[12paws42]

Hi all,

Just found out we may be moving to the Plant City area with my hubbies job transfer (instead of Lessburg)... I can't find alot of information on the area. Would like a active family or age qualified (not 55+ only) manufactured home park also. Is it close enough to Lakeland to commute to Plant City? I'm familier with a little bit about Lakeland - not too much - just driven through.

Thanks in advance for opinions!!

[Floridasunshine]

Yes, only 5mins away on interstate, You would be smart to compare taxes and insurance, and prices, Lakeland polk county is cheaper all the way around than Plant city Hillsborough county. Homes are so much cheaper to buy here.
I would live in lakeland N or Lakeland S depending on where your job is. We moved here from Brandon to get better affordable prices.

[fromcenFL]

Polk Co. has a TON of +55 communities, many with manufactured homes. Most let 20% of the population be under 55, but no children.
My mother bought a villa in Sandpiper (North Lakeland) when she was barely 50.
The home market in Hillsborough and polk county are volatile. People think its terrible that homes have gone down in value, but really they doubled or tripled in the last ten years in a majority of areas so its just a matter of the market catching up with itself.
I'm not sure Lakeland is considerably cheaper than Brandon. (though I'd much rather live in Lakeland than Brandon) I lived in Lakeland for 4-5 years before leaving FL and got married and started a family while there. Brandon isn;t even a town or city, just an overdeveloped strip mall suburb of Tampa with a poor road layout.

If you can afford Plant City, and like small towns- go for it. People are very nice and know how to drive fairly well for Floridians. Lakeland is close by for shopping and good movie theaters. If you'd rather live in a larger town with a couple malls, along with more traffic then Lakeland might be for you, though watch out for the terrible drivers. Navigating from north to south, or vice versa is frustrating in Lakeland. I found myself staying in only North Lakeland while I lived there due to the bottleneck effect of only having 1 major artery all the way through town.

[rodnmabel]

Plant City is one of the best secrets in Florida. Not many people know
about Plant City from other places because it is dwarfed between Lakeland
and Tampa on the I-4 corrider. But this town is growing like crazy. It
seems that a year ago the city set a record for building permits.
There are many new beautiful homes being built in the city and there is
some rumor that another major development may be coming just northeast
of the city. With all of this new development it still has a small town charm
and it is easy to get around the town. There are some beautiful old homes
down in the main part of the business district and some downtown churches
that are showplaces. The city has done a great job preserving its history
and old historic sites. From Plant City you can be in Lakeland in 10 minutes
on I-4 and the edge of Tampa is about 15 minutes from I-4 to I-75.
With Plant City growing east now and Lakeland growing west there are places
now where the city limits of each city are joined at the hip. Lakeland is
growing like crazy as well and will soon reach that milestone of having a
population of 100,000. Plant City also has some excellent public schools. Not many people know that Plant City's population has now reached 34,000 and that number will continue to increase. The only down side to Plant City is that there are not many motels along I-4 (just 4). Most cities with Plant City's population in Florida would have more motels. It also does not have a state of the art indoor shopping mall. Many cities its size and smaller do. It does however have a numerous amount of restaurants in all categories with many fast food restaurants. All in all though Plant City is a great little city to live. What the city lacks can be found in Lakeland in easy commuting distance and in Tampa of which on a good traffic day is only a 25 to 30 minute drive to the center of the city. You can also get limosine service to Tampa International Airport from Plant City. Hillsborough County of which
Plant City is in the northeastern section of the county has reached a population of well of aproximately 1,200,000.

P. Body