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Old 08-27-2009, 05:21 PM
 
Location: Avoca, PA
81 posts, read 274,851 times
Reputation: 30

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Thinking about transferring with my work. I just want to get out of PA. Basically which area is the best to raise a 5 year old? I am 32 and my wife is 33. Also which area has the most stuff to do?
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Old 08-27-2009, 06:34 PM
 
17,457 posts, read 38,859,817 times
Reputation: 24095
JMO, but Winter Haven is worlds nicer, with MUCH more to do! Brooksville is pretty rural with not much going on downtown. Winter Haven has a beautiful, renovated little downtown with a state-of-the-art library, and a beautiful town square. Lots of little shops and eateries. Winter Haven has the chain-of-lakes, Cypress Gardens, a nice art center and is also close to Lakeland and Lake Wales for more to do.

Brooksville seems more suited to those who want a ranch or farm lifestyle. A little further from any "action" so to speak.

Hope this helps!
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Old 08-27-2009, 07:08 PM
 
Location: Avoca, PA
81 posts, read 274,851 times
Reputation: 30
Quote:
Originally Posted by gypsychic View Post
JMO, but Winter Haven is worlds nicer, with MUCH more to do! Brooksville is pretty rural with not much going on downtown. Winter Haven has a beautiful, renovated little downtown with a state-of-the-art library, and a beautiful town square. Lots of little shops and eateries. Winter Haven has the chain-of-lakes, Cypress Gardens, a nice art center and is also close to Lakeland and Lake Wales for more to do.

Brooksville seems more suited to those who want a ranch or farm lifestyle. A little further from any "action" so to speak.

Hope this helps!
Thanks for the info. Is there a certain area Winter Haven that I should stay away from or is it ok no matter were you live? When does the humid weather start and end in FL? I was in Disney the last 3 years and it was humid in September, because here in PA its not. How much do you pay for property taxes and other bills if you dont mind sharing? THanks for the info again, I appreciate it. Have a blessed night.
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Old 08-27-2009, 10:55 PM
 
Location: SARASOTA, FLORIDA
11,486 posts, read 15,248,364 times
Reputation: 4894
Gypsychic gives out some great info as always.

I like them both myself. Location location is the key. As Gypsychic pointed out those two cities are like night and day.

Brooksville is a laid back rural town that you will have to drive a ways to get to anything. You may like that?

Winter Haven is surrounded by things to do in a short drive, which also can be a pain in some cases.

It all comes down to what you are looking for. Make a list of the likes and dislikes and visit both of those towns for a couple days each.

Also, look into schools for your 5 year old. To me, that would be the deal breaker if you cannot find the right school for your child.
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Old 08-28-2009, 07:37 AM
 
17,457 posts, read 38,859,817 times
Reputation: 24095
Quote:
Originally Posted by stan1977 View Post
Thanks for the info. Is there a certain area Winter Haven that I should stay away from or is it ok no matter were you live? When does the humid weather start and end in FL? I was in Disney the last 3 years and it was humid in September, because here in PA its not. How much do you pay for property taxes and other bills if you dont mind sharing? THanks for the info again, I appreciate it. Have a blessed night.
Because I never lived in Winter Haven (we used to live in nearby Lakeland) I can't recommend specific areas. I think the south side, near Cypress Gardens seems to be really nice, with many nice neighborhoods, many on the different lakes there. Lowest humidity in Florida is from Dec. - April, but to me the nice weather starts in November (sometimes October) and can last until May. I never use my AC during this time. Also, Winter Haven being in the center of the state will be a tad less humid than the coast, and will have nights a couple degrees cooler. This part of central Florida is very beautiful, and feels more like "old Florida" than other areas. Not sure about the property taxes, depends on your assessed value, whether in city or county, etc.

Just a FYI - Brooksville is a "cold spot" and can get very cold in the winter, even though it's not that far north. It can be as much as 10 degrees colder in the winter than points just a few miles to the south for some reason. People are surprised how cold it can get there in the winter - many freezes. It is not cooler in the summer, however.

I hope some of this helps. If these two towns are your choices, you should really visit for yourself and see what appeals to you and your family. Like I said, I prefer Winter Haven, but I lived in Dade City for 10 years, a small town a few miles south of Brooksville, and I got really, really tired of having to drive so far to anything I needed or wanted.

Good luck to you!
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Old 08-29-2009, 06:47 AM
 
Location: Avoca, PA
81 posts, read 274,851 times
Reputation: 30
Quote:
Originally Posted by gypsychic View Post
Because I never lived in Winter Haven (we used to live in nearby Lakeland) I can't recommend specific areas. I think the south side, near Cypress Gardens seems to be really nice, with many nice neighborhoods, many on the different lakes there. Lowest humidity in Florida is from Dec. - April, but to me the nice weather starts in November (sometimes October) and can last until May. I never use my AC during this time. Also, Winter Haven being in the center of the state will be a tad less humid than the coast, and will have nights a couple degrees cooler. This part of central Florida is very beautiful, and feels more like "old Florida" than other areas. Not sure about the property taxes, depends on your assessed value, whether in city or county, etc.

Just a FYI - Brooksville is a "cold spot" and can get very cold in the winter, even though it's not that far north. It can be as much as 10 degrees colder in the winter than points just a few miles to the south for some reason. People are surprised how cold it can get there in the winter - many freezes. It is not cooler in the summer, however.

I hope some of this helps. If these two towns are your choices, you should really visit for yourself and see what appeals to you and your family. Like I said, I prefer Winter Haven, but I lived in Dade City for 10 years, a small town a few miles south of Brooksville, and I got really, really tired of having to drive so far to anything I needed or wanted.

Good luck to you!
Thanks for the information, it was a help. When we do plan to move we will definately have to check it out, Im kinda leaning towards Winter Haven. The only thing that I am worried about is the schools. We love Disney, amusements parks, the beach, being outdoors instead of here you are couped up in the house form NOV-Mar, too cold to do anything outdside, so what more do we need, its close by. Thanks again.
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Old 09-01-2010, 11:32 AM
 
Location: republican city, florida
2 posts, read 8,454 times
Reputation: 10
Default Best area to raise kids? Choose carefully!

I have lived in Florida since 1978. I was 5 years old when my parents moved to Clearwater,FL from New Jersey. At first, it was the most serene, green place we had ever seen. We'd found a great deal on a by-owner property of about 0.6 acres with 2 houses on it for around 40,000. There were fields and forests. And yet we were not 5 miles from neat places like the Kapok Tree Inn restaurant. Across a great field north of the house, stood a tall water with green parrots nesting on it tower, in whose shadow was a small playground.

(N.B. that this was owner-financed; my family was quite poor and bankers had a code of ethics back then. We were turned down by several banks. The owner of the property was moving to Arkansas, because he feared that things were getting too crowded. We almost lost our house when my father became gravely ill in the 1990s. Fortunately, my paternal grandparents who did not figure into the bank's calculations, were able to help us finish paying our 25 year mortgage.)

By 1985, McMullen-Booth road, a 2-lane rural highway which bordered the property on the west, had expanded to 6 lanes. This road construction had created a huge, dusty mess for years. By 1990, all the green fields were gone: replaced with ugly new, little houses on tiny properties. The largest land-owner to our south sold his acres and several hundred more ugly new houses grew like fungus.

1995: Our house, in the middle of our street. It is never silent. incessant road noise and fumes as tens of thousands of cars pass the house every day. McMullen-Booth has become a major commuter highway, thanks to the Bayside bridge which connects it to the city of St. Petersburg.

In 2000 my father got the land re-zoned commercial and sold the place for 10X what he'd bought it for. Today, it is still a vacant lot. While I was in college, the Kapok Tree Inn closed and its corpse is currently inhabited by trashy electric guitar shops. (So much for Richard Baumgartner's dream to bring art and culture to the masses!) All of the orange groves, tree farms, and ranches down the street are gone, paved over with hideous strip malls and gas stations. The place where I learned to ride a horse doesn't even exist anymore and I can't figure out where it was, so grey, desiccated, and paved-over is the new landscape. The parrots left the water tower some time in the 90s, never to return. Perhaps the ~100 ticky-tacky new houses that sprung up around it frightened them away.

Now, when I look at a decent sized piece of land in Pasco, Hernando, or Citrus county, I ask myself "How long until it is trashed? 5 yrs? 10?"
I just want to go back to the old folks at home, but they and the home are long gone.
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Old 09-01-2010, 12:21 PM
 
Location: N.H Gods Country
2,360 posts, read 5,221,646 times
Reputation: 2014
The key is to get far enough from the craziness where it isn't to much of a hassle to get to the necessities you need,and you can set up a nice little homestead at the same time. Some people don't mind having neighbors 30 feet away.Some people do. Some people don't mind living in the craziness.Some do. Most people have to travel into the craziness on a daily basis to make a living. It's pretty nice to grab a few hours of peace and serinity at the end of the day when you get home. Personally, I'd rather live in the peace and serinity and travel for the craziness than to live in the craziness and have to travel for the serinity. I guess everyone has a different idea of what craziness is depending on where you come from. I see a lot of craziness here compared to where i come from. If the OP is still out there I say Brooksville.There's still some areas on the outskirts of Brooksville that will probablly be safe for your lifetime.
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Old 09-01-2010, 04:35 PM
 
Location: finally where I am meant to be
213 posts, read 657,414 times
Reputation: 186
to stan1977
Winter Haven is an ok place to live, there is a great downtown area, there are some very specific areas of town where you do not want to live. stay away from a section of town known as "inwood", or " florence villa" this is where more of the crime seems to be. most of the areas off of cypress gardens blvd is ok. Winter Haven is only 45 min or so to disney and Orlando, taxes are lower in WH. than those areas obviously. It is also about 45 min from Tampa , and about an hour from the gulf coast beaches. It mainly has a small town feel, there are aprox 40,000 i think give or take.. Schools are not the best in the world, don't know much about Brooksville, have been there but never lived there.
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Old 09-02-2010, 11:53 AM
 
Location: NYC/Orlando
2,124 posts, read 4,482,418 times
Reputation: 1266
Out of those two, I would choose Winter Haven. I'm guessing that's where your job would be located? If that's the case, I would recommend living in Orlando and commuting to work if you're up for that. Orlando has much better schools, more entertainment and is a much better place to raise a child. Winter Haven is still quite southern, with the good and bad qualities that go along with that. My mom's side of the family has lived in Winter Haven for 50 years, my mom was raised there from the age of 5- she hated it and was out of there as soon as she was able to move!
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