>>118757072New Jersey has a bad reputation for being a dreary and uninteresting place to leave because unlike many of its neighboring states it's lacking in historical importance and natural beauty. So it's cheaper to live there, and it's still very close to a lot of those important and historical cities (Philadelphia is just across the border in PA), enough that it's basically a way to centrally locate so you can access the major economic centers in the Northeast without having to pay the exorbitant rent those places usually demand. You pay more on transportation but that usually adds up to significantly less money than rent. The downside is it makes traffic in and out of New Jersey into a living nightmare, since it is a huge commuter state, which is another negative to add to the list.
As for Florida, it's hot, filled with swamps and bugs, snakes, and alligators, gets hit by hurricanes every year, and has extremely abrupt changes in local culture depending on where you go. Along the sandy beaches you have tourist traps and resort towns with sky-high rent and heavily urbanized and developed land. Then you have all the gated communities filled with retirees from up north, and these two groups, the resort areas and retirement villas, occupy a lot of the really good land in Florida, the parts that aren't swampy and rural. Everywhere else is crazy meth heads and rednecks, and it's hard to tell which group is more insane.
