My buddy Russ told me that once we bought a place in Florida, we’ll be buying “two of everything”. I thought we could get by with having our Florida vacation place be a little spartan, but it’s not turning out that way. Just one year in, we’ve gotten to the point where I could pretty much go back-and-forth to our home in Minnesota without … Continue reading Two Of Everything
Short post this morning. I just wanted to share this scary chart I ran across. We all know that housing affordability is at a 4-decade low, but this chart really brings it home. The bars show what % of people are are able to get mortgages they can afford. Only 6% of home buyers (green bar on left) could do so within the traditional mortgage … Continue reading Housing Unaffordability
To start with … my apologies to everyone that left comments in the last week and heard no response. I got a new iPhone and couldn’t get my WordPress or JetPack apps to work. We also left for Florida and I didn’t have my laptop or iPad to access the site. Sorry! Speaking of Florida, it turns out we didn’t escape Hurricane Milton unscathed. When … Continue reading Hurricane Milton Damage
We’ve only had our Florida condo for 8 months so far and are already facing a big hurricane … Milton. Big Milton is currently a massive Category 5 and moving across the gulf toward Tampa. From there, the 500-mile wide storm is expected to sweep across the state, losing strength as it goes, but staying a hurricane. Its current ‘cone’ takes it right across our … Continue reading Hurricane Watch
Since this is the week of the Vice Presidential Debate, our Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz, will be in the media spotlight. While he was just picked by the Harris campaign in July, it has seemed as if he was campaigning for a bigger office for some time. He and Florida Governor & former-GOP Presidential Candidate, Ron DeSantis – who we also have a first-hand view … Continue reading Sparring States
A few weeks ago I wrote a post on the places in the USA with the “most comfortable” weather. Many retirees are looking for a place to plant themselves with sunny skies, pleasant temperatures, and low humidity. Coastal California leads the country, but the analysis of Florida didn’t look quite right to me. The chart said Central Florida – where we just bought a vacation … Continue reading Comfortable Weather Re-Examined …
I ran across this interesting map from MyPerfectWeather.com the other day. It shows – by US County – where the weather is more frequently between 60-84 degrees as a daily high. For most places in the country, that’s between 50-150 days. Some places – particularly on the very West Coast – are in the 250-300 range. Los Angeles approaches an amazing 350 days! In retirement, … Continue reading Living Comfortably
If there was ever an industry that I thought would benefit from the internet, it’s real estate. These are data-heavy purchases that people want to really research before making a decision. Still, we’ve bought and sold a few different properties over the last few years and it’s difficult to get a good sense of how to price a property without talking to an agent. We … Continue reading Online Real Estate Estimates
A week ago, we drove 1,550 miles from MN to FL to drop off a vehicle at our new vacation condo. My trusty SUV is being retired to Florida – so that we can just fly down whenever we want and have some wheels here. We got arrived in the Sunshine State last Friday and it’s a good thing our SUV’s air conditioner is well-charged. … Continue reading Tropical Summerland
We’re shuffling home to cold Minnesota today from our new vacation place in sunny Celebration FL. We’re heading from a place you can walk through a tropical paradise – sunny & 80-degrees – to a snowy landscape with temperatures in the teens overnight. We’ve been gone a full 74 days, so we’re excited to get home. Everyone is asking us when we will be back … Continue reading Two State Shuffle
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