“I also must have lift-serviced skiing within a couple of hours of my home, so Florida is out for me”

If you are talking about Big Bear, I wouldn’t even call that skiing. I would rather not ski at all than go to Big Bear.

You have a crushing 7 hour drive to get to Mammoth to get any real skiiing living in SD. With all the money you would save on housing in FL, you could just fly to REAL skiiing in Utah or CO 3-4 times a year! A flight from FL to Salt Lake is faster than driving to Mammoth.