Up till last year there was a real estate boom in Florida. The salesmen kept telling you the stories that it’s a lot cheaper to live there than, say in New York. I always knew that it’s a BS. Milk, bread, cars, restaurants, clothes are not cheaper there. The houses or apartments that I’d like to live in, are not cheaper that in New York either. So what’s cheaper there? Cigarettes. But I do not smoke.

Then I ran into this job ad in Orlando, FL. I’m sad to admit that I do not qualify for this $35-an-hour job. I do not have all the skills required in this job description: I do not know ColdFusion and ASP.

What’s the bottom line? Given the real cost of living and low salary rates, most of the programmers will get extinct in Florida pretty soon. Only the real expert telecommuting from Florida will be able to survive. But as you know, it’s not easy to find a telecommuting job in America, unless you live in Bangalore or Mumbai.