Help my parents find a place to live in Florida

The traditional promised land of the new york jews is canonically Boca.

Your parents might also look to settle on http://exploreamelia.com/, perhaps even in the small city of http://www.fbfl.us/ on Ameila, which is just south of the Georgia/Florida state line, and about 30 miles northeast of Jacksonville. As New York suburbanites, there's a lot to recommend Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach to your parents, as a retirement destination. First off, Fernandina Beach has all the necessities for retirement living, including a large range of housing types at many price points, and yet it still has a small town feeling, with a population of only about 12,000. Driving around the island is easy, and there are never any traffic jams, as a New Yorker might recognize one. Yet it also sports a http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/AmeliaIsland/Default.htm, top notch golf courses, other multi-million dollar resort and shopping developments, and it has an active local culture scene, including a sailing school, and a good library system, not to mention http://www.coastaltravelguide.com/Florida/Nassau/BoatRamps/GeorgeCradyBridgeFishingPier.htm. Fernandina Beach is also the county seat for Nassau County, FL, making doing business with the state (taxes, drivers license, vehicle tags, etc.) pretty easy. The local hospital is a direct affiliate of the larger Baptist Hospital network in Jacksonville. And because of all the tourists, there's always an active restaurant scene. Living on Amelia, you're on the north side of the Jacksonville metro area, with a straight shot at the Jacksonville International Airport, also on the north side of town, without the need to go into Jacksonville proper, to meet guests arriving at JIA, or to make flights leaving there. And, you're only a couple hours south of Savannah, GA, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Isles_of_Georgia. Atlanta is about 6 hours driving time, all on Interstate highways, and if they just take I-10 West out of Jacksonville, they can be in Tallahasse, Pensecola, Mobile, Gulfport, or New Orleans, easily, by car, and mostly, in less than a day. Or, take the Interstates south to Gainesville, Orlando, Tampa, or Boca Raton, if that's their thing, all easily within a day's drive. And believe it or not, http://portoffernandina.org/, and you do occasionally see freighters and other ocean going vessels pulling in, and often, still, http://www.searchamelia.com/blessing-of-the-fleet-vid going in and out. If they're adventurous, they might even book passage on a freighter heading out to Central or South American destinations, only a quick cab ride from their retirement home! Try doing that in Boca... Finally, you write: "-My dad is an extremely liberal ex-hippie." Well, half the folk of Fernandina Beach are http://www.fernandinapirates.com/! 8 out of 10 are probably public Republicans and closet Libertarians, but Nassau County as a whole is a pretty live-and-let-live place. If your dad doesn't fight dogs, doesn't bounce checks, nor opens an abortion clinic, he'll probably fit right in with some bunch in that town. And if he doesn't, at first, he's probably just not drinking enough, and believe you me, they can fix that.

We are in our early 40s and my partner and I moved to St Pete so I could take a job in Tampa in May. It's been a big adjustment but we're starting to find our stride. As a proper city kid I don't know that I would live in any other city in Florida. We live 12-15 minutes from some of the best beaches in the US. St Pete and the surrounding area is pretty liberal for Florida, but it's still Florida. There's plenty of hippies and the like in the St Pete area. Lots of green spaces as well as a waterfront that is very popular and active. Not to mention that we're home to the amazing http://stpeteshuffle.com/ down at Mirror Lake. St Petersburg is really reinvesting into wonderful redevelopment. It's exciting to see this city reinvigorate itself. http://greenlightpinellas.com/ is working on bringing a proper transit system to the bay area and I'm hopeful that it will happen but getting around St Pete is pretty easy as it is and if you live in a handful of the inner neighborhoods you really don't have to drive much at all. There's lots of northeast transplants as well as folks from all over. Feel free to have them get in touch with us via email. Be happy to answer questions or point them in the right direction when they visit. Seems like there's not a lot of good information on the web. Also - Real estate is heating up here, but there's still plenty of affordable homes in good to decent areas of Pinellas - particularly if you don't have to worry about schools.

A community of other NY/CT/NJ transplants would be nice, as would a Jewish community in the area. All of my NJ Jewish relatives wound up in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boca_Raton which is sort of a stereotype, but there you have it. On or near the water. Democratic reps. Good university and hospital there. Art museums. Up here where I live there are a lot of people who almost go down to FL en masse around Thanksgiving and all live sort of near each other down there until April or May. It might be worth doing a survey of some of their local folks (from the synagogue if they are practicing) to see if such a location down there exists for people from their region.

Hit post too fast! There are a number of senior-oriented communities in and around Boca, at pretty much all income levels and many focused around various activities. Almost all have golf, and many have boat-friendly homes with private slips.

Where are they from on LI. Do they want Great Neck/Roslyn-by-the-sea. Or something more chill

Yeah I was going to say Boca, which is basically the Long Island of Florida. You can see http://www.zillow.com/boca-raton-fl/ that it has a lot of green spaces/parks/golf courses. It has some nice local theater. It makes a nice bagel. If they've never really lived in Florida at all before, make sure they know they really, really want a fan in every room and a Florida room. There are a TON of properties, including foreclosures, for sale. What they need to find is not a house but rather a buyer's agent, because the market down there is kinda wild. And they'd need some help finding a property that alleviates your mother's driving issue; it is possible but you're going to be very location specific within Boca.

A community of other NY/CT/NJ transplants would be nice My understanding is that Northeasterners tend to move to the Boca/Fort Lauderdale/Miami metro area and that Midwesterners tend to move to the Tampa area.

The further north you go, the further South/Red State you are. My suggestion is short term rentals, bum around PBC, Broward, Dade, & the Keys. Use the time to figure out where they really want to live, find a congregation; where to live may branch from that.