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Everything on here seems to be pretty negative about Riverview, does anybody have positive experiences with it?? Seems like a lot of the negative reviews are from a couple years ago. I'm just trying to see if anything has gotten better. Our family likes the newer cookie-cutter houses that are in the family-oriented neighborhoods. School-wise, looking for a 5/10 for the very minimum on Great Schools. Also using the Florida Dep't of Education Accountability rankings (rely on this a little more though). I'm just trying to see what, if anything, people actually like about the area.
I move down in a couple weeks into a short-term rental while starting my job. I need to find a home while my family stays up north to sell our current house. I'm used to a 30-40 minute commute already in Cincinnati and I'm fine with keeping that. I'll be working a couple minutes from the Tampa airport so the Riverview area seems to fit within that. Our 350K max budget seems to be able to get a good house for us, but then all the school reviews start to scare me away and make me lean only towards Fishhawk or a charter school. For Fishhawk though, we have to sacrifice some of the things we want with the house. I don't know, starting to ramble now, sorry. Just so many different neighborhood choices where I think something will ultimately have to be sacrificed. Thanks for the help.
It’s a tough call. Riverview encompasses a pretty large area that is quite diverse, meaning there are good parts and bad parts. You would have to be quite specific as to where in Riverview you are looking before anyone could pass judgement.
It has been built out substantially over the past 5-7 years.
Everything on here seems to be pretty negative about Riverview, does anybody have positive experiences with it?? Seems like a lot of the negative reviews are from a couple years ago. I'm just trying to see if anything has gotten better. Our family likes the newer cookie-cutter houses that are in the family-oriented neighborhoods. School-wise, looking for a 5/10 for the very minimum on Great Schools. Also using the Florida Dep't of Education Accountability rankings (rely on this a little more though). I'm just trying to see what, if anything, people actually like about the area.
I move down in a couple weeks into a short-term rental while starting my job. I need to find a home while my family stays up north to sell our current house. I'm used to a 30-40 minute commute already in Cincinnati and I'm fine with keeping that. I'll be working a couple minutes from the Tampa airport so the Riverview area seems to fit within that. Our 350K max budget seems to be able to get a good house for us, but then all the school reviews start to scare me away and make me lean only towards Fishhawk or a charter school. For Fishhawk though, we have to sacrifice some of the things we want with the house. I don't know, starting to ramble now, sorry. Just so many different neighborhood choices where I think something will ultimately have to be sacrificed. Thanks for the help.
If you're going to be working only a couple of minutes from the Tampa airport, why Riverview????
With your budget, you can get a nice place in Carrollwood. Nicer area, better commute and better schools. Yes, the homes are older, but they're well built, the neighborhoods are established, great for kids. Best neighborhood in the Tampa area, IMO. I wouldn't live in Riverview when I could live in Carrollwood. Good luck in your move, though.
If you're going to be working only a couple of minutes from the Tampa airport, why Riverview????
With your budget, you can get a nice place in Carrollwood. Nicer area, better commute and better schools. Yes, the homes are older, but they're well built, the neighborhoods are established, great for kids. Best neighborhood in the Tampa area, IMO. I wouldn't live in Riverview when I could live in Carrollwood. Good luck in your move, though.
Well....I don't know. It just seems all of our home searches sort of pointed us towards Riverview. We were the 1st owners in our current house and I guess just lean towards a newer home. I'm not exactly a handy person around the house and just like the look of the newer/modern houses. I do understand though that they typically aren't built too well, builders just putting them up as quick as possible. Don't get me wrong, we've been looking all over the Tampa area, just seems most of the houses we like were in that area. I'll take a closer look at Carrollwood.
I've lived here for 3 years, no regrets. As MortonR mentioned, Riverview is a large area, covering real old areas with mostly trailers, to newer areas south. I'm in a similar priced home as you are looking for in a new community (Waterleaf). We looked at other areas, with older homes in Tampa and Bradenton area, it left me saying hell no. You'll also find that home insurance is much more as they aren't built to the current building standards. The downside of the area is traffic during commute as county has done a poor job of planning for the growth. You'll have that in Fishhawk as well. And we have several people who have moved to our community from Fishhawk, so that's not nirvana there either.
As for schools, people in our community were "scared" of the schools based on their scores. I have no kids of school age, so can't speak to them firsthand. But I can tell you this, there's a new charter school just within a stone's throw of my community, highly rated "A". But one parent pulled their kid from there and moved back to the public school and she's found the public school does a better job on education. She's impressed with the quality of the teachers and administration in the school. I've talked with other neighbors who have their kids in the the middle school and high school for our area, they are very happy as well, those schools offer honors programs which offers their kids the ability to do well. Fact is, and with a daughter as a teacher, the school rating isn't reflective necessarily of the teaching and administration. Instead it many times reflects the engagement of the parents, or lack there of, in their education of their children. If parents don't encourage their children to do well in school and don't require that they do their homework, then their kids will do poorly in school. Charter schools can be selective and can therefore game the system with "higher" performing students - aka parents have to be involved in the school volunteering time instead of $$, and therefore encourage their kids to do well in school. Public schools can't be selective and has to accept anyone that shows up at the door, including many transient people who struggle with basic language and math skills.
Everyone has their own personal bias on an area, some here speak from lack of any direct involvement in the area or is very dated. Riverview is a growth area, lots of new homes and now businesses coming into the area. Just need the county to get their head out of the back-end and do sufficient planning, and more importantly, actually execute on a set of reasonable plans to address the AM and PM rush hours. But it seems to say something about the quality of life in the area when people move to the area knowing that the commute may be long. But I can say this, having lived in Chicago the "traffic congestion" here is nothing like it was there. No idea how Cincinnati was.
I've lived here for 3 years, no regrets. As MortonR mentioned, Riverview is a large area, covering real old areas with mostly trailers, to newer areas south. I'm in a similar priced home as you are looking for in a new community (Waterleaf). We looked at other areas, with older homes in Tampa and Bradenton area, it left me saying hell no. You'll also find that home insurance is much more as they aren't built to the current building standards. The downside of the area is traffic during commute as county has done a poor job of planning for the growth. You'll have that in Fishhawk as well. And we have several people who have moved to our community from Fishhawk, so that's not nirvana there either.
As for schools, people in our community were "scared" of the schools based on their scores. I have no kids of school age, so can't speak to them firsthand. But I can tell you this, there's a new charter school just within a stone's throw of my community, highly rated "A". But one parent pulled their kid from there and moved back to the public school and she's found the public school does a better job on education. She's impressed with the quality of the teachers and administration in the school. I've talked with other neighbors who have their kids in the the middle school and high school for our area, they are very happy as well, those schools offer honors programs which offers their kids the ability to do well. Fact is, and with a daughter as a teacher, the school rating isn't reflective necessarily of the teaching and administration. Instead it many times reflects the engagement of the parents, or lack there of, in their education of their children. If parents don't encourage their children to do well in school and don't require that they do their homework, then their kids will do poorly in school. Charter schools can be selective and can therefore game the system with "higher" performing students - aka parents have to be involved in the school volunteering time instead of $$, and therefore encourage their kids to do well in school. Public schools can't be selective and has to accept anyone that shows up at the door, including many transient people who struggle with basic language and math skills.
Everyone has their own personal bias on an area, some here speak from lack of any direct involvement in the area or is very dated. Riverview is a growth area, lots of new homes and now businesses coming into the area. Just need the county to get their head out of the back-end and do sufficient planning, and more importantly, actually execute on a set of reasonable plans to address the AM and PM rush hours. But it seems to say something about the quality of life in the area when people move to the area knowing that the commute may be long. But I can say this, having lived in Chicago the "traffic congestion" here is nothing like it was there. No idea how Cincinnati was.
Good luck on your search....
Thanks for the info. I'm familiar with some of your posts so thanks for chiming in. Waterleaf is one of the communities that we've looked into and even briefly drove into it back when we visited in March.
I meant to say in my original post that we're not the type of parents that say we only need the best schools etc. My preschooler will adapt anywhere. Our 2nd grader currently goes to a "Great Schools" rated 5 school. I just became aware of that and we've always really liked the school. I completely agree that everything depends on the parents. We sit with him and do homework every night and try to be as actively involved as possible. I don't know, since our current school is a middle-of-the-road school, thats what we're currently looking for at the very least.
I've never been to a private/charter school and my kids haven't either. I really don't know anything about them except that they seem to be popular in the Tampa area. Thats why we're only starting to half consider it now.
Well....I don't know. It just seems all of our home searches sort of pointed us towards Riverview. We were the 1st owners in our current house and I guess just lean towards a newer home. I'm not exactly a handy person around the house and just like the look of the newer/modern houses. I do understand though that they typically aren't built too well, builders just putting them up as quick as possible. Don't get me wrong, we've been looking all over the Tampa area, just seems most of the houses we like were in that area. I'll take a closer look at Carrollwood.
The homes in Carrollwood are a lot more livable than many of the newer built homes in Riverview, IMO. One thing you have to be aware of in parts of Florida, not just Riverview, is construction defects on the more recent builds. With an older, more time tested home, any issues that were problematic would have been taken care of over the years if the owners were conscientious and maintained it. So you can actually find yourself having to do more maintenance or home repair work in a newer build, depending on who the builder was.
Many of the homes in Carrollwood have a "lower profile", meaning they're one story and have lower ceilings and lower roof lines. That's an advantage in terms of power bills and storms. All these newer homes with "volume ceilings" and "walls" that only go part way up are for the birds.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely down on Riverview. It depends on where you live in Riverview and who built your home and access to the main highways to get where you need to go. Parts of it are quite nice. But there are also subdivisions that look nice from the outside and yet have problems with crime. No one will tell you which ones, either, not even a realtor. You'd have to do your homework and google searches, etc. to find out which ones to avoid.
I am definitely biased in favor of Carrollwood, so bear that in mind. Objectively, in terms of commute and schools, it's a much better fit for you. It's also greener and more attractive overall than Riverview, IMO. Yes, give it a second look.
The homes in Carrollwood are a lot more livable than many of the newer built homes in Riverview, IMO. One thing you have to be aware of in parts of Florida, not just Riverview, is construction defects on the more recent builds. With an older, more time tested home, any issues that were problematic would have been taken care of over the years if the owners were conscientious and maintained it. So you can actually find yourself having to do more maintenance or home repair work in a newer build, depending on who the builder was.
Many of the homes in Carrollwood have a "lower profile", meaning they're one story and have lower ceilings and lower roof lines. That's an advantage in terms of power bills and storms. All these newer homes with "volume ceilings" and "walls" that only go part way up are for the birds.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely down on Riverview. It depends on where you live in Riverview and who built your home and access to the main highways to get where you need to go. Parts of it are quite nice. But there are also subdivisions that look nice from the outside and yet have problems with crime. No one will tell you which ones, either, not even a realtor. You'd have to do your homework and google searches, etc. to find out which ones to avoid.
I am definitely biased in favor of Carrollwood, so bear that in mind. Objectively, in terms of commute and schools, it's a much better fit for you. It's also greener and more attractive overall than Riverview, IMO. Yes, give it a second look.
Those older "lower profile" homes are ENERGY PIGS. I'll put the electric bills of my two story (which includes a pool/pump) against those homes in Carrollwood, I know mine will be less (and I like to keep my home cool). The newer homes are much more energy efficient, radiant roofs, hybrid water heaters, higher efficiency heat pumps and appliances, higher R value insulation, etc. A neighbor moved from home just up the road that was built 20 years ago. Similar single story home with roughly same square foot. They said they saw their electric bills drop by well over half, now paying about 1/3 what they were paying before. They said their savings is enough to pay the taxes on their new place - wow!
And those low profile older homes may sit low to the ground, but they have older style gable roofs that act like a sail in the wind. The new code is "hip roofs" that sustain much higher wind speeds. They also lack the reinforcement and tied downs that are now build into the walls of new construction homes (required by code). Heck, when we were looking most lacked even the mounting for hurricane shutters. The new homes are built to sustain 140-150 MPH winds. The insurance rates reflect this reality as well. I had quote on similar size home that was built to "older" code, it was 4-5 times the premium I pay. Hopefully we won't have a hurricane pass through. Here's a typical older home in Carrollwood, just imagine the wind hitting the sides of the gable roof and catching the large overhangs.
Here's article by insurance industry on changes to building codes from 2002 which noted
Quote:
The study concluded that homes built under the 2002 Florida Building Code sustained less damage on average than homes built between 1994 and 2001 under the Standard Building Code. Homes built before 1994 also fared worse than those built after that year.
As for greener, not sure where you are going there. I'll bet my community compares quite favorably with whatever you have in your head as we have lots of green space. And heck, there's plenty of green space in the area that is preserved by the county.
But hey, I get it, you lived there (may be wrong, but I think you bailed on the Carrollwood area recently) and I live here. I had a choice, looked at various areas and have no regrets with my decision.
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