The REAL COST of LIVING In Tampa Florida

so you're wondering what the cost of living in Tampa Florida is well in today's video I'm going to share with you the five categories that are most likely to have the biggest impact on your budget just like they do ours I'm also going to share with you my favorite tools and resources that we personally use before making the decision and our clients love to use before making the final decision to call Tampa Bay their home and if we've never met before my name is Juan alala and I make videos that are all things Tampa Bay what it's like to live here what it's like to work here what it's like to play here the food the dining the outdoors the beaches and the sunshine I'm also a licensed real estate agent and a team leader here with the true living group where we help people just like you buy sell relocate and invest here in the greater Tampa Bay area so the first thing I want to do is share one of my all-time favorite tools when it comes to sizing up the cost of living anywhere in the country and that is a website called bestplaces.net this website is awesome you can go on there type in whatever City you're considering moving to and it'll give you a general overview of what it should cost and what it looks like to live in that City it covers all the major categories there are reviews from um from residents there's all kinds of things on this website that I think you're absolutely going to love so make sure you check that out now the five categories that we're going to be talking about today are going to be groceries housing utilities health care and transportation because those are five of the largest categories that really make an impact on your budget let's get right into this list so when it comes to stock in that fridge there are a lot of options here and and I want to start by saying this I realize that some of you are um you know really really Frugal when it comes to food you don't spend any extra money regardless of quality and that is okay there are other people who really want the highest quality food going in their body and they are willing to sacrifice elsewhere in order to you know get those quality groceries so what I want to just share with you is like I'm going to share my personal budget our household bud budget here and for some of you it might mortify you for others it you may laugh that you spend way more than that and that's okay we as a family have made a decision that that is something that we like to invest in we cut elsewhere okay so as an example I bought one pair of jeans last year that's it y'all right and you know my my wife bu closed you know I we're experienced people so we you know will cut elsewhere to go out make sure we can go have a great dinner somewhere if that's we need to do I'm just sharing that with you so when we get into some of these numbers you can just have perspective everybody's got a different approach but we're going to share our personal budget so I just wanted to give that one caveat now you've got great groceries in the state we've got Publix which is awesome y'all like they'll literally bag your groceries and take them to the car it's a great level of service and I would not consider them an expensive grocer I know other people do you know of course we have Walmart we've got wind Dixie we've got Sprouts which is a competitive whole Whole Foods we have uh Trader Joe's we have Whole Foods here as well and when it comes to the big warehouses we've got things like Costco we're a Costco family we love shopping there there are Sam's Clubs as well and then we also have BJs in the area so these are things that you can take you know and and pick and choose from in terms of how you're trying to stock that fridge we personally I did the numbers we're coming in tax season here my wife keeps a great budget we were spending roughly about $1,500 a month on groceries you know on average now how big is my household that's what you're probably going to want to know so um it's me and my wife and then we have three children my oldest is 11 he's a boy um I'm pretty sure I need to put a chain around the refrigerator that's how much he eats right now um we have a 9-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old daughter so you know your family may not be that large and you may not you know again you may not be spending a ton of money on groceries you might be able to do it for $500 or $600 I know that there are single people who live in the area here who absolutely can um again keep that in perspective and according to best places Tampa comes in at 105 meaning that our groceries are relatively Five Points higher than the national average I would say that that's probably accurate we moved for Metro Detroit a little over 5 years ago when we came down here we felt like our grocery bill jumped almost 15% but we may have been paying less than the average so I just wanted to share that with you next on our list is housing where best places ranks us at 96.5 essentially 3 and2 points lower than the national average now I sell real estate and what I'm seeing here in the market is we are actually a little bit higher than the national average currently but this is literally a give and take from month to month right now the median sales price in the United States is $43,000 for a home and the median sales price here in the greater Tampa Bay area is $417,000 so it's pretty close now here's what I want to say about this when you take that versus the national average you know and and you really take a step back and go okay what are you getting for that well we're we live on the coast this is a coastal region there are very few places in the country where you can get close to the national average in housing prices near the water and if you live near a lake you know this to be true if you live near a river that is um you know a focal point of your your local area you know that to be true as well so to be able to get really really close to the median sales price here in the United States that is a steal in my book and this is something that I have been talking about since we moved down here was a huge part of why we made the decision to call Tampa home when we moved here in 2018 we moved December of 2018 and I thought that Tampa was literally discounted it was a steal from a real estate perspective well since then we had a global event where people were allowed to work from home more work from home jobs than ever before and people discovered Tampa and they started to move here in droves as a matter of fact they moved to the state over 300,000 people have moved to the State of Florida for three straight years that is an incredible number so when it comes to housing we're a little bit higher than that but I want to get into some of the specific categories because we get a lot of questions regarding housing I want to talk about that what does $417,000 get you well that's essentially a three-bedroom two bath right around, 1500 ft² home in the greater Tampa Bay area you can spend $520 million in the area there's a $21 million listing currently and you can also get Condos for as low as $180,000 they're going to need all the work just so you know but it is possible so keep those things in perspective taxes um in the Great tapa Bay Area what I see on average is right about 1.3% of the purchase price of the home so as an example um if you bought a $500,000 house if you multiply that um times 1.3 that would give you your tax number what you're going to pay for your annual taxes if you live in a community with an HOA or a CDD fee they're going to add that on top of your taxes so keep that in perspective as well insurance which has been a huge Hot Topic um and for good reason depending on what area you live in Insurance can be outrageous in some areas right on the water um you know on the Gulf of Mexico some of those homes are actually uninsurable but it's not all like that and that's the thing I want to want to share with people because this is one of the biggest questions we get asked I live 1.9 miles away from the Gulf of Mexico very very close guys very close we have a four bedroom two bath 2100 ft home with a pool um we're in a nonf flood zone which is in important to recognize we're in a non-evacuation Zone which is also important to recognize and my annual homeowners insurance is $2500 a year to me that is not a large expense considering what I get in return for that right very few places can you be in the Gulf of Mexico in less than 7 minutes and that's where I live I'll make that exchange every day of the week some of you are going $2500 that's crazy but you know we see clients that they get insurance quotes from $8 and $10,000 when they're in flood zones when they're right by the beach so keep it in perspective the more further Inland you move when you're not in a flood zone or not on a hurricane evacuation Zone your insurance costs will lower if you buy a new home the cost of ownership on a new home is significantly lower right you get a 10-year structural warranty on all those properties that's required by law by the way um they all give you like a one-year Bumper to Bumper if you will and then a lot of them offer like a 2-year if there anything happens with the plumbing and for the most part your most most likely not going to have to replace the roof the air conditioning the Mechanicals or the electrical in at least a decade so the cost of ownership is significantly lower now I want to share another one of those resources that my clients love and I love this resource too it's the Forbes cost of living calculator I'm going to take you in on this right now what this allows you to do is put in the salary you are currently making where you live and compare that to the area you want to move to so in our example we're going to say you're moving from Boston Massachusetts to Tampa Florida you you make $75,000 a year you hit calculate and what it shows you is that you need to make $ 49,5 26 here in Tampa the cost of living in Tampa is approximately 51% lower than it is in Boston Massachusetts this is fantastic um so if you're moving from areas like San uh San Diego which is we get a lot of clients relocating from that area to Tampa let's say you make like 200 Grand a year which a lot of our clients do that that are making that move from San Diego well when you move to Tampa you only need to make you know $337,000 to have the same Lifestyle the other thing that this tool does really well as you come down it'll actually show you the categories and like how you're positioned vers this area and this is why like when I was talking about affordability earlier and like why Tampa is extremely attractive from a coastal perspective if you live in an area like San Diego which is a beautiful part of the country make no mistake y'all but like when the median home price there is a million and you know a lot of people may have paid off half their mortgage and they can take the $500,000 net proceeds they take and pay cash for a home here in the area that's why um so many people have have really started to move to the to the greater Tampa Bay Area here it also shows you things like rent so you can keep that in perspective your energy phone this is a great tool I love sharing this with my clients again this is the forb cost of living calculator make sure you use it it's a great resource you're going to have to make a determination whether you're Beach baby or whether you want to invest you know further out in the BBS because that's where they're building new houses but obviously there's a lot of room in between if you have more questions about that y'all don't hesitate to reach out all of my contact information is down below heck we even put a link to our calendar down there so you can schedule a time that's most convenient for you but let's get rolling in the next category now when it comes to utilities I know a lot of America is experiencing the same thing we've all seen incredible inflation over the last 3 years and utility seem to be the one who not giving it back to anybody um and I was just reading an article yesterday that said in the state of North Carolina one of the utility companies is asking for an over 40% increase y'all 40% oh my word can you imagine opening that bill oh my Lord I would be shocked now according to best places here it's saying the Tampa we rank at 101.5 so we're essentially 1.5% higher than the national average our bill has gone up last year when I did this video I shared with you guys we were paying about $250 on on average that went up to about 375 um and my wife told me I was a little bit low on last year too so forgive me that was uh 285 is what that number should should have been I did the math month by month before I got on today but we're roughly at $375 a month now sharing perspective again we're a four-bedroom two bath with a pool that pool pump runs all day we have giant air conditioners here they run all day my home does not have all new windows we have some new windows and some old windows we're in the process of fixing that and we've got great insulation upstairs the house was built in 1977 though so it's not the most efficient thing in the world our clients who are buying new construction homes um they are typically about 500t bigger than we are on average and they're spending just a little bit less money sometimes right so I just wanted to share that with you you know you got to keep things in perspective if you have a th000 foot condo you know and you're sandwiched in between other properties your utility bills are going to be pretty low for the most part but if you're you know an nunit with all the windows um you know right on the Gulf Coast of and the sun's beating down on you every day your utility bills are probably going to be a little bit higher um or if you have a four bedroom three bath and it's 2,800 fet so just keep that in perspective when it comes to utilities that's part of the deal we pay for trash um our trash bill is uh right around $35 a month if you live in a city that is included with your taxes we live in unincorporated penales County so we have to cover that on our own our water bill is roughly $120 a month I did the math on that too and then cable and internet I have Frontier which is fiber it's some of the best internet ever um the internet fee is like 60 bucks and then you throw the taxes onto that um and it's a a gigabit up and a gigabit down which is super fast I know I'm nerding out but like that's crazy fast right it allows me to stream to you guys um that's roughly 60 bucks and then you throw the taxes on top of it and then we rent their equipment so we've got like three Wi-Fi expanders so our bill is $90 a month we don't have cable um we pay for YouTube TV um we don't use it all the time we only use it during football season so I think that's expensive it's like 70 bucks a month but that's the same price all around the country so figured we'd share that with you as well next on our list coming in at 113 on the best place index here is transportation you know I only have perspective where we moved from we moved from Metro Detroit um you know cars cost what they cost you know we had a bunch of dealers out there um the one thing I will say is this we had to buy our first car here in Florida this year the experience was entirely different than I was used to in Detroit but we were spoiled rotten most people don't have a dealership on every corner essentially like we did up there it's some Motor City y'all when it come to Florida it's going to be a little bit different so I wanted to share that with you and cars as everyone seen with inflation has just been outrageous it hurt my heart to have to turn in our lease um our for the same vehicle the price doubled literally the the payment double I should say so you know we had to make some tough decisions you know decide what we were going to do in terms of automobiles um and then and then move forward with that so that's the experience we've had there so cars are what they cost that here's what I'll say though um our roads in Michigan were so bad the potholes would literally swallow the front end of your car you know it wasn't anything to get a a flat tire during the winter or you know to have to get your front end on the on the vehicle realigned or new ball joints or sway bar in whatever it is all the stuff up front usually every 3 to four years you would have to do something on a car that you own so the cost of transportation for us as a family has went down since we moved here 5 years ago we brought our uh 2013 Volkswagen Pat I have literally put no money in that car and we give it service by the dealership so it's not like we're ignoring things it is due for tires but they've got like 880,000 miles on them or something like that but like we haven't had to do any of the things that we're doing before so I'm sharing that with you now um if you don't drive what are your options well we've got buses here in the area those aren't free but you can get a a monthly pass there are tolls um I put 20 bucks on our um sun pass twice a year 40 bucks and I'm a real estate agent y'all I drive everywhere so that's not expensive here um you may may never even need to get a sun pass you you know sometimes depending on where you live in the greater Tampa Bay Area um toll roads aren't necessarily common so just keep that in perspective there are a few but there few and far between so just keep that um in mind the sunrunner which is down in St Pete that's a nominal cost as well um we do have the rail car in downtown Tampa that's free I mean transportation is fair when it comes to Uber and lift you know I've seen the increases on that but again if you travel you know that those are relative so uh meaning that it costs roughly the same here in Tampa as it does in Dallas unless you you know you get some kind of peak time at an event or something like that which they always give you those Peak prices anyways but when it comes to Transportation it says 113 my experience has been different but yours may be in align with that now our fifth category that we're going to be covering today is Healthcare and according to best places it's got us coming in at 101.6 now I've read a bunch of different things here and what I've seen is that Tampa and Florida in general our health care cost is lower now again I take that with a grain of salt the index is telling us we're higher um here's why I'm sharing this with you because we get a lot of professionals that are in the healthcare industry that relocate to Tampa and one of the things that um I commonly hear from them is that Florida pays less for health care providers and I I would agree based upon what I'm getting feedback from my clients now again I'm not in that industry but every single person that I have spoke to that is applying for jobs or has made that transition says that they make less money here but the cost of living of where they're moving from typically makes the offset worth it so I wanted to share that with you so um again you're going to need to do your homework on this but here's what I have found um our emergency room visits well we haven't had any but our Urgent Care visits are exactly the same as what I was paying when we lived in Michigan 5 years ago so like everything has gone up in 5 years but I'm still paying the same thing now that I was 5 years ago it tells me that that health care costs less at least the Urgent Care type um our medications I don't see anything absorbing on that we pay cash for a lot of things I am a self-employed person so we have a very nominal uh coverage when it comes to health care so just sh I'll share that with you too and I'm going to take you to the Florida Blue website where you know if you're interested in Blue Cross Blue Shield and you had to buy your own insurance you can actually see what these things cost because for us you know when I ran my first quote here it was an $1,800 a month expense for our family of five um you can spend much more which you'll see in a moment but I just wanted to share that with you now in terms of like who are the healthcare providers in the area because that's a question that we often get asked as well you know we've got great hospitals there's Tampa General hospital downtown um we've got Advent Health Care Systems HV uh hva which is another big Health Care Systems we've got Bay Care Health System which is another um huge Health Care System we've got John Hopkins uh hospital um the the All Children's there incredible Hospital there um Orlando Health is actually moving into the area as well and the big one is mfet cancer center um mfet is um investing heavily in Tampa they're in the process of building like a 700 acre cancer research facility up in angelene which is just absolutely beautiful that Community is starting to grow that's up in Pasco County um so just wanted to give you some perspective on that because when it comes to Health Care everybody's got different needs you know if if you require a lot of medication a lot of specialized doctors you know make sure you're doing a ton of homework before you make that leap if you tend to lean on the healthy side you know we basically do well visits and that's about it thank the Lord you know we've been blessed in that respect you know things may change for us in the future future but you know you just got to keep these things in in in perspective and like I was telling you before like I want to show you this on on the Florida Blue website come check this out so what I did is I went over to floridablue.com and asked for a quote and then in there I put that we're a family of five and we live in penela County cuz that's where we live and then I asked it to run a quote so it gave me the numbers here and you can see the my blue X bronze plan comes in at $1,749 61 a month and that's still with with a maximum out of pocket of $199,000 potentially if something was to happen that's a pretty large expense for most people and if you come all the way to the bottom and get the lowest out of pocket all of a sudden that becomes $ 5368 a month which is insane and then that will make your out of pocket for the entire family no more than $44,000 so as you can see healthc care you know in the country I know is super expensive again I don't have perspective on where you live what I would do is you know run a quote if you have to buy your own insurance that's the best way to do it if you have an employer they're making contributions that's entirely different but I wanted to share that with you so you can just kind of wrap your mind around some of these numbers in our Urgent Care visits when I went and looked at the actual expense there we were paying about $120 per visit so hopefully that helps and I I know there's a lot of information to take in here and I wanted to throw in one bonus so I went to our audience and pulled them and asked what are you spending for child care I asked our past clients and they all said roughly the same thing which is somewhere between $700 and $1,000 per month per child is what they were spending on child care which is a pretty big number now I hope you got a tremendous amount of value out today's video if you know someone considering relocating the area please feel free to share this video with them if you are considering making the move all of our contact information is listed down below me and my team would love to help you make that transition again there's even a link to my calendar I'm going to leave two videos right here that YouTube thinks you should binge out on and until next time go out and live that Tampa [Music] life [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is