Relocating Florida or Southern California?

Unemployment is high in California too. I've heard that the true unemployment (people looking for work as well as those that have given up looking for work) is about twice the published unemployment rate.

If I were in the position where I was going to move to look for employment, I would look to see how much they were paying for your job in each area plus are you going to have to pass a test to get a certificate to be able to work in your field.
I would look to see what housing costs were, taxes on real estate, income and sales taxes and what is taxed.
As an example, in California food is not taxed, but everythng else is taxed at 8% (sales tax) so if you buy a car, figure 8% sales tax. I don't know what Florida charges. California car license fees are horribly high. Gasoline here is abnormally high because of state imposed taxes. Example: gas has a road tax plus a sales (8%) so when the price of gas goes up the state gets more sales tax revenue. So the state has a vested interest in keeping the price of gas high so it can collect more sales tax.

California has a HUGE budget deficit so the govenor and legislature are looking for additional revenue sources (translation: other places to tax to bring in money). I don't know what they are going to do.

One plus is that we have tremendous weather.

Good luck to you and yours.

My husband and I have lived about 10 years in San Diego and about 10 years in Florida. We came to FL from CA, went back to CA, and then settled in Florida. CA is beautiful, but the taxes are getting way out of control, and you can truly see what happens when a state has no money. I always thought I would live in CA until I died, but we decided to get the most out of our buck. Research Orlando as well. Depending on where you want to live, you could end of with a lot of traffic from the tourist. I don't know what the housing or rentals are in Orlando. We settled in the Sarasota area which reminded us of San Diego the most(except in the middle of summer). Housing/rentals are very expensive in CA. In the 2011 market, we sold our CA house, 2800sq ft for $790K. Here in Lakewood Ranch(outside of Sarasota), we bought our 2600sq ft for 300K

Good luck with your choice.

I would check the demographics in the areas you want to live in and check the average age of the people. I think there are more retirees in southern Florida then Orlando. I do live just outside of Orlando and there are people of all ages so it wouldn't hurt to look around.

Here is the local paper for the Orlando area.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Good Luck

Dear R.,

You've gotten good answers so far. I'm not sure why you are focusing on Orlando. Do you have family/friends there? If I were you, I would do some research on job opportunities in different cities. I think there may be more work in nursing homes in some other areas - like Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Daytona / Palm Coast. Maybe areas in the panhandle of FL? Orlando is very, very tourist oriented.

We have no income tax in FL (a major advantage over CA), and most other taxes as well as housing are lower costs than most of CA. The weather as far as humidity is probably very similiar to what you are used to in LA. I would strongly warn you to avoid South Florida. Everything is much more expensive in Miami / Ft. Lauderdale / Palm Beaches. Insurance is out of control - also you would likely have to speak Spanish to get a job. Basically, stay north of Lake Okechobee and you are good.

Cheers,
C.

I live in central Florida, but grew up in southern California. I would think that southern California world have more career options. I'm REALLY over the weather (the heat) in Orlando. If I could get my husband to move back to SC, I'd go tonight!

Unemployment is high in Florida righ tnow also. Plus I've seen in at least one case because the Obama plan gives incentives to hiring RNs they will hire them and put them part time and take days from regular staff.