Hua Hin Versus Florida

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Frank La Rue
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Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by Frank La Rue »

The last couple of times I came to Cha Am towards HH I felt the emergence of new venues, Venezia, Swiss Farm, new amusement park, new resorts, and it evokes within me the same feel I had in Florida whilst driving allong in my car.

To those who cherised the HH fishing village from the 90'ties it may alienate you, I understand.

For me, I like the feeling.

The funny thing though is, with US being quite cheap compared to Europe and the acessability with regards to language, is Florida an alternative to Hua Hin Thailand?

I think it is- however with my wife and me it will not happen as she is Thai.

During my time i Surrey UK, I met many people who either had a 2nd home in Florida or even moved there. I can understand why - albeith I think Hua Hin will do quite all right for me.

Wish Hua Hin had the NASA launch Pad though - prefferably with Emerson Lake & Palmer hosting a Reunion concert on the pad with rocket launch as part of the show. :alien:
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Re: Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by m_right »

Houses are sure cheaper in Florida.
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Re: Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by Frank La Rue »

m_right wrote:Houses are sure cheaper in Florida.

LOL - I just realized - so is cars! :thumb:
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Re: Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by BOZ »

I was actually looking at Florida as our retirement local... After much ado and research we settled on Hua Hin and I am sure we will be very happy... Cost of houses, a wash I could spend the same or more in either location... Depends on what your needs are in that department.... Cars are cheaper in the USA if you want an import... The roughly same price if you buy a SUV made in Thailand.... The big winner is the fixed cost, I found Hua Hin to be about 1/3 of what my research showed for Florida... One big one being property taxes.... We are looking forward to many great years in Hua Hin and Thailand together...
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Re: Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by hhfarang »

Hua Hin is generally hotter than Florida except maybe for a few weeks in the Florida summer. Golf in Florida is 80% cheaper if you stick to the municipal courses (many of which are in as good or better condition as the private courses here) and when I lived there I had access to about 30 courses within the same distance as the outer Hua Hin courses like Black Mountain or Springfield. Most electronics are cheaper there.

I did my research too when contemplating a move back to the U.S. and nearly everything was cheaper or near the same price as Hua Hin except the big two, taxes and insurance... Florida has no state income tax so they make up for it in property tax if you own. Auto insurance is generally more, especially for someone moving there that has not had U.S. auto insurance (or driver's license) in preceding years. But, the show stopper for us was the new "Affordable" Care Act which made health insurance for my wife totally "un"affordable and way more than it was before the new law was passed. The annual cost for medical care for her alone went (potentially depending on her health problems) from an estimate of around $2,000 annually pre "Obamacare" to the real possibility of $6,350 annually with the new law. (comparable estimates based on 6 doctor office outpatient visits per year and on a minor accident or illness requiring an overnight hospital stay). She's reasonably healthy but you have to plan for everything.

A major accident or illness requiring surgery or an extended hospital stay (she's had one of those here already) would bring the cost of the two plans closer together or even favor Obamacare though as the new law has a lower maximum out of pocket cost per year whereas the old private plan either did not have that or it was higher, but for more normal health insurance needs it was much higher for the new government plan.
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Re: Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by Big Boy »

I've never had a gun pulled on me in Thailand because a bar didn't have change. I can't say that about Florida :?

I tried to pay my bar bill with a $100 bill (all that I had) - I was held under gun point until a friend paid with smaller denominations.
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Re: Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by Lung Per »

It's probably much more difficult to get what corresponds to a retirement visa (permit to stay) in the U.S. Also, I enjoy much more the Thai bar girls than those in the U.S. Spoiled brats, they are.
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Re: Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by richard »

My big beef would be the culture. For those that prefer a western lifestyle Florida would be ideal. I settled in Thailand to dilute western influence and propaganda. That's right, I prefer eastern influence and propaganda
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Re: Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by hhfarang »

Well it may not be Eastern, but Florida has pretty diverse culture. When we lived there our development had no native Floridians that I could find and at least 50% that were not even born in America and between 20 and 30% that held a passport from a country other than the U.S., probably about that same number claimed another language as their first language and maybe 5% that didn't speak English at all.

Of course that depends on where in Florida you live, up north it's more American redneck, down south it's more of an international living, working, vacationing and retirement locale. I would fit in either place... (though south Florida was still to hot and humid for me for at least 6 months out of the year). :D
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Re: Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by blue05 »

yes those florida birds would be queuing up to entertain us for 1000bt a night
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Re: Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by Frank La Rue »

Thanks all. for very informative postings. There are lot of good info in there:

1. Florida has no state tax so state income comes from property tax - is it scaled to size or value of property?
2. Insurance as pe posting from HHFarang now is more expensive for the non - US person, in my case it would have been for both of us. (Insurance in Thailand btw) for Farangs is a separate issue I still have to study. I know a fellow Norwegian who uses BUPA for himself and says it good by expensive)
3. Cars - you can break even on a car purchase with US if you buy a car built in Thailand. This is exptremely useful Toyota opened a plant in Thailand and it had favorable car tax conditions for the consumer in Thailand to favor manufacturing here. Does this mean that there are the normal Toyota models available at a comparable price with US, like Corolla, HILUX - what about Fortuner?

Thanks again all, for your insightful contributions - really some home work which has been done allready on this topic.

4. I also picked up on another thread that there is a land tax in HH kicking in at 400 m2 - it also begs the question if there is a plot size where the pricing in the housing market vs the appt market kicks in, albeith its a matter of preference also it is obviously not drectly comparable
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Re: Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by Frank La Rue »

blue05 wrote:yes those florida birds would be queuing up to entertain us for 1000bt a night
there is also quite a bird in your avatar, neither from Thailand nor Florida I presume?
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Re: Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by dundrillin »

I don't think permanent residence is quite so easy though?
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Re: Hua Hin Versus Florida

Post by hhfarang »

1. Florida has no state tax so state income comes from property tax - is it scaled to size or value of property?
2. Insurance as pe posting from HHFarang now is more expensive for the non - US person, in my case it would have been for both of us. (Insurance in Thailand btw) for Farangs is a separate issue I still have to study. I know a fellow Norwegian who uses BUPA for himself and says it good by expensive)
3. Cars - you can break even on a car purchase with US if you buy a car built in Thailand. This is exptremely useful Toyota opened a plant in Thailand and it had favorable car tax conditions for the consumer in Thailand to favor manufacturing here. Does this mean that there are the normal Toyota models available at a comparable price with US, like Corolla, HILUX - what about Fortuner?
1. Yes, it is scaled to value of property. I paid $250k for a 350 sq. meter home 10 minutes from the beach in Boca Raton, Florida back in 2000 and the property taxes alone were over $300 per month (I had them paid monthly combined with my mortgage instead of having to make a large tax payment once a year).
2. Medical insurance is expensive for everyone there due mainly to the high cost of medical care. The new law helped some people that could not afford insurance before (the very low income people), but there are many people paying much more now due to insurance requirements of that law. It just depends on your income level and varies (sometimes greatly) by state. We were thinking of moving to South Carolina and the cost of health cover for my 44 year old wife was prohibitive there, even though we live on my 2 pensions as our only income.
3. This is either incorrect information or is new. We bought two Hondas here that were assembled in Thailand and still paid about one third more than the same vehicles would have cost in the U.S.

If you are really considering Florida the most daunting thing may be the visa to live there. It's fairly easy for westerners or people from developed countries to get visitor visas but I'm not sure about what hoops you have to jump through or how long it takes to get a full time, retirement type visa.
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