[AirForceWife417]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has an idea of great places to live in Tampa. We're looking for something convenient to the base. We have 1 and 2 year old boys so schools aren't really a priority, maybe a nice pre-k. We just want somewhere safe with a descent commute to the base. I did see a nice gated community online, but I have no idea how nice it really is. I don't know how to acurretly describe where it is, so I'm just going to name things I see on Google Maps around it, lol. If anyone knows where I'm talking about opinions would be greatly appreciated. We're open for any advice. Thanks!

The neighborhood is on Courtney Palms Blvd. It's surrounded by these roads: Crosstown expy, Causeway Blvd, S. Falkenburg Rd, and FL-43 N/US-301 N.
East of Clair Mel City.

Sorry if those directions sounded silly!

[user8]

macdill is kind of squished at the bottom of the peninsula it's on, so it's not terribly convenient to get there from some of the suburb areas. although, my coworker (who gets in at 7am) commutes from south riverview and says it takes him about 30-35 minutes.

st. pete isn't too bad of a haul from base. just over the gandy bridge. northeast is the nice part of town.

if you want to stick to tampa, most people will say to stay south of kennedy and north of gandy to find the nice parts, and they'd be mostly correct. south tampa is pricey (comparatively) but it's convenient and pretty nice. otherwise you're looking at westchase, brandon, riverview, and further out if you want to have a crappy commute but a nice 'hood.

have you looked at on-base housing? to be honest, the base itself is pretty dang nice as far as AF bases go.

[AirForceWife417]

Thanks for the help. I'll definitely check those out! I would love to be in base housing, but we may end up letting my sister and brother-in-law come live with us and they're not military. The sacrifices we make for family!

[rezfreak]

(I already commented on your thread in the TB forums)

But, IMO, I'm not a huge fan of these houses at macdill. They wanted to give us a 3 (or 4, i forget) bedroom *duplex*. For our BAH, we were able to get a 3 large bedroom *house* in Brandon. I'm not a fan of duplexes, i hate sharing walls, I usually get stuck next to the loud, annoying people.

[Rilojohnson]

Anyone have opinions on living in town n country or Brandon? The main issue I have is the commute to Macdill AFB. How bad is the commute from Brandon?

[ngrome]

No on-base housing available like in Patrick AFB? The on-base housing over there is amazing, right by the beach, LOL.