Miami-Cost of living, culture, schools, health car
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4/1/2007
In my work, I deal with individuals everyday who want to move in or move out of Miami. Given this experience I offer what I hope is objective information to make an informed decision.
Cost of Living vs. Cost of Wages
From the employee side you look at cost of living. What will it cost me to buy the essentials, and a few luxuries, and be happy? Your employer looks at cost of wages. That is what do I need to pay to keep people? This is usually done by surveying to see what everyone else is paying in the market.
For years Florida paid in sunshine. People moved here because the weather is nice year round and they understood and accepted the trade off of being paid less than the northeast. "At least I don’t shovel snow anymore.”
This balance was upset about four years ago when housing appreciated nearly 23% annually compared to a national average of 10%. Along with housing came other cost of living increases-fuel nearly 100%, property taxes, insurance, etc. Cost of wages being a lagging indicator, people still make about what they did four years ago with modest 3-4% increases in wages. Only now are employers recognizing they must pay more to keep people from leaving or attract new employees. In short costs are high, wages are low relatively speaking. Do your research before moving here.
Cultural Divide
This is a culturally diverse area where most people desire to maintain the roots. If you are Caucasian, you will be in the minority. Check the census data-- more than 50% of the population is “minority” status--a minority majority.
If you group the whole population as Hispanic, or Cuban, you will be in for a shock. This would be similar to grouping all Asians together, rather than as Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, Singaporean, or any of 100’s of countries that comprise the Asian continent.
Here you have Cubans, certainly, but you also have Dominicans, Costa Ricans, Venezuelans, Columbians, Argentineans, Brazilians, Peruvians, Ecuadorians, Chileans, and the list goes on. That is not to mention Haitians, Jamaicans, those from Trinidad, Mexico, Spain, and Puerto Rico. Even then, the above is not an all inclusive list.
Now, take all those diverse upbringings and beliefs, add a perceived hierarchy of whose better than whom based on where you are from and your skin tone, a dash of governmental preference to some countries but not others, make sure there is no common language in which to communicate, and pile them live
Scott | Miami Beach, FL