Info about Tampa area (Memphis: crime, house, private school)

[jfree79]

I am thinking of moving to Fl. in about a year and I'm trying to get some info. I need somewhere that is affordable with good schools and near the beach. I am coming from Memphis, Tn which crime is rampant schools are so so, if you don't mind the kids being ghetto, and I am trying to keep my kids out of the gang scene in about 10 years. It's very easy to get into being there myself about 10 years ago. So any info on Tampa would be good. Jobs, housing, schools are key areas of concern obviously. But I would like to know how the quality of life overall is there. How many people like it or wish they were somewhere else ? Also I've been wondering with higher cost of living do jobs pay better or do you need 2 jobs to live. Obviously I understand if you're a CEO there would be no problems but for an avg. job how is it.

[annesg]

I think it is all relative--what amount of money for a house would you want to spend? What would you expect for that amount? If you have $250k and are looking for a nice 1500-2000sf home (3/2/2, maybe with pool) in a nice subdivision on about .18 acre or so, then you will be pleased. I think the quality of life here is great--my kids can play outside every day of the year, though they spend about 4 mo only in the pool as far as outside goes bc it's so hot. The schools are hit or miss. My kids are in private school and we LOVE it, but we also hear that the public school we're zoned for is wonderful, too.

What I like most about Tampa is that the people are in fact nice, and that you can probably find what you want--there is a lot of diversity in the communities and parts of town. Some people love New Tampa, others hate it. Some people live in S. Tampa and wouldn't dream of going north of Kennedy for all the tea in china. Others think Carrollwood or Channelside tops. The good news is, there's a lot here.

You are going to find plenty of gang activities in the high schools, I don't see how you avoid that in public schools, but it's worse in some places than others, and I would suggest you find out which high schools have the most involved parents/PTAs and the highest graduation rates. Unfortunately, Florida's dropout rate is pretty high.

I don't know how housing ranks compared to where you are now, so that would just depend.