Where to live in FL?

[bucktales]

Hey Fellow Anglers: My problem, I like both coasts!!!!

I currently live in MD and my wife and I have been talking about relocating to FL in about 1 year. I have family in Ft. Myers and Melbourne. My best freind lives in Port St. Lucie... I would like to hear some feedback from you Floridians on where you would live if you were moving to FL next year. I want to consider 3 things :

Cost of Living/housing

Quality of schools..I have 3 boys ranging from 10-3 yrs old.

Quality of fishing...inshore and distance to decent offshore fishing.

Once I gather enough info to narrow down to several choices, I will be making a few trips to explore. I want to hear from people who live there and get there take. Thanks guys

[krisis7]

I live in Port St Lucie, but I once lived in Jupiter and would move back there in a heartbeat if I could. I also have 2 youngins, 9 and 12. The West coast IMO is hotter and you have to go too far out to do any decent offshore fishing. Everyone I know over there come accross to fish the east coast. Stuart and Port St. Lucie is a buyers market right now, but the economy sucks. You may have to drive to West Palm for a decent job. I am lucky as I have the entire state as a territory...

[Deep C]

I live here and if I could get the wife to leave I would. Outrageous property taxes make us number one in the nation. We get the number one ranking when it comes to home owners insurance too. The wages in our state are among the lowest in the country and the education system ranks either 48 or 49... Drugs and crime are far worse than even the worst of cities in the north.
Melbourne area has good inshore fishing but to get deep you need forty or more miles. Pt. St lucie has fair inshore fishing and 6-12 miles will get you at least in dolphin and sail country. West coast has good inshore fishing but you can't get to the blue water from there without serious extra fuel (100 miles).
Yeah its nice and warm in the winter, here in Palm Beach I'm a mile from blue water but the drawbacks are there as outlined above. Summer is 93 by day and high 80's by night and count on being blasted by thunderstorms every day starting just after noon.

[POON MAN]

Deep if you could move , were would you chose ?

[Double D]

I sent my buddy to Sebastian a few years ago, he loves it. Good inshore and river fishing, and the offshore is a cakewalk by Jersey standards

[Fritz]

Martin County. Decent school system. Great fishing. Nice people. More like old Fl.

[Deep C]

I'm not sure where I'd move... Just so many issues...

Did I just see good school system for Martin???
Palm Beach County has a 20% functional illiteracy rate for graduating seniors. Martin is close to 27%... That to me is mind boggling how they can push through over a quarter of the kids who attend these systems and graduate them when they can't even read and write...
There is a silver lining to the school systems here though in what they call magnet programs for gifted kids. These are really very good programs almost on par woth private education. If your children excell at anything in particular there may be a program you can get them into. If you can then they'll be ok. The general system though is an utter failure.
PSL area is quiet and quaint for much of it but it has some areas you just don't want to go day or night. Down here there are several subcultures that take some adjusting. Martin and St. Lucie counties sport heavy hispanic, african communities. The anglo community is divided as is the case with several areas of the country. Quite heavy on what could be best termed as "redneck" with a good sized chunk of retired mixed in. Hyper wealthy in one neighborhood may but up against impoverished traileresque in another.
Melbourne area seems to be a smoother mix of all kinds. Up that way some of the money from the space program trickles into the local economy stabilizing things.
The west coast has much of the PSL characteristics but with a far heavier retiree population. Not trying to disparage the elderly but fixed incomes in tight surroundings sets the pace for a very slow economy...

[POON MAN]

Interesting statisics deep

Not to drift from the original question of B Tale

It is amazing that in the middle of the winter they all look so good from up North and as soon as the spring rolls around how quickly i forget

One of these day's we will have a place in the south for the winter anyways

not sure i could hack the summer

I hear the Bahammas get's alot of florida traffic in the summer ? is it cooler over there

[Fritz]

I'm not sure where I'd move... Just so many issues...

Did I just see good school system for Martin???
Palm Beach County has a 20% functional illiteracy rate for graduating seniors. Martin is close to 27%... That to me is mind boggling how they can push through over a quarter of the kids who attend these systems and graduate them when they can't even read and write...
There is a silver lining to the school systems here though in what they call magnet programs for gifted kids. These are really very good programs almost on par woth private education. If your children excell at anything in particular there may be a program you can get them into. If you can then they'll be ok. The general system though is an utter failure.
PSL area is quiet and quaint for much of it but it has some areas you just don't want to go day or night. Down here there are several subcultures that take some adjusting. Martin and St. Lucie counties sport heavy hispanic, african communities. The anglo community is divided as is the case with several areas of the country. Quite heavy on what could be best termed as "redneck" with a good sized chunk of retired mixed in. Hyper wealthy in one neighborhood may but up against impoverished traileresque in another.
Melbourne area seems to be a smoother mix of all kinds. Up that way some of the money from the space program trickles into the local economy stabilizing things.
The west coast has much of the PSL characteristics but with a far heavier retiree population. Not trying to disparage the elderly but fixed incomes in tight surroundings sets the pace for a very slow economy...

I won't respond to your comments about race. Also, 27% functiional literacy? Here is a sample for just Grade 3 in Martin County

Scale: % scoring at or above grade level

Reading:
77% (2007)
83% (2006)
80% (2005)
78% (2004)
The state average for Reading was 69% in 2007.

Nearly 80% of Martin County students score at or higher than grade level in reading. By my understanding, Martin County has the best schools in the state, but I agree that ain't saying much because it is Florida.

I am sorry, PSL quiet & quaint? You can have PSL. Are you sure you don't have Stuart and PSL confused. PSL has a demographic that I would not call quiet and quaint. PSL has way to much crime and low life. Stuart, Jensen Beach, Palm City, Hutchinson Island, Hobe Sound are all in Martin County and have some pretty nice midrange to upscale real estate, such as the Manatee Pocket, etc.

Flordia in general can be a weird place. Take for example the Palm Beaches and Riviera Beach.

Anyway, if you really want to the move you have to get the info for yourself. Do some research on the web. Check the crime stats for the area. Check the median income and median home prices, etc. After you have sorted out a few possibilities go and see the places. Me, I love the Stuart area and Palm City has some nice family neigborhoods.

[Deep C]

The grade level you refer to is the one set as a standard for Florida... The grade level if you were to compare it to say Iowa standard wouldn't even make the charts. Yes they're above state average but not close to the top.Actually Palm Beach County by comparison has far more "A and B" schools percentage wise. Again thats based on FCAT scores. The reason for FCAT which is a test made for state students by the state is because students statewide would be hard pressed to pass national standardized tests.
Yes PSL is crime ridden but so is most every town down here. You do have some enclaves of very wealthy as I mentioned before but for the most part not much nice mid range. Low end mid range,,, Yes but not much nice. When my lure business was young I supplimented my income working for Rent A Center as a repo man. I worked West Palm to Riviera mostly but they ran me up to Martin St. Lucie to give them a hand up there. It was a mess. I'm not sure where that demo came from but I was on the road six days a week banging on doors around those counties. I'd say the African and hispanic numbers higher. They weren't my problem people up there though. My hardest cases were the "good ol boys". Regionally that was the predominant class up there...