I live a hour from it,or I should say its a little over a hour to Jacksonville,Fla..

I don't know where exactly you're thinking of moving but I hate to tell you the taxes in North Georgia aint cheap either. I had owned a house in Florida briefly and the property taxes are about the same here but things like ad velorum taxes + car registration in GA are out of this world. They want almost $400 for a year to register one of my vehicles (a pickup) and $250 for the other one. The cost of housing makes up for it though. In my opinion the quality of life is far better in the Peach state. But this can vary greatly on where you move. A few miles can make a difference.

I'm somewhat of an expert in moving having done so an average of 5 times in the last 5 years. My advice would be to not pick a place to live because of the taxes. And I also thought it would be nice to be closer to family. And it was. But I actually saw my family more often when I was 10 hours away than when I was an hour or two hours away. So I wouldn't necessarily put a lot of weight on that either.

Feel free to email me off the forum if you want to talk about moving. It's a topic that I love to hate but perhaps I can give you some pointers that I've picked up over the years. I figure I should pass them on to someone else because I don't plan to move ever again!

Look at the whole tax picture before you decide.

Florida doesn't have an income tax. Georgia does.
Florida has higher gasoline taxes.
Florida doesn't tax food.
Sales taxes vary from county to county in Georgia.

Many Georgia counties and towns have web sites that are full of information.

Nell

I live in Thomasville, GA about 15 miles from the Florida line. When our county was dry when I was a teenager, we made the trip to the liquor store at "the line" quite a bit. Those days are over now but if you want to buy liquor or beer on Sunday you still have to go the Tallahassee. You couldn't pay me to live in Florida. It's cheaper where I live than in north Georgia. I was born and raised here and other than graduating from Auburn in Alabama, here is where I intend to stay. You didn't say anything about your needs. If you need any help on other matters let me know.

The gas is actually cheaper in Florida right now than in the Atlanta metro and I'm told there is some extra refinement here and that's the reason. The hurricanes aren't helping. Of course S. GA is a different story. In addition to that, they still require auto emmissions inspections in the metro area and they did away with that in Florida long ago.

The last time I checked, most of GA counties had the same sales tax rate (7%) except for Cobb which is at 5% and about a dozen or so others that are at 6%. And sales tax in Florida is usually slighly less (6-6.75%) It's really not going to make much of a difference in the cost of living for most people. And if you currently own a computer, you're one of "most people". The only time this might save you a few bucks is if you buy a major appliance in a cheaper county. But if you can't take the appliance home with you, you get charged the tax rate in your home county. Same with car sales. The City of Atlanta has a 1% tax on top of the Fulton county 7%=8%. (I think that was an effort to get the money to fix their sewer system)

If sales tax plays a big role in where you decide to move, try Oregon. They aint got no sales tax in Oregon!

The Food tax ranges from 2-3% across all counties except for one county: Cobb which is at 1%. I believe senior citizens are exempt from paying this tax but I'm not 100% certain. General merchandise such as a bag of candy is taxed at the normal rate but things like a loaf of bread or can of beans is taxed the food tax rate.

GA Belle brought up something else...
I don't know having to drive to Florida to buy booze on a sunday is a selling point for our state. Many silly "blue laws" remain and GA has excessive stupid legislation. There's way too many laws in this state. I'm told it still pales in comparison to California though. This is one of the many reasons I took a hiatus from GA for a while but I don't let it bother me anymore.

Even though Florida has many selling points when compared to the common economic comparison lists one looks at when deciding to move, it also currently has numerous drawbacks, most of which dealing with quality of life and cost and availability of decent housing... and hurricanes.