Comparing Sarasota, our new home w/San Clemente CA
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9/5/2022
Starting 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!
Art | Osprey, FL