Scoping out the Panhandle (Tampa, St. Petersburg: insurance, house, buy)

FrugalYankee · 03-17-2011, 12:42 PM

I guess we are about to become snowbirds in training.

My husband is from VA, I grew up in New England, and we currently live in the Live Freeze then Die state.
We want out. And we are looking at the Panhandle.

Can anyone point us to a town that would be a good fit?

We are outdoorsy, spend a lot of time hiking, canoeing, skiing etc and aren't at all into nightlife or eating out. Schools aren't a concern, the kids are adults. Retirement communities and HOAs are not our thing.

It would be nice to be within one hour of a commercial airport, and for our work we need high speed internet.

Right now we call 15 acres our own, we have woods with our own trails and the dogs love it. So having a big parcel of land would be terrific. If we could be within an hour of a dog friendly beach that would be fantastic. Even better would be if we could be somewhere close to a lake where we could sail.

Any responses will be greatly appreciated.

Novadhd5150 · 03-17-2011, 12:47 PM

I would recommend either Pensacola, Tallahassee or Jax.
Pensacolo is is a beach town.

ferret111 · 03-17-2011, 01:04 PM

You could probably find some land a few miles outside of Pensacola or Tallahassee. Those are the Panhandle's two largest cities and have pretty much everything you'd need. Chipley gets brought up on this forum every now and then, too, for what it's worth.

beachmouse · 03-17-2011, 01:21 PM

Tallahassee's too far from a decent beach, IMO. You pretty much have to get all the way down to St. George's Island. Cross out anywhere between Pensacola and Panama City because you aren't going to get large parcel land anywhere close to the coast for a decent price (the Air Force owns all the good stuff there)

I would give Southport- which is just north of Panama City across North Bay a look, and then go a bit further north than that along the Hwy 77 corridor a search. You're close enough to the beach, to the (albeit limited ) Panama City Beach airport, and have both small lakes and access to the Gulf through the Panama City area bays. Only question is high speed internet access- I'm not sure what the options are over there.

mango23 · 03-17-2011, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrugalYankee

I guess we are about to become snowbirds in training.

My husband is from VA, I grew up in New England, and we currently live in the Live Freeze then Die state.
We want out. And we are looking at the Panhandle.

Can anyone point us to a town that would be a good fit?

We are outdoorsy, spend a lot of time hiking, canoeing, skiing etc and aren't at all into nightlife or eating out. Schools aren't a concern, the kids are adults. Retirement communities and HOAs are not our thing.

It would be nice to be within one hour of a commercial airport, and for our work we need high speed internet.

Right now we call 15 acres our own, we have woods with our own trails and the dogs love it. So having a big parcel of land would be terrific. If we could be within an hour of a dog friendly beach that would be fantastic. Even better would be if we could be somewhere close to a lake where we could sail.

Any responses will be greatly appreciated.

You are looking in about the right place but you will not really find anything like you are used to. Florida does not have the prettiest land. Along with being flat it has a lot of pine trees and scrub brush with scattered oaks if you are lucky.
I can just picture what you are used to. My wife has 34 acres in up state NY and it is like a paradise. She has he own 3 acre lake and like you say trails, it is really beautiful. I have never seen anything like it in Florida.

beachmouse · 03-17-2011, 01:42 PM

Once you get north of I-10, there are some surprisingly pretty rolling hills in spots. But it's a good way to the beach/airport and frequently a long way to the nearest small town with a Walmart from those places.

FrugalYankee · 03-17-2011, 02:13 PM

Thanks so much for the replies!

Yes it's lovely here, or it can be. It's also an hour to the beach from where we are, but you have to be a polar bear to swim in that water, and we can only take the doggies there off-season. So we will gladly give up the mountains for scrub.

Mango we don't want what we're used to -

we've both had it with winter, it's been awful this year. If you haven't lived in northern New England you may not know the downside of winter. We have four seasons: winter, mud, black-fly/ mosquito and stick. Right now we have the huge piles of filthy snow and are coming into mud season. Mounds of snow aren't so bad, but freezing rain on top of it - YUCK. And a couple of years ago we were without power for a week after an ice storm. We are not on town water and it caught me unprepared so I had to go get water every day to flush the toilet - it was either that or use the great outdoors as a potty. Not fun when it's between 0 and 30 F. And keeping the generator running was a challenge too. Good thing we have a woodstove - we stayed near it to keep warm and I'm pretty good at cooking on it. So we are willing to trade the landscape for a friendly sun.

Justin McKinney (NH comedian) made a nice crack about how people in NH have picnic tables so we can see how high the snow is without going outside. Well, we can see the top of our picnic table again but the snow is a long way from being melted.

You've heard this a few times already I bet.

We went on vacation on Cape San Blas and loved it - laid back, not touristy, no jet skis or stuff like that. It was a little too far off the beaten path even for us though. Also we don't want to be right ON the water, even if the view is spectacular. We figure we can go to the beach when we want to admire it or play in it and spend the money we save by not having to pay high premiums for flood insurance on a nicer house inland.

Ellwood · 03-17-2011, 02:21 PM

We live upstate NY and travel in RV to FL for a month or two in the winter. We have a dog who is used to running free and there are very limited areas where you can allow the dog off leash. We usually stay in the Keys, which I doubt would suit what you are seeking. We have traveled to various areas and so far, by far, the best pet friendly area was St. Petersburg. They have a beach in Ft. DeSoto Park which is specifically for dogs i.e. Dog Beach and an area set aside for socializing. The Tampa area has a beautiful dog park. Stay away from Brevard County as they are not dog friendly at all.

We stayed in the Pennsacola area last year for a week and found it very depressed, with many businesses closed.

http://www.floridapets.net/dogparks.htm
http://www.bringfido.com/attraction/...state/florida/

mango23 · 03-17-2011, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrugalYankee

Thanks so much for the replies!

Yes it's lovely here, or it can be. It's also an hour to the beach from where we are, but you have to be a polar bear to swim in that water, and we can only take the doggies there off-season. So we will gladly give up the mountains for scrub.

Mango we don't want what we're used to -

we've both had it with winter, it's been awful this year. If you haven't lived in northern New England you may not know the downside of winter. We have four seasons: winter, mud, black-fly/ mosquito and stick. Right now we have the huge piles of filthy snow and are coming into mud season. Mounds of snow aren't so bad, but freezing rain on top of it - YUCK. And a couple of years ago we were without power for a week after an ice storm. We are not on town water and it caught me unprepared so I had to go get water every day to flush the toilet - it was either that or use the great outdoors as a potty. Not fun when it's between 0 and 30 F. And keeping the generator running was a challenge too. Good thing we have a woodstove - we stayed near it to keep warm and I'm pretty good at cooking on it. So we are willing to trade the landscape for a friendly sun.

Justin McKinney (NH comedian) made a nice crack about how people in NH have picnic tables so we can see how high the snow is without going outside. Well, we can see the top of our picnic table again but the snow is a long way from being melted.

You've heard this a few times already I bet.

We went on vacation on Cape San Blas and loved it - laid back, not touristy, no jet skis or stuff like that. It was a little too far off the beaten path even for us though. Also we don't want to be right ON the water, even if the view is spectacular. We figure we can go to the beach when we want to admire it or play in it and spend the money we save by not having to pay high premiums for flood insurance on a nicer house inland.

Now you know why we don't live on my wife's property. Her brother lives there and takes care of the place. They were snowed in several times this year. The drive is like half a mile and you need a snow plow to get off the property. You could not pay me enough to live there in the winter. It is near Kingston. I am sure you will find something you like there is a lot available now. Maybe buy something with a lake. For someone with a few bucks it is shocking what you can buy now, even beach front. I have to believe anyone who buys a beach front property now, no matter what happens it will most likely go up in value. You can't say that for most other properties.