Moving to Hillsborough county... (Tampa, Brandon: rental, car insurance, new home)

[SusanandTeddy]

My husband and I are considering a move from Phoenix to Hillsborough county. We can afford a rental house $2200/mo, minimum 1500 sqft, 3 bdrm, 2 bath, enclosed lanai and prefer fenced yard for dogs. I have looked at Apollo Beach, Valrico and Riverview. I'm interested in feedback about any town in that county and where I should be concerned about flooding. Can I even get flood insurance for a rental? My company has an office in Brandon, start there, but I may eventually take a job downtown, so I'd like to know commute times from around the county. I'd really like to keep under 40 mins. We like to keep the a/c at 72 degrees in summer. What would bill be for property between 1500 - 1800 sqft? And lastly, how far is nice beach from the town you're recommending? Thanks for all feedback!!

[MortonR]

I have a home in Tampa and a home in Flagstaff, and I know the PHX area well.

1.) Search this forum for moving topics and you'll find lots of good information.

2.) You're not going to find a rental house that size and price in an area you would feel safe living in. Try close to $3k, and that's if you can find one. Think Scottsdale prices here, it's actually more expensive than parts of Phoenix.

3.) Can't speak to the flood insurance on a rental, mainly because rental insurance is for contents, which I suspect would be covered in the event of a flood, but check with your insurance agent. You don't have any responsibility for the property or structure, so I'm not sure why you would need flood insurance.

More so, the area isn't all in a flood plain, only portions of it. You can check a property for its location relative to flood zones on the FEMA flood insurance website.

4.) Valrico will be best for commuting, especially downtown. Riverview and Apollo Beach will have commute times into downtown of an hour or more, depending on the time of day. The farther south you go (Riverview, Apollo Beach, Wimauma, etc.) the worse the commute gets.

5.) Any beach is roughly an hour's drive from Hillsborough County. Some will argue they are closer, but it truly depends on where you're going. The Pinellas County beaches are mostly tourist beaches, meaning they're often congested and difficult to access (parking.) If we want to go to the beach we drive to Anna Maria Island near Bradenton.

Also, think about it this way: Living in FL is not like being on vacation every day. The cost of living is very similar to where you currently live, probably a bit higher and for sure is going to increase substantially. To give you an idea of how crazy the costs are here, insurance will be one of your biggest expenses. A decent car insurance policy will be $1500/year or more. If you buy a home be prepared - I have a 20-year-old home that's got a new roof and is well constructed and maintained - my homeowner's insurance has gone up about 70% in the last two years and will surely continue to increase. I'm paying around $3000/year now, and I already have neighbors paying twice that.

The congestion here, especially in Hillsborough County, is making it nearly impossible to get around. What's worse here than in Phoenix is that the county failed to keep up with impact fees and infrastructure buildout as the community grew over the last 30 years, so now you have areas where there are literally 1,000s of new homes that are served by a two-lane rural road feeding an undersized arterial road. The traffic is unbelievable and makes it difficult to get around.

I think you're nuts to leave the valley for Florida. The cost of living is high there, for sure, but the problem with Florida is not only the cost of living increasing, it's going to continue to increase in areas where you have no control, like insurance. You have to insure your car (and house if you have a mortgage) so there's no avoiding those costs. Once you're here, you're stuck with these. Then add the random event in for excitement: Hurricanes. I'm not going to make a big deal out of them, but the risk is there and it's very real.

On a less critical but still important matter, have you experienced the climate here? Like been here in August? If not, you definitely better hold off until you can get the full experience, because it's nothing remotely close to the climate in PHX. And yes, it was down in the low 40s this morning, but that beats Flagstaff's 37! I'll be there shortly to get some time in at Snowbowl after there's more snow.

Good luck! You're welcome to DM me if you have questions.

RM

[kab0906]

Originally Posted by SusanandTeddy

My husband and I are considering a move from Phoenix to Hillsborough county. We can afford a rental house $2200/mo, minimum 1500 sqft, 3 bdrm, 2 bath, enclosed lanai and prefer fenced yard for dogs. I have looked at Apollo Beach, Valrico and Riverview. I'm interested in feedback about any town in that county and where I should be concerned about flooding. Can I even get flood insurance for a rental? My company has an office in Brandon, start there, but I may eventually take a job downtown, so I'd like to know commute times from around the county. I'd really like to keep under 40 mins. We like to keep the a/c at 72 degrees in summer. What would bill be for property between 1500 - 1800 sqft? And lastly, how far is nice beach from the town you're recommending? Thanks for all feedback!!

Flood zone map: https://experience.arcgis.com/experi...g=Hillsborough

Downtown commute from Apollo Beach, Riverview will be easily 40 minutes, and much longer when there are accidents.

Expect a bill at high summer (last summer we got to 115° ) to be $150.00 or more, depending on how well built the house is and its age. Our house is 3200 sf and we keep ours at 76 all year long, and our bill was near $300.

Beaches? You have to go to Sarasota. Apollo Beach has no real beach. The small area of 'beach' you cannot swim in because of harsh currents.

As for property taxes, god knows. CDD fees may be a factor, or not. Exemptions you may or may not qualify for.