bloomingdale, valrico, lithia, riverview (Brandon, Plant City: for sale, real estate, affordable apartments)

[george b]

hi, we are relocating to work in Brandon...I am wondering how the places are
east and south of there to live in? any comments or favorites? any duds?
thanks

[Jose01]

Bloomingdale is nice but more expensive.

Riverview is not happenning yet.

Valrico is awsome!!

If you need help finding a home let me know I am a Realtor. As you know now is an excellent time to buy.

[Florida101]

I love the area. i relocated from up north 5 years ago. I lived in Valrico first then moved to Lithia. I have seen many communities in my business but by far the best in the area is Fishhawk Ranch. I moved there because it offers a vibrant community environment, programs, schools and sense of community like no other. Check out the site at FishhawkRanch.com and see for yourself. It's even better when you visit.

Other communities worth mentioning. Panther Trace, RiverCrest, Summerfield, Riverhills to name a few.
If you have any other questions I'll be happy to answer any for you.

Regards

[Schilly]

I moved to Valrico about six months ago and love it. As the poster before me wrote, Fishhawk is a really great community. In Valrico, Bloomingdale and Lithia, there are many large nice subdivisions and also many very small communities/subdivisions (less than 20-30 homes with one dead end/cul de sac street). There are also homes with acreage mixed in between. To my knowledge, all of these areas have "A" schools and are family oriented.

Riverview also has quite a few new developments coming up.

Good luck!

[Billie Smith]

Originally Posted by george b

hi, we are relocating to work in Brandon...I am wondering how the places are
east and south of there to live in? any comments or favorites? any duds?
thanks

Hi,

There is a great location in Riverview at the corner of Providence and Bloomingdale called Winthrop. It is a whole community they are building with its own marketplace and arts district. Don't know what you are interested in. There will be single family homes, affordable apartments and townhomes. check it out: Moderator cut: website w/available homes for sale (advertising)

[Floridasunshine]

I love Brandon, but we moved 30mins away to get more reasonable homes and taxes and insurance. Prices have really climbed there for rent and for sale. our car insurance even dropped. Dover, Seffner, Plant City is nice too. You have lots of options working in Brandon.

[MortonR]

The problem with Winthrop is that the developers are in no hurry to develop. One of the reasons is the expense of a whole new intersection at the street that borders the east side of the property (where Symmes Elementary is located) and Bloomingdale. They have to absorb the cost of the construction that will take place, so they have been holding off development of the area. This was covered in detail in the paper last year - the developers made it very clear that they were not happy about the additional expense and as a result would be in no hurry to begin expansion.

The condos were marketed nearly 3 years ago, and they have yet to break ground, and are still not giving a date to the best of my knowledge.

While it should be a very nice community, if you're looking for the suburban self-contained community approach, much like Disney's Celebration, you'll be hard pressed to pin them down as to when development will take place.

RM

[Qacer]

I've lived in both Carrollwood and Brandon, and I must say that Brandon traffic is not as bad as Carrollwood's. This is especially true during rush hour traffic. A drive from the Westshore Plaza mall to Carrollwood is plagued by stop and go traffic on Dale Mabry Hwy, and if you're taking the Veteran's Expressway , you'll experience drastic slow downs.

From Westshore Plaza to Brandon, you can either take Kennedy Blvd east (slower route) or the Selmon Expressway (faster route). Regardless, these routes are not as bad compared to the Dale Mabry Hwy and Veteran Expressways paths.

On non-rush hour traffic times, you can get by in Brandon via multiple east-west routes and north-south routes. These include: Adamo Dr/State Road 60/Brandon Blvd., Bloomingdale Ave, Causeway Blvd./Lumsden Rd., Providence Blvd, US 301, Kings Ave, John Moore Rd, etc.. Traffic on these roads are not that bad compared to ones in the Carrollwood area. Carrollwood traffic is especially busy at the Dale Mabry Hwy and Fletcher Ave. intersections. Bearss Ave. & Dale Mabry Hwy is not that bad, but most of your restaurants and shops are along the busy party of Dale Mabry Hwy.

[nychiefsfan]

Now is the time to buy??? Of course, you're gonna say that, you're a REALTOR!!! Moderator cut: realtor post was removed

My wife and I have lived in Riverview for 4 years and have been watching the housing market. While there's a bunch of homes for sale, they're SEVERELY overpriced!!!

Here's a link to the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser's webpage. You can do a search on the just market value of homes on that page, and also find out how much the owner paid for ther house and when they bought the house.
http://www.hcpafl.org/www/index.shtml

For example, I was looking at one house in particular, MLS# Moderator cut: not allowed (considered advertising).

It was bought in 9/2003 for $169.9k and is on the market for $284.9k. The just market value is $231.7k. If this is a "buyer's market", then the prices are certaintly not reflecting it.

My advice to you would be to RENT until the price of houses drop (and they will). I research the housing market everyday and have about 32 pages worth of housing articles (with links to each article), agreeing that this is NOT the time to buy.

With people sinking in ARM foreclosures, there will be even more homes available. There will be a huge inventory of homes in this area until the sellers (and some realtors) “greatly inflated perception of what their home is worth” becomes more realistic.

Good luck!!!

[nychiefsfan]

Heres a dozen recent articles from the news:

1. Tug of War: Owners don't budge as houses sit unsold

2. Bernanke Warned by Real Estate Analysts: Housing Collapse Is Much Worse Than You Say

3. Economy to see slow growth

4. On Housing, ‘Worst Is Yet To Come'

5. Housing Slump May Portend Recession

6. Weak home market spills over to autos, analysts say

7. Record number of unsold homes flood market

8. US Housing Crash Continues: It's a Terrible Time to Buy

9. Weak spring may drive home prices lower

10. Housing is falling much faster than reported

11. House of cards or solid foundation?

12. Lowball Offers Lose Status As “Deal-Stopping Insult”


I didn't include the links because I wasn't sure if they were copyright protected, but you can google any one of these articles on Google News.