Living Well In Miami
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3/23/2007
We moved from Austin, Tx to Miami FL 4 years ago. Big change!!We knew it would be, but moved down to be closer to family that live here. I'm Swedish and my husband is american, born and raised in NY. We moved to TX after College and had good jobs and a comfortable life. My husband is now self employed and we are doing really well. For US standards we would be upper middle class to whealty, but in Miami we are struggeling. Ok. we are not poor, but our mortage payments are killing us, and now we're paying $17000.00 a year for kindergarten and daycare for our kids. Public schools are out of the question here. We are not snobs, in Tx I would have no problem with public school, but in Miami...NO WAY.
Miami is not a child friendly city, nothing is geared towards kids living here...there are a lot of things for tourists but not for kids living here.
I think my favorite part of raising kids here is that they are in a muli cultural enviroment, we have the ocean and beaches and our family live here.
I think it's a great place for people without kids, if they can afford the lifestyle. It's a very phony place, be and be seen, and I hear dating here can be a nightmare.
Our biggest issue with Miami is the cost of living, my property Taxes are $27000 a year, my insurance $ 17000 a year...did I mention our mortage....!
We love living close to our childrens grandparents but the price tag is getting high, we have no money to put away for savings...and we still drive our old 1990 and 2000 model Mitusbishis...our kids go to a presbyterian school now, but in a few years we need to find another school as this one only goes to 4th grade. It is very scary....I'm not a person that believe money is everything, but I do like security. Suddenly our $179000 home and excellent public schools in Tx seems like a sweet dream that we should never have left. I know this seems negative, but it is the honest truth...it's expensive here...very expensive. It's also beatiful, exciting and suprisingly friendly, but all in all, I think I'd like to move to a more down to earth place to raise my family...we'll have to see if we can move the grandparents with us. Dont think that warm weather and sunshine will make all your troubbles go away...Miami is one of the poorest citys in America...I'll take sleet and snow any day to living in this place...but then again I'm Swedish.
elise | Miami, FL