[Notactingmyage]

Just found this site. Great forum! I've been reading the archive's here for a couple days. Recognizing that everyone has a particular axe to grind, I'm none-the-less finding the insights of the posters here to be very valuable. However, I do need some additional guidance. Background: Age 59, spouse 55, last 30 years split between Chicago and Kansas City; planning to downsize/semi-retire to FL within a couple years. We've vacationed for decades on various beaches from Sanibel to Clearwater, and am most familiar with the Sarasota/Bradenton area. Actually expected to retire in a place like Lakewood Ranch, if not actually there. My wife recently visited her cousin who relocated from Chicago to New Port Richey a year or so ago. Wifey came back with the notion that, for a lot of reasons I'll skip for the moment, we should broaden our thinking and consider the Tampa area. We're interested in deed restricted communities with homeowner's association-maintained amenities (pool, tennis, possibly a clubhouse, golf optional, etc.), not necessarily gated, and definitely not age 55+ restricted. We also want to do our own maintenance, and want something built to recent wind-tolerant codes. Commute time to/from downtown anywhere will not be a major factor, but we will be making at least weekly visits to beaches and/or protected boating waters. So, the question is, where to look on our next trip south. I'm thinking we should narrow it down to either Pinellas or Hillsborough counties. Within those counties, where are we most likely to find the highest concentrations of the kinds of communities that fit our model? Thanks for your opinions.

Overland Park, KS

[Ladywithafan]

Originally Posted by Notactingmyage

Just found this site. Great forum! I've been reading the archive's here for a couple days. Recognizing that everyone has a particular axe to grind, I'm none-the-less finding the insights of the posters here to be very valuable. However, I do need some additional guidance. Background: Age 59, spouse 55, last 30 years split between Chicago and Kansas City; planning to downsize/semi-retire to FL within a couple years. We've vacationed for decades on various beaches from Sanibel to Clearwater, and am most familiar with the Sarasota/Bradenton area. Actually expected to retire in a place like Lakewood Ranch, if not actually there. My wife recently visited her cousin who relocated from Chicago to New Port Richey a year or so ago. Wifey came back with the notion that, for a lot of reasons I'll skip for the moment, we should broaden our thinking and consider the Tampa area. We're interested in deed restricted communities with homeowner's association-maintained amenities (pool, tennis, possibly a clubhouse, golf optional, etc.), not necessarily gated, and definitely not age 55+ restricted. We also want to do our own maintenance, and want something built to recent wind-tolerant codes. Commute time to/from downtown anywhere will not be a major factor, but we will be making at least weekly visits to beaches and/or protected boating waters. So, the question is, where to look on our next trip south. I'm thinking we should narrow it down to either Pinellas or Hillsborough counties. Within those counties, where are we most likely to find the highest concentrations of the kinds of communities that fit our model? Thanks for your opinions.

Overland Park, KS

Check out the Brandon area....also check out Baynews9.com for all your Tampa bay area news...that might give a little background on which area (i.e. crime)...I've lived on Anna Maria Island since the early 1990's....Lakewood Ranch.....might sink in a few years...you know it's built on swamp...

[fannym]

If You Want I Can Help You, Finding A Place In Tampa...i Will Need Your Especification. What Kind Of House, Price Range, Rooms, Baths, Garage, Areas: New Port Richey, St Petersburg, Clearwater, I Work With Several Builders. Prices Are Great Now With Many Incentives.

Take Care

***** M.

[Shores9]

Originally Posted by Notactingmyage

Just found this site. Great forum! I've been reading the archive's here for a couple days. Recognizing that everyone has a particular axe to grind, I'm none-the-less finding the insights of the posters here to be very valuable. However, I do need some additional guidance. Background: Age 59, spouse 55, last 30 years split between Chicago and Kansas City; planning to downsize/semi-retire to FL within a couple years. We've vacationed for decades on various beaches from Sanibel to Clearwater, and am most familiar with the Sarasota/Bradenton area. Actually expected to retire in a place like Lakewood Ranch, if not actually there. My wife recently visited her cousin who relocated from Chicago to New Port Richey a year or so ago. Wifey came back with the notion that, for a lot of reasons I'll skip for the moment, we should broaden our thinking and consider the Tampa area. We're interested in deed restricted communities with homeowner's association-maintained amenities (pool, tennis, possibly a clubhouse, golf optional, etc.), not necessarily gated, and definitely not age 55+ restricted. We also want to do our own maintenance, and want something built to recent wind-tolerant codes. Commute time to/from downtown anywhere will not be a major factor, but we will be making at least weekly visits to beaches and/or protected boating waters. So, the question is, where to look on our next trip south. I'm thinking we should narrow it down to either Pinellas or Hillsborough counties. Within those counties, where are we most likely to find the highest concentrations of the kinds of communities that fit our model? Thanks for your opinions.

Overland Park, KS

Notactingmyage

You and thousands of others just like you are just one reason why the FLA market is and will say strong.

You would be more likely to find what you described in Hillsborough. Most of Pinellas is much older built and therefore will not meet your wind-tolerant codes requisite. BTW with regard to that you should be looking for a house that is built to 2002 building codes, you will get the best wind-tolerant codes and save a ton of money on insurance as this is a major factor for insurers.

Pinellas: North part of the county
There are areas in Palm Harbor, Lansbrook, East Lake Woodlands areas that will meet most of you requirements (although a little bit older homes 1990-2000 built)

Hillsborough:

NW part of the county

Here you will find it all -- Newer built homes amenities as you mentioned convenient location both to beach shopping interstate etc. Suggestions – Waterchase, Westchase, and surrounding area

[scanner]

Ladywithafan,

Im sure you've seen from other posts on this forum that there are mixed feelings on the Tampa Bay area. I grew up here. I've seen it change for the better and worse.

IMO, this is a great place to live...depending on your situation. If you have no kids to think about, no serious career concerns, and generally just want to get away from those Mid-Western winters , Florida could be a good bet for you and your spouse. There are plenty of things to do here in your spare time. Golf, beaches, movies, whatever. As you probably saw on some of the other posts, there are a lot of people from different places here. So you get a lot of interesting characters, like my parents who are from New York.

With that being said, I am in my 20's, a renter, and a working professional. My girlfriend and I are plotting our escape. With the rapid growth this area has seen over the past few years, it has sent the housing prices up, tremendously. A previous post suggested Brandon. I live in Brandon. A friend of mine bought a 3 bedroom/2 bath house (roughly 1800 sq ft) in Brandon for $105K 5 years ago. His house was appraised at $280K at the beginning of 2006. Thats quite a jump. Great news for him. Bad news for my girlfriend and I. There is no chance for us to own anything here any time soon. We're both insurance agents for a corporation, we both work full time, and we have a strict budget that we follow. We're by no means starving, far from it. But with this "Hot" housing market, ridiculous insurance rates, and the lack of quality paying jobs, its tough.

Jobs. Fortunately, this is something it sounds you may not have to worry as much about. Tampa, and Florida in general, is the unofficial capital of customer service centers. For years companies stuck their customer service branches in Florida because of the cost of living (cheap labor), the Right to Work law (an employer can fire you without a reason) and lack of winter weather that could shut down a site for several days (until the summer of 2005 when we had 4 hurricanes come through the area). Then outsourcing came along. Companies like Capital One and Chase started shipping jobs offshore. So now the other customer service companies have been flooded with applicants leaving those outsourced jobs. Very competitive market. So there's gotta be other kinds of jobs right? No. Well, at least not yet. Because Florida, especially Tampa, is such a major area for tourism and retirees, the highest in demand jobs are for the service industry (restaurants, goods service) and health-care. Dont buy it? Go onto Monster.com and look at job postings for the Tampa area. Its not hard to find a job here. Its just hard to find a job you really enjoy. Depends on what you want/need.

The schools. While I know that schools arent really a concern for you, I do think that the public school systems are indicative as to the how the area is as a whole. As a product of the Hillsborough County school system, I can tell you that the system here, compared to the rest of the country is in bad shape. My cousin moved here from Philadelphia at 16. The work he was doing here as a sophomore is what he was doing in Junior High up there.
The overall resources and options in our schools we had as kids were vastly less than what other my other family members had in other states. Maybe this is from what used to be low taxes (less funding) or the vast number of retirees in the state who vote against an increase in taxes for education. The classrooms here are over crowded and underfunded. Not unlike Florida. Plenty of new people, with a serious lack of funding and planning for the rapid growth.

Lastly, the weather. Do you like humidity...a lot? I've been close to KC before in the summer. St Louis Cardinals game. People said it was SO hot. I had to chuckle. I admit, it was balmy. But Florida is different. You walk from your car to your building at 10 am and you start to sweat, THATS hot. And it lasts from May to October/November. With that being said, the winters really are nice.


So pretty much everything I've said is subjective. Im sure someone could come on and dispute all of it. It's all a matter of perspective and experiences. It all depends on what you're looking for. Cheers!

[SunKrist]

Personally, I like Pinellas a lot better than Hillsborough. But I think Hillsborough might possibly fit what you are looking for a little better.

There is a lot of new construction here in Pinellas, though. My brother in law is actually in the business of so-called "house flipping."

Since I don't know much about specific areas in Hillsborough County (I've lived here in St. Pete my whole life, and we usually try to avoid Tampa - traffic is TERRIBLE!), I will just list some places you might want to look at in Pinellas County:

South St. Petersburg/St. Pete Beach

West St. Petersburg

Northeast St. Petersburg

Some areas of Gulfport (near St. Pete beach)

Possibly some areas of Pinellas Park

Clearwater

Maderia Beach

Indian Rocks Beach area

There are a lot of nice small neighborhoods and subdivisions in these places, which are not necessarily "deed restricted communities with homeowner's association-maintained amenities," but they do have nearby golfing, tennis, clubhouses, etc. and are very well maintained in general.

Also, there are A LOT of condominims which would probably fit what you described, except... well... they're condos, not "real" houses.

Hope this could be of some help,
~Kristina, a.k.a. Sunshine Baby

PS: I was homeschooled and skipped two grades, therefore I didn't have any of the problems Scanner described

[scanner]

Originally Posted by SunshineBaby

PS: I was homeschooled and skipped two grades, therefore I didn't have any of the problems Scanner described

yeah, yeah, yeah. shut up.

[Christian11]

LOL.... dude, I would say neither one. Pinnellas and Hillsborough counties are expensive and not that nice.

Try NE Florida, man. Better deal for you there. Cheaper living style, safer, MUCH cleaner. You get teh FL lifestyle w/o the junk.

Chris
Orlando, FL <-- but not for long!

[scanner]

The only problem I have with JAX is the lack of nightlife. Every year we go to the Florida-Georgia game, and win. We get out of stadium victorious and ready to party, oh, wait, its JAX. Everything closes at 8pm. The Baptists have way too much influence in politics in that city.

[Notactingmyage]

Originally Posted by scanner

...IMO, this is a great place to live...depending on your situation....
...It's all a matter of perspective and experience...

I guess that just about sums it up. I do appreciate you taking the time to respond. Thank you!

Having lived and worked for decades in places like Chicago and Kansas City, I'm not at all intimidated by the prospect of "big city" problems we're likely to encounter in the Tampa area. My wife and I are well schooled in the art of minimizing/avoiding the worst of it while enjoying the good things a larger metropolitan area has to offer. Heat and humidity happen everywhere (especially Missouri). We had several weeks in a row last summer with temps of 105 and humidity in the 90% range. There are good and not so good school districts everywhere. Even without large retiree populations, my experience is that property values grow faster or are more stable where people invest in their schools. Again, its a matter of careful research and selection of location. Job opportunities are important to retirees too, if only because a diverse and growing local economy keeps the housing market and property values strong. Hopefully some of the 10's of millions of new residents that are expected to show up down there in the next few decades will bring similar sentiments with them, and begin to move the politics in more enlightened directions.

Now what does concern me are some of the things that, as a life long midwesterner, I'm not familiar with; things that carry potential financial risk. I feel a need to educate myself on ways to avoid or minimize the risks of things like excessive insurance rates, sinkholes, hurricane wind damage, storm surge floods, etc., without greatly compromising the benefits of living in the area such as warm weather, reasonable access to year round outdoor recreation such as boating and fishing, and being part of an active, involved and culturally uplifting community.