[m4gnum]

Hello.
I am planning to move with my wife to Florida and buy a house there. I am not sure which area should I look at. We are a young couple in mid 20s from Poland so it would be great if there was a polish community in the area. We want to be near the water max 30 minutes drive. Low crime is a must. Good schools are also very important because we will most likely have a child in few years. We like to go out to some bar or somewhere to hang out with our friends. We dont want to be in a high insurance area. Our house buget is around $150k so there is not many places which are in that price range. We were thinking more about west coast. Sarasota would be perfect but we cant afford buying home there. Pasco county offers low budget homes, has low crime and is not that far to the beach and the city. We never been in Pasco county so I have no idea how everything looks like out there. There are nice homes in the Jasmine Estates area. We are little afraid about the sinkholes. Does anyone live there and could give some more information?
Thanks

[LKJ1988]

Originally Posted by m4gnum

Hello.
I am planning to move with my wife to Florida and buy a house there. I am not sure which area should I look at. We are a young couple in mid 20s from Poland so it would be great if there was a polish community in the area. We want to be near the water max 30 minutes drive. Low crime is a must. Good schools are also very important because we will most likely have a child in few years. We like to go out to some bar or somewhere to hang out with our friends. We dont want to be in a high insurance area. Our house buget is around $150k so there is not many places which are in that price range. We were thinking more about west coast. Sarasota would be perfect but we cant afford buying home there. Pasco county offers low budget homes, has low crime and is not that far to the beach and the city. We never been in Pasco county so I have no idea how everything looks like out there. There are nice homes in the Jasmine Estates area. We are little afraid about the sinkholes. Does anyone live there and could give some more information?
Thanks

Cheap homes come at a cost. Most are the small 2 bedroom type homes in run down areas with renters. Prices are around 50 to 120k on avg. Best to stay east of US19 as flood Ins cost will be a factor near the coast. Jasmine is east of US 19 and won't cost as much to insure and most of the homes are under 120k. It's a ok area but still most are renters living in that area. So one home will look nice and others not so nice.

[kyle19125]

Check out North Fort Myers and Cape Coral. There's plenty in your price range that's decent and schools are largely pretty good plus a decent population of Polish heritage according to City-Data, around 5000 people.
https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...t/11_zm/0_mmm/
https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...t/10_zm/0_mmm/

[MOforthewin]

Originally Posted by m4gnum

Hello.
I am planning to move with my wife to Florida and buy a house there. I am not sure which area should I look at. We are a young couple in mid 20s from Poland so it would be great if there was a polish community in the area. We want to be near the water max 30 minutes drive. Low crime is a must. Good schools are also very important because we will most likely have a child in few years. We like to go out to some bar or somewhere to hang out with our friends. We dont want to be in a high insurance area. Our house buget is around $150k so there is not many places which are in that price range. We were thinking more about west coast. Sarasota would be perfect but we cant afford buying home there. Pasco county offers low budget homes, has low crime and is not that far to the beach and the city. We never been in Pasco county so I have no idea how everything looks like out there. There are nice homes in the Jasmine Estates area. We are little afraid about the sinkholes. Does anyone live there and could give some more information?
Thanks

One of the reasons we didn't move up there just north of Tampa is flooding and sink holes. The newer homes in many areas were way too high priced for us. A lot of 500k homes going up in parts of Pasco.

for some reason Tampa on north gets a lot of sink holes.

Checkout Charlotte County too. The houses here are cheaper than Sarasota and Lee counties and less crime than Lee county. Personally I wouldn't live in North Ft Myers or Lee County.

[AnotherTouchOfWhimsy]

Consider North Port. It's in Sarasota County but the prices are lower than those in Sarasota. The areas near Warm Mineral Springs can be a bit iffy in terms of crime, but most of north Port is safe and nice. You could get a smaller 3/2/2 home for $150-160K. There's a large Ukrainian population. I know it's not Polish and it's a different language, but maybe the culture is similar?

[MOforthewin]

Originally Posted by AnotherTouchOfWhimsy

Consider North Port. It's in Sarasota County but the prices are lower than those in Sarasota. The areas near Warm Mineral Springs can be a bit iffy in terms of crime, but most of north Port is safe and nice. You could get a smaller 3/2/2 home for $150-160K. There's a large Ukrainian population. I know it's not Polish and it's a different language, but maybe the culture is similar?

Only down side is I think a lot of those homes in North Port are on septic. At least when I was looking at them a couple years ago.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by AnotherTouchOfWhimsy

There's a large Ukrainian population. I know it's not Polish and it's a different language, but maybe the culture is similar?

Not to rain on your post but residents/expats of the Eastern European countries tend to be quite nationalistic and suggesting Ukrainian culture is close to Polish culture and a suitable substitute, could equate to a slap in the face.

[AnotherTouchOfWhimsy]

Originally Posted by MOforthewin

Only down side is I think a lot of those homes in North Port are on septic. At least when I was looking at them a couple years ago.

Yes, this is true.

Originally Posted by kyle19125

Not to rain on your post but residents/expats of the Eastern European countries tend to be quite nationalistic and suggesting Ukrainian culture is close to Polish culture and a suitable substitute, could equate to a slap in the face.

Oh. Oops! Sorry if that was insulting; I really don't know much about Eastern European culture. It was more of a question than a statement.

[MOforthewin]

Originally Posted by AnotherTouchOfWhimsy

Yes, this is true.



Oh. Oops! Sorry if that was insulting; I really don't know much about Eastern European culture. It was more of a question than a statement.

Are the newer ones still on septic or is it on city sewer?

[AnotherTouchOfWhimsy]

it might depend on the area, but I'm pretty sure most is still being built on septic. My street was about half-developed but now more houses are going up and they are still well/septic.