st. petersburg help!!! (apartment, rental, houses)

[Fbaerga]

hi, i've posted here recently, and i have a few questions about st. petersburg, fl. we are relocating from volusia county and like what we have heard regarding st pete. i have heard that downtown is nice, but where is this?, is there a zipcode to go by? are there apartment communities that you would recommend? where are the rough areas that i should avoid? seems to be a lot of rental communities and so i'm confused as to where would be a decent place to rent for me and my family. thanks

[dk22]

Originally Posted by Fbaerga

hi, i've posted here recently, and i have a few questions about st. petersburg, fl. we are relocating from volusia county and like what we have heard regarding st pete. i have heard that downtown is nice, but where is this?, is there a zipcode to go by? are there apartment communities that you would recommend? where are the rough areas that i should avoid? seems to be a lot of rental communities and so i'm confused as to where would be a decent place to rent for me and my family. thanks

The downtown area's zip code is 33701. Be sure to stay north of Central Ave when you're looking for places. If you go further south, there's the USF St. Pete campus there Moderator cut: comment

[darling876]

Moderator cut: comment
I have to say I take offense to that statement. the 33705 zip is the old South East Neighborhood and one of the friendliest spots in St. Pete. Very well suited for a open minded, artsy, quaint looking person. Lived there for over a year and miss it much. Also the 33711, 33712 etc which is even further south towards the Skyway Bridge. Lived in both those zip and never had any problems, even left the car unlocked and never locked the house except for when we slept.
There are a few bad areas to avoid such as Child's park and Jordan Park area. Other then that you will be just fine. North side is more expensive for no reason.
And I am a white woman if this matters and my DH is black.

[SunKrist]

I guess it's easier for some people to just say "stay north of Central". The truth is there are good and bad areas spread out all over St. Pete. I guess you could say that's the downside. There are many areas southside that equal any place you will find northside, plus it is slightly less expensive.

St. Petersburg as a whole has only been improving over the years. I feel very safe walking downtown, even after dark, near Baywalk and the Pier. But that would not have been the case 10 or 15 years ago.

Old Southeast and Old Northeast are very nice, but they may tend to be more expensive than places like Kenwood or Crescent lake, which are also near to downtown.

I would suggest (besides actually coming and visiting to see for yourself) taking advantage of Google Maps (maps.google[dot]com). Recently they added what's called "Street View" which allows you to actually see the houses and businesses as if you were driving past them. Apparently they just mounted a special camera on a car and drove through different areas. It's not available for all areas, but downtown should be covered. And of course you can also look at the satellite maps with road names, and look at the different zip codes.

Hope all that helps. Good luck with your move.

-Kristina

[Fbaerga]

that's so much for the incredible info!