Advice needed on neighborhoods (Tampa, Bradenton: apartments, for rent, crime)

[epicviolet]

Hi, I was wondering if someone could help me! We are looking to move to the Tampa/St. Pete/Bradenton area in February of next year. We do not have children, so the caliber of the schools I guess doesn't really matter much, but two of us will be attending University. I personally do not come from a great neighborhood, and have seen enough shootings and drugs to last a lifetime. I am really looking for a safe area, because it seems every time I find apartments we may be interested in, I cross-check with the maps and advice on the forum and find that it's not so great. Honestly, my idea of safe is if I am able to walk my lab at night without incident.


We will have $8,000 saved, and are budgeting $1,000 for rent. With the three us working it will be very feasible. If the neighborhood is really safe I'm willing to add a few hundred to the rent. We are looking for a nice, laid-back area, that is at least 40 minutes to the beach. Is that possible?

Again, any help will be very much appreciated.

[Stewabby]

Where will you be going to school? Do you only need a two bedroom?

[epicviolet]

University of South Florida. It seems to have a St. Pete satellite campus if we find an area closer to there. We will need a three bedroom.

[Stewabby]

I'm not very familiar with the area just around USF in terms of apartments, but if you go up Bruce B. Downs to New Tampa there are very nice areas with good apartment buildings. The easiest thing to do is go to advanced search and search Tampa Bay. Put in "USF" as your search criteria. Tons of threads will come up on areas near USF and where to live. Good luck!

[sportsterjohn]

There are a lot of places walking distance to USF. St. Pete. The problem is that they do not advertise, you have to drive around the area and look for "for rent" signs. They have a for rent sign right across the street from me now.

[epicviolet]

There are some apartments that I was looking at around 66th Ave S and Pinellas Point Dr S, in St. Pete. Is that generally an area that anyone would recommend? I was also looking at the Imperial Village Apartments at 9790 Hamlin Blvd. I am going to look at a spotcrime map for the areas, but if anyone could give advice, it would be nice to make an informed decision on the matter. Thank you very much!

[epicviolet]

Originally Posted by Stewabby

I'm not very familiar with the area just around USF in terms of apartments, but if you go up Bruce B. Downs to New Tampa there are very nice areas with good apartment buildings. The easiest thing to do is go to advanced search and search Tampa Bay. Put in "USF" as your search criteria. Tons of threads will come up on areas near USF and where to live. Good luck!

Thank you for the tip! Will do.

[DUNNDFRNT]

Originally Posted by epicviolet

Thank you for the tip! Will do.

she is referring to the main campus in Tampa, you seem to be talking about USFSP, the two campuses are a good 30-45 min apart,