Five years ago, in July 2021, I packed up a life I had spent nearly three decades building in Long Beach, California, loaded my cat into the back seat, and pointed the car east. I had managed hundreds of real estate transactions in my career, helped dozens of people navigate one of the most significant moves of their lives, and I still wasn’t fully prepared for what it would feel like to do it myself.
That move — from Long Beach to Horizon West, Florida — is the story behind everything I do here. And since I’m coming up on five years in this community, it feels like the right time to be honest about what that transition actually looked like, from the parts that went exactly as planned to the ones that caught me completely off guard.
What I Expected vs. What Actually Happened
The biggest surprise wasn’t the climate or the culture. It was the insurance.
I came to Florida knowing the broad strokes: no state income tax, lower home prices than coastal California, proximity to everything I wanted to be near. What I didn’t fully account for was homeowners insurance. In Long Beach, it was an afterthought. Here in Central Florida, with hurricane exposure and a property insurance market that has seen significant turbulence over the past several years, it becomes a real part of the financial conversation. Not a dealbreaker — but something every California transplant should have eyes open about well before they close on a home.
The climate itself took adjustment, but not in the ways I expected. I missed the mild, dry predictability of Southern California weather far more than I thought I would. What I got instead were afternoon thunderstorms you can set a clock to from June through September, a humidity that takes some getting used to, and a hurricane season that requires real preparation and not just passive awareness. None of it has diminished my love for this area, but I wish someone had told me to visit in August before I moved, not just in February when Florida is putting its best foot forward.
What genuinely surprised me — in the best way — was the pace of growth out here. Horizon West is not a finished place. Roads I drive every week didn’t exist when I arrived. Communities that were overgrown wooded lots in the summer of 2021 are now full of families, restaurants, and parks. I moved into something still becoming itself, and somewhere along the way I realized that was exactly what I wanted. There’s an energy here that’s hard to find in a place that’s already figured itself out.
A Cat’s Story of Moving Cross-Country
I would be leaving out an important part of this story if I didn’t mention that Regina relocated right along with me. Regina handled the drive from California to Florida the way she handles most things — with patience, dignity, and the general air of someone who has decided to be gracious about an inconvenience. Within a few days, she had already taken to the new cat tree we bought and set up on the screened-in balcony of our apartment at MAA Crosswater where we spent the first seven months of our Florida residency.
In January of 2022, just a few weeks before we moved into our townhome, we (somewhat unexpectedly) adopted a second cat. Timber — so called because of his tendency to “flop over” instead of just lying down — was a rescue being fostered by one of the awesome volunteers at Candy’s Cats, Inc. Toby inquired about him through their web site, but we were told he was already scheduled to go home with a new family. A couple of days later, we got the call that the family had decided not to move forward, and we met Timber that day at the Winter Garden PetSmart. From the first moment, we knew he belonged with us, and we took him home that night. Regina was, and still is, not thrilled, but she tolerates him for the most part.
What I’d Tell Someone Making This Move Today
Research school zones before you fall in love with a neighborhood, not after. In fast-growing areas like Horizon West, zoning shifts as new schools get built, and you want to verify your zone before you write an offer — not after you’ve already closed. New schools that were built in the years following the pandemic are now sitting empty and being repurposed as growth in the area has slowed.
Visit in July or August before you commit. Florida in February will sell almost anyone on the idea of moving here. Florida in August will tell you the truth about the climate and give you a much better sense of whether this is really the right fit.
And give yourself real time to feel settled. The logistics of relocating — closing, changing your license, updating your address with every institution that matters — takes months. The feeling of actually being home takes a little longer than that. For me it was closer to a full year before Horizon West felt like mine. It does now.
Why Horizon West, Specifically
This corridor — 34786, 34787, 34747 — was the right call, and five years of watching it develop have only reinforced that. The proximity to the parks matters to me personally. The school quality matters to my clients. The rate of growth, the new construction pipeline, and the general trajectory of west Orange County all pointed in the same direction when I was making this decision, and they still do.
I moved here because I believed in this area. I stay here — and work here — because it has continued to earn that belief.
If you’re somewhere in the process of deciding whether a move like this makes sense for your family, I’d love to help you think it through. I built a short quiz that matches your lifestyle and priorities to the right part of Florida — it takes about two minutes and gives you a personalized starting point.
My Neighborhood Match Quiz (Orlando Area Theme Park Edition)
