[JH6]

Hi All,

We were fortunate to buy a home near Austin Texas about five years ago.

House is worth double what we paid.

We are considering a move to the Gulf side of Florida, and getting a house on at least 1 acre.

Can you all recommend areas to start looking. Price range is under $300k.

I see a lot of options within 20 miles of Tampa FL.

We can work in any major metro, I do IT and my wife is a Licensed Social Worker.

Thanks,

JH6

[JH6]

Also I am trying to figure out what the catch is.

We pay $4000 in property tax and 650 per year for insurance on my house in Texas.

House of similar value on more land in Florida is $2000 in tax and what does insurance run?

Flood insurance is probably required?

We have a gas furnace and water heater in Texas but honestly I think we could get away with all electric house. We use the furnace maybe 1 week per year. Is gas typical in Gulf area houses?

[Aaverso]

Insurance is tricky, it all depends on whether or not you are in a flood zone or not. I have found that the actual major insurance companies are a lot more expensive down here. When I purchased insurance for my condo, I used a private broker who got me a lot better rate than what I was able to come up with on my own.

[bbronston]

Gas service is pretty localized in the sense that some neighborhoods can have it but other neighboring streets won't. Our MLS has a public side to it www.MyFloridaHomeMLS.com and you might find that helpful. You can probably find properties all along our part of the gulf coast that match but they may not be what you are looking for. You just have to do the work, either on your own or through an agent.

[sware2cod]

In Florida, many homes use an electric "heat pump" for heat. The heat pump is combined with the AC unit. So it's basically an AC/Heat unit all in one.

The gulf coast of FL is large, running north and south along most of the state. The southern portion is warmer in the winter than the norther portion of FL. The temps in the summer are more similar, but in the coldest winter months, the lows/coldest part of the day is much more intense in the norther parts of FL. What does this mean? You run the heat more in Norther FL during the winter. And there are more hard freezes in northern FL. This impacts the the types of plants/trees in the area. Some tropical plants cannot handle freezes and such plants might be more commin in southern FL but not in northern FL.

About home insurance. Windstorm insurance can significantly add to the cost of a home insurance policy. This is insurance that covers hurricanes and any wind events. Sometimes (usually) , "windstorm" coverage is built into the regular homeowner's policy. However, if the home is located within 1500 ft of navigable water(that goes to the gulf), then often you get a home insurance policy that doesn't cover wind and it's called "Ex Wind". Then you have to by a separate wind-only insurance from Citizen's insurance(the state run carrier) because they are the only providers of wind-only policies. It's cheaper this way also, sometimes a lot cheaper.

Flood insurance is another coverage that is separate. If the home is newer than mid 1970s, usually(but not always), then it's likely that the home's elevation is above the FEMA required elevation. If this is the case then flood insurance is usually not that bad(not that expensive). It's the homes that have elevation BELOW Fema's requiredelevation(called BFE) that can have very expensive flood insurance. There are many variables that impact flood insurance cost. The higher the home's elevation above Fema's required BFE, the cheaper the flood insurance. There is also V zone which means wave velocotity. This is the high cost areas close to open water and V zone flood ins is most expensive and the homes have vry strict building designs needed. other flood zones(A, AE, etc also have building designs to handle floods such as built on piers(elevated) or build on stemwall to elevate or just raised lot with fill dirt to elevate. There is a lot to learn about flood insurance and associated building techniques as well as flood insurance policies and associated costs.

You cannot just say all homes in flood zones have high insurance. Some flood ins policies are very reasonable and some are very high. You must learn as much as you can to understand.