transferring to Gulfport/Biloxi, MS area (Long Beach, Ocean Springs: best city, rentals, home owners insurance)

[ladyjailcopr73]

My family and I will be transferring to the Gulfport area within the next few months. I have 3 teenagers and I am very interested in the schools and the demographics of the coastal areas. I have done alot of research online, but I would rather speak to people who actually lives there. I have a few questions:

1) I am looking for the best city to live in that is no more that 35 miles from the Gulfport Airport.
2) All of my children are high school age and my oldest will be a senior next year. He has played football for the last 9 years and would like to have the chance to play his senior year.
3) I'm not real sure about the home owners insurance rates down there and how that effects your house payments. Also, are the property taxes higher in some cities than others?
4) Are there cities that are still under alot of construction due to Katrina that I should stay away from?

A little background about our family. We are from Cental IL. My husband is in the United States Navy and I also work for the government. We are just your typical white middle class family. We are in our mid - late 30's and love to be outdoors as much as possible. We are very excited to be moving to the coast, it has always been a dream for us.
If we could get any insight on the areas down there we would appreciate it!

[Cain]

I can answer #4

There are places along the coast that looks like someone just took an eraser and removed the houses from a picture. You will also see housing that has been raised up on stilts now to be in code I am assuming. This is still true as recent as this past New years as I was in the area.

My parents live in an area that was one of the high ground points in Biloxi and didn't get any damage. So there are areas around there.

If I was looking for housing in the area, I probably would find out the following:

1. How fan in did Katrina strike
2. how high is the community I am looking into purchasing in

After that, I would consider the other stuff.

[brickpatio]

Based on your description (up to 35 miles from the airport) you have a large number of choices. If your son wants to play sports and actually have a chance to play, then you might consider one of the relatively smaller schools. The larger ones are going to be Gulfport, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, and Harrison Central. The smaller ones to consider might be Long Beach, Pass Christian, Hancock Central, Vancleave, West Harrison, or D'Iberville. Even Stone County, in the small community of Perkinston, would be within your driving distance. You can find these on schooldigger.com.

There are a lot of homes to pick from, which you can find realtor.com. Insurance rates should be lower north of I-10. Diamondhead is a very nice community. Pass Christian has the state's highest rated schools if you can find a home there. The North Woolmarket area has a lot of homes on acreage up old highway 67. Vancleave is basicallly the country, so very safe with open spaces. West Harrison is brand new and out in the county. You really can't go wrong with any of these. Ocean Springs is highly rated and is a thriving community but it's a large school.

[ladyjailcopr73]

Thanks so much for your input!

[SoBelle]

I, too, am new to the area and am still looking for a permanent residence. This is just a personal opinion, but I didn't like D'Iberville at all. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that when we drove into the town, it looked like someone had dumped bags of garbage along both sides of the road and this went on for miles. My husband and I commented that it's the dirtiest city we've ever visited, based on the areas we saw. It's good for a higher elevation option, but I couldn't find any other positives for our needs to even consider living there. We visited Pass Christian and could only find two neighborhoods that we liked. The same was true for Long Beach. We did find a lovely community called Diamondhead. We have our eye on a house there...the downside is that it's an hour and 15 minutes for my husband to drive to work...just a little farther than we would like because that would mean a total of three hours commuting each day. The neighborhoods of Gulf Park Estates in Ocean Springs, St. Andrews on the Gulf and Gulf Hills (part of it is located in Ocean Springs and the other in St. Martin) plus Windsor Heights in St. Martin and a couple of homes on the bayou in Gautier are what we've liked so far. We still haven't made any move toward actually putting in an offer or committing to any paperwork, so the search is still in progress.

[ladyjailcopr73]

so are you just renting down there for now, and if you are do you have to have a lease or anything or can it just be a month by month basis?
Thanks

[SoBelle]

ladyjailcopr73, I have the luxury of living with my in-laws who retired to Ocean Springs. We have been here two weeks. My husband's grandparents are in the process of selling a home with a horse farm in Georgia and they, too, will be coming to Ocean Springs and have already bought next-door to my in-laws. This has allowed us the benefit of being able to not commit to a property until we find just what we are looking for. I know most people don't have this luxury, so we are very thankful for it. Plus, my husband just got the best job he's ever had in his career...he's a COO for a non-profit that is building homes for Katrina victims who lost theirs. It just worked out perfectly that it happens to be in the area to which his parents retired.

We have now ruled out Diamondhead. It's beautiful and we love it but the drive is just ridiculous to my husband's office. The good thing is there is not much traffic here on the roads, even I-10! We are used to the freeway looking like a parking lot at rush hour with nothing moving, so that part has been just great! But, we are really, really looking to live, work, shop, etc. in close proximity, so that ruled out Diamondhead. We just didn't find anything in Gulfport that suited us...but, we haven't looked that much because we mainly go looking after my husband gets off work for a few hours and then on the weekends and we've looked at other places more than Gulfport. I understand there are some nice condos on the water in both Gulfport and Biloxi (sorry I don't have the names of those) but we are looking for a single-family house. I didn't like D'Iberville nor did I like Vancleve. Both Pass Christian and Long Beach are nice in a couple of neighborhoods, each...but if you stray too far from those neighborhoods...yikes.

We've pretty much narrowed it down to Biloxi, Ocean Springs and, possibly, Gautier. We want to rent for a year so that we make sure we know the area well. My in-laws have been here for only a short time so they don't know a lot about the areas other than Ocean Springs. My FIL is retired military but works part-time for the police department in Gulfport, but he doesn't get out in the area except to go to work.

I think you would absolutely love Ocean Springs. And, big plus...they have one of the BEST school systems! They are building a new Ocean Springs High School and everything I've heard about the schools here is that people consider them the best! That might be a big factor in your decision, as well as the close proximity to work. Hope this helps!

[SoBelle]

St. Martin is another place we've looked. It's just across the bridge from Ocean Springs. We've found some cute houses there, some of which are on the bayou. I don't know anything about the rest of the city, but Gulf Hills and Windsor Park (I had mistakenly called it Windsor Heights in another post) are two areas we've looked at and we like, in addition to Ocean Springs, parts of Biloxi and Gautier, which is more rural than the others but has some great homes on the bayou.

[ladyjailcopr73]

Thank you so much SoBell. You have been a great help to me. Schools are a great concern for us. We have 3 in high school. From what I have seen so far I think we too have narrowed it down to OS, St. Martin and North Biloxi. I'm not sure if we should rent first for a little while or just go ahead and buy. Still a little up in the air about that one. My husband and I are going to fly down there in a couple of weeks and stay for a weekend and check out the areas the best we can. At least this way we have a great starting point and have ruled out certain cities altogether. I was also told that living above I-10 is a good idea as far as insurance rates. That is also a factor for us. Keeping my fingers X! Good luck to you too!

[SoBelle]

ladyjailcopr73, we are narrowing down our search and MIGHT have a home tomorrow if all goes well. We have no children left at home, so schools were not an issue, but where you have good schools, you have good neighborhoods. We narrowed down our search to Ocean Springs and Gautier. We just love the "feel" of these two towns...we looked at a house in each of these towns tonight. Both were good, but one was great and it's the one we want. We will see how it goes tomorrow. If you want to rent, try contacting Diane at Wally Page Realty, 2902 Bienville Boulevard, Ocean Springs, MS 39564-4358, Phone Number: (228) 875-3331 or (228) 219-2949...she does all of the property management for the rentals and she knows about all the ones in Ocean Springs and Gautier. For Gulfport and North Biloxi, you might try Latter & Blum Property Management, 777 Watkins Avenue, Gulfport, MS 39507-2627, Phone Number: (228) 896-6060. Another two are A & W Property Management, 3112 Government Street, Ocean Springs, MS 39564-7452, Phone Number: (228) 875-7794 and PRM, Inc., 1447 East Pass Road, Gulfport, MS 39507-3522, Phone Number: (228) 896-4446.

Yes, living above I-10 does reduce your insurance rates...there are different classifications for flood zones (i.e. Zone A, AE, AH, AR, X, B, C, X-500, etc.) and they greatly affect the amount you will pay for insurance. We had not been looking at much of anything above I-10, but now we are looking at more and more properties above I-10 for zoning reasons in case we do a lease purchase and own the home one day. Hope this information gives you a good head-start. Best Wishes on your search!