". That tells the story.

[DAVES]

Originally Posted by LuvNH

So many of us have found our way to Florida in our retirement years. The majority of us came from "up north", up north is where we made our living, went to school, made lifelong friends, met our spouse, married and bought a home. We then sold up everything and moved to TV in Florida to live out our retirement years.

I see no reason to diss your home state just because you moved here. Yes, northern winters can be brutal, but many of us continue to go back to family for holidays and have a great time.

We seem to forget that if we had been born in Florida sixty plus years ago we would never have had the quality careers we had "up north", we would never have made the money we made, never have had the opportunity to go to great schools or have great health care. Because sixty plus years ago Florida was known as the honeymoon state or for the nearly dead.

So before you start dissing your home state why don't you stop and think about how fortunate you were to be raised in a state with opportunities available to you and then been able to sell up and move to Florida.

I do wonder why post this. My view you can be happy or miserable anywhere. An ex-New Yorker. Truth, I miss the trees changing color in the fall. I miss quality tomatoes.
I miss antiquing. I miss riding my bike down the boardwalk in the snow. I even miss the snow. I don't miss the 6% state tax or the 3% city tax, or the real estate tax roughly double to what I pay here on a far larger home. Oh and I was ten years younger before I moved here. Where did those ten years go?

Some people will complain about anything.

Oh and hot cocoa. I used to take a thermos on my bike going sown the boardwalk in the snow.

[JMintzer]

Originally Posted by mickey100

Love this! unfortunately, I think that mentality not allowed state is Florida..

What? You don't find it "snarky"?

Is that because they agree with you?

[JMintzer]

My primary residence is in Montgomery County, MD...

It used to be one of the best places in the country to live. Low crime, great schools...

But time are a changin'... Crime is on the rise, schools are getting worse, property taxes are set to go up by 10% next year...

It's is now listed as one of the worst places to retire in the US...

Sooo, in another year, 18 months max, we'll be in TV pretty much full time.

We may keep a small condo up here, but in VA, where 2 of my 3 daughters live...

Will I miss it? Probably. I'll miss the easy access to the museums and theaters in DC (but, we've now go downtown less frequently due to the significant rise in crime there), some of our favorite restaurants, but we'll adapt...