Another one of those crazy New England types coming down! (Tampa: lease, crime rate)

[USMC3782]

Ok, my fiancee and I are going to be heading to Tampa Bay area after our wedding at end of month. Currently she is in Manhattan and I am in CT but we are both from CT. She works as an investment banker but is looking to change fields. I do sales/marketing/recruiting so my fields are flexible.
The basics of it are she wants a place for us to get away for a little time as she prepares to apply to top 10 schools for a law MBA. I know the market is tough down there for work, but we can live a few years if needed on reserves.


Where is your employment and the hours you will be working. None yet. from looking most jobs prefer to see a florida address. I do have a few Marine buddies in FL who can help and some automotive types. She is looking to volunteer at a animal shelter for a little while to decompress (both of our dogs are rescues). I will be looking to work full time in field, she is probably going to do the same in a finance/accounting job. We both know the pay down here will be approx 1/3 what we are used to.

What is your budget for housing. Do you want to rent or buy?
We are looking to rent since next fall she will be going to school and we do not know where yet. WHat we can afford and what we want to spend is different. Basically for a house fenced in good neighborhood (pool is a bonus) we could do $1300 easily. For a complex type situation I would not pay more than $900 and thats pushing it.
Are schools a concern?

What is an acceptable commute time? I don't care. I am used to a hours. She is used to walking 8 blocks to her office building, she will adapt obviously. I prefer about half a hour, but no job per se so it will get figured out.

What else is important to you? Fenced in yard for our pups, she will like to be within a easy drive of the beach. ( I spent 2 years in *beaches* so I do not care much. I am big into cars and love the car scene. I have a few friends throughout florida to meet up with but always a good time. I am big on crime rate for the area we live. In another post I saw someone mention CT has some decent crime, I know the areas and do not want to live in that type of area. I would prefer to being around young up and comers, not people waiting for a check.

Basically we are hoping for Tampa to be a great layover as we start our family. I love football and used to be a Bucs fan so it is exciting to be able to go to some games finally. I am looking for safe areas for us to be where we can start the next chapter.

I appreciate any feedback and input you have on on the area. One of the things I learned in the Marines was talk to experts when you are unsure. I hope to get some great advice here. We will be flying down next week to check out places and get a lease signed for a early August move in. See ya soon!

Mike

[lavender]

Wish you well Mike your outlines are quite broad, as you are both wanting to be in an area that is lively, but with a house/yard for your dogs, I recommend you talk to a realtor, like Tampa Karen, she knows the Tampa area well, and would point you in the right direction, which I think would be South Tampa,Hyde Park area. Plenty of life, pretty nice areas and you do have to drive to the beaches in pinellas, but water is all around our area.
$1300 might be optimistic to check off all your boxes. Over here in Pinellas you might get a 3/2/2 pool home for around $1800/mo you can get for less, without a pool, maybe $1500/mo, however, the areas are more diverse in ages, unless you go for downtown St Pete. This is also diverse age groups, but very vibrant. I dont think there are any areas where the population is totally older, that you feel you want to avoid, except around Sun City, have to say, when you do have family you might appreciate those folks, who are around daytime, when you are out and about, watching over the neighborhood