I think briansd1 makes a great point. SD has great weather and an interesting topography, I don’t think anything else is that great about it. Take away the perfect climate and it’s kind of a an average city. The architecture is kind either dumpy in the central and south or cookie cutter in the north. And despite the crash, it is still terribly expenseive. You still need $500k to get a entry level SFR in a decent nieghborhood.

You can get a near new built 2,500sf bank owned house in Orlando for $100k! Sometimes for even $80k! No typo, $80k-$100k. They were going for $300k at the peak. You get a 1 bed 400sf dumpy condo conversion in SD for $100k (with 20 cash offers on it bidding it up to $140k!).

There is much more plentiful and cheaper golf in ORL. I personally like the Florida beaches better as well because you can swim in the water! In SD the water is too cold to swim about 11.5 mos out of the year (and even that 1/2 month in late Aug is pretty fridgid). So in SD you just kind of “look” at the water when you go to the beach. I like the type of white sand better on the FL beaches as well. I also prefer the winter weather in Florida (Dec-March) over SD, esp South FL.

But I would absoltely HAVE to get out of FL in the summers, and have a summer house in Maine or Vermont! I couldn’t survive FL summers!