I recently became a New Jermany Escapee, moving to Florida. We are so happy we made the move. We just got tired of all the political BS and crap being carried out by Trenton. Were also tired of the taxes. We initially rented a house (for four months) and just moved into our home last week. While there are many parts of Florida that are cheaper than where we wanted to be, many costs are comparable or even higher than in NJ. Our home is off a large lake in a gated community in Northern St Johns County which is the richest of the 67 counties with the best schools in Florida. Our home is over 4,000 SqFt with 5 baths and a nice inground pool - so factor that in when you consider costs. Our homeowners insurance is about double what it was in NJ, it is high in FL because of hurricane risk. Our property taxes are about 45% of what they were in NJ, but when you factor in HOA and CDD fees they approach 60% of what they had been. The zero income tax is very nice - make that extremely nice. Food prices, especially fruits and veggies are much higher than NJ. We went into shock when we first got here and found that things like peppers, tomatoes and other veggies were priced the same as NJ for the "each" versus the price per "pound" in NJ. We kept going to stores and refused to make the purchases, and instead bought lots of wine which is cheaper
People can't drive here and car insurance is expensive as lots of fender benders. It also drives me crazy that when people want to make left turns they don't pull into the middle of the intersection, rather they sit back at the stop line and when the light turns red rather than complete the turn they just sit there - arg!
People in this area are so nice we cannot believe it. When we are out walking the dogs every person that drives by waves, some even stop to say hello. Our neighbors are amazing. The day after we moved in one came up to my wife and said he saw we had two sedans and if we need to pick up any big stuff feel free to come take his big SUV. Another told me he had a 12' step ladder I could use if I ever needed it to change light bulbs. Turns out I already took him up on that as we have over 40 recessed light fixtures many 14' high and I changed out all the old incandescent bulb with new sealed LED trims.
Guns, well almost everyone has one, or many many more. The guy across the street has over 100, and we live in a very upscale area - no rednecks. Just about everyone has one in the car, and while carry permits are almost automatic you actually do not need one to have a loaded gun in the glove box as long as it is in a holster or case. If you have a permit you can have it just sitting on your lap as you drive. Have to admit strange going to USPSA matches where people shoot 9mm PCC with mags that hold 59 rounds.
NEVER EVER EVER would I live in the Socialist People's Republic of New Jermany again.