Great numbers of northerners are moving south, many of them boaters. Most are heading for Florida. Why Florida? Almost every family has a relative already living there. For the retiree, Florida offers not only low real estate taxes, but also has no state tax. For working age people, there are jobs available. The pandemic brought us working at home and taught people they could live anywhere they wanted.
Year-round good weather appeals to everyone, especially boaters. Affordable real estate makes it possible to have more house and property. No state tax leaves a balance in the checkbook, a way to make boat payments. So many northerners sold their houses, packed up their belongings in pods and drove to Florida they had to find short-term housing for themselves until these movers became Florida home owners. Today you can find short-term condo rentals geared to those who are looking at houses and those who are waiting for their closings. Once the boater starts using his boat in Florida, he realizes he can get fuel for the boat that is ethanol free. With miles and miles of beautiful beaches, clean, clear water and fish waiting to be caught, surely the disadvantages could never outweigh the plusses, or could they?
Tropical weather includes tropical storms. Florida is a narrow enough peninsula that either an ocean or a gulf storm will affect most of the state. Thunderstorms are very common in Florida and they affect the timing of boat trips. Most thunderstorms start up around mid-afternoon and people do try to get in before they make up.
What most people don’t think about, even retirees who should be more aware of their health, is the low quality of Florida’s healthcare system. Unless you live in a highly populated area, your chances of finding the kind of medical help you need are not too good. Rural areas are shy of medical professionals.
One of the biggest drawbacks to living in Florida is the high crime rate. If you plan to move there, best find out what the local crime rate is in the neighborhood where you plan to live.
Two Long Island boating families that moved to Florida, one family twenty years ago to the mid-east coast of Florida, waterfront area and the recent movers have gone to a more rural area, Mims, not far from the space center. Both families had boats they sold before moving. Twenty years ago, Stan and his wife sold their old Chris Craft cabin cruiser and after they moved, bought a new outboard Boston Whaler runabout. Their married children were more interested in a day’s fishing than sleeping on the boat at the beach.
It wasn’t long before Steve and his wife no longer had the new boat. While they were home, in the afternoon, thieves came to their driveway and the neighbor’s driveway, taking their Sea Ray. Both boats were on trailers. The loss was only discovered that evening when they took the dog out and noticed the driveway was empty. This so unnerved Stan and his wife that they sold their house and moved further south to a gated community where a friend lived and had had no problems for the ten years he lived there.
According to BoatUS, Florida is the big winner, the top of the heap of boat thefts. If you move to Florida, you should know that the most commonly stolen boats are less than 26 feet long. Personal watercraft make up about 25% of the boats stolen. Most of the stolen boats are runabouts with outboards that are very often on their trailers. When you leave your boat in the driveway on a trailer you provide the thief with the wheels he needs for a fast getaway. Almost half of Florida’s boat thefts are in the Miami-Dade area, the epicenter of boat theft, followed by Broward and Palm Beach Counties.
It does not help Florida boaters that their state borders Georgia, where no boat title is required. The top ten outboards and sterndrives stolen are Sea Ray, Bayliner, Wellcraft, Boston Whaler, Sea Fox, Tracker, Mako, Contender, Pro-Line and Chaparral. A Forbes report noted the Yamaha Jet Skis are most likely to be the thieves’ choice. BoatUS has advice online on how to prevent your boat from being stolen at BoatUs.com/expertadvice.com. To minimize the headaches of boat theft it helps to store your boat at a secure marina, document everything on the boat, always keep the keys with you and don’t leave anything valuable on the boat. The good news about boating in Florida – if you took a course and got a New York or New Jersey license to operate a boat, it’s valid in Florida.
Stan and his wife still keep their boat in their driveway on a trailer but have taken a few precautions – they lock the trailer wheels and keep some of their equipment in the house – less convenient but safer.
The recent movers from Long Island were interested in waterfront but heard how hard it was to insure waterfront houses and how little property came with the house. They settled in Mims, not far from Titusville and the space station – would the government have located there if it was in a bad weather area – they thought not. Their acre and a third provide room for a good size house, garage, place to grow things and storage buildings and still gives them room to sell off part of the property as another building plot if they want to. They are within half a mile of black bear country but have not seen one yet although there have been sightings several blocks away. Florida has 263 species of animals – only three states have more. Last week a full-size panther appeared at the back door of a home in Naples, Florida. The warm climate must be what brings the animals to the wooded areas nearby and the garbage humans put out brings the animals closer.
A little further south, closer to Daytona, New Smyrna Beach is the beach with the greatest number of unprovoked shark attacks. Volusia County had 337 shark attacks in one year and New Smyrna Beach had 32.
Boaters new to the area need to find out about Haulover Inlet, located close to Miami between the Intracoastal and the Atlantic Ocean. It is considered the most dangerous inlet in Florida.
Things you take for granted – driving up to a body of water in a new area and launching your kayak or paddleboard without giving a thought to possible hazards – you would want to give a second thought to in Florida. You might be looking at a snake or alligator infested area and it’s a good idea to ask locals first before trying a new place to kayak or paddleboard.
If you read the comments to the article online about the Pros and Cons of Living in Florida, you find people, even northerners who have lived in Florida for 10 or 20 years, feel the increasing number of traffic deaths and hit and run accidents are a problem new residents are bringing with them, bad driving and bad attitudes, speaking about aggressive and reckless driving, lawlessness and hit and runs becoming the norm.
Homeowner insurance is a problem in Florida, not so much because of hurricane damage but insurance companies are leaving Florida because of unfriendly court decisions that make it difficult to stay in business. The companies that have remained in Florida canceled some of their customers, jacked up the premiums for others and made getting homeowner insurance difficult and expensive.
As a boater, before you decide to move to Florida you need to ask:
• How hard has the area you like been hit by hurricanes?
• How important is good healthcare to you and your family?
• What is the crime rate in the area you plan to live in?
• How do you plan to protect your boat from theft?
• Would the appearance of a bear or panther at your door scare you?
• Would sharks in the water send you back to the pool and home?
• Would checking for alligators or snakes take the fun out of kayaking?
• If you had trouble insuring your house would that bother you?