Also known as:

"But if its so great there Tommy, why didn't _you_ move there yourself?"


Forwarded to me last week by a friend; they'd found it online
(apparently the Bogleheads.org investment website discussion group.
My comments interspersed:


"Re: Is it worth moving to Florida for tax purposes"

(because cost was the only thing Tommy cared about)

[quote]
We moved to FL from NJ about 3 years ago. Relocation related to work,
not necessarily driven by state income tax.

The cost of living has dramatically increased like other posts have
mentioned. Housing costs where we live in south FL are high and went up
a lot during Covid. Schools are not great, so we end up sending kids to
private school (basically negating the state income tax benefit). Total
costs are highly dependent on where in FL you end up moving to and what
stage of life you are at.[/quote]


Post was from 2023, so costs weren't really all that terrible back in
2020. For example, FL P&C Insurance rates (without hurricane coverage)
back in 2019 were roughly ~1% of the total property value (including land)...but today, P&C is now over 2.5%.

This makes P&C costs alone are higher than those "oh so terrible!" NJ
property taxes. Add another 1.1% for FL property taxes, and we're
looking at ~2.9%/year in FL versus ~2.5% in NJ ... roughly 33% higher,
which offsets a hefty $50K worth of NJ income tax (without considering
any other expenses) - or much more, after one adds Hurricane insurance.


[quote]
Winters are amazing. Truly amazing. Summers are incredibly depressing. I
never thought I would struggle this much with never ending heat and
humidity, 24 hrs a day, between May and November. Walking the dog at 5am becomes an absolutely disgusting exercise. Despite the lack of income
tax and the amazing winters, l'd leave in a heart beat. My wife and kids
are much less bothered by the climate so I'll suck it up for now. I
personally wouldn't let the tax tail wag the dog, when it comes to
deciding where to live the golden years of my life.[/quote]

The swarthy summers are precisely what I learned from visiting family
who made FL their home: after a bit of early morning humidity without
the heat yet, one effectively becomes trapped inside to be in the
shelter of A/C. Granted, one can find it cooler on the coast, but then
there's dealing with the crowds and traffic congestion from summer holiday-goers: I can recall riding through a lot of shopping mall
parking lots to avoid traffic jambs on main roads.


[quote]
In retirement, I'd only be open to live here if we could escape during
the summer time and stay somewhere cooler.
[/quote]

Hence, the term 'snowbird', but this incurs higher costs of maintaining
two households instead of one, plus if either is a single family home,
then there's expenses of yardwork maintenance at whichever one you're
not DIY'ing, plus the risks & costs of an unoccupied residence, such as
a burglary, storm damage, or a water leak running for days/weeks without
being detected.

Had a personal example of the middle one of these a few years ago at an
elderly family member's house after they moved into assisted living: a thunderstorm broke a window, causing rain to blow into the house. It
went unnoticed by the "house sitter"; I only caught it because I
happened to check an indoor webcam (perfectly sited by accident) and saw
the blinds flapping around inside. Pragmatically, one isn't likely to
put a webcam overlooking every window & door to detect such intrusions.
Plus we learned that one is often required to notify one's insurance
company if a home isn't continuously being occupied (they'll charge a
higher insurance rate). Bottom line is that running two residences
carries a lot of additional costs - its most easily avoided by simply
not living where one wants to escape from the climate for months at a
time. FWIW, this is why there's also the terms of 'halfback' and
'quarterback' to describe East Coasters who originally retired to FL:
they move halfway back north (NC or VA) or a quarter of the way (SC).


TL;DR: quality of life matters.

-hh

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