Hip, small town near Tampa

[KimberlyFla1]

I live in Lecanto, which is an hr. north of Tampa and very rural and unhip. We have our house for sale on 10 acres and were thinking about moving to Tampa. Both of my kids go to college in Tampa and love it. However, now I'm looking into moving to St. Pete, in town, not by the beach. There are many things to do there for instance the Dali Museum has S'Real Fridays with food and Jazz and there are outdoor cafes and a farmers market every Saturday.

[Bezzled]

The further you go from the cities, the less UNHIP you get. St.Pete, Tampa areas would be nice.

[LuluOnTheBeach]

Originally Posted by beachlady58

LuLu on the beach: how does the cost of living compare with Cohasset or Duxbury MA - we are thinking of moving but are being scared by all the posts complaining of huge expenses?
Thanks!

hi beachlady58 - and what a beautiful beach duxbury has! don't know if you saw my earlier post, but i had mentioned that we moved here from cohasset, MA - just up the road from duxbury! although housing prices have increased substantially since we moved here in 2004, it was far less expensive than anything in MA to begin with, so it's still pretty reasonable, and you'll be able to find a variety of housing in just about any price range. as far as cost of living, we had high expenses in MA (house, auto and health insurance) so haven't found costs here to be a problem, although our home insurance has increased because of hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005. food costs about the same, which surprises some people who expect it to be less. museums and cultural attractions generally cost less, including theatre, but then, you won't find that to be on the same level as boston as far as number and variety of productions, etc.

killer hurricanes aside (where i hope they'll stay!), we have no regrets about moving to this area, and are very pleased about being in dunedin. we may make a move to a slightly larger house (we downsized - and went too far!), but aren't interested in anything outside of this town, it just offers so much, and although we aren't surrounded by highways or big malls, almost everything you'd need is only about 3-6 miles from the downtown, and the airport is just 20-plus miles away, but a quicker ride than going into boston.

i'm new to this forum, so i'm not sure how to go about sending private emails - if you can find a way and want to write with specific questions, i'll be happy to answer if i can, and can supply you with more detailed information on the town, its neighborhoods, realtors (i'm only a "civilian" -no vested interest on my part),etc. ...good luck with your decision!

[GKR]

The City of Temple Terrace is 8 miles northeast of Tampa and is actually really cool. It's a 1920s golf course community created in the 1922 and has cool old houses and a great old golf course which is city owned and doubles as community greenspace. The city has one of the nicest stretches of the Hillsborough River running through it. The city has 22,000 people and still has a small town atmoshphere. They are currently creating a mixed-use, pedestrian oriented, medium density New Urbanist downtown area. Prices are still affordable but are increasing. For $400,00 you can by a 1950s ranch house overlooking the beautiful old golf course. Temple Terrace is much like its sister city of Coral Gables, Fl. in character. The town is named after the Temple Oramge and was the first place the Temple was planted at scale in the US, it had the largest citrus grove in the world in the 1920s.

[tampaguy03]

You are speaking of Temple Terrace EAST of 56th street, correct? I have not seen anything nice on the other side of 56th street.

[breezy1]

What specific area of Temple Terrace are you referring to? I travel to TT frequently for business -- actually was there 8 times this last year --- have driven all around the area, and have not come across anything "hip" or with any character around there. Only areas with any character I've found so far in Tampa are in the south Tampa area -- Hyde Park/SoHo area.

So if there are some areas like that, I'd also be interested -- I'll be traveling there again next month.

[Keeper]

closing this post OP hasn't posted anything over a month..