Spring Hill- Please help me narrow down neighborhoods (Tampa, Deltona: for sale, foreclosures)

[cherylhome]

Hello everyone!

I need help narrowing down areas to look for houses in Spring Hill. Here is my situation.

Single Mom, 2 kids ages 6 and 9. Both are special needs kids, with Tourettes Syndrome, Aspergers, Autism, Cysts in brain, etc. They thrive on having a schedule every day and don't venture out too much outside their norm. Right now they like to:
1. Stay home.
2. Go to the library once a week.
3. Go to the YMCA.
4. Go grocery shopping once a week or so. Maybe to Target or Walmart to get a treat.
5. I would imagine once we move to the area we would take a trip to the beach (we would pick one beach and stick with it EVERY time) We don't mind making a day of it and driving quite a ways to the beach.

But that is about all they can handle. I work from home and am self employed and can live anywhere, so commuting is not a concern.

We would need to be within a 2 hour drive to a childrens hospital for specialists when needed.

We want to find an AFFORDABLE home, under $115k. Does not have to be fancy. Room for a pool in the future would be nice (good therapy for the kids). We want to be basically debt free so I can spend even more time helping the kids. We want to be safe. Live a very very simple life. I am perfectly content just puttering around in the garden or reading a book. We are very much homebodies except going to the library and YMCA/Community Center.

Any suggstions? I just want to avoid any really lousy areas (crime, drug dealers etc. ) if we can at all help it. They need a decent school, but it doesn't have to be any super special school, Just what is required to get by. As of now it seems they will likely both live at home or eventually in a group home the rest of their lives.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can provide.

[sange77]

see my other post on the other Spring Hill thread.

The YMCA is on Mariner between Spring Hill Dr and County Line Rd. so you may want to live close to there.

[Songbird42]

Concerning schools, I believe that Deltona Elementary on Deltona Blvd, has a really good Special Ed. program. You can call the Board of Ed. for more information.

All Children's Hospital in Tampa would probably be the hospital that has all the specialists.

There are many neighborhoods in Spring Hill, some better than others, but with all the foreclosures here, finding a home under $100,000 is a plus. Most might have a pool already.

We have a small beach called Pine Island, not great, but it does have a playground, shelters. There are nicer beaches further South that you might enjoy.

Good Luck on your search

[ShellinFL]

Hi
I live on the street that intersects with the library.
I love it, lol
Right up the road from me is the save a lot plaza -with other stores as well, A little further up the road is walmart
There is a house up the road (on spring hill dr) that they lowered the price on to 89900-it does already have a pool (it looks nice from the outside)

[seain dublin]

FYI. Several sinkholes have recently opened up in the area behind the Veterans Park on SHD.

A few homes had to be vacated. You really need to check and do not trust the realtors. And keep in mind with the many foreclosures in the area, the new owner is responsible for the back taxes.

[Songbird42]

Just had another thought......whatever area you choose, go to the Sheriffs Website and check for sex offenders close to the area. I have a sex offender up the street for me, and within a mile of my house there are 10 sex offenders. Pretty scary if you ask me. My kids are all grown, but still anyone with minor children, doesn't want to be in a neighborhood with any of these perverts.

[glastron_79]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

FYI. Several sinkholes have recently opened up in the area behind the Veterans Park on SHD.

A few homes had to be vacated. You really need to check and do not trust the realtors. And keep in mind with the many foreclosures in the area, the new owner is responsible for the back taxes.

Please tell me where to check for sinkhole locations. I found a sinkhole database a while ago, but was never able to access it. Where else can I look? I have been looking off and on at RE in Spring Hill. Now I'm paranoid. If it's cheap, I'm assuming it's a sinkhole home or has some other major issues even if it looks good.

[seain dublin]

I just found out about these recent sinkholes by word of mouth. We had a relative call up in a panic because she found out the house near her is vacated due to a sinkhole as is another one on the same block.

They just got done filling a sinkhole in the same area a couple of months one block over. The most recent ones occured on Fayetteville Dr behind the Veterans Park.

Two houses are now vacated. I tried to do a search for Sinkholes/Spring Hill and couldn't find a site to help you. Proably blocked by the realtors...LOL.

You have to be very careful in that area, and the other thing is many homeowner's policies will not give you coverage when you buy in an area where sinkholes are already known to exist.

Remember the realtor is not your friend, they are desperate to sell houses. HC has 5000 homes for sale, they can't unload them.

And Songbird is right, you can easily due a search on the sex offenders, they are all over that area. Something to keep in mind if you have young children.

[Mike1306]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

I just found out about these recent sinkholes by word of mouth. We had a relative call up in a panic because she found out the house near her is vacated due to a sinkhole as is another one on the same block.

They just got done filling a sinkhole in the same area a couple of months one block over. The most recent ones occured on Fayetteville Dr behind the Veterans Park.

Two houses are now vacated. I tried to do a search for Sinkholes/Spring Hill and couldn't find a site to help you. Proably blocked by the realtors...LOL.

You have to be very careful in that area, and the other thing is many homeowner's policies will not give you coverage when you buy in an area where sinkholes are already known to exist.

Remember the realtor is not your friend, they are desperate to sell houses. HC has 5000 homes for sale, they can't unload them.

And Songbird is right, you can easily due a search on the sex offenders, they are all over that area. Something to keep in mind if you have young children.

I wasn't going to bother replying to this but since you spewed more nonsense I figured I would.

You seem to post all this info, much of which is unverifiable. You posted what supposedly was fact before and were proven wrong. Now you are posting word of mouth and people are supposed to believe you?

When I post facts you tend to change the subject. Guess that shows a little something.

You blame not being able to find the sinkhole database on Realtors but the truth of the matter is you just don't know where to find it. I have posted a link to the database before on these forums so your theory of it being blocked by Realtors is pretty lame.

You also obviously have no clue about home owners insurance nor how many house are on the market. Inventory is down 36% (it is about half what you say it is, 2700) and sales have increased every month for the last 5 months. Sales volume for May was over 40% higher than January.

Yep, just more facts to combat your made up numbers.

[Mike1306]

Originally Posted by glastron_79

Please tell me where to check for sinkhole locations. I found a sinkhole database a while ago, but was never able to access it. Where else can I look? I have been looking off and on at RE in Spring Hill. Now I'm paranoid. If it's cheap, I'm assuming it's a sinkhole home or has some other major issues even if it looks good.

Keep in mind that much of what is posted here comes from people that have an axe to grind. Some of them for no comprehensible reason.

Here is a link to the database,

DRAM, FGS, Sinkhole Database (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/geology/gisdatamaps/sinkhole_database.htm - broken link)

Spring Hill has always been relatively inexpensive compared to other areas and with the number of foreclosures out there it has really brought the prices down. Not all the bargain priced homes have a problem with them.

There are some areas that do have a higher incidence of Sinkhole than others.

From the intersection of Mariner and Spring Hill Dr spreading out a bit from there is a higher than average activity.

Further west on Spring Hill Dr around Cobblestone is another area.

Hernando does have a higher incidence of sinkhole than many other counties and is something to keep in mind when looking but is covered by insurance. There are 2 kinds of sinkhole coverage, catastrophic and comprehensive. The comp. covers much more than the catastrophic.