Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Florida > Tampa Bay
 [Register]
Tampa Bay Tampa - St. Petersburg - Clearwater
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 08-13-2012, 07:58 AM
 
Location: Dunedin, FL
25 posts, read 47,358 times
Reputation: 26

Advertisements

We are looking to move in January from CT with our three teens. (One is out of HS already, one will be a junior and the other is in 8th) We are avid boaters and would like a home with a boat launch, not on the Gulf, but with easy access to it. We would like to be in a boater friendly community, meaning lots of restaurants and shopping accessible by boat as well as by car. More important, we want the best schools for our children. It seems we have narrowed it down to Sarasota or Palm Harbor, but I would like the input from others in regards to this. We currently live in Fairfield County CT in a city so we are used to having no money put towards education and the parents having to do everything. However, our children are excellent students. One is in a private High School right now.
It's going to be hard to leave a place that we were born & raised in and where our large family is, but the cost of living there is beyond ridiculous and my husband can do the same job in FL as he can do here in CT and has been offered a second job. I know the job market is not good, it's not good in CT either. I know maybe people losing their homes and who do not have jobs. It's not all roses in the NE for the people on this board that like to bash FL. (there is a lot of negativity here and it makes me so uneasy)
We are coming down next week to see the areas again for ourselves, but I would like to try to pinpoint an area so I can contact the schools for tours while we are there.
Thank you all for your time. I appreciate it very much.
Best Regards!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 08-13-2012, 09:22 AM
 
17,535 posts, read 39,141,385 times
Reputation: 24289
Both areas have excellent schools and are nice places to live. I live in Sarasota, and the Sarasota-Manatee area is VERY VERY boater-friendly, I would say more so than Palm Harbor. I think you will have to personally explore each city and see what appeals to you. Palm Harbor doesn't really have a real downtown, it's mostly newer developments. Sarasota has a small but vibrant downtown with lots going on, plus St. Armand's Circle, lots of great beaches, and a lot of arts and cultural activities and amenities. Really too much to mention here.

Good luck on your exploration trip and have fun!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-13-2012, 09:42 AM
 
Location: Dunedin, FL
25 posts, read 47,358 times
Reputation: 26
Thank you for your input! I didn't realize Sarasota was that kind of town. We are looking forward to exploring.

I have a quick question about Tropical Storm Debby. From what I can see, it truly devastated the area, however when I ask people, they say it was no big deal....any thoughts on this?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-13-2012, 10:36 AM
 
17,535 posts, read 39,141,385 times
Reputation: 24289
Quote:
Originally Posted by CTMom23 View Post
Thank you for your input! I didn't realize Sarasota was that kind of town. We are looking forward to exploring.

I have a quick question about Tropical Storm Debby. From what I can see, it truly devastated the area, however when I ask people, they say it was no big deal....any thoughts on this?
Where did you see all this devastation? Remember the media always plays things up dramatically, some even photoshop things that never happened. We had a LOT of rain, and some areas got very flooded, more so than they had ever been, but it drained away as it always does and there really wasn't any wide-spread devastation anywhere that I saw. It did erode the beaches, as bad storms like that tend to do. It did NOTHING to my neighborhood except down a tree or two.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-13-2012, 10:37 AM
 
5,453 posts, read 9,304,985 times
Reputation: 2141
"Its devastated the area"? No it didn't! Where did you get that from?

I would say Sarasota would fit your needs better too. Palm Harbor is a big nice subdivision, no downtown. Tarpon Springs is a lot more boater friendly than Palm Harbor.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-13-2012, 10:45 AM
 
Location: Dunedin, FL
25 posts, read 47,358 times
Reputation: 26
Wow..ok, so I guess the media coverage made it seem worse than it was. I found it all online and read some articles about it. It said 2 people died and there was a tornado inland. But I can see how they can blow it out of proportion....they always tend to do that. Glad to hear you both had no damage done to your homes.

Algia, would you say Sarasota is just as boater friendly as Tarpon Springs?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-13-2012, 10:47 AM
 
Location: Tampa, FL
27,798 posts, read 32,448,899 times
Reputation: 14611
MiraBay by Newland Communities | Waterfront Living | New Homes for Sale | Tampa, FL
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-13-2012, 10:59 AM
 
6,617 posts, read 5,012,264 times
Reputation: 3689
Quote:
Originally Posted by gypsychic View Post
Both areas have excellent schools and are nice places to live. I live in Sarasota, and the Sarasota-Manatee area is VERY VERY boater-friendly, I would say more so than Palm Harbor. I think you will have to personally explore each city and see what appeals to you. Palm Harbor doesn't really have a real downtown, it's mostly newer developments. Sarasota has a small but vibrant downtown with lots going on, plus St. Armand's Circle, lots of great beaches, and a lot of arts and cultural activities and amenities. Really too much to mention here.

Good luck on your exploration trip and have fun!
I agree if i had my choice and boating was my thing, considering schools and quality of life, Sarasota hands down. Not a fair comparison though Palm Harbor versus Sarasota, Palm Harbor is tiny comparing to Sarasota, i think when you consider the amenities in Palm Harbor you have to look at all the areas around it, st pete, downtown dunedin, cleawater. It would be like comparing North Port/Port Charlotte with Tampa. Sarasota has some of the best schools in the state, I am not sure about the Real state market there, the couple of people I know and visit there are really well off, I might be wrong, probably am but considering thats where a lot of the CEO's go to retire I thought it was uber expensive. I am sure there are affordable areas if you know where to look.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-13-2012, 11:01 AM
 
5,453 posts, read 9,304,985 times
Reputation: 2141
They always do that! The LOVE the "poor me" crap!
Don't bother watching the news, it'll make you throw up! Just get the Weather channel app on your phone and you should be fine. You realize that it is retarded to listen to a weather channel when you can look outside, and usually get a better forecast. These storms give people several days, if not weeks advance notice, to leave, take proper cover etc!

Sarasota is like 100 times more boater friendly that Tarpon. Tarpon is smaller.

Quote:
Originally Posted by CTMom23 View Post
Wow..ok, so I guess the media coverage made it seem worse than it was. I found it all online and read some articles about it. It said 2 people died and there was a tornado inland. But I can see how they can blow it out of proportion....they always tend to do that. Glad to hear you both had no damage done to your homes.

Algia, would you say Sarasota is just as boater friendly as Tarpon Springs?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-13-2012, 02:17 PM
 
Location: tampa bay
7,126 posts, read 8,655,613 times
Reputation: 11772
Agree 100% this is a beautiful place to live but not sure how good the schools are!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Florida > Tampa Bay

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:21 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top