Florida's Homestead Law also exempts one's primary residence from being taken to pay creditors.

Weather

>> Why would top talent move there?

> Weather

The manufactured perception of weather, really. What folks discover after moving to FL:

    Florida has 6 or 8 seasons and none of them resemble fall, winter or spring.
    The 13th month of summer is the worst.
    In Oct, trees finally succumb to heat stroke and drop their leaves.
    Hurricanes are much better than summer except for a few hours.
    Rainfall doesn't stick around; drought begins when rain stops.
    Drought season varies between 15 min and 15 years.
    Wildfire seasons vary from all day to world class.
    The least-hot months get warmer every decade.¹
    The other months probably are too.
    At night, the dew point can plunge to 85°.
    Sweat is your constant companion but so is sand.
    Schools cleverly time summer break between May (Hell) & Aug (also Hell).

Source: 30yrs of FL survivorship.

¹ https://www.currentresults.com/Yearly-Weather/USA/FL/Tampa/e...

Hurricanes are only going to keep getting worse too.

Absolutely. When I moved here, Cat 5s where once in a generation. I traveled for hurricane relief trips 1 year out of 4.

Now we sport multiple Cat 5 in a month. Every year we have our pick of hurricane relief opportunities, some are minutes away.

It's funny: I lived in a state with similar weather (hotter at the hottest, colder during the winter, but on balance similar humidity and climate generally) but fewer imports from NY/NJ/CA/etc., and we were outside all the time enjoying it. In Florida, everyone spends time inside with the AC set to 64 degrees and complains endlessly about the heat. It's odd to see: a bunch of folks move to "Endless Summer!" and then ... stay inside all the time. I'll happily march around outside on a 100-degree day while my NY colleagues absolutely refuse to.

As someone who lives in the NYC area it’s always entertaining to me when I go to Florida and see how low they set the AC. Basically every house from before 2010 doesn’t have AC in the NYC area. I’m currently working in an office that’s 85 and it’ll hit mid 90s before the end of the day. Climate acclimation is pretty neat.

I have never been so cold, so very cold to my bones, as when I walk into a Florida Five Guys. I need a fleece just to get a hot dog.

> I have never been so cold, so very cold to my bones, as when I walk into a Florida Five Guys.

Funny. I said the same exact thing when I first moved to FL (except inside everywhere). Now I stay inside most of the time because there is little joy to be had when dew points push 85°F.

I am from the California desert with family in Florida and 100 degree here is almost nothing, back east it is pure misery. As bonus the dry desert air retains heat poorly so it is always cool at night. The humidity there tends to keep it hot all night.

Now having said that, I do note how much they complain how dry it is here, so perhaps it is what you are used to.

It totally is. I'm not saying I ENJOY 100 degrees and 89% humidity. I'm not a monster. But it's ... fine. I can go for a walk and not die, because it's what I grew up with. I'll happily sit on the front porch, sweating profusely, and enjoy a summer night. But people not from here--and, weirdly, a large proportion of people from here who have adopted the AC habits of the imports--treat it like a personal affront, a vigorous assault on their very being.

I'll never forget living in Atlanta and we had a bizarre blast of dry heat, totally out of character for the area. It was 112 degrees or some nonsense. I remember sitting in my car in the Fry's parking lot, getting myself mentally ready for the march to the store. I opened the door and it was actually really pleasant, almost enjoyable, because humidity wasn't there.

> 100 degree [in California] is almost nothing, back east it is pure misery.

Yes. East coast you sweat at night thru Aug. Same for FL except there aren't any months where that never happens.

Florida has endless summers, but they're in winter

You mean increasingly severe hurricanes?

Those seem to hit NYC now too. Not as often, but it's also less prepared for them when they do.

I’ll take a chance of a Hurricane every couple decades vs a single season of snow.

• Hurricane Gabrielle (2001) – Venice, Category 1 • Hurricane Charley (2004) – Punta Gorda, Category 4 • Hurricane Frances (2004) – Hutchinson Island, Category 2 • Hurricane Ivan (2004) – Near Pensacola, Category 3 • Hurricane Jeanne (2004) – Stuart (Hutchinson Island), Category 3 • Hurricane Dennis (2005) – Near Pensacola, Category 3 • Hurricane Katrina (2005) – South Florida, Category 1 • Hurricane Wilma (2005) – Cape Romano, Category 3 • Hurricane Hermine (2016) – Alligator Point, Category 1 • Hurricane Irma (2017) – Cudjoe Key and Marco Island, Category 4 • Hurricane Michael (2018) – Mexico Beach, Category 5 • Hurricane Ian (2022) – Cayo Costa / Fort Myers area, Category 4 • Hurricane Nicole (2022) – Vero Beach, Category 1 • Hurricane Idalia (2023) – Keaton Beach (Big Bend region), Category 3 • Hurricane Debby (2024) – Steinhatchee, Category 1 • Hurricane Helene (2024) – Aucilla River mouth near Perry, Category 4 • Hurricane Milton (2024) – Siesta Key, Category 3

Only one of those hit the area my family has a vacation home in the past 40 years. There was another big one in the 90s. So 2 times in 50 years and both were not catastrophic.

Florida is only the region directly surrounding your vacation home?

Listing all the hurricanes that hit any part of Florida isn't useful for evaluating the real risk faced by a family with a home in Florida. Most hurricanes that hit Florida won't effect most of the homes in Florida. If you just look at the raw number of hurricanes you might think the average Floridian home can't last more than two years without being flattened, but that's not reality.

Not sure what you mean. The GP listed out a bunch of hurricanes since 2000. Only one of those hit the panhandle in a way that was slightly impactful to my families vacation home(s). 2 storms in 50 years isnt enough to say I wouldn’t live there because of storms.

Insurance costs might scare me away more than the chance of a storm.

Personally I'd take 10 feet of snow year round over a single week of Florida's muggy heat. I get that old people like it because they're always cold, but why anybody young lives anywhere in Florida, besides maybe Miami, is completely beyond my comprehension.

> I get that old people like it because they're always cold, but why anybody young lives anywhere in Florida, besides maybe Miami, is completely beyond my comprehension.

To get jobs tending to those (often well-off) old people. It's not for nothing that Florida is a top destination for pharmacy grads.

You'll actually be taking your chance with a couple of major hurricanes every year.

Win some lose some.

But the weather is ass.

I live in Texas, and I often hear about people moving here for the weather. And I can't help but think... why? I've been to NYC, the weather is better.

Yes, the cold is inconvenient. But the heat is debilitating. I can wear a coat and boots and go outside in the north, but you can't do jack shit about the heat. I mean, we get 6 months of summer in Texas. You can't do anything.

Forget physical activities like golfing or jogging, even going to the grocery store practically saps all your will to live right out of your body.

Lol... Florida has some of the worse weather in the US. The winters can be nice but it has incredibly hot/humid summers. Miserable. It's why all the snow birds leave early spring and come back in the winter. I'd take a winter in North Dakota vs a summer in Florida any day.

Taxes

Offset by exceptionally high fees, insurance rates, etc. The taxes argument is generally a benefit only for the owners (which may well have been your point).

7 figure comps are pretty common, compared to NYC rates that’s a real difference.

But the admins, marketing team, junior employees, etc. get screwed, and the worst part is they are genuinely not expecting it. "I thought it was going to be cheaper to live here than NYC" is something I hear _weekly_.

Absolutely. But the mgmt does not really care about them, they can just hire locals. They only care about “top talent”, something they talk about all the time…

They can hire locals ... until they find out that the talent they genuinely need isn't here in the numbers they require, either driving up their costs or requiring importing people. But they're drooling about replacing all of those troublesome nobodies--their perspective--with AI ASAP anyway.