Moving to the area mid-July. Househunting trip in June. Advice please!

[gulfer]

An article on tampabay.com last week talked of a Sargeant getting beaten at 3:30 in the morning walking back to the base.

I understand it is not common occurance, and 3:30 is not the time to be out and about, but it did in fact happen.

I am sure there are nice areas down there, but with the criteria that was set up, I was just throwing out options.

If I had a million, I would be living along the water on the westside of that penninsula!

[springmac]

We just did the same thing last year! While we wanted to be close to the beaches, education was more important. Fishhawk has the best elementary/middle/high schools in the area! We are able to make it to the beach in less than an hour. Many military families live here in Fishhawk. I'm not really familiar with other areas, so I can't offer any advice. Good luck to you and your family!

[waketurbulence]

I would look at Stonebrier Community in the Lutz Area as its perfect for familys and the best schools in the area Stienbrenner A+ Schools. They are building brand new homes in that area and you can get something in Waterbridge for 300-400K and Sweetgrass for 150K-200K. You have the cross town which is close by!! I will be moving there when the time is right..

[springmac]

Lutz is a good area as well. Because of where we work, we needed to be where we are. Schools in Lutz are good as well, although still not as good as Fishhawk Schools...

[NativeNoir]

Why not Palma Ceia or Hyde Park? Good schools, public and private. Or Davis Island? Or,
I have a friend that lives in a little neighborhood called Interbay, in this gorgeous older home. At this time in Tampa Bay the real estate market is still in the dumps, so the world is your oyster at the price you mention. Hyde Park is an enclave with it's own shopping areas that are walkable, and very close to international mall. St Johns episcopal and Tampa bay prep are the best private schools in this area. Lots of families in Hyde Park. not my cup of tea, but I used to work there, and it looked to be a nice lifestyle, but forget a large yard. Get a good realtor that really know the area. there are some neighborhoods by the Palma Ceia Golf and country club that would fit your description. I wouldn't wish the drive from either Brandon or Carrollwood on anyone.

[grammyR]

My vote would be for Safety Harbor for having a great small town feel. Oldsmar is nice in some areas but pretty small, however it is in Hillsborough County Schools where as SH is in the Pinellas County schools. My kids are grown but I am afraid you may be evry dissapointed in the schools down here. I would go private unless you have teens and then South Tampa- Plant High School rated high and very close to MacDill. You should be able to find plenty of homes for sale that would suit you.

[tonyff67]

You may want to consider the St Pete side in the Gandy area, particularly south of Gandy. It's only 15 to 20 minutes from Mac Dill.

[Keeper]

I would look in S. Tampa with your budget. S. Tampa has the best schools with lots of little shops. Some beautiful homes in your price range.

Westchase is also nice but it is a much longer commute.

[Matrips]

Well, we got down here yesterday and have driven all around. We had quite a few surprises. I was hoping based upon what we found that someone could zero in on some more specific streets etc for us. Or expound on the areas we did like and compare them.

We did not like Westchase at all! I couldn't even really see what was master planned about it. A bunch of walled off subdivisions and then get on a busy street to go shopping. So disappointing. Not at all what I envisioned.

Now we really loved carrollwood! We hadnt even planned on looking there. We drove through carrollwood village first. It had that neighborhood feel we were looking for. Many different looking homes in a large community, decent size lots, lots of sidewalks, trees, even a golf course. I could easily see our kids biking around and being safe. And it was even walkable to many shops on Dale mabry. We looked across the way at older carrollwood as well, off orange grove. Still nice. Is there a beach there?

Safety Harbor, which we expected to really love, was a little disappointing as well. Terrific main street area, but then we hit of lot of iffy neighborhoods. And the nicer ones were almost too small. Just another separate subdivision.

Seminole was more subdivisions and strip malls, not what we had in mind either.

Definitely helpful to drive around. I'm wondering if there are any other great areas like carrollwood or old northeast that we haven't considered...

Thanks all!

Old northeast Petersburg looked like a wonderful area. However, it didn't like like any of the homes, or just very few, had pools and lanais. Why is this?

[gulfer]

Nice to see some active feedback from someone that has read the boards.

Have you tried West of Carrollwood into the Odessa area? It doesn't have the shopping, but the homes are georgeous, the yards fairly large and there are with or without subdivisions. About 8 minutes North of Carrollwood you get close to HWY 54 that provides additional options (but a further drive). Pretty wide open there tho until you get to Carrollwood.

Taxes drop significantly North of County Line Road (Pasco County vs Hillsborough).

What part of Carrollwood did you like? Will give me a better reference of what you are looking for?