What is it like living here in florida?
today's video is about me providing you with my personal opinion of what life is like here
now i've been here for about 11 years i moved from new york city my name is katrin pfitzenreiter i'm
a real estate agent here in sarasota florida and if you're new to my channel this channel
is all about florida information insights and destinations if you haven't subscribed
subscribe and let's get right into this video first of all life can feel like it's a beach
here in florida especially when you live coastal on the east or west coast and that's because
typically when you go on vacation you go to warmer climates maybe you vacation here in
florida a lot of times so perhaps you've gone to other places that are very similar to florida when
it comes to the climate the palm trees and then of course the beaches and then you got the warm
winters here of course it depends on where in florida you are in st. augustine it's going to
be colder in the winter if you in a place such as sarasota the likelihood of you seeing snow
is really small because the average temperature in the winter time is about 65 degrees when i first
moved here i remember this clearly my first day to work i drove to work and i remember passing
all these palm trees and different bodies of water for somebody that comes from a big city especially
it's going to be a huge paradigm shift but for many of you it's going to be very welcoming
you're going to be able to spend more days out of the year outside here because of the warm climate
if you're from up north you typically have the spring the summer and the fall
to be outside in winter time you're typically cooped in unless you're somebody that likes to
take advantage of skiing here you're really going to feel like you have an opportunity to be outside
throughout the entire year i personally feel like i live a much healthier lifestyle here
because i can take advantage of the outside and i love cycling and i just recently got
into playing pickleball you could literally just hop in your car drive an hour an hour and a half
and be in a tourist destination feel like you're on vacation there but you didn't have to hop
on a plane and i absolutely love that aspect of living here in florida i don't always want to
hop on a plane because sometimes quite honestly it's just a lot of work i've been to all major
tourist destinations by just driving there and i think that's a perk of living here in florida
in the summer time it gets very warm especially if you live in places such as miami or
sarasota here you're going to be dealing with about 92 to 95 degree weather very
humid in the summer and almost daily rain showers coupled with lightning storms
and then of course your occasional hurricanes that will come through get ready when you live
here in the summertime that the weather is going to be different than what you're going to see
here in the winter many of you have probably vacationed here in the winter and you might think
this is how florida is always no it changes drastically understand what the hurricane
safety procedures are more likely than not you're going to be encountering a hurricane the good news
is in many places in florida such as sarasota we've never been in the eye of a hurricane you
also want to understand what you need to do if you get caught in the middle of a lightning
storm florida is known as the lightning capital in the US there's more death due to lightning
here in florida than anywhere else in the US it is you know somewhat of a challenge but not if
you understand the weather pattern you can look at forecasts to see what the predictions is for
the day and always expect that there's going to be a thunderstorm a day and you can just plan ahead
florida's just a beautiful place people come from all over the world to vacation here
you're going to be living here and you're going to feel like you're on vacation but you're also
going to have to deal with tourists tourists come here predominantly in around january to april it's
going to get very dense here you're going to see the number of people increasing in restaurants the
number of people increasing at different points of interest and the traffic can get horrendous
the advantage of having tourists is that's one of the reasons why there's no state income tax
be happy for the tourists but also understand that it's going to get a little bit more challenging
when they're here and sometimes even annoying because quite honestly a lot of them can't drive
so when people say floridians can't drive you got to ask the question are they really floridians
when you move from up north you're going to be encountering wildlife that you typically don't
see up north the first one that comes to mind for everybody is alligators every lake will
likely have an alligator probably more than just one do not swim in a lake do not let your kids
or your small dogs or even large dogs get close to a lake usually alligators attack when they're
being provoked but there's been occurrences when there really was no provocation just remember
the little kid that was taken by an alligator back in disney that was horrible if you live
close to a lake like i do i'm literally 10 steps away from a lake i do see them almost on a daily
basis sometimes they're just lounging on grass so sometimes i'll see them just drifting in the water
now if you're not close to a lake you're not going to see an alligator then we have the infamous
palmetto bugs which are essentially roaches you'll see them whether they're in the lanai
area or if they're making their way into the house i have an exterminator that comes in every three
months to treat the home just to ensure that i don't have roaches breeding inside the house it
really has nothing to do with how tidy you are or how clean your house is they're outside and
it's easy for them to get through cracks inside the house and what you don't want to happen is
them breeding inside the house we also have love bugs and they can be quite annoying
they don't bite they don't hurt and they're actually really cute when you see them flying
together because they're mating but they're also flying in swarms and so if you're driving your car
into one of these swarms you're going to be left with love bug remains which are very acidic and
it can hurt the paint of your car so you have to make sure that you wash it off right before the
paint of your car gets spoiled you're going to learn how to coexist with wildlife here in the
beginning it might be a little shocking to you but after a while it's going to become a way of life
and some of the wildlife take dolphins when you actually see them in the wild you're going to be
so excited even certain bird species such as pelicans and flamingos you may have just seen them
in the zoo up north but here you'll be able to see them out in the wild and it's just such a
gratifying happy experience in the past you would be able to buy for very little money almost a
mansion that's not the case anymore so the average median home price is very much on par with with
the u.s averages and the prices are just continue to go up some of it is driven by remote workers
who looking to relocate here millennials who are first-time home buyers for a lot of you though
florida is becoming too expensive many of you are now priced out of the real estate market you just
can't afford it anymore because prices have come up so much year-over-year prices have gone up in
some places by almost 30 percent now my worry is florida's gonna become like a california people
wanna live here for a lot of the positives that we've already discussed in this video
it's becoming a destination place not just for vacation but to live and that is going to keep
the prices of real estate pretty elevated now will it fluctuate over time of course everything
fluctuates from the stock market to real estate prices but will it ever go down to where it was
five or six years ago my fear is that's not going to be the case anytime soon demand and supply is
not balanced it's completely off balance right now and it's going to take years to kind of rectify
that situation not only are real estate prices becoming unaffordable for some of you but also
the rental market is so tough right now for many of you it's become really hard to make ends meet
unless the job market improves when it comes to the wages and how much people are getting
paid it's going to be really hard to have a good standard of living for some of you but here's the
good news so the unemployment rate is about 3.5 percent the minimum wage is $10 it's going to be
increased to $11 in september of this year but because so many people have quit their jobs to
get another job that pays more essential workers in the hospitality industry in construction in
leisure for example are really needed there's just not enough labor to fulfill the job opportunities
and so if you're an essential worker in those industries you actually have negotiation power
right now because there's a huge scramble to filling these job opportunities and there's
just not enough applications that are coming in it is in florida's best interest to also increase
these wages to keep essential workers because we don't have workers getting the job done florida's
economy is going to go down the drain and so I believe that the government is pushed to figuring
this out to stabilize the economy so that it's set up for growth in the future if you enjoyed this
video please like this video i really appreciate it think about subscribing to this channel for
florida related information destinations in real estate if you need a realtor in sarasota florida
i would love to team up with you help you you can call me email me anytime and thank you so
much for tuning in today watching till the very end always appreciate it when you do take care