Confused as to what town in Florida (Tampa, Lakeland: real estate, job)

[Sunshine Chick]

We have been looking at many towns in Florida inwhich to move to. After reading until my eyes were bloodshot, I made a small list of towns and my hubby and I went over the list one by one and both have read allot of post about each town.
Although our list I am sure will be added to or taken away with information and visits to each location, our short list of towns seems to fit a high percentage of what we are looking for.
After reading a narrowing down the list, both me and my hubby read for almost an entire night post and taking notes.
Of course everyone is going to have various opinions and we will visit each town on our short list as soon as school is out, but we are actually more confused now then we were at the start.

We looked at these towns on our original list
Bold= off our list

St. Augustine - Visited many times off the list now
Ocala - Will look closer in June
Port St Lucie/Stuart - Still on list
Lakeland - Still on list but have issues with crime/sex offenders
Deland - Off list
Odessa - ?
Port Richey - ? Comment posted this week about sex offenders, so ?
North Port - Off the list, schools are not good enough
Bradenton - Beautiful but crime is an issue ?
North Ft Myers - Maybe too hot during summer months??
Destin - Beautiful, maybe too cool in the winter?
Crestview - same as above
Clermont - Love this area, will look more in June
Ft. Lauderdale area - Beautiful area but may be too expensive for the better areas at this time? too hot in summer?

So we are confused and having a hard time narrowing down towns to look at when we visit in June. We have been in each and every one of these towns personally but still would like others opinions about them.

Items of importance to us are schools would be number 1, 2. crime/sex offenders ( 2 young children ) 3. Cost of living 4. Location to oceans, Disney?Busch, good city parks 5. Not overly touristy or commercial with wal marts and etc on every corner. 6. Old town feel with new communities
Many others but will hold it at that.

Hubby works from home so no worry about commute time only to airport as needed.

Any input would be appreciate folks. Thank you for your time.

[compelled to reply]

I'm goiing to boldface where I probably would eliminate, and add my reasons.

We looked at these towns on our original list
Bold= off our list

St. Augustine - Visited many times off the list now
Ocala - Will look closer in June
Port St Lucie/Stuart - Still on list- The economy there is sagging due to the real estate prices, and from what I understand the schools are terrible. Kind of like east coast North Port. HOWEVER, I would distinguish Stuart from PSL because the schools are much better and it has better economic support due to being closer to Palm Beach County.
Lakeland - Still on list but have issues with crime/sex offenders
Deland - Off list
Odessa - ?- I think that's a pretty clean area.
Port Richey - ? Comment posted this week about sex offenders, so ?- I think that is the worst town I have ever visited in Florida.
North Port - Off the list, schools are not good enough
Bradenton - Beautiful but crime is an issue ?- I was never fond of that place.
North Ft Myers - Maybe too hot during summer months??
Destin - Beautiful, maybe too cool in the winter? (nice! but airport?)
Crestview - same as above
Clermont - Love this area, will look more in June (it's a little drab and school aren't great, but nothing wrong with it)
Ft. Lauderdale area - Beautiful area but may be too expensive for the better areas at this time? too hot in summer? (a lot of criteria met, but way too expensive and probably too cookie cutter. I eliminate this as an area resident. Summer heat is actually less than other parts of the state due to breezes.)

Place I would personally add are

-Safety Harbor
-Westchase (outside of Tampa)
-Palm Harbor
-Tarpon Springs
-Dunedin
-Melbourne

Those places meet all of your criteria. I would personally look no further.

[Sunshine Chick]

Originally Posted by compelled to reply

I'm goiing to boldface where I probably would eliminate, and add my reasons.

We looked at these towns on our original list
Bold= off our list

St. Augustine - Visited many times off the list now
Ocala - Will look closer in June
Port St Lucie/Stuart - Still on list- The economy there is sagging due to the real estate prices, and from what I understand the schools are terrible. Kind of like east coast North Port. HOWEVER, I would distinguish Stuart from PSL because the schools are much better and it has better economic support due to being closer to Palm Beach County.
Lakeland - Still on list but have issues with crime/sex offenders
Deland - Off list
Odessa - ?- I think that's a pretty clean area.
Port Richey - ? Comment posted this week about sex offenders, so ?- I think that is the worst town I have ever visited in Florida.
North Port - Off the list, schools are not good enough
Bradenton - Beautiful but crime is an issue ?- I was never fond of that place.
North Ft Myers - Maybe too hot during summer months??
Destin - Beautiful, maybe too cool in the winter? (nice! but airport?)
Crestview - same as above
Clermont - Love this area, will look more in June (it's a little drab and school aren't great, but nothing wrong with it)
Ft. Lauderdale area - Beautiful area but may be too expensive for the better areas at this time? too hot in summer? (a lot of criteria met, but way too expensive and probably too cookie cutter. I eliminate this as an area resident. Summer heat is actually less than other parts of the state due to breezes.)

Place I would personally add are

-Safety Harbor
-Westchase (outside of Tampa)
-Palm Harbor
-Tarpon Springs
-Dunedin
-Melbourne

Those places meet all of your criteria. I would personally look no further.

Thank you very much for your reply. I appreciate your input. Those 6 towns you listed we have been in al but Westchase.

[nitokenshi]

ft.lauderdale is no where near a small town

Westchase is a very nice area and one of the few walkable areas in Tampa.

Have you checked out Celebration? Its the Disney town.

[BacktoFLigo]

Sarasota is nice, and no matter where you live here it's HOT!!!!!!!!!! And Humid.....

[SoFLGal]

I would suggest somewhere in Sarasota county.

[TKramar]

check out Family Watchdog.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to matter HOW small a community you live in these days. Even in the middle of nowhere, you may find a sex offender within a half mile.

[SoFLGal]

Actually North Port schools are rated as high as they get-All four elementary schools are "A" rated as well as the middle school is an "A" rated school. The high school currently has a "C" rating right now, though.

[AnotherDayInParadise]

Originally Posted by SoFLGal

Actually North Port schools are rated as high as they get-All four elementary schools are "A" rated as well as the middle school is an "A" rated school. The high school currently has a "C" rating right now, though.

And opening for the 2008-2009 school year are 2 new schools: a second middle school as well a charter school that will service grades 1-5.

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