Reviews & Comments
Osprey, FL
Osprey, + Sarasota. Awesome except summer weather -
10/4/2022My wife and I moved to Osprey from San Clemente California, one of the nicest beach front towns there, and similar in size to Sarasota.
I find most things in Osprey to be five star, but I could only provide a four star rating, because of the obviously less than ideal summer weather vs San Clemente which is pretty great weather all year round.
We moved for the obvious reason: “you can work until you die in California, or retire nicely in a low tax state!“
Other than the weather, my only other real complaint is that where we live in Osprey, we cannot walk anywhere. That’s because our small complex is next to the 41, with no good way to cross, or to walk north to the one traffic light nearest us.
One of the big pluses I’m living in Osprey, is that we are truly water close, overlooking black burn harbors south Creek, we have a spectacular view, with better sunsets, than the coastline view we had in California. Real estate here is still less thnhalf the price of out there, and even the real estate tax rate is lower than in California where the homes cost 2X plus. By the way real estate an Osprey is especially expensive compared to Sarasota, because there are so many homes on the water relative to the 7000 total population. We have excellent restaurants in the area and also right down the road in Venice. And the selection of restaurants in Sarasota is downright awesome.
They say traffic is getting a lot worse here, especially in the season, when everybody, plus tourists are down here, but California traffic is still far worse.
Cultural Lee, this area is great. Sarasota in particular has a number of excellent museums and many events. Consider, how many towns of less than 60,000 people have a symphony, an opera, a ballet, and more?
It should be noted, that the average age in Osprey itself is a good bit older than the surrounding towns including Sarasota and Venice. Perhaps that’s because it is an especially nice place to retire to, including a few senior residence communities.
Of course everything else about Florida is also very affordable compared to California, and overall this area is pretty much right at the national average, or a San Clemente was over double.
If not for the weather in the summer, we try to leave for about half of that, this is definitely a five-star place. My issue with not being able to walk anywhere, is largely due to the choice of places we bought in. On the other hand my wife and I love walking around our 80 acre complex which is on the water, has a boat dock for mini boats, and even has its own lagoon. We love it here.
Sarasota, FL
re: antisocial
-
9/5/2022I haven't found the same to be true. I come from So Cal, and find the folks here about as friendly as in San Clemente where I lived for 30 years. Of course, if you've had no previous exposure to NYC / NJ types... We find most of our neighbors however are from the midwest. The NYC/NJ influx is more recent. I decided to respond, because I too am a retired editor.
Sarasota, FL
Comparing Sarasota, our new home w/San Clemente CA -
9/5/2022Starting to love Sarasota: Wife and I moved to Osprey- a small suburb between Sarasota and Venice. We're about 13 miles to downtown Sarasota, so not "city dwellers". But, as we have moved here just 3 years ago, (right before Covid), from San Clemente CA, I thought that a comparison would be every helpful to many.
Both towns are of similar size (57K for Sarasota 67K for San Clemente. Sarasota is less than an hour to Tampa/St Pete. San Clemente, an hour and change to most of LA or San Diego.
Cost of living - folks that think Sarasota is expensive have no idea. True, seems like lots of NorthEast money is buying multi-million dollar condos overlooking the bay, but home prices - even after a 50%+ increase in the last 3 years (including the recent slight drops), are still bargains compared to San Clemente.
Taxes - well nothing need to be said there.
We had to make a typical CA resident's choice for all but the top 5% as we reached retirement age:
"Work until you die in California, or retire to a low tax state to enjoy a respectable life."
No brainer, especially since our daughter is also not in CA but working in NYC, so we picked Florida instead of AZ, NM, LV or TX (Nashville - in hindsight sounds tempting, but no ocean/gulf). About our only friends not fleeing CA, are those whose kids are still there. (Some of those will stay close but move eventually to, say Las Vegas - less than a 4 hour drive).
San Clemente has some of the LEAST expensive real estate on the entire So Cal coast, because it is equidistant from the two cities further than any other. Note that Sarasota has a real art, culture and (hopefully a growing) music scene if small, vs San Clemente which relies on neighboring cities
Both towns have great food. Even down here in Osprey, we find the selection of restaurants to be excellent. I'm not a real high end foodie, but can be impressed with a great lobster tail, steak or fish, but have friends pushing my experience. We ove Tsunami's in particular, and Waterfronttwo in our back yard is a great find.
Traffic up and down the 41 is a bitch as is trying to get to Siesta Key in season. Trying to get to the next town up in CA, Laguna Beach - as bad or worse... But we don't all need Siesta Key's quartz white beaches, we're great with Nokomis beach, which runs for miles and is plenty wide. Great for 2 mile walks every week.
We loved San Clemente. We really like Osprey/Sarasota/Venice, so far and it's getting better as we make new friends. Sure summers are tough (we're getting "acclimated" we think) heat wise, but the lightning storms at night make daytime worthwhile. Nothing like those in CA. Just wildfires.
As I figured out - Moving to Sarasota area - is so much less expensive, that we can afford to not only not work anymore, but spend 2-4 weeks each summer in CA (just got back) visiting our friends, for a total of 6+ weeks of travel to more comfortable climates, over the June/July/August/Sept humidity.
A month and a half of real vacations a year, is just as one part of the cost savings...
I just tried the best places database to compare the two cities. I take all such numbers with some skepticism, but, consider, even if the difference in costs is half:
A salary of $120,000 in Sarasota, Florida should increase to $251,801 in San Clemente, California (assumptions include Homeowner, no Child Care, and Taxes are not considered.
Did you catch that last - taxes not even considered.
And while we're not fans of the summer heat, we love the comfortable evenings the rest of the year. We're glad we moved here!