An expediter who locates in Florida could do worse.
The disadvantage is that Florida lacks busy express centers like those found in the Northeast. Depending on your carrier and equipment, you may have to deadhead north to find freight if you call Florida home, and deadhead south to sleep in your house.
Advantages include:
- No state income tax
- Better weather in the winter months
- Home prices that present great value to people moving in. Not investment value as in buy low and sell high, but dollar value as you can pick up more square feet of living space and more acreage per $10,000 than you can in many other places in the country.
It will vary county by county, and city by city, and even neighborhood by neighborhood, but my sense is that in general, Florida property values continue to decline.
Our Florida vacation house is in Volusia county, South of Daytona Beach.
This article provides information about the continuing property value decline there. A current property owner's pain can be a new buyer's gain. Note that county officials do not expect the downward trend to bottom out until 2012 or 2013.
With some good research and negotiating, an expediter could set himself or herself up pretty good in Florida. A rule of thumb to follow is if a seller is offering a house at $100,000, offer $50,000 to see what happens. You might be pleasantly surprised. Also note that property taxes are likely to increase as taxing authorities try to offset the loss of property tax revenue that declining property values produce.
If you don't care to get home often and can stay out for several months at a time, Florida's disadvantage of being out of the busy freight lanes can be somewhat mitigated.
If you want or need to get home easily and often, any of the winter states you mentioned would work, with Ohio being perhaps the best.
It is all a matter of priorities. If you hate winter more than you love freight, Florida is a good choice. If you want to keep busy year round and get home easy and often, Ohio works well. If state income tax is a big issue, there are a handful of states that do not have it (yet). A place that includes truck parking at home can be more easily found in Texas where zoning laws tend to be less restrictive than in the Northeast or Midwest.
EDIT: Additional Info
While low house prices, winter weather and no state income tax make Florida atrractive, sales tax charged on trucks registered in that state must also be considered.
If you own a truck registered on another state, Florida will charge you sales tax on the present fair market value of the truck if you register it there. Consider this also before making a decision to relocate to Florida.
