How to Evaluate Retirement in Florida vs. New Jersey
At StrawBerry Ridge near Tampa, we have a number of residents who made the big decision to retire to Florida instead of staying put in their home state of New Jersey. Both Florida and New Jersey have a lot to offer retirees, including many miles of beautiful beaches where sun-bathing, shell-hunting, and bird-watching opportunities abound. Both states offer casinos and other attractions that make fantastic group trip opportunities, which can help older adults build lasting friendships.
But Florida has long reigned as one of the top retiree destinations in the world, and there are some obvious reasons why. If you’re trying to decide the merits of retirement in Florida vs. New Jersey, here are some things to consider:
Cost of Living
Florida easily outshines the Garden State when it comes to offering retirees a lower cost of living, with just about everything, from groceries to utilities to housing expenses, costing less in Florida.
Fewer Taxes
Unlike New Jersey, Florida does not collect a state tax on income.
Climate
This is one of those areas where personal preference comes in. Although Florida has its own rhythms when it comes to spring, summer, fall, and winter, the differences in temperature are not nearly as pronounced as in New Jersey, and many retirees who move to Florida from the North say they miss the fall colors. However, there’s a reason why Florida has been dubbed the Sunshine State – rarely does weather interfere with outdoor activities like fishing, boating, golfing, sightseeing, and more.
At StrawBerry Ridge, we take pride in making an active Florida lifestyle affordable and pleasant for our residents from New Jersey and many other states. We offer an abundance of resort-style amenities for our residents to enjoy, including an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, a woodworking shop, and two spacious clubhouses. We also help our residents stretch their retirement savings to the max by offering safe, comfortable manufactured housing for sale in a beautiful gated setting. If you’re trying to evaluate the merits of retirement in Florida vs. New Jersey, we’ll be happy to provide you with a firsthand look. Contact us today to schedule a tour of StrawBerry Ridge the next time you’re in the Tampa area.
Finding friends after retirement is one of the top challenges for older adults, experts say, explaining that the time-honored ways of meeting new people through work, church, and other social networks often disappear for retirees. This can be a dangerous trend, as loneliness and social isolation have been linked to adverse physical and mental health effects in older adults.
StrawBerry Ridge is a lovely, gated retirement community of high-caliber manufactured homes located on the outskirts of Tampa, FL. Many visitors choose to move here after seeing our amenities, including indoor and outdoor swimming pools and two spacious clubhouses, which provide space for a fully equipped woodworking shop and a ceramics studio, among other meeting spaces.
For some older adults, one of the downsides of retiring to Florida is leaving behind the well-equipped woodworking shop they may have built and stocked with tools over the years. In fact, for many of these craftsmen, spending more time creating furniture or knickknacks by hand is part of the allure of retirement. Fortunately, there’s a terrific Central Florida community for active adults 55 and older that has a spacious, fully equipped woodworking shop available for residents’ use. It’s StrawBerry Ridge, located just outside of Tampa, FL. Whether you’re an avid wood crafter already or you’ve been thinking about taking up woodworking in retirement, you owe it to yourself to see the facilities at this beautiful community.
If you’re one of the many active older adults scouting for a place to call home in retirement, you’ll definitely want to consider relocating to a community that caters to residents age 55 and up. These communities typically offer amenities like a clubhouse, swimming pool, and fitness center, which provide a convenient way for mature adults to stay physically fit and socially engaged with their neighbors.
Florida has a well-deserved reputation as America’s playground, where people of all ages can find plenty of fun activities at pretty much any time of year. If you’re like many people who retire to Florida from Illinois, you’re naturally eager to leave the blizzards and frigid temperatures of winter behind. But you’re also looking for more than that, including lots of opportunities to play hard now that your years of working hard are over.
Relocating to Florida for retirement has become almost a tradition for many people from Indiana and other Snowbelt states, but that doesn’t mean choosing a 55+ community to call home will be easy. The exact location of your new home will undoubtedly be important to you, as will the home itself and the resort-style amenities you’ll be able to enjoy as a community resident. In other words, what will you get for your investment?
If you live in South Florida and you’re thinking about retiring to an active 55+ community, you probably don’t want to cut back on the leisure activities you enjoy most – in fact, you probably want to spend more time doing them. What’s more, you’re not used to worrying much about winter weather when you make your plans, which means you’d probably like to relocate to a retirement community in the Sunshine State. But, with the increase in real estate prices, you may be concerned that you won’t be able to afford the active Florida lifestyle you’ve been counting on enjoying during retirement.
One thing that StrawBerry Ridge has in common with the state of Ohio is the friendliness of its residents. If you review our website testimonials, you’ll see that more than anything else, our residents say the friendly attitude and camaraderie they enjoy at StrawBerry Ridge make it one of the best places to retire in Florida.
It’s not unusual for people from Illinois to start checking out retirement communities in the Tampa area when they’re ready to shuck their fulltime jobs in favor of an active lifestyle for adults 55 and older. Many of today’s retirees are not ready to slow down – they just want to devote their energies to something besides work. And Tampa – recently named by WalletHub as one of the best cities to retire to – offers the perfect playground for older adults who want to enjoy all the best things about retirement living.
