Retirement decision - East Coast or Gulf?

[sheeper]

motorref, Vero Beach is great and we moved here from the big city (NYC...Manhattan). I too make my living elsewhere and generally spend several days either flying somewhere else or working down in South Florida (Miami and the area). Vero is quiet but sophisticated; small town with great people. And the big plus is that home values are awesome! I live on the barrier island and can walk 1 block to either the intercoastal or the ocean. My favorite local dive site(s) are literally a 2 minute drive. We have a VERY active local dive community with everything from OW to tech and rebreather folks. Our dive club has 160 members, and a bunch of DMs and instructors.
be happy to talk to you about it....even introduce you to a real estate agent or 2 that I know.

come to think about it, the house across is the street is for sale.....

 

[tddfleming]

We moved down here almost two years ago from Central VA (Lake Anna). We also spent some time in Montgomery County MD and outside of Baltimore. We moved to the east coast due to all the diving. We live in the southern point of Boca and love it. We tend to travel south for most our diving into Broward. We do lots of shore diving and some kayak diving in Broward. However, I wanted more of the city life, which it what I missed about leaving the DC area and hated about Lake Anna. We have gone once to the west coast to dive Venice. While I loved looking for fossils and teeth the water was freaking cold (quarry cold) and quarry green. We are about 25 miles from either Ft Lauderdale or WPB airports. Which beats the 1 hour plus into Richmond. Since my husband travels a bit, this was a big deal to us. Also, it was important to us to be close to a YMCA. I love the Y and found that they seem hard to come by down here. The other big thing that I hear folks talk about is living east or west of 95. I myself prefer east of 95 but many seem to think that is not good. While I have no statistics, from my understanding crime us suppose to be worst east of 95 compared to west of 95. I hope someone can correct me if I am wrong. But there is one thing that I will share. I could not be any happier making this move. I have even informed by husband if for some reason he has to transfer, don't count on me to follow The other thing I hear complaints about is the heat in the summer. Love it!!!

One thing for sure, cost of living down here is about the same as the DC metro area, but I think grocery's are more down here and pay is not even close as it was up there. But I am not freezing and I can wear shorts and flip flops year around.

 

[Mike Walsh]

I live in Palm Bay & do most of my diving in Jupiter to West palm . It takes me about 1- 1/2hrs. to get to the charters I use ................ There is more diving on the east coast !!

 

[bvarn1]

The diving is the very good in many places from Jupiter all the way down to Key Largo. Anywhere in that general area would be good for great beaches and excellant diving.

 

[BigJoeBob]

"Go West Young man" Fort Myers and Lee County are working to improve their status as a Dive destination.

Visibility in the gulf is best in Winter and gets progressively worse through the summer.
Most locals still head to Key Largo or the Atlantic coast for their serious diving. But excursions like the USS Mohawk, Dry Tortugas, Bayronto and other wrecks or man made reefs, augmented by the occasional run up to Venice Beach for shark teeth or Ginny Springs for cave diving can keep you well lubricated.

Then by day you have great shelling beach options on Sanibel, Captiva, Cayo Costa, FT Myers, Naples....

For bargain basement deals, post collapse, consider canal homes in Coral Gables or Bonita Springs.
P.S. Great excuse to buy a boat.