I have a question, Floridians -- Spouse and i are thinking of buying a house in Florida

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98. I just moved to Florida a little over a year ago, from Western PA

I am in Orlando, and really like it a lot. The climate is awesome - we only got about a week of cold weather last year, maybe a couple of days near freezing. There are no real seasons, at least not compared to what you would get in Chicago. I joke that the seasons here are Warm, Hot, and Really $%^&-ing Hot. The summer is VERY hot and humid in July and August, but pool homes are cheap and the Atlantic beaches are less than an hour away. It was 82 on Christmas Eve here, and all our friends back up north had ice and snow on the ground - can't beat that!

Another thing I like about Central FL (and FL in general) is the overabundance of stuff to do. Lots of tourist activities, wildlife viewing, and so forth. It's a fun place to live. As far as coastal living, if I were able to live on the coast (job gets in the way), I would definitely pick the Gulf (west) coast - beaches are much better, slow pace of life, very pretty and less developed. My dream is to retire to Sanibel Island, actually. If you want to live on the Atlantic, someone else up-thread recommended the Space Coast - we have spent a lot of time at the beaches there because it is only 45 minutes away, and it is nice, not too overdeveloped or touristy. I think you could get a decent but small house within walking distance to the beach on Cape Canaveral or Cocoa for less than $300K. If I could get my work to allow me to telecommute a few days a week, I would consider moving out there myself. I don't have that much experience with the Atlantic coast in general though - someone else might be able to recommend an East Coast community that might be better than Canaveral/Cocoa.

Politically, Orlando seems moderate to me. I have met some liberals, and there do seem to be conservatives as well, although I think the bulk of the conservatives live out in the rural counties. Also, Florida seems to get more liberal the further south you go. I would NOT live on the Panhandle - they call it the "redneck riviera" for a reason. Also the state and local politicians here are WAY more nut-jobby than the general population - total tea-bagger lunatics of the highest order. I can't figure out how they get elected, actually. Maybe all the people in the Panhandle vote, and nobody from Orlando southward votes or something. The legislators here are seriously wacked in the head, it's bad. I've never lived anywhere where the politicians were so horrendously awful, and I used to live in Colorado Springs, home of the neocon megachurches. We need more northern progressives to come down and vote in the state elections!

Overall, though, I give Florida two thumbs up - if you're looking for a change of climate, you'll probably be happy here!