Need info on Spring Hill, Fl. (Tampa, Cape Coral: section 8, apartments, renters)

[Wakefront]

If you're motivated, you'll find work. I have the opposite issue. I moved here 3 yrs ago from Orl to open an office. We pay great. I have networked with other business owners and they can't recommend anyone. People I have met who are unemployed are not self starters who want $70k/yr. I have only found 1 person and I may not hire them. Fortunately I'm getting great interest in Orlando & Tampa.

You can do worse than SH, but I've been in FL most of my life. We're too young to stay here. No Bell-Curvers to be found here..

AND I was lied to.. There is no beach here! Every place I've been in FL has a beach, but not here!

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by Wakefront

If you're motivated, you'll find work. I have the opposite issue. I moved here 3 yrs ago from Orl to open an office. We pay great. I have networked with other business owners and they can't recommend anyone. People I have met who are unemployed are not self starters who want $70k/yr. I have only found 1 person and I may not hire them. Fortunately I'm getting great interest in Orlando & Tampa.

You can do worse than SH, but I've been in FL most of my life. We're too young to stay here. No Bell-Curvers to be found here..

AND I was lied to.. There is no beach here! Every place I've been in FL has a beach, but not here!

You didn't do your homework. HC is not an educated county. Less than 30% of the population there has a college degree. This was written up in Hernando Today about a year ago. Most of those with college degrees who live there are retired people.

No wonder you can't find people to fill your positions if your only getting worthy applicants from Tampa and Orlando.

The average household income in HC is less than 30K, it is a service industry county. It is the land of lawncutters and pool cleaners.

You sound like you need an educated professional staff, no wonder your having a problem filling positions.

Someone finding an $8 an hour job in Spring Hill isn't going to pay the bills. I wouldn't encourage someone going anywhere but especially the SH area with no job lined up.

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by Mike Peterson

Well if the county and John Selway manage to put together the 2 million square foot industrial park which would be focused on bringing 145 hi-tech tool manufacturers here that would go a long way to jump starting the county.

It would bring about 4,000 high paying jobs here.

The nice thing about it is it would go in near the airport so it is on land that is already industrial. They wouldn't have to try and rezone any agricultural land.

Not happening. You also have to have an educated population or people who have some skill sets for these types of jobs.

Everyone in HC wants good paying jobs, but you can't go from lawncutter , waitress, or the guy who walks around spraying for bugs to an office job or a position that requires that you have skills before they hire you.

It doesn't work that way.

[Mike1306]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

You didn't do your homework. HC is not an educated county. Less than 30% of the population there has a college degree. This was written up in Hernando Today about a year ago. Most of those with college degrees who live there are retired people.

No wonder you can't find people to fill your positions if your only getting worthy applicants from Tampa and Orlando.

The average household income in HC is less than 30K, it is a service industry county. It is the land of lawncutters and pool cleaners.

You sound like you need an educated professional staff, no wonder your having a problem filling positions.

Someone finding an $8 an hour job in Spring Hill isn't going to pay the bills. I wouldn't encourage someone going anywhere but especially the SH area with no job lined up.

I understand you don't like Hernando but making things up does no one any good.

According to the Census Bureau the median income is over $43,000.

There are many in Hernando that travel to Tampa for work and there would be more than enough qualified people to fill positions if we got more high tech industry here.

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by Mike Peterson

I understand you don't like Hernando but making things up does no one any good.

According to the Census Bureau the median income is over $43,000.

There are many in Hernando that travel to Tampa for work and there would be more than enough qualified people to fill positions if we got more high tech industry here.

Really? Than why did the Tampa Tribune in the Hernando Today list the average salary as just under 30K.

They also did a story on educational level of the residents and it stated less than 30% had college degrees.

HC is known as service industry county. Go to Publix after the work day is over and you see very few people dressed in professional clothes. You do see many people in uniforms such as those who work for pest control companies and other outside jobs.

More of those than anything else. HC can't even get a bookstore chain to come in( not due to lack of available retail space). Demographic studies have shown there isn't enough of interest in reading to warrant a retail bookstore chain to come in.

It is not an educated area, doesn't mean there aren't educated people there, but in general it is made up of retired people and those who work low paying jobs.

Moderator cut: comment the one poster said he can't find qualified people for his office in HC. He has to look to Tampa and Orlando.

His words not mine.

[House4Sale]

It's a charming town which could truly become a haven if someone with a vision (new board, perhaps) could come in and make that place come alive. It doesn't have to lose it's hometown flavor...if done right. In November, you need to remember to vote.

[Wakefront]

Well you're probably correct seain. I wasn't my idea to come here, but my then employer. They wanted in Tarpon but found Spring Hill less expensive. I moved here and the office was only open for a year. I'm looking to cut my losses and leave asap. It's a little too "Old Florida" for us after spending time in Estero & Palm Beach Gardens.

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by Wakefront

Well you're probably correct seain. I wasn't my idea to come here, but my then employer. They wanted in Tarpon but found Spring Hill less expensive. I moved here and the office was only open for a year. I'm looking to cut my losses and leave asap. It's a little too "Old Florida" for us after spending time in Estero & Palm Beach Gardens.

As the saying goes "when you go cheap, you get cheap". They would have better off in Tarpon Springs and paid more for rent.

Again someone didn't do their homework( your employer) and only looked at the cost of setting up the business. Not the resources available in the area.

What you have in SH is retired people who aren't looking for work and a workforce mainly made up people in service industry jobs.

Don't know what your business is/was, but it sounds like you need college educated workers who can sit down at a computer and get to work with little training.

Your going to hard pressed to find that resource in SH or Brooksville as you found out.

[cbm34609]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

As the saying goes "when you go cheap, you get cheap". They would have better off in Tarpon Springs and paid more for rent.

Again someone didn't do their homework( your employer) and only looked at the cost of setting up the business. Not the resources available in the area.

What you have in SH is retired people who aren't looking for work and a workforce mainly made up people in service industry jobs.

Don't know what your business is/was, but it sounds like you need college educated workers who can sit down at a computer and get to work with little training.

Your going to hard pressed to find that resource in SH or Brooksville as you found out.

Spring Hill started as a retirement community back in the early 1970's. In less than 40 years it has grown almost to over 150k people or more! That is an amazing amount of growth for such a small amount of time. When a place experiences such a rapid population growth things do change a lot. There are still a lot of retired people here but there are also a lot more families and middle aged people here than ever before. There are a lot of people in the service industry jobs but there is a huge percentage of people that commute to Tampa everyday. Why do you think a 57 miles expressway was built? A very large percentage of people commute to Tampa for higher quality jobs. Then you have a high percentage of service industry people employed and then the retired. That is mainly what makes up the residents of Spring Hill. If it has grown this much in 40 years and continues to grow in a recession it has a lot of potential. Just in the past 2 years many major retail chains have invested here. I know that doesn't sound like a huge event but that is the foundation to a community. If it wasn't for the worries of sink holes and the commute to Tampa I would love it here more than I already do. The people that move here from NY (Long Island) sell their homes and come down here with their pockets lined with cash. They buy a NEW home twice the size they were living in up there and still have a couple hundred thousand left over from selling there home in NY. After the money runs out they realize the cannot live here anymore. This also makes up a percentage of Spring Hill but it is a little off the subject.

[seain dublin]

Why would someone want to do a 90 mile round trip to Tampa everyday? I know people do it but why would they. When they can live in a nicer area and have half the commute?

Spring Hill has gotten very rundown looking. There are tons of empty homes, many with with weeds and grass waist high. The county can't keep up with the requests to get out an cut the lawns. Crime is way up. Many are drug related.

We have family there, it took four months of complaining to get the county to come out and take care of two homes on their block that were foreclosed on. Code Enforcement told them they are so overwhelmed with requests they can't keep up with them. When they did come out they used something to burn the lawn and weeds so they don't grow. Doesn't look great but is better than the four foot high grass which attracts snakes and rats.

And most people who retire from up north(at least the smart ones) don't buy a house twice the size they had in the north. First off the kids are gone, and second who wants to have more house to maintain as you get older.

So I don't know you who your talking about. All the retired people I know went with smaller homes, your right they did pay cash and had money left over. But they have lowered their overhead not increased it.

Don't understand why retired people would need more space?

Anyone who moved here and overextended themself isn't too bright.

You also left out the SH has many,many empty shopping centers. They keep building shopping centers that sit vacant. All they do is build there, they have thousands of homes for sale, in foreclosure, or vacant.

Hernando County also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state of Florida. Yet they think building more houses is going to fix the problem,it isn't.

They never attracted any industry into the area and instead built too many homes and shopping centers. They have created quite a mess due to bad planning.