Who Supplies Your Water, What It Costs, and What to Know Water service in Central Florida isn’t run by one company or by county lines. Depending on the address, a home’s water may come from a city, a county utility, a regional authority, a private company regulated by the state, or a well in the … Read more
Costs, Payback, and Net Metering in 2026 Central Florida gets plenty of sun, but sunshine alone doesn’t decide whether rooftop solar pays off. In 2026 the math depends mainly on three things: what the system costs now that the federal tax credit is gone, which utility serves the home and how it credits exported power, … Read more
Portable vs. Standby, Safety, Permits, and HOA Rules After a hurricane, the worst part for many Central Florida households isn’t the storm. It’s the days without power that follow, in heat and humidity, often with a refrigerator full of food and, for homes on a well, no running water. A backup generator can make those … Read more
Most EV owners do most of their charging at home, overnight, for a fraction of what gas costs. Getting there in Central Florida involves more than buying a charger. You’ll deal with the electrical code and a permit, possibly your condo association, your utility’s EV programs, and, because this is Florida, a plan for hurricane … Read more
A builder’s price per square foot covers the house. It usually doesn’t cover everything else: getting the lot ready, permits and inspections, utility connections, interest on the construction loan, and the rules that apply to the land itself. In Central Florida, some of those costs are specific to the state: protected gopher tortoises living on … Read more
Tiny homes look like the simplest answer to Florida’s housing costs: buy a cheap lot, put a small house on it, and live with no mortgage. In practice, it’s one of the most misunderstood topics in Florida real estate. Whether you can legally live in a small home depends on what the state calls it, … Read more
Building a house in Central Florida costs about the same per square foot whether you build in Lake County or Seminole County. Labor and materials are priced regionally, not county by county. What changes a lot from one county to the next is everything around the house: impact fees, water and sewer hookups or a … Read more
A home’s price is only the start. The same buyer can end up paying about $900 a month more in one Central Florida county than another. Partly that’s home prices, but property taxes, insurance, and the county you buy in all pull in different directions. This guide works through one realistic example per county, the … Read more
Anyone building a new home in Central Florida pays impact fees, one-time charges that counties and school districts collect to pay for the roads, schools, parks, and fire stations new growth requires. They’re one of the biggest costs of building that most people never hear about. They rarely show up as a separate line in … Read more
Snowbirds are part of Florida’s calendar. University of Florida researchers estimated roughly 800,000 to 900,000 seasonal residents in Florida at the winter peak in the mid-2000s, and New Yorkers were the largest group. Splitting the year between two homes sounds simple, but it means living under two states’ tax rules, insuring a house that sits … Read more
