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Old 02-06-2011, 09:15 AM
 
Location: Long Island
142 posts, read 314,168 times
Reputation: 33

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Quote:
Originally Posted by lovethelhasa View Post
Hi actually we missed a lot of the snow thank God.

It is not even the snow really, its the people of Syracuse, not all but for the most part they do not welcome you much.

My son plays lacrosse, he played in Hernando WONDERFUL coach! county run well done.

We move up here and he joins lacrosse, the first thing the coach says to me is Oh, we don't like floridians or Long Islanders. They never passed the ball to my son once, they did not even talk to him.

People talkabout florida being the worst for education--Hernando was better than the school I was in on LI and by far superior to Syracuse schools.

The kids are a bunch of troublemakers, and down right mean to my children, Hernando they fit right in.

We moved for a pay increase, but now realize all we gaveup also

I know Spring hill will be okay it has a lot to offer, there are foreclosures and short sales all over, people just do not want to admit it is going on in their backyard

Another plus for Florida, people were more down to earth.
Just curious. My wife and I are Long Islanders for the past 31 years, and are thinking of retiring and relocating. She hates the cold and the snow, so we're looking at several areas in FL, including Spring Hill.
I grew up in Rochester, don't have the same cold/snow problem my wife does, and am looking at the Syracuse area as an option.
You are probably one of the only people on earth that can speak experientially about all 3 communities, so....first question:
1. Spring Hill wasn't high on our list anyway....New Port Richey, Trinity, Odessa, Land O Lakes and Palm Harbor rank higher......but is Spring Hill as bad as has been depicted on this thread?
2. Don't know anything about the Florida schools, but I do know that Long Island schools (for the most part) have a pretty good reputation. So, if you don't mind my asking, what LI school district is it that pales in comparison to Hernando County? BTW.....I *do* tend to agree with you that the upstate NY schools lag behind their downstate counterparts. I myself had a bit of catching up to do when my family moved back to NYC Queens....but that was many, many moons ago.

If I win the relocation war against my wife, and we end up moving to the Syracuse area, I promise to be friendly and approachable......unless I'm in the process of shoveling 2 feet of snow. THEN, I'm gonna be cranky.....VERY cranky. :-)
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Old 02-06-2011, 03:44 PM
 
Location: Spring Hill Florida
12,135 posts, read 16,024,514 times
Reputation: 6085
Spring Hill is simply a huge subdivision located in a mostly rural area of Florida. There is very little industry. Lots of agricultural interests nearby. Used to be a lot of phosphate mining here, but thats about all gone now.

The population is pretty wide in variety from young families to advanced senior citizens. Everything in between. Lots of folks from New York area and Michigan/Ohio.

Its a community in itself.


Quote:
Originally Posted by lameduck51 View Post
Just curious. My wife and I are Long Islanders for the past 31 years, and are thinking of retiring and relocating. She hates the cold and the snow, so we're looking at several areas in FL, including Spring Hill.
I grew up in Rochester, don't have the same cold/snow problem my wife does, and am looking at the Syracuse area as an option.
You are probably one of the only people on earth that can speak experientially about all 3 communities, so....first question:
1. Spring Hill wasn't high on our list anyway....New Port Richey, Trinity, Odessa, Land O Lakes and Palm Harbor rank higher......but is Spring Hill as bad as has been depicted on this thread?
2. Don't know anything about the Florida schools, but I do know that Long Island schools (for the most part) have a pretty good reputation. So, if you don't mind my asking, what LI school district is it that pales in comparison to Hernando County? BTW.....I *do* tend to agree with you that the upstate NY schools lag behind their downstate counterparts. I myself had a bit of catching up to do when my family moved back to NYC Queens....but that was many, many moons ago.

If I win the relocation war against my wife, and we end up moving to the Syracuse area, I promise to be friendly and approachable......unless I'm in the process of shoveling 2 feet of snow. THEN, I'm gonna be cranky.....VERY cranky. :-)
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Old 02-06-2011, 04:34 PM
 
5,500 posts, read 10,484,615 times
Reputation: 2302
Quote:
Originally Posted by lameduck51 View Post
Just curious. My wife and I are Long Islanders for the past 31 years, and are thinking of retiring and relocating. She hates the cold and the snow, so we're looking at several areas in FL, including Spring Hill.
I grew up in Rochester, don't have the same cold/snow problem my wife does, and am looking at the Syracuse area as an option.
You are probably one of the only people on earth that can speak experientially about all 3 communities, so....first question:
1. Spring Hill wasn't high on our list anyway....New Port Richey, Trinity, Odessa, Land O Lakes and Palm Harbor rank higher......but is Spring Hill as bad as has been depicted on this thread?
2. Don't know anything about the Florida schools, but I do know that Long Island schools (for the most part) have a pretty good reputation. So, if you don't mind my asking, what LI school district is it that pales in comparison to Hernando County? BTW.....I *do* tend to agree with you that the upstate NY schools lag behind their downstate counterparts. I myself had a bit of catching up to do when my family moved back to NYC Queens....but that was many, many moons ago.

If I win the relocation war against my wife, and we end up moving to the Syracuse area, I promise to be friendly and approachable......unless I'm in the process of shoveling 2 feet of snow. THEN, I'm gonna be cranky.....VERY cranky. :-)
Hernando schools are known to be pretty average. Trinity/Odessa/LOL/Palm Harbor are much nicer areas. With Florida schools in general it's all about being in the right location for a specific school that is one of the few good ones.
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Old 02-06-2011, 09:49 PM
 
Location: Long Island
142 posts, read 314,168 times
Reputation: 33
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spring Hillian View Post
Spring Hill is simply a huge subdivision located in a mostly rural area of Florida. There is very little industry. Lots of agricultural interests nearby. Used to be a lot of phosphate mining here, but thats about all gone now.

The population is pretty wide in variety from young families to advanced senior citizens. Everything in between. Lots of folks from New York area and Michigan/Ohio.

Its a community in itself.
I have to admit that the mixed reviews given to Spring Hill in this thread are a little discouraging. Every street on every city in every state has a few eye sore houses that aren't well maintained. The same can be said for lower income families who struggle to make ends meet. Every community has a few.
But it seems that Spring Hill has or will have an 'image problem', and I mean no disrespect to the current residents of Spring Hill in saying so. It is your "home". It's not just a large housing development.
Turnover of the magnitude that has been projected or speculated in this thread makes it a risk for a couple like us who intend to live and probably die in the next home we choose. Of course, we don't plan to execute the 'dying' part of the plan for another 20-25 years, so what Spring Hill looks like today and what it will look like in 10 years makes a difference.
In two weeks, my wife and I will be visiting FL, and we *will* include Spring Hill in our tour of potential relocation communities.....if only to judge for ourselves whether the negativity expressed in this thread is justified.
If there is a section of Spring Hill that we should see....or one which we should avoid, please let us know. Our primary concern is community stability. We don't want to live among an abundance of renters, or in an area that has an inordinate number of foreclosures or short sales. We want 'neighbors', not visitors.
Here on LI, we've lived next door to the same family for the entire 31 years we've been here. It's that kind of stability we seek, and if any part of Spring Hill offers it, please let me know.

Thank you.
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Old 02-06-2011, 09:57 PM
 
Location: Long Island
142 posts, read 314,168 times
Reputation: 33
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gatornation View Post
Hernando schools are known to be pretty average. Trinity/Odessa/LOL/Palm Harbor are much nicer areas. With Florida schools in general it's all about being in the right location for a specific school that is one of the few good ones.
Thank you for validating that Trinity, LOL, Odessa, and Palm Harbor are nice areas. I was beginning to question my own judgment and research methods.
I have, however, read that any property west of US-19 is a risk....but don't know for certain whether that blanket statement is true or just someone's sour grapes.
The youngest of our 3 children is 29, so school related concerns aren't a factor, unless the school district is a reflection of the community itself; i.e., better schools attract better families, and better families make for a better community.
Regardless, I appreciate you taking the time to educate us on the areas we are exploring as potential relocation sites.
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Old 02-07-2011, 06:46 AM
 
Location: Tampa Bay Area
494 posts, read 1,666,807 times
Reputation: 222
"I have, however, read that any property west of US-19 is a risk....but don't know for certain whether that blanket statement is true or just someone's sour grapes."

Uhhhhhh, West of US 19 is the waterfront which has some of the nicest areas. I would think you might mean east. That said, not everything west is beautiful either.
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Old 02-07-2011, 08:42 AM
 
Location: Spring Hill Florida
12,135 posts, read 16,024,514 times
Reputation: 6085
Spring Hill can't be everything to everyone. It seems to be that some people expect too much from a place that is no more than a huge subdivision even though others may disagree, that is what it is. I feel Spring Hill is totally disconnected from the surrounding area as most of the people who inhabit Spring Hill and the rest of the County are of different backgrounds. Spring Hill consists of mostly transplants while the rest of the County has had roots here for over a hundred years. Cattle, agriculture and mining is the background of this area.

Spring Hill was developed and built as a retirement destination. The Deltona Corp bought up hundreds of acres of land in the 1960's and built a planned community a like like the town they call "Deltona" which is between Daytona Beach and Orlando. Deltona Corp developed a lot of areas in FL into housing where there was once before nothing. They sold their idea of Florida retirement living to unions, labor groups and others with the idea of paying a small down payment along with monthly payments on your retirement property.

Prior to Deltona Corp the land that makes up Spring Hill today was nothing but scrub land. Useless land. It could not be used for farming, it could not be used to raise livestock. Deltona turned nothing into what we have today.

The biggest complaint I hear in Spring Hill is lack of jobs. Of course there is a lack of jobs. Its a housing development, not a city, not a town.
The businesses in existence here are here to serve consumers. There is some light industry, but not a whole lot.

I cant comment on schools as we do not have kids of school age.

Crime is not a major issue in Spring Hill. Most of the "crimes" are domestic related, drug (mostly pot) related, shop lifting and fraud with credit cards and bad checks.

Like I said, its a housing development, well planned and nicely laid out.
The area itself has everything anyone would need to sustain a quality life style and provide enjoyable recreational activities of all kinds.

As far as "areas to avoid" I don't know of any. We don't have open air drug supermarkets, gangs of criminals roaming the streets nor even a ghetto. Brooksville has a ghetto if you'd like to visit it.

Spring Hill has grown like gang busters over the past 10 years.
By that I mean a lot of new housing was built, a lot of planned housing was on the drawing board but stopped with the national economic crash.

We started coming out to Hernando County from Orlando 15 years ago.
We liked what we saw and I predicted that the area would have growth and expansion over the years. Then came the Suncoast Expressway.
Growth. As Tampa grew with population people started to migrate north to the more rural areas of Pasco and Hernando. This is obvious in Spring Hill due to the arrival of many chain stores such as Kohl's, expansion of Target, addition of several chain restaurants and other new businesses.

Health care is widely available from general practice to specialty care of all kinds. 3 hospitals serve the area. Numerous gated over 55 communities abound. You can buy a home for $50k or $350k depending on what you want.

We left Orlando 6 years ago to relocate here and have been very pleased with our decision. 6 years ago we had a choice to relocate anywhere in the State (or nation for that matter) and we picked Spring Hill.

In 10 years I see Spring Hill much the same as it is today, perhaps the trend of tearing down older homes on big lots and new homes sprouting up on them will be the thing. I do see more industry coming to Hernando County, but small specialty industries, not factories, not huge corporations with headquarters here.

Drawbacks? Sure, there are drawbacks.

1. Sinkholes. Lots of them. Its the geography. The ground here is limestone and under that is water. When the water table drops the limestone can collapse into caverns where the water used to be.

2. Insurance. Due to the sinkholes and the proximity to the Gulf of Mexico home insurance can be expensive. There are many ways to reduce your insurance costs and improve your home against weather threats.

There are areas that are older, west of Deltona Blvd for instance, that I would probably avoid. There seems to be a higher instance of rentals over there because the housing is older and outdated. Not that there aren't some really nice areas over there, with some really nice homes, but again, its the older part of town and tends to look more worn then other areas.

Come on up, take a ride from U.S. 19 to U.S. 41 across Spring Hill Drive.
Then go North on 41 up to Brooksville and explore Brooksville. From there I'd go west to Mariner Blvd and head south again. Check out the center of Spring Hill around Mariner/Northcliffe. Take turns here and there and explore neighborhoods. Get a good look at the variety. Proceed south on Mariner down to County Line Road, west on County Line and up to U.S. 19 again. That will take you back to Spring Hill Drive. Now you can say you've looked at the area in general.

There isn't much North of Spring Hill until you get up into Citrus County
where you will find Homosassa, Crystal River and some other little towns.
South of Spring Hill you have Pasco County which is a diverse place
with a lot of congestion along U.S. 19 as you go south as the population density increases.

Anyone IN SPRING HILL have anything to add to this??





Quote:
Originally Posted by lameduck51 View Post
I have to admit that the mixed reviews given to Spring Hill in this thread are a little discouraging. Every street on every city in every state has a few eye sore houses that aren't well maintained. The same can be said for lower income families who struggle to make ends meet. Every community has a few.
But it seems that Spring Hill has or will have an 'image problem', and I mean no disrespect to the current residents of Spring Hill in saying so. It is your "home". It's not just a large housing development.
Turnover of the magnitude that has been projected or speculated in this thread makes it a risk for a couple like us who intend to live and probably die in the next home we choose. Of course, we don't plan to execute the 'dying' part of the plan for another 20-25 years, so what Spring Hill looks like today and what it will look like in 10 years makes a difference.
In two weeks, my wife and I will be visiting FL, and we *will* include Spring Hill in our tour of potential relocation communities.....if only to judge for ourselves whether the negativity expressed in this thread is justified.
If there is a section of Spring Hill that we should see....or one which we should avoid, please let us know. Our primary concern is community stability. We don't want to live among an abundance of renters, or in an area that has an inordinate number of foreclosures or short sales. We want 'neighbors', not visitors.
Here on LI, we've lived next door to the same family for the entire 31 years we've been here. It's that kind of stability we seek, and if any part of Spring Hill offers it, please let me know.

Thank you.
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Old 02-07-2011, 09:38 AM
 
Location: Long Island
142 posts, read 314,168 times
Reputation: 33
Quote:
Originally Posted by Innertuber View Post
"I have, however, read that any property west of US-19 is a risk....but don't know for certain whether that blanket statement is true or just someone's sour grapes."

Uhhhhhh, West of US 19 is the waterfront which has some of the nicest areas. I would think you might mean east. That said, not everything west is beautiful either.
The statement I made was actually taken from another thread. The person posting the comment was referring to West Pasco, and the influx of home renters and drug dealers.
The comment shocked me.....because everything I'd ever heard about Palm Harbor was positive.
I've since noticed that Palm Harbor is in Pinellas County, so my entire statement was based on an error on my part.
I do thank you for correcting my error. In the long run, opening up the west side of Palm Harbor for consideration will result in a better search and a better decision.
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Old 02-07-2011, 09:46 AM
 
Location: Long Island
142 posts, read 314,168 times
Reputation: 33
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spring Hillian View Post
Spring Hill can't be everything to everyone. It seems to be that some people expect too much from a place that is no more than a huge subdivision even though others may disagree, that is what it is. I feel Spring Hill is totally disconnected from the surrounding area as most of the people who inhabit Spring Hill and the rest of the County are of different backgrounds. Spring Hill consists of mostly transplants while the rest of the County has had roots here for over a hundred years. Cattle, agriculture and mining is the background of this area.

Spring Hill was developed and built as a retirement destination. The Deltona Corp bought up hundreds of acres of land in the 1960's and built a planned community a like like the town they call "Deltona" which is between Daytona Beach and Orlando. Deltona Corp developed a lot of areas in FL into housing where there was once before nothing. They sold their idea of Florida retirement living to unions, labor groups and others with the idea of paying a small down payment along with monthly payments on your retirement property.

Prior to Deltona Corp the land that makes up Spring Hill today was nothing but scrub land. Useless land. It could not be used for farming, it could not be used to raise livestock. Deltona turned nothing into what we have today.

The biggest complaint I hear in Spring Hill is lack of jobs. Of course there is a lack of jobs. Its a housing development, not a city, not a town.
The businesses in existence here are here to serve consumers. There is some light industry, but not a whole lot.

I cant comment on schools as we do not have kids of school age.

Crime is not a major issue in Spring Hill. Most of the "crimes" are domestic related, drug (mostly pot) related, shop lifting and fraud with credit cards and bad checks.

Like I said, its a housing development, well planned and nicely laid out.
The area itself has everything anyone would need to sustain a quality life style and provide enjoyable recreational activities of all kinds.

As far as "areas to avoid" I don't know of any. We don't have open air drug supermarkets, gangs of criminals roaming the streets nor even a ghetto. Brooksville has a ghetto if you'd like to visit it.

Spring Hill has grown like gang busters over the past 10 years.
By that I mean a lot of new housing was built, a lot of planned housing was on the drawing board but stopped with the national economic crash.

We started coming out to Hernando County from Orlando 15 years ago.
We liked what we saw and I predicted that the area would have growth and expansion over the years. Then came the Suncoast Expressway.
Growth. As Tampa grew with population people started to migrate north to the more rural areas of Pasco and Hernando. This is obvious in Spring Hill due to the arrival of many chain stores such as Kohl's, expansion of Target, addition of several chain restaurants and other new businesses.

Health care is widely available from general practice to specialty care of all kinds. 3 hospitals serve the area. Numerous gated over 55 communities abound. You can buy a home for $50k or $350k depending on what you want.

We left Orlando 6 years ago to relocate here and have been very pleased with our decision. 6 years ago we had a choice to relocate anywhere in the State (or nation for that matter) and we picked Spring Hill.

In 10 years I see Spring Hill much the same as it is today, perhaps the trend of tearing down older homes on big lots and new homes sprouting up on them will be the thing. I do see more industry coming to Hernando County, but small specialty industries, not factories, not huge corporations with headquarters here.

Drawbacks? Sure, there are drawbacks.

1. Sinkholes. Lots of them. Its the geography. The ground here is limestone and under that is water. When the water table drops the limestone can collapse into caverns where the water used to be.

2. Insurance. Due to the sinkholes and the proximity to the Gulf of Mexico home insurance can be expensive. There are many ways to reduce your insurance costs and improve your home against weather threats.

There are areas that are older, west of Deltona Blvd for instance, that I would probably avoid. There seems to be a higher instance of rentals over there because the housing is older and outdated. Not that there aren't some really nice areas over there, with some really nice homes, but again, its the older part of town and tends to look more worn then other areas.

Come on up, take a ride from U.S. 19 to U.S. 41 across Spring Hill Drive.
Then go North on 41 up to Brooksville and explore Brooksville. From there I'd go west to Mariner Blvd and head south again. Check out the center of Spring Hill around Mariner/Northcliffe. Take turns here and there and explore neighborhoods. Get a good look at the variety. Proceed south on Mariner down to County Line Road, west on County Line and up to U.S. 19 again. That will take you back to Spring Hill Drive. Now you can say you've looked at the area in general.

There isn't much North of Spring Hill until you get up into Citrus County
where you will find Homosassa, Crystal River and some other little towns.
South of Spring Hill you have Pasco County which is a diverse place
with a lot of congestion along U.S. 19 as you go south as the population density increases.

Anyone IN SPRING HILL have anything to add to this??
No one knows his or her own hometown better than a resident. You've been honest and thorough in your reply, and your response has certainly brought Spring Hill back into consideration for us.

Guess my fear of making a wrong decision on a matter of considereable importance has resulted in a minor (or major) case of paranoia. One or two negative comments about a community tend to make me shy away from that place, but as you said: No place is perfect for everyone.
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Old 02-07-2011, 09:47 AM
 
Location: Tampa Bay Area
494 posts, read 1,666,807 times
Reputation: 222
Not sure where you really want to wind up but there are nice spots from Clearwater to Crystal River (and beyond). Have fun with the searching.
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