Moving to Florida from Oregon
 

Hi all!!! I am planning to move to Florida, next summer. We have 4 high schoolers kids. I would like to move to an area that schools have a great marching band - competitive, schools that offer: health career paths, drawing/arts program and filming/tv production classes. We are moving because extended family lives in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Homestead (Miami).

We will be selling our house in Oregon and moving there. Finding a job or starting a business will not be an issue (I think..). Our professional background is in Supply Chain.

Oregon is a beautiful state to live, we have enjoyed the season changes and is pretty diverse here. People is very friendly and schools are great. Property taxes are pretty high, food is cheap and car insurance are not too expensive. Oregonians love the outdoors and take pride on to preserve Nature.

I need to make sure it will be a good fit for my children. I would like to have advise: the cost of living, etc, schools input will be very appreciated. We don't necessarily have to move close to family, but close enough to drive and visit them one in a while. (Our extended family do not have kids attending school).

Cheers,
bit

Why do you want to move? Oregon sounds pretty great.

Where are your relatives mostly located? This makes a HUGE difference in where you should look since traffic in Florida can make traveling in state pretty grim, especially in winter.

It is hard to know if your employment opportunities are good or bad without more information.

Taxes in Florida are strange. You need to look at what you pay in Oregon (in total) and what you would pay in Florida (in total). I don't think, for example, that Florida has an income tax but they make up for it with very high sales taxes. Property taxes are high but inheritance taxes are 0.

Whatever you do, spend the month of August visiting AND rent before you buy.

Florida is not known for a great school system. My nephew is raising his children outside of Fort Lauderdale in Weston which is a very nice area, but not great schools. His children attend private school and you may have to go that route as well to get what you want in Florida.

The short answer:

Florida has no state income tax or inheritance taxes. Sales tax rates vary by county but are basically 6% with counties adding on (you can Google the county rates) Broward County for example (Fort Lauderdale) is currently 6% but there is a movement afoot to increase it.

Property taxes are really quite simple: it is the source of income for most things (over and above things like local hotel occupancy taxes, etc.) and as a <B>general rule</B> the property tax works like this: figure your annual property tax is going to run approximately 2% of the <B>cost of your real estate</B> IOW, your house costs a million dollars; your property tax per year is going to be about $20,000.

The property tax can be reduced by having a so-called "homestead exemption" and other factors.

Taxes are due on 1 March and the bills are mailed on the 1st of November in the previous year (like next week). You can get up to a 4% reduction if you pay in November, 3% if in December, and so on.

Be aware of the auto insurance rates down here as well as hazard and <B>wind</B> and <B>flood</B> (depending upon where you live) insurance rates.

Utility rates are all over the map depending on which utility services your area; Florida Power and Light is the largest utility but there are others and rates vary.

Also be aware of the weather: not everywhere in Florida is in any way "frost free." In Central (think Orlando) Florida there can be frost in Winter; in North and West Florida is can get COLD.

You need to think about whether or not the "west coast really IS the best coast" and as to schools; here in Fort Lauderdale there are numerous private schools which some people swear by.

Good luck; you have IMO a LOT to consider.

Another VERY important thing about property taxes. Unlike some jurisdictions in which property taxes can remain rather static for years at a time, that <B>does not</B> happen down here.

Why?

Because whenever real estate goes through a sale, the property is automatically re-assessed for tax purposes and what I am paying for my property may not be what <B>you</B> will be paying when you buy it.

Just remember the general 2% rule I mentioned above.

The Tampa Bay area has some of the best public schools in the country.

Have you visited Florida, bivette? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on what you've seen, liked, disliked, etc. What do your relatives say about where they live?

Is there a chance you could visit before next summer, on a scouting trip?

It's impossible to generalize about a state as big as Florida. It's obviously very different from Oregon!

As an Oregon resident for 11 years, I hear you about the schools. Oregon just slipped to 3rd from 4th from the bottom in HS graduation rate.
A couple of the high schools in Bend have good marching bands.
One of the high schools in Bend has a former pro QB as athletic director.
If I had to move to Florida, it would be within 20 miles of the Caribbean coast probably north of Tampa.
In 2009 I moved my dad from Melbourne to central Oregon.
The best advice above is to rent before you buy.
There is a strong military presence in the Tampa area (McDill) which would be good for your supply chain business.

With four kids in high school, why move now? Are you happy with the school in Oregon? You will be hard pressed to find a school in Florida that meets your criteria.

< You will be hard pressed to find a school in Florida that meets your criteria.>
This is not true.

My parents moved states when I was in high school. I HATED it!!! Totally traumatic for the social life of people that age.

Why not wait until your kids are out of the house? Why uproot them now? Doesn't make any sense to me from what you're written.

Not to mention, Oregon is nicer than Florida ;-)

from Suze in Seattle -lol

I am a native Oregonian and when DH and I got married, he got orders to FL. Moving from here to FL was a HUGE culture shock!!!!

As long as you take a look at everything and know what to expect, you will be fine, but we of course had short notice, no choice, etc, but did survive and even enjoyed aspects of it;)

As for as moving with kids, it can be a very good thing. My parents were transferred several times while I was growing up, including in the middle of my high school years. I hated the new area, but the moving served me very well as it helped me become more adaptable. Our kids, growing up in the military lifestyle, have had the same experiences, FWIW.

Move to Seattle! Sounds as if the people up there are much more mature.

http://www.htacademy.org/page This is the only decent high school on the space coast and it is not cheap. I know many that scrimp to send their kids there. Cocoa Beach high school is ok. My God daughters went there. Patrick AFB send their kids there so there is a bit more parental participation. I would think really long and hard about it.

The best <i><b>fit</b></i> for your children would be for them to stay and finish-out high school in the area they've known for a long while.

I can see and sense some people making whimsical moves to places far away (perhaps when enticed to do so, by work), but so far you have presented no sensible <I>reason</I> for uprooting everybody and every thing to make such a drastic alteration of so many lives.

And somebody mentioned that you should first <u>visit Florida in August</u> before you even consider moving there permanently... your anticipated schedule gives you no time for such an important experiment.

Unless there is something more that you've not mentioned, you should certainly <i>rethink</i> and potentially <I>scrap</I> the whole notion.

Thank you for all of your replies.

We moved to Oregon in 2000 due to job relocation. We have visited Florida many times, usually every other year, since like I mentioned in my post we have family in FL. It has been really hard being far away from family and friends. The major reason to move to FL is to be near to the family. We have no family in Oregon, even though our friends here have become family. Kids are "whatever" to move, they are just only asking to have the same or some of the same classes they are taking right now. For example advance math, calculus and chemistry for example. Also a school that offers a filming curriculum will be great, (any advice in a school that offers filming?)
Also even though in Oregon there is not sales tax, the income tax, state taxes and all the taxes that you can imagine are really high and for everything there is a raise in taxes: for schools, zoo etc.

Thank you so much for your input.

Someone wrote: "The best fit for your children would be for them to stay and finish-out high school in the area they've known for a long while."

That's nonsense. Like mms, I grew up in a military family and went to THREE high schools including a new high school for my senior year.

Studies show that children with such backgrounds are more accepting of and better prepared for the future and for a diverse society than kids who spent their whole school lives in a single system.

Anecdotally, I was extremely well-prepared to recognize BS originating from parochialism. When you go to three high schools in three different states, you quickly realize that who is captain of the team or Queen of the Prom isn't very important on a larger scale.

bivette---re: your request for specific school recommendations...I urge you and your kids to look into the Dreyfoos School of the Arts, located in West Palm Beach.

www.awdsoa.org

Northwestmale, you may have triangled my remarks regarding the utter obnoxiousness of your replies on this thread, triangled them like the thin skinned blowhard you are, but they remain obnoxious, for all to see. Meanwhile, useful things I wrote are gone. So now we see what sort of board the new owners of Fodors want. Or they just hired crappy mods. Take your pick!

While you can't know how well a school district will mesh with your kids needs, there are several sites that rank schools. Try this site for a start:

https://www.schooldigger.com/go/FL/districtrank.aspx

Newbe, that was a bit crazy. I am not impressed with the new owners or mods. We still have a ton of spam on here and some very thin skinned people. Triangle away, the numbers and post are so far down here now.

Schools can be a big issue in FL. Friends of ours coming from a quality suburban district here had to move for 2 years for work and had to put their kids in private school to get a quality education and the the classes/resources they were looking for.

I would start looking at school districts to see which have decent ratings for top college admissions as well as some of the special subjects you're looking for.

"I am a native Oregonian and when DH and I got married, he got orders to FL. Moving from here to FL was a HUGE culture shock!!!!"

mms and I have both been through this (we've compared notes on this forum more than once ;-) ). It is indeed a huge culture shock.

You don't say what part of Oregon you're from, but I can tell you that you will not find comparable public schools here in Florida. The lower taxes that people want equal lower quality/nonexistent services. So that's your trade-off.

I repeat, the public schools in Tampa are some of the best in the country. Generalizations like the one above are useless.

NewbE, have you ever lived in Oregon or gone to school there?

The OP may find this useful: School District data from the Florida Dept. of Education http://www.fldoe.org/schools/k-12-pu...-dis-data.stml

emalloy - thanks for the schooldigger site -- very interesting!

Hi Bivette,

Did you move to Florida? How has it been compared to Oregon? I'm in Oregon (born and raised) but looking to move to Florida. Definitely for better weather IMO. I love how beautiful the PNW is, but I prefer more sun and less rain! Anyways, just curious what you ended up doing, where you ended up, etc.

Welcome to Fodors lindseygarcia. We'll never know if Bivette moved or not because she never returned - she hasn't posted since Oct 2016. Instead of tacking on to a 6 year old thread it would be better to start a new thread of your own with your specific questions.

My wife and I have been in Oregon since 2005 (came from PA). A few years ago we could have inherited my fathers place in Melbourne FL. He sold it to have money to live with us in Oregon.
If you want more sunshine (less rain) come over to the "dry side" of Oregon. Bend has over 300 days with at least some sunshine per year. Bend is the second fastest growing city in the US I just heard.
When considering Florida, you must consider how many hurricaines hit it within a 30 year period. Right now there is a big wildfire in the Florida panhandle that is getting into a large area that the trees were killed by Michael.