[crhrjp]

We live now in Nashville, but I (DH) am from southern Ca while my spouse is from Orlando. The summers in the South and Florida are miserable due to heat and humidity. Severe weather and hurricanes can be very annoying as well.

I love the weather in SoCal. Due to lack of humidity 90-100 degrees is quite bearable unlike here in Nashville. My parents live in OC and their air conditioner (heating and cooling) is broken and hasn't worked for 15 years. The climate is so temperate that they've never bothered to get it fixed.They open the windows at night during the summer and close drapes during the heat of the day. Occasionially in winter, they'll use the fireplace. This past summer in Nashville (which had record consecutive days of 100 degress temperatures), we had $500 a month electricity bills.

Of course you have to look at housing costs and job oppurtunities. California and Florida are being hit by the housing bubble popping. Some are saying that price will still drop another 20-25%, ie 40-50% from their peaks of 2005. Lots of jobs in SoCal and Fla were/are based on the real estate economy (ie RE agents, brokers, construction, etc) and thus the overall employment picture may be worse than most places. I would imagine depending on job skills, there are oppurtunities, however. All state goverment jobs are getting nailed by the drop in property taxes.

Sould you relocate, I would rent awhile and let home prices continue to drop.

The beaches of Socal are much colder than Flordia and not as abundant. But SoCal has mountains...yes real mountains with snow. Last February we went snowboarding 90 minutes from my parents house.