What's up with Spring Hill? (Miami, Tampa: homeowners insurance, new home, unemployment rate)

[Carollinca]

This is an awesome retirement area. I have an awesome 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo for rent to seniors in Beacon Woods - 25 miles from Tampa 4 miles from the beach. I live in CA and intend to retire there.

[Songbird42]

Originally Posted by Florida Fever

Wow.. I just read the article and all I can say is, Wow. It's really unfortunate that people are losing their homes. They must be terrified, I know I would be. I wonder what the answer is. It's really a shame that instead of building homes they aren't building places for people to work. I guess that would really defeat the purpose of the area though, if you build up all these businesses, soon enough it is no more the quiet, nice area it once was. I think much of this is due to the horrible gas prices. They are a killer. We are paying $4.00 per gallon up here in NJ too and it's awful. Maybe some of the refugees from NJ and other places that are too ridiculously expensive to live in, will buy some of those houses and that will help.

Sange - I would love to take a look at that house if you know the MLS number and thanks!

We are waiting to hear back from my husbands company regarding the transfer and we'll see what happens! We really wanted to be down there before school began again for the kids but that isn't looking good. We shall see!

School starts August 18th........good luck on that transfer.

[sange77]

Florida Fever- I sent you the address in a private message. I don't know the MLS # but if you are working with a real estate agent they should be able to help you. If you are not, there is a real estate agent that specializes in homes in Sterling Hill...I give you his info as well.

[iphillips65]

I think the main reasons their are so many houses are for sale are, 1, no jobs and lots of forclosures and 2, many of the seniors have been trying to get out of this area now that it is getting busier. I have lived here for coming on 2 years and we love it. It is NOT my any means in the middle of nowhere. There is every resturant and every store you could possibly think of. My husband nd I are 40 ish aand my kids are 16 and 20 and LOVE it here. But it's true there are so many people looking for that one job. It's very hard to make any kind of real money. We just now started getting some money thanks to the fact that my husband has grocery store management experiance. That is a great paying job for Fla. but you have to have experiance. I get paid $9.50 an hour part time and that is considered high for fla. I am a shipping and receiving clerk. So it takes some real hunting and sonme brains but you can find something. If you are looking to get rich and make tons of money, FORGET IT! But hey it's paradise so relax and enjoy it. We do! You can't have everything! Good luck!

[MuseofaBlindPoet]

We lived in Land O Lakes/Lutz before moving from Florida to Oregon, that area like Spring Hill was rather backwoods when we first moved there seven years ago. When we left the place had exploded. Seemed like Tampa was over running the surrounding area. We were considering a move to Spring Hill or New Port Richey until my husband was offered a job here. Regretfully, we should have stayed in Florida.

[House4Sale]

More jobs would help. It's a wonderful area but they built too many houses with no commerce (jobs) for the people who live in all those houses. Hopefully, honest city officials and developers with a vision will take over and rescue the place as it really is a charming, woodsy nice area.

[Tom in Spring Hill]

Hi Gang:
Been reading the threads on Spring Hill lately. Seeing what others are thinking about the area. We've been here 3 years now. Its a nice place to live.

Its not a place to work unless you are in retail or the service trades, lawn maintenance, home maintenance, plumber, electrician, etc. One problem there is EVERYBODY does all of the above so the competition is strong.

If you go south into New Port Richey and beyond there are many more professional jobs available including the County and the State if you can handle working in that environment.

Tampa is a long haul. Most folks report 30-45 drive times. From where to exactly where? It takes me 45 minutes from my door just to the airport.
I've been in downtown Tampa traffic and it would have to be a good 90 minutes from my door to an office in downtown Tampa. So trying to work in Tampa and live in Spring Hill is difficult unless you are accustomed to long commutes. We need a rail line running on top of the Suncoast/Veterans Expressway with more lines hubbing out at the airport so people can get around the metro Tampa area, but that's a whole 'nother story.

I am not sure what people expect from Spring Hill except a house to live in and some decent places to shop and eat. Keep in mind, prior to 1971 there was NOTHING here. The land was no good for growing anything or raising cattle which is what Hernando County was about then. The land was $100.00 an acre not that long ago. Then came Deltona Corps. idea to put up a retirement town and it filled pretty quick with retirees from the Northeast mainly. It stayed that way for a long time. The children of those retirees came to visit and relocated here and the area started to change from retirement town to huge suburb without much industry and just about nothing in the way of white collar work. It wasnt here prior to Deltona and it sure aint here after Deltona.

Right now housing is cheap. Really cheap. Retirees cant afford the taxes and insurance on their "winter homes" and are selling off. People who came here
thinking whatever they were thinking took out mortgages they could not afford after the teaser rates expired and now they can't keep up. Insurance rates have gone through the roof since 2005. Taxes are another story. So, with the national economy in the toilet, areas like Spring Hill do see a hit
because the service based economy takes a hit and it spirals down from there.

If you are a RN, you can do pretty good here. You will work. You won't get paid what you may have expected, but the field is wide open in the medical arts fields.

For some reason commercial building is brisk. New shopping areas being built around town in several locations and I understand an aircraft parts manufacturer is coming to the airport industrial park. I don't think JC Penny, Sports Authority, Best Buy, Kohl's and other big box retailers would be interested in this area unless they felt a change was in the air.

Finally, for those of you who hate Spring Hill what brought you here in the first place and what kept you here so long? Why did you not leave during the 2005-06 boom in real estate?

[DaveB]

We bought our home in Spring Hill three and a half years ago and I'm glad we did. However, there are some things we have a different perspective on (not generally better or worse - just different).

- When we bought we had difficulty finding the right place (without waiting for a year for new construction) - it was still in the sellers market. Now there's a zillion of our kind of house in a buyers market. We could have bought for less later but we don't dwell on it because we have exactly the home and neighborhood we were looking for. For us, that offsets price.

- Aside from the general issues related to housing, Spring Hill was a boom town for new home construction. As the market dropped the builders kept building and it will take a couple more years for that inventory to move back to equilibrium. Hence the glut of houses.

- We were aware of the sinkhole situation but it wasn't a deal breaker for us. The sinkhole part of our policy is an additional $800.00 per year over and above the regular premium. Good value? It is if you have a sinkhole.

- My daughter from San Francisco thinks Spring Hill is "in the middle of nowhere". But she likes Tampa-St Pete- Clearwater. Here's the difference.When we want to see the Rays we gladly drive the 45 minutes to Tropicana Field. Spring Hill is "close enough, yet far enough away". In my daughter's Frisco lifestyle, if you can't walk to Starbucks (and all the trendy boutiques around it) you're in the middle of nowhere.

- Here's a big one. People. We continue to be impressed by the overall friendliness of people in Spring Hill. It's decidedly middle class. Pretentious snobs from Naples would never move to Spring Hill, nor would I want them to. We socialize with our neighbors which is quite a change for us. We're from Toronto where, after living in our home for 12 years, we still didn't know the names of our neighbors.

Just some Spring Hill thoughts.


DaveB

[fassvak]

PLease elabore why Brooksville is a whole different story than Spring Hill?

Originally Posted by Tom in Spring Hill

I want to take a few bytes to comment in general on this thread and what I thing of Spring Hill.

We left Orlando 3 years ago. Lived there 17 years. I work in the legal field. Havent seen a sink hole here as big as the Winter Park Sinkhole. Goggle it. Lots of Florida as well as other states are sink hole prone. Correct, house is usually habitable throughout the repair process. Yes, quite a few sink holes (really land depressions) in Spring Hill. Seems some areas more than others.

You buy sink hole coverage just like any other insurance. For us its $1,000.00 a year. Standard insurance against a slowly forming sink. If you dont have that then you get CATASTROPHIC COVERAGE which means the house has to become uninhabitable within a certain, and short, period of time and that is built into the basic policy. Deductibles for hurricane (wind) are high, but multiple choice. Talk to an insurance agent who provides insurance here locally.

There are jobs here in Spring Hill. Especially if you are in the medical field.
Nurses, RN types. Big demand. CNA's for the long term care places.
Lots and lots of restaurants and retail, but in retail, jobs are hard to find
due to the economy to begin with. Some legal field work, paralegal,
legal assistant. Wills, Probate, Estates work is usually around. Lots of personal injury work further south. Lots of office and retail work in Pinellas County too which is sometimes easier to deal with than Tampa.
Construction industry is at a virtual standstill. Government jobs not plentiful. Various agencies have hiring freezes and lay offs due to budget cuts due to recent tax law changes.

Property taxes are very high throughout FL. Home insurance can run $2,000.00 a year with sinkhole coverage.

Pine Island is NOT a beach. It is an area cut out of the marsh and filled with sand. It was originally a U.S. Army radar station back in WWII. Someone correctly stated the closest REAL beach is Howard Park in Tarpon Springs, about 30 minutes south on 19 and then its pretty hard to find, but worth it.
May as well go down 19A and get to Clearwater Beach or better yet Sand Key Beach. The water at Weeki Wachee Park is like 72 degrees, always. Its a natural spring, probably not bad if you are from michigan, but cold for most folks who have acclimated to Florida.

Yes, houses are cheap. Tons of foreclosures. Lots of people simply could no longer afford the taxes and insurance on their winter homes and that added a lot to the market too. It is a snowbird town. So between the guy who lost his job and the retiree who has other needs for the money, there is a housing glut and some wonderful deals can be had.

Shopping is great. What do you need? Its here, maybe sans a bookstore but I understand there is always talk about one coming in. Use an independent book store instead of the big chains. There is one near Kass Circle.
JC Penny is now open in West Spring Hill. Lots more big chain stores and some restaurants will fill in the rest of the complex there at US 19 and Spring Hill Drive. I am sure whatever chain you have where you are is here or very close by. I recall reading that Cracker Barrell is going to be at US 19 and Spring Hill Drive in the new Nature Crossings center.

Whoever said there arent any gangs here does not know the facts. They are there. They dont truly effect the average citizen in any way though so its not a big issue. Most crime is property crime, DWI's and other traffic crimes,
fraudulent credit cards and worthless checks also are big. Murders? Not too many. Street crimes? Not too many. Sheriff's office is pretty effective though. Good response to problems. Now to get Judges that will put the criminals away.

It gets pretty rural as you go north of spring hill and slowly more urban as you go south. If anyone remembers the spread of Long Island New York from the 1950's to present can understand how areas grow pretty far out from the major city they have sprung from. Spring Hill area has sprung from Tampa/St. Pete megatropolis. US 19 is the Sunrise Highway (US 27).
People want to get away from the city and come here.
They open biz's, work locally or drive south to work.
No different than a lot of areas which became suburbs where there was nothing.

What ever else you would like to know, I can probably tell you or tell you where to find out. Lots of info is available on line. Get the history of Spring Hill. It was, as was Pine Island, cut out of the brush. The land was virtually worthless before Deltona Corporation decided to buy it and create a retirement town. Its homes and stores. Government is in Brooksville. Thats the county seat. Brooksville is a whole different story than Spring Hill.

Regards,
Tom in Spring Hill

[House4Sale]

There's more going on in Spring Hill than Brooksville. When moving to the area, I'd suggest renting for a year to see if you like it.