This is yet another post about my pathetic posting frequency as of late. I have been busy here in Raleigh for a while and I’m still trying to get all of my proverbial ducks in a row. The holiday season also brought a visit from the parents and the cats who are all doing well.

Raleigh is a really cool town. The people are really friendly and will approach you and strike up a conversation. Having grown up in Queens and lived in Florida, I am not used to this. It’s peculiar to me but it’s also one of the things that makes me feel comfortable here. When I moved to Pennsylvania it took me months to find decent people to hang out with. Aside from neighbors and friends of my family I never really found anyone to hang out with when I was in Florida. Being in a place where people reach out to you is a blessing.

This area of North Carolina is also really socially aware and is populated with many well-educated people. There is a great deal of political activism and people donate a great deal to charities. I haven’t seen this much political and social awareness since I left NYC. We all know how politically aware Floridians are by now, and the school systems there are some of the worst in the United States, therefore you can draw your own conclusions about awareness there. Pennsylvanians are more politically aware and there are some small pockets of activists throughout the state that do good things. There are even several communities in Pennsylvania that are fighting the invasion of Wal-Mart tooth and nail. I wish they would fight racism with such vigor. I’d have to say that the people in this area are more well-rounded than the denizens of my previous areas of residence with the exception of NYC.

Of course I have a lot more to say about Raleigh and its surrounding areas, but I need the time to put it all into coherent sentences.

I’ve been delinquent in wishing everyone a happy holiday so I figure now is as good a time as any to say Happy Holidays. Enjoy your New Year’s celebrations and remember to drink and act responsibly!

So I’m finally getting out of Orlando! I am moving to Raleigh, NC within the next two weeks. This could possibly be my last weekend in Florida, ever!

I kinda fell off of the radar for about a week because I was out of town making arrangements for my move. Once I’m settled I’m sure I’ll have more to say.

It’s time for me to get the hell out of Orlando. I knew that there was nothing here for me when I got here, but it took me about four years to come to grips with that. When I got here the job market was much worse but you could still afford a house. Now there are jobs (granted most of them are $12/hr or worse, even for degree holders) but on that kind of salary you can’t afford a house. Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country right now:

In Florida, which had the highest rate of foreclosure in the previous two months — there was one property in foreclosure for every 719 households. Texas is close behind. Both states’ foreclosure rates were more than 2.5 times the national average.

A lot of people are quick to say that these growing foreclosure rates are the result of the real estate market starting to collapse. How about the fact that there is a severe lack of jobs in Florida that pay enough to sustain a mortgage payment? How about the fact that a two income family in Florida can barely afford an interest only ARM? If the average starter home in a questionable neighborhood goes for $250,000 (that is a conservative estimate), how are two people making a total of less than $50k annually going to comfortably finance a place to live? I’m no mathematician but these numbers don’t seem to work out well.

There is just not a lot of reason for me to stay here anymore. I can never be truly independent without pissing money away on overpriced rent for years before I save up enough for a modest down payment on a home. By the time I accumulate those funds, what will the average home price be? All of the real estate industry analysts are saying that the market cannot support itself at these heights, but have you seen any decreases in the prices of new homes? Of course not. The only notable difference is that people cannot sell their homes for the insane amounts of money they got this time last year. As you can see, on the home front, there is not a lot of reason to stay.

I could move to Tampa or to another city in Florida where there is a better IT market, but why? I’d still be hot and miserable and subjected to the same incredibly high home prices. Therefore common sense dictates that it’s time to move elsewhere.

All roads for IT people seem to lead to the Raleigh area of North Carolina. I haven’t read anything negative about it. From the population mix, to the average age, to the tech market and the cost of living — it seems that there is no where on the east coast that is more attractive. For a long while I toyed with the idea of moving to Seattle or to the San Francisco Bay Area, but the technology markets there are not what they used to be. Furthermore, I don’t know if I could deal with the big water being on the other side. I’ll stick with the evil I know.