We are thinking of selling our home in SF and moving somewhere cheaper...need suggestions for

[csziggy]

167. Straightline about 35 miles from our house to St. Marks

But if you want good beaches, we're about 60 miles from Alligator Point. Not a lot different than where I grew up in the middle of Florida and it was 60-90 miles to each coast. Since I don't want waterfront property ever, that is close enough for me. I am northeast of Tallahassee, only about fifteen miles from the Georgia line - there are nice places further south than I am.

While this puts us far enough inland that theoretically hurricane force winds don't do as much damage, because this county loves our trees there is generally a good amount of damage from trees taking down power lines or damaging roofs.

Last fall Hurricane Hermine gave us five days without power (some friends lent me a generator and kept me in comfort) and some areas are still cleaning up trees - though some of the cleanup is from two separate storms that came through over the winter. The thing is that since I moved to Tallahassee in 1972 we've only had three, maybe four hurricanes and about half dozen tropical storms come through. Only twice have we been without power for more than twelve hours.

What I like is living in the Red Hills part of Florida - that ranges from Madison County to Jackson County just south of the Georgia border. The soil is pretty solidly red clay with limestone underneath and there are a lot of hills over 200 feet above sea level. We have a red clay ridge that drops from 206 feet to our wetland woods at around 150 feet. We get nice hardwoods and a scattering of pines. And none of that sandy former beach sand stuff that there is south of Tallahassee.

If you do want beachfront property, anywhere west of Alligator Point is a good bet - but every single one of those coastal counties are very red. My husband grew up in Panama City and was happy to get out - he still has family there and the Democratic forces are fighting hard.