Considering a move back from San Diego (Tampa, East Lake: to rent, houses)

[blockzilla]

Where is your employment and the hours you will be working.

I'd be working out of two locations, one on W Cypress St. near the Airport/Westshore district, the other at the corner of highway 301 and Adamo drive in eastern tampa/brandon. My hours are flexible, 8hrs/day so I could work anywhere from 6:30am-3pm to 8:30am-5pm if it made the commute easier.

Wife would be working at Moffitt hospital at USF campus, 7am-3:30pm or 8am-4:30pm.

What is your budget for housing. Do you want to rent or buy?
Buy. The max budget we are looking at in San Diego is 800-900K, but reducing that housing budget is part of why we'd want to move back to FL

Are schools a concern? Absolutely, and they are a big concern as we just had our first baby. Good local public schools all the way through HS would be best, though we'd be willing to consider private schools if necessary.

What is an acceptable commute time? ~30 minutes max would be best, we rented in South Tampa (near Hyde Park) for 1 year in 2007 and the work locations I listed above were all 20 minutes or less (during the peak of rush hour) from our house which was nice. We know about South Tampa, but are interested in any other neighborhoods that might fit our needs. We don't mind tract developments in the burbs further from downtown, we've found that the tract home we rent in CA has lots of kids, sense of community and good schools, and we really like that.

What else is important to you?
Sense of community, good schools, lots of kids around, parks, sidewalks and/or neighborhood walking trails. We did like South Tampa so that seems to be the best bet for us, we liked some of the stuff we saw in Carrollwood and where our friends lived in East Lake as well, although I know something like East Lake is too far.

Number one question is, is there anything that fits our criteria and commute times to BOTH of our work locations besides South Tampa?

[angirocks]

sorry, i am not a tampa relocation expert yet, i am just moving there myself, but we were going to move to South OC and decided on Tampa instead. The houses are so much more affordable, the gas is cheaper, the water is warmer... i think you are making the right decision!