moving to Tampa (Citrus Park: renters, health insurance, get credit)

[bonographix]

Hy everyone,

Let me introduce myself: I'm a Dutch nurse planning to relocate to Tampa.
I'm married and have 2 children, 9 and 6 years old.
I'm in the middle of the Green Card procedure. My question/ request to the readers is;
can anyone inform us about the monthly costs of living in the Tampa-bay area? By that I mean; car insurance, utilities, cable, health insurance, any other insurances. We are looking at Carrollwood or Citruspark to live.
Of course we don't have a credit history yet. We are thinking of purchasing 2 cars, like a Cherokee and a Tahoe. Depending on all these costs we know how much rent we can afford. An estimate is very welcome.

[Keeper]

To be honest I think you might get an estimate on things like cable and utilities but so much depends on how big the house/apt is, the car ins depends on the year and also your credit history. Health insurance you probably can't afford unless you get it from your employer unless you have lots of $$$.

Carrollwood and Citrus Park are both nice areas. You can buy or rent a place depending on if it is apt or a house.

Check out Carmax.com or craigslist.com for car prices to get a general idea.

[bonographix]

Hy Keeper,

I have an estimate of my salary, I'll be working in TGH as a specialized nurse. We are thinking of a 4BR-2 bath. house( maybe a pool as well). How much will the utilities and all be then? We have been looking at lots of houses, but rental prices depend on how much all the other stuff will cost us. The cars, about 5 years old, we can´t find out about car insurance like you said, we don´t have a credit history and we don´t have an address yet. Is there any other way? We will need the cars!
Thanks!

[algia]

Hi there,

A 4/2 will run electricity between $200 and $500 the worst is if your air conditioning unit is old...we have a 5/3 and our electric bill ranges between $214 and $244 but our air conditioning unit is new so it runs properly, our water is generally $65, more if we run the sprinklers, but usually under $80, groceries between $200-$400 a month, the cell phones probably will run about $150 or so...that depends a lot on the carrier and whatever you want included, cable again about $110, $140 depending on what's included....you won't afford health insurance like Keeper said, also if you find a place that has a gas heather, your gas bill can reach $400 and higher without any sane reason, only because they charge like the pump, if the pump increases, your bill increases as well, stay AWAY from those....... and car insurance $140 but we have it for a while like 6 years now.....so that matters too.........that Tahoe is a GAS eater like you wouldn't believe........and so is the Cherokee......You may want to consider a smaller car because with those monsters you'll be spending a lot of money on gas! not sure if it is worth it! (at any salary).
Renting is cheaper than owning.....if you have no credit history then you way have to put down a considerable deposit to buy a house and also consider property taxes and insurance plus if something brakes, it's on you! For renting you may be required to have a larger deposit since there's no credit....here everything, the air you breath, depends on credit (ridiculous IMO).............also expect to have to put a deposit for opening water, electric, cable, phone etc service as well, the electric can be over $300 bucks...gas also can run a higher deposit and you won't see it back when you move out, Heritage Propane never returned our deposit..........maybe others had better luck, we are staying away from gas like plague!

I hope this helps.

Alex

Pool can run about $100 a month in supplies, depending how big it is......

[bonographix]

Hy Alex,

Thank you, you most certainly helped! This is exactly what we want to know.
We consider your gas price very low(we pay $1.70 per liter!) But I'm gonna reconsider that Tahoe, although it's a beauty to me! Your prices however are very very interesting. In the Netherlands I would have to pay around $22.000 (€18.000) for a 5 year old Tahoe. Cherokee the same. So for us it's like entering car paradise! Can you imagine?

Thanks again!
Fred

[algia]

You are very welcome,

If you have car payments here I can hardly say it's a paradise anymore, when the interest hits it really sucks, plus having a $300 car payment is really not good when you add it to everything else, think about it this way, you will eventually have to apply to get credit cards and such and will have to keep up with those to build your credit, so here it is ideal that you have as little monthly things suck at your paycheck as possible, I am European too and I so miss not having to "HAVE" credit for everything under the sun! it becomes a burden quickly!

Forget Tahoe, way to big....get a VW, that way you can actually drive around....with these big gas eaters you drive around then you park it when you run out of money....gas here is low now, but you never know what it will be tomorrow and if we have a hurricane then it will jump like the bunnies all the way up! and it will take a while until it comes down again.........

[bonographix]

Hy Alex,

There you have a point. That's why I'm on this forum, to find out all these things.
What can you tell us about schools? What are the annual costs for a public school? Not all the websites give good info.

[2009tampa]

Welcome to America. Public school is free! Well sort of. It is included in your property taxes and you pay property taxes if you have kids in school or not. Even renters pay it because the landlord pays the taxes and just passes the cost on to you in the form of rent.

99% of the time the rent will include the property taxes, so it is not an additional cost.

[bonographix]

Hi 2009tampa,

How do you experience Tampa? What part of Tampa do you live? Do you have a family with young kids?
And if so, what do you think of the schools in the area?

Greats,
Fred

[ferret111]

You experience Tampa just by exploring. I grew up here, so I was exposed to a lot of it just from living here, but once I got my driver's license, I explored nonstop. There are so many parts of town that all have their own unique qualities. Just don't always take the same routes to places. You'll be amazed at what you may discover.