Life in Celebration...wonderful or frustrating? (Tampa, Clearwater: spring break, foreclosures, rentals)

[mhd25]

We are considering moving to Celebration. My husband recently started a new job in Temple Terrace (NE of downtown Tampa). We really don't like the Tampa area and traffic within the city is awful, so we are considering moving out I-4 to Celebration. The commute should actually be about the same time wise. We just moved from a community that is very similar to the Celebration feel, so the "contrived" appearance is actually very appealing. What worries us is the ablity to do day to day activities (getting to preshool, going to the grocery or Target, getting to malls, etc). How easy or difficult is it to do these thing being so in the middle of all the tourist attractions? Are the areas outside of the community safe? I would love to hear opinions from people who have first hand knowledge of life in Celebration. Also, who lives in Celebration? Is it many year round residents or rentals and snowbird? Thanks!

[annerk]

Holy moly that's a LONG commute!! With rush hour traffic it could easily be two hours each way.

I'm not a fan of Celebration. You can get a lot more house for your money in a similar neighborhood--we bought twice as much house for half the cost elsewhere. Many parents feel that the schools haven't lived up to the hype.

I wouldn't want to have tourists coming through all the time--and they do, it must be like living in a fishbowl, and you're right, it's in the middle of tourist hell. In all honesty, most of the areas around Celebration leave a lot to be desired, and I went in the nearby Wal-Mart once and swore never, ever again.

Have you looked at Auburndale? There are some really nice communities there, and everyone I know who lives there loves it. That would cut the commute by half.

As far as who lives in Celebration--you'll find some year round residents, some renters, and quite a few foreclosed properties.

[OrlandoRE_Miracle]

Yikes, where are you commuting from now. Celebration to Temple Terrace sounds like a nightmare. What if the gas prices go up again. Unless he can work from home a couple days a week I would rethink that.

Originally Posted by mhd25

The commute should actually be about the same time wise.

[mhd25]

Actually, his normal commute would be about 50-60 mins. We are in Westchase right now and his commute time is 45-60 mins. He travels a lot and has actually made the drive on I-4 during rush hour before, so we are comfortable with the commute. What we are not sure about is the impact the tourists have on your day to day life. I would assume the residents know how to work around the tourist traffic and that is the information I'm really out to get.

[OrlandoRE_Miracle]

I don't know about tourist traffic in Celebration, I'm sure someone can answer your question here though.

Originally Posted by mhd25

Actually, his normal commute would be about 50-60 mins. We are in Westchase right now and his commute time is 45-60 mins. He travels a lot and has actually made the drive on I-4 during rush hour before, so we are comfortable with the commute. What we are not sure about is the impact the tourists have on your day to day life. I would assume the residents know how to work around the tourist traffic and that is the information I'm really out to get.

[luvthatmouse]

The tourists are the worst at Halloween, Christmas (now snowing nightly) and other events like concerts. Otherwise they just come on the weekends to eat and walk around downtown. We have picture pool/park ID cards now and they check the parks and pools all the time for ID's. That has cut down on any non-residents using them. A lot of the time shares around told people they could use our parks and pools. Nope.

The traffic on 192 is bad during the heavy tourist seasons (Easter, summer, Christmas, etc.) It normally takes 10 minutes to get up to Target/Marshalls/Sam's Club. When traffic is heavy like spring break- 1/2 hour. Publix is 5 minutes away but expensive. There are several Wal-Marts close by. The Loop is 15 minutes away in Hunters Creek. They have Ulta, JC Penny, Pets Mart, Khols, Book a Million, Panara Bread, BJ's Brewhouse, etc..

It takes 25 minutes-1/2 hour to get to downtown with no traffic. 15 minutes to get to Universal. It takes us 1 and 1/2 hours to get to the Clearwater Beach area with NO traffic.

Celebration seems like mostly vacation homes and investment homes to us. There are some full-time residents like Disney employees that work in Celebration Place. There are only about 400 foreclosures at this time. Out of thousands of homes I guess that is not too bad. We like it but miss up north and may move back. Property taxes are VERY high. HOA is about $850/year.

[s8film40]

The tourist traffic within Celebration is mostly confined to the downtown area, and to be honest it's not a bad thing. Downtown Celebration would be boring without the tourists. On an average evening in downtown Celebration you will usually see busy restaurants and shops horse drawn carriages giving tourists rides through the downtown area and lots of people walking around and enjoying the waterfront area there. For holidays and events you will see a more extreme version of this. For the most part the residential areas are far more quite with only the usual activities like resident bike riding walking and kids playing in parks.

The thing about Celebration is the focus on community. There are lots of community events held throughout the year and lots of stuff to do with your neighbors. If your just looking for a nice house in a nice neighborhood you'll get that but you will feel like you paid to much for what you got. If you want to be a part of the community and enjoy all that Celebration has to offer you will get far more from your time living there.

As far as shopping in the area there are some good choices fairly close. Most residents use the Publix just across 192, the walmart is not far as well as Target just a little further down 192. For mall the closest option are the florida mall and mellinia mall not that close but maybe a 20 minute drive. Another great shopping area that just recently opened is Posner Park at I4 and 27 it's about 10 to 15 minutes from celebration and has a Target, Best Buy, Staples, BAM, Dicks sporting goods, and several other shops and restaurants.

[cfIfan]

Celebration is a very pretty town, however there is a huge premium involved in terms of purchase price, HOA prices and also taxes, simply because it is the town that Disney built. Many people dont realize that Disney have nothing to do with the residential side of Celebration now, and are only part of the commercial aspect under the 'the celebration company' who are building offices.

As a realtor who knows the area especially well as it is not only one of the areas i work with but my family also own property there.

However, it is extremely pretty. Are you looking to rent or buy? It does have a nice downtown area, but when you pull out of Celebration, you are still confronted with the very neon touristy experience that is 192.

I cant recall where your commute is to but I4 is still a nightmare and 192 unless you are in the really dead season isnt much better.

Good luck

[mhd25]

Thanks for all your responses, they've been very helpful. I think we'll definitely take a look at the community.

cfIfan - We are looking to buy as our primary residence. We are used to HOAs and $850/yr actually sounds really reasonable. Do you know what the fee includes? I've heard there is a CDD as well - is that true, if so do you know how much it is a year? Also, do you know if they allow weekly rentals in there? We are concerned about who lives in the community. We would like the majority or at least a large chunk to be year round. If weekly rentals are allowed that really concerns us.

My husband would be communting west on I-4. I would think the traffic problems would be to the east of Celebration on I-4. I'm not sure why many tourists would be heading west, but you tell me if there is a major concern we are not aware of.

Thanks again to all who have responded!

[balaju]

it is wonderful to live in celebration!