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I live in Sarasota County, FL and work remotely for a company in San Francisco that everyone here knows about. Sarasota is a city of less than 60k inhabitants,

I live in Sarasota County, FL and work remotely for a company in San Francisco that everyone here knows about. Sarasota is a city of less than 60k inhabitants, but the surrounding area houses <250k people. I live in a somewhat suburban part of the county that trails off into farms less than a five minute drive from my house. The Gulf of Mexico is less than 15 minutes away with traffic. There are lots of great restaurants, and the arts scene pre-pandemic was booming. 20 minutes from me is an international airport, and New York City is this less than 3 hours away. Tampa is an hour to the north by car, and Miami is a 3 hour drive away. Orlando with its theme parks is 2 hours away, and I like to visit the Space Coast to watch rockets go up from Cape Canaveral. Now that you know where I am and what’s here, let’s talk about who’s here. I’m old enough not to care that the median age of residents in my area is about 50 years. If you’re looking for a humming dating and club scene (modulo pandemic), you’ll likely find it somewhat lacking. There are plenty of young people, but not in the numbers you’d have seen if you had gone to New York City in 2019. I find it refreshing that I don’t bump into engineers, VCs and project managers on every street corner. I know people in non-tech occupations, and their perspectives help me stay grounded in the real world. The mid-to-upper social class here is much more diverse than in NYC or SF. People’s occupations range from industry to sports to medicine. They hold diverse political opinions and vote accordingly. No one’s at anyone’s throat all the time because of “inconvenient” politics: we coexist peacefully with each other, left- and right-leaning alike. This is a kind of diversity you won’t see in big coastal echo chambers. Proximity to nature is another aspect that I find quite important. Between the ocean and farms and state parks, there’s no shortage of green space and fresh air. I know some Amish farmers who supply me with fresh eggs, pork, veggies, and chickens. There’s a large locally owned dairy operation (Dakin) whose milk dominates the local market. You might be surprised to find out that when people’s living quarters don’t occupy every inch of land in sight, it turns out that everyone can live comfortably and cleanly. In closing, I’ll say that this lifestyle suits me a lot. I don’t miss the “tech city” I moved here from, and I enjoy working from home using the office setup of my dream, for which I have space without inconveniencing my family. P.S.: Gators don’t bite if you don’t get up on their faces.

ayyy 6y ago
Howdy neighbor! I also work for an SF company everyone knows about and I moved to Sarasota a couple of years ago. It's the best financial decision I've ever made. Your analysis is spot on, and the Amish food is amazing. Also, I'm a night owl and now I can work from like 12pm-9pm. Working on west coast time while living on the east coast is a major life improvement for me. If anyone is considering moving to FL and buying property, Sarasota is the obvious choice. The amount of construction going on here is incredible. I wouldn't buy anywhere else in Florida. I also looked into Austin TX and Vancouver WA as possible destinations, but the real estate values seemed more predicable in Sarasota. If you get in at the beginning of a construction project here, you're pretty much assured to make money. I bought my house as new construction at the start of a new development and it was worth more than I paid by the time construction was complete. If someone is considering moving to FL but wants more of that "tech city" vibe, you can rent a really nice place up in St Pete where there's much more happening, but I wouldn't buy there because the whole thing is a flood zone.
- lostmsu 6y ago
  I have recently started considering Florida (from Seattle). What is the advantage of Sarasota over larger metropolitan area like Tampa? We are in early 30ies, and would love to be able to walk to the ocean/gulf beach a few times a week, have a symmetric fiber Internet at home, and people to hang out with for music/games/geekery.
  - ayyy 6y ago
    The problem with FL real estate is that flood zones and old construction are everywhere. You probably don't want to buy a house in a flood zone. Also, because hurricane codes were updated recently, you want to buy something recent-ish, definitely nothing older than 2002. The windows in my place are rated for a Category 5, and I'm at 50ft above sea level. In most of Florida, Sarasota included, if you go with a traditional home, you'll want newer construction in a community. The HOA takes care of all the outside stuff like landscaping, so it's pretty much condo living except without shared walls. All the houses look similar. The HOAs usually maintain some kind of "activity center" where you'll have a gym, pool, common area, tennis courts, etc. Again, it's pretty much like living in an SF condo, except instead of all that stuff being downstairs, it's down the street, and much larger. If you prefer to live in an actual condo, there's plenty of those too with a walk-able downtown area, but I like not having shared walls. Also downtown is in a flood zone, so you might need to evacuate if we get a bad enough hurricane. I wouldn't be too concerned about flooding if I was buying several stories up though. As for internet, frontier offers decent symmetric fiber (previously fios). I'm on gigabit with them and it's been fine. It's in most of the area. Also, as a rule of thumb, you want to buy when a new community is just getting started or just finishing up. You'll get a better deal if you're one of the last houses before they shut down the sales office, or if you're one of the first to buy. Construction takes 8-12 months usually, but it's perfectly fine to have the house built while you're remote. I lived nearby with family while mine was being built, and me walking the construction site periodically wasn't particularly useful. Hope that helps! Happy to answer any other questions you might have.

ayyy 6y ago

Howdy neighbor! I also work for an SF company everyone knows about and I moved to Sarasota a couple of years ago. It's the best financial decision I've ever made. Your analysis is spot on, and the Amish food is amazing. Also, I'm a night owl and now I can work from like 12pm-9pm. Working on west coast time while living on the east coast is a major life improvement for me. If anyone is considering moving to FL and buying property, Sarasota is the obvious choice. The amount of construction going on here is incredible. I wouldn't buy anywhere else in Florida. I also looked into Austin TX and Vancouver WA as possible destinations, but the real estate values seemed more predicable in Sarasota. If you get in at the beginning of a construction project here, you're pretty much assured to make money. I bought my house as new construction at the start of a new development and it was worth more than I paid by the time construction was complete. If someone is considering moving to FL but wants more of that "tech city" vibe, you can rent a really nice place up in St Pete where there's much more happening, but I wouldn't buy there because the whole thing is a flood zone.

lostmsu 6y ago
I have recently started considering Florida (from Seattle). What is the advantage of Sarasota over larger metropolitan area like Tampa? We are in early 30ies, and would love to be able to walk to the ocean/gulf beach a few times a week, have a symmetric fiber Internet at home, and people to hang out with for music/games/geekery.
- ayyy 6y ago
  The problem with FL real estate is that flood zones and old construction are everywhere. You probably don't want to buy a house in a flood zone. Also, because hurricane codes were updated recently, you want to buy something recent-ish, definitely nothing older than 2002. The windows in my place are rated for a Category 5, and I'm at 50ft above sea level. In most of Florida, Sarasota included, if you go with a traditional home, you'll want newer construction in a community. The HOA takes care of all the outside stuff like landscaping, so it's pretty much condo living except without shared walls. All the houses look similar. The HOAs usually maintain some kind of "activity center" where you'll have a gym, pool, common area, tennis courts, etc. Again, it's pretty much like living in an SF condo, except instead of all that stuff being downstairs, it's down the street, and much larger. If you prefer to live in an actual condo, there's plenty of those too with a walk-able downtown area, but I like not having shared walls. Also downtown is in a flood zone, so you might need to evacuate if we get a bad enough hurricane. I wouldn't be too concerned about flooding if I was buying several stories up though. As for internet, frontier offers decent symmetric fiber (previously fios). I'm on gigabit with them and it's been fine. It's in most of the area. Also, as a rule of thumb, you want to buy when a new community is just getting started or just finishing up. You'll get a better deal if you're one of the last houses before they shut down the sales office, or if you're one of the first to buy. Construction takes 8-12 months usually, but it's perfectly fine to have the house built while you're remote. I lived nearby with family while mine was being built, and me walking the construction site periodically wasn't particularly useful. Hope that helps! Happy to answer any other questions you might have.