Safety Harbor or Palm Harbor??? (Tampa, Clearwater: for sale, new home, established neighborhood)

[MDT40]

Can anyone tell me how Safety Harbor & Palm Harbor differs? Are there huge age differences between the communities? I really love Safety Harbor but dont know alot about Palm harbor. I want to make the right decision because that is where I plan to remain.

I also looked into Tarpon Springs,it seems to be nice but may be further than I want to be.

I will be working in Clearwater & not sure how the commute would be for Palm Harbor or Tarpon Springs.

Please, any and all information would be appreciated.

Thanks

[floridagirl777]

Originally Posted by MDT40

Can anyone tell me how Safety Harbor & Palm Harbor differs? Are there huge age differences between the communities? I really love Safety Harbor but dont know alot about Palm harbor. I want to make the right decision because that is where I plan to remain.

I also looked into Tarpon Springs,it seems to be nice but may be further than I want to be.

I will be working in Clearwater & not sure how the commute would be for Palm Harbor or Tarpon Springs.

Please, any and all information would be appreciated.

Thanks

Where will you be working in Clearwater?

My family and I were recently in the same situation. We were trying to decide between Palm Harbor, Safety Harbor, and Clearwater. We picked Safety Harbor. Here's why:

We love the quaintness of the downtown area. From our new home, we can walk or ride our bikes pretty much anywhere. They have festivals all the time. The restaurants and shops there are very cool.

It is very family friendly. The rec center there has all kinds of programs for children. The library does as well. I feel comfortable allowing my kids to ride their bikes around the area. Lots of sidewalks. My kids can ride up to Whistle Stop for ice cream and then go down to the pier to fish. It's like a 2012 version of Mayberry.

The people in Safety Harbor are very nice folks. It's got great diversity and a fairly well-educated populace. Many of the people there like the same things we do … art, good food, good wine, music, festivals, education … but they aren't pretentious.

We can participate in all sorts of outdoor activities right outside our home.

It's 20 minutes to the beaches and 20 minutes to Tampa. I can also get to Tarpon Springs in 20 minutes. Safety Harbor is just super convenient.

We chose Safety Harbor over Clearwater because we feel several parts of Clearwater aren't as safe or as nice as they used to be. Palm Harbor, on the other hand, is very nice … it just wasn't "us." It just lacked that "old Florida" feel we really love. It had lots of beautiful subdivisions and good schools, but it didn't have the quaint downtown feel of Safety Harbor. Safety Harbor is also smaller and allows for a tighter sense of community, which is important to us.

You are fortunate in that you are trying to decide between two good areas. I don't think you'll go wrong either way. We picked Safety Harbor because it was a better fit for us. You'll have to decide which is a better fit for YOU. Good luck!

[Sumermarie]

What floridagirl said is pretty much on par but I will add that it depends on what area of Palm Harbor you prefer.

The East Lake area has newer developments and has a different feel to me than say, downtown Palm Harbor, which has older, more established neighborhoods.

Safety Harbor is a great, artsy town with a more community minded feeling whereas Palm Harbor is more spread out and there's less focused events available. The only thing we didn't like about Safety Harbor was how some parts were very dirty looking, not the main street area mind you but the residential roads. One road would be nicely kept yards and houses that were well tended and then one block over the houses seemed run down with trash in the yards.

[MDT40]

Thank you florida girl. My apologies that I could'nt respond sooner. I agree with you. Totally. I really love the feel of Safety Harbor & everything it offers. The people are really nice & the festivals are great. I also like the community feel that also includes the dogs which is very important to me.

It may be bit challlenging to find a home that meet my standards with a large yard but I will stay vigilant in my search.
Thanks again for reminding me why i should stick to where I'd like to be

[MDT40]

Thanks for your reply Sumermarie. Sorry for the late reply. I definitely saw exactly what you were saying about the neighborhoods in Safety Harbor. My niece lived there & next door to her was a Giant monster truck in the front yard & broken windows on the home. Just unkept!

I will definitely be careful in my search. Thanks so much for your input

[floridagirl777]

Originally Posted by MDT40

Thank you florida girl. My apologies that I could'nt respond sooner. I agree with you. Totally. I really love the feel of Safety Harbor & everything it offers. The people are really nice & the festivals are great. I also like the community feel that also includes the dogs which is very important to me.

It may be bit challlenging to find a home that meet my standards with a large yard but I will stay vigilant in my search.
Thanks again for reminding me why i should stick to where I'd like to be

The large yard will be difficult to find in Safety Harbor. There was a home we almost went to see that looked like it had a large lot, but it backs up to a busy road. I can give you the Zillow link if you'd like. I think they just dropped the price the other day.

I understand what you mean about large yards. We moved from a home on a half acre lot on a dried lake bed, so it will be somewhat of an adjustment being on a smaller lot. Still, we felt the trade-off was worth it. Safety Harbor is a GREAT little community … it's a much better fit for us. And because the Philippee Park is within walking distance, we felt being on a smaller lot wouldn't be too bad.

Did you know Safety Harbor has a really nice a community garden downtown? I don't know if you are into that, but we LOVE growing our own veggies and will probably take advantage of that.

[LainieVee]

hey FG,

you offer such great, detailed info. i have a few more questions for you.....

i see there are some subdivisions in SF. Not sure we are SD people, but with kids, we are open to that type of environment. Can you offer any insight? Since there are parts of SF that i've read look a bit shabby, is the SD a better alternative? Is that what you chose? i love that you said your kids can ride into town.

Thanks!

[roadtrip75]

What are "SF" and "SD"?

[bavariantransplant]

I think one of the more difficult things about Safety Harbor is the lack of homes for sale. At least homes that are larger and newer for bigger families. Safety Harbor is one of our desired areas for our upcoming relocation but chances are greater we will send up in Palm over Safety.

[Wwanderer]

One small downside of SH is the distance from the beaches. Not sure, I'm in Dunedin, but I would think the age demographic in PH would skew older than SH.