I have been looking to get out of Washington State for years now. I am a chef, and I was looking at homes for sale around the Lake City area of Florida. Can anybody tell me about this area and if they think I should or should not move there. I also need to talk my wife into this. She is a little apprehensive on any place I have looked at and I was wondering if this would be a good place to move to. Any advice or help would be appreciated.
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So, 
Florida bound for your next destination 
beats Lordsburg, NM!!! Hope someone chimes in from Florida that knows the area. Floridaās nice for the trips Iāve been at, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater(beach at the gulf of America), Dearfield Beach, Frt. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, but looks like Lake City shouldnāt be too bad. As long as the housing market isnāt too bad, Iām sure youāll be ok out there. Lots to do out there. 
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Housing is looking pretty good. Location seems good. 2A looks good there!
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You need to be there. Get the VIBE (That in my opinion will tell you everything you need to know) When I first moved to New Mexico I didnāt like it, (āDon! Itās another frigginā Desert! cāmon man!ā 
) still recovering from that nasty bit of business in Africa. But when we drove around the WESTSIDE of Albuquerque (HOME in my heart) , Experienced the āTraffic Jamsā ( a couple of cars gawking @ the Taos Gorge Bridge) and surrounding views I knew this was where I wanted to pitch my tent.
It aināt NIRVANA, but where is perfection except Heaven?
Good Luck in your Journey Bruh
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Iāll definitely second the āhave to see it liveā sentiment. When I got retired Joes first day as potus, the wife and I headed to TN after having our CT home for sale and quickly under contract. We drove, looked at quite a few places, ended up canceling our sale, as in person, nothing was right. We eventually decided on WV, and it took 8 week long trips over two years before finding what worked for us. Nothing like looking at a place on Zillow, saying āthatās the oneā and finding out itās either on the side of a cliff or 17 miles down a dirt road. I learned to look for stripes on nearby roads in the satellite views, and when my cell phone perked up while being on a paved road, I knew I had found my version of āalmost heaven.ā Now, looking for a getaway spot, I use Landsearch.com to get a good topographic idea of the area, and make a drive in the 4x4 to check on it before making any appointments. āNo country for old menā is my theme quite often, looking around here, but this land keeps me fit.
I still chuckle about TN, getting told that the mildew smelling rotted house we were looking at had just been sold to a Californian for $125k over list, by telephoneā¦.
Editā¦just looked up Lake City on Zillow. We never visited, but had Mayo/White Oak on our list of places to move to for quite awhile before deciding it was too far and too flat (for now) for us, but both areas seemed to have good people judging by what we saw on youtube. I may still take a trip down in the RV to check it out.
Another thing I did was use social media (reddit) to find out some local information, main one being āwhere can I shoot? lol. When the answers included ābring a pizza box and cāmon overā and āthereās a free range at the park a town overāā¦well, I was happy.
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Lake city is nice the area is nice the only thing is jobs you may have to travel a bit to find a good one. Country area Country Folk.
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Itās a hurricane magnetā¦Colorado may be a better option
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Colorado, I might as well stay where I am at!
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Alabama?
Florida is fullā¦believe me as soon as I can get outta here Iām going
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It depends where in Florida you are at on how full it is hurricanes you can prep for and be fine.
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Iāve lived in and traveled all over Florida for business for about 20 years now. Other than the panhandle, thereās no part of Florida I havenāt spent some significant time in, and, personally, my favorite areas of Florida are North Florida, and in particular, Central North Florida. Now, Iām a country redneck at heart and like open space, with land thatās not flat, and with trees, so thatās why it appeals to me.
Florida is a very long state that goes from feeling pretty āsouthernā in the north, geographically and culturally (Florida is the only state where you have to go north to get to the South) to modern, international coastal cities (Tampa, Miami) to tropical paradise (South West Florida and the Keys) with the worldās largest family vacation resort stuffed into the center. Lake City and the rural areas around there have a pretty laid back old Southern feel to them, separate from the big metro areas.
Good things about the Lake City area (as Iāve evaluated it as the next possible place to live in FL)- it hasnāt had the explosive growth that so much of the state has. One good thing about Florida growth is that itās largely contained to the big cities. Tampa Bay metro area (including Sarasota), Naples/Fort Myers, Orlando and Jacksonville (I think SE Florida too, but I donāt spend much time there lately), even smaller cities like Ocala and Lakeland, have exploded into huge metropolitan sprawls. The small north Florida towns like Lake City, Palatka, and even Gainesville have been largely spared. Another good thing about Lake City, if it matters to you (which I suspect it does), is that itās surrounded by national forest and wildlife areas. While the cities in Florida seem huge, there are still long tracts of land that are very wild, and the wild land in North Florida is very beautiful. While South Florida wilderness tends to be flat, barren scrub palmetto and marsh (as you get into the Everglades), North Florida is miles of forest on rolling land. Logging is a huge business there, on managed forests.
Some possible drawbacks of Lake City- for a high end chef, you might not find the kinds of restaurants youāre used to, unless you commute to Jacksonville or Gainesville (Gainesville, for a small town, is a classic beautiful little college town with some people with money for good eating). A similar drawback, and one that may or may not matter, is advanced medical care if you need it. Youāre about an hour from Shands at UF in Gainesville, and about an hour twenty to Mayo in Jacksonville. Either can give you the best of anything you need, but the distance is a consideration as we get older.
In terms of āsurvivabilityā I look very carefully at this stuff. Inland North Florida is very safe. Youāre far enough inland to avoid real hurricane risk, high enough to avoid flooding, rolling enough to not get major tornados (FL gets a lot of them), no blizzards, or ice storms, or even wildfires to speak of. As Iāve looked at possible retirement locations up and down the East Coast, Iāve pretty much determined that area of Florida is about as safe as you can get. You can find any number of houses on well water, set up a good generator and fuel supply, and be all set to weather most anything for a while.
Definitely plan a trip over if youāre serious, and spend some time around North Florida and see what you think. You might really like it.
edit to addā¦ If any liberals, gun grabbers, nanny state politicians or people like that are reading this, everything I said above is a lie. Florida sucks. We have alligators that will eat you, cockroaches that will carry your dinner plate away, snakes that will bite your foot and cause it to die and fall off, and we cooperate with ICE and put illegals in Alligator Alcatraz. Donāt come. Youāll hate it here, and, weāre full. Stay home.
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You pretty much covered it very well enjoyed the edit the most. The panhandle was the last area I lived in before moving to Texas. I lived northwest of Pensacola on the FL. AL. line good country redneck area also my favorite area and I lived in south and central before the panhandle.Only left due to job.
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