[echoleaf]

Hi all,

We are currently living in Costa Rica and will be returning to the US in Spring. We're a bit spoiled by hot weather & beaches and Florida seems the best place to continue that. Since I build websites for a living, we can live anywhere - which is cool! The flip side is that we need to research more about places to live since they won't be narrowed down by an employer.

So far, we're looking the Jacksonville area, Brevard County, around Orlando and maybe the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. When looking at rentals, we find that there are a lot available in new developments with no sidewalks and fewer big old trees. A lot of the houses also seem to be right on top of each other on 1/4 acre-ish lots.

Where are some areas to look for older neighborhoods with sidewalks and houses that aren't all squeezed together? We'd consider something a little more rural than suburban, as long as it wasn't a huge trek to get groceries or run errands. We'd love to be close to the ocean, but it seems like properties get closer together towards the coast.

As far as budget, I'd like to spend around $800/mo in rent for at least 1200 sq ft. We like trees. Rivers & streams would be big plusses. Being able to walk to a town would be nice too, but I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks!

[TriMT7]

A quarter acre lot is pretty much standard.

I live in an "close in town" neighborhood, and because it's older, we have trees, sidewalks, but smaller city lots.

I don't know where you can find big lots with trees, sidewalks AND walkable to "town" for only $800.00... maybe North Florida or the panhandle?

[echoleaf]

Maybe I'm overstating things - what bugged me out was seeing a lot of rentals with the next houses 8-10' feet away. Right now, the two houses on either side of us are 10ft away and it's way too close. In our old house in the Northeast we had a 900sq ft ranch on a 1/4 acre lot and it had a nice sense of privacy due to a hedge fence. I'm trying to imagine what a 1400 sq ft house on a similarly-sized lot would look like. Google's street view is a really helpful thing in this regard - especially helping answer why some listings are showing a very small & weird angle of the property.

I think walking to town is probably a rare thing - and likely have the smaller lots you mentioned. I'd settle for walking to a library and driving/biking everywhere else.

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[GLS2010]

It sounds to me that your looking for a neighborhood that looks like this:
http://www.southeastroads.com/florid...ntral_blvd.jpg
http://www.southeastroads.com/florid...ntral_blvd.jpg
http://www.colonialtownrealestate.co...nt%20small.jpg

Which is only a short walk/bike ride to this:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/49/13...7205ba.jpg?v=0
http://static.zooomr.com/images/7115035_ea2f619664.jpg
http://www.thorntonparkmerchants.com/images/index-picture.jpg (broken link)

The only bad thing is that its about an hour drive away from the beaches

[echoleaf]

Wow - those do look really nice. I can live with a smaller lot for that kind of a town feel. Is this near Orlando?

The main reason we're moving back to the US is that life here is limited for our kids. It's an amazing experience, but there's only so much you can get out of seeing monkeys in the trees. We do have amazing beaches here, but that's mostly what we have. We do love the water though, so it's not a bad thing :-) Perhaps in a few months we'll have had our fill of the beach and with all that life in the US has to offer (libraries, museums and - most importantly - more people), we may be ok with visiting the beach less than 3-5x a week.

[GLS2010]

Originally Posted by echoleaf

Wow - those do look really nice. I can live with a smaller lot for that kind of a town feel. Is this near Orlando?

The main reason we're moving back to the US is that life here is limited for our kids. It's an amazing experience, but there's only so much you can get out of seeing monkeys in the trees. We do have amazing beaches here, but that's mostly what we have. We do love the water though, so it's not a bad thing :-) Perhaps in a few months we'll have had our fill of the beach and with all that life in the US has to offer (libraries, museums and - most importantly - more people), we may be ok with visiting the beach less than 3-5x a week.

yea thats a neighborhood in downtown Orlando. Its a very convenient location in a great community. The problem you might have there is the beaches, living an hour away from them will make it hard to go 3 times a week. I live in east orlando (about 45 mins from the beach) and i go like once or twice a month in the warm months. Thats another problem, its not always beach weather in central Florida like it is in Costa Rica, take a look at the 7 day forecast:

http://www.cfnews13.com/Images/Weather/WEB_7DAY.jpg

[echoleaf]

The main reason we can go several times a week is that it's either a 5 minute walk or a 5 minute drive to the closest beaches :-) I will miss that, but I'll trade in 2-3 beach trips a month for a dishwashing machine, being able to buy all our food in one grocery trip, etc.

I'm glad there are neighborhoods like that - Orlando sounds like it would be good, and I'm sure I can find website clients there (or pretty much any place with a decent population). We're also looking forward to wearing sweaters occasionally - 78-85 everyday is nice but we wouldn't mind having a bit more seasonal weather. Thanks very much for the suggestion.

[beachmouse]

There are rarely sidewalks in the central Panhandle, but here's something in your price range that's walkable to a good elementary school, a Publix & a Winn-Dixie, a nice park, and downtown Fort Walton Beach and less than a five minute drive to the beach if you hit the traffic lights right:

EmeraldCoastHomesOnline.com