Moving to Tampa. Have some questions (St. Petersburg, Orlando: apartment complex, rentals, condos)

[SerjR]

Good afternoon everybody!


I'm going to move to Tampa, but haven't still decided where to leave.

Im going to rent a studio. I'm looking for to a nice studio in a quiet neighbourhood with low crime index.

I don't know why, but I liked S-W part of Tampa e.g. Town 'N' Country.

Maybe it's not quiet there because of Hillsborough Avenue, but there are a lot of big and small shops and cafes alongside of this road. And it will probably take you about 30mins to get to Clearwater's beaches by car.

Please could you give me a little description of this area with it's pro's and con's if there are any.

Thank you very much!

[Lior Arel]

Town 'N' Country is not so good. There really aren't any cafe's and shops, either - mostly chain stores and fast food outlets. Much of it is older and somewhat run down. For what you describe that you like check out Davis Islands or Hyde Park. If your not set on the city of Tampa, also check out Dunedin and St. Petersburg. Hope it helps!

[SerjR]

Angel and The Dolphin,

Thank you very much!

You know, the reason for choosing Town 'n' Country is that I liked the pics of this neighbourhood - Camden Bay: 11302 W Hillsborough Ave
Tampa, FL 33635

Camden Property Search

But I will definetely check these two areas - Hyde Park and Davis Islands.

But I'm a bit limited in maximum rent cost per month, so please could you tell me where can I get the average rent cost for appartments in that areas?

Unfortunately, I found only commercial apartments e.g. at Apartments for Rent & Homes for Rent - Rent.com® Apartment Finder, but I'm sure that there are a lot of private apartments which are hidden somewhere.

[Lior Arel]

Don't trust the apartment complex websites. Sure, they're property may be nice, but they will make the neighborhood look nice, when in fact it's what I call "suburbuan hell".

Apartment complexes are going to be your second highest option for amount of rent (private condos being the highest usually). I would go to Craigs List (but be careful, their can be some sketchy people there) and TBO.com to check out private rentals and smaller places. A studio/one bedroom on Davis Islands or in Hyde Park can be found for as low as $600 per month in some cases - St. Petersburg even lower. Check out Zee Property Management, Davis Islands Apartments, and Hyde Park Apartments for Tampa. In St. Pete, I would recommend the downtown area (though avoid most streets South).

[ferret111]

Just to get one thing straight, Town 'n' Country isn't a part of Tampa. The closest Tampa gets to T'n'C would be roughly the corner of Hillsborough and the Veterans. This isn't a big deal at, but I was just mentioning it.

Town 'n' Country is your typical Florida suburb that's fallen on hard times over the past twenty years or so. I wouldn't live there, but if you like it/it's convenient to wherever you need to be, go for it. It's a largely Hispanic area, if that means anything to you. The area is very rundown in some areas, perhaps even to the point of being suburban blight. You shouldn't get too much noise from the planes and you'd get used to it fairly quickly, just like you would living next to a railroad.

Traffic out there can be pretty bad with Hillsborough, the Veterans, and the airport interchanges. Crime is a problem in some parts, too.

[LKJ1988]

Originally Posted by Angel and The Dolphin

Town 'N' Country is not so good. There really aren't any cafe's and shops, either - mostly chain stores and fast food outlets. Much of it is older and somewhat run down. For what you describe that you like check out Davis Islands or Hyde Park. If your not set on the city of Tampa, also check out Dunedin and St. Petersburg. Hope it helps!

Town and country has gone way down hill over the hills, most of it is now latin and plenty of crime and gangs. I would stay away.

[SerjR]

Angel and The Dolphin,

A studio/one bedroom on Davis Islands or in Hyde Park can be found for as low as $600 per month in some cases

Thank you for that information. But I found only few offers in Hyde Park area which are below $700/month. I guess that it's a kind of expensive area, because most of apartments are offered for 700-1000+.

I thought that I shouldn't spend more than $650-680 for my first apartment, because you never know how things will go in the nearest future.

The most problem for me right now is that I don't know much about Tampa sitting behind my laptop a few thousands miles away from Florida. But I need to learn as much as possible.


ferret111, CHASLS2

It's a largely Hispanic area, if that means anything to you.

most of it is now latin and plenty of crime and gangs. I would stay away.

I don't have anything against any race or color, but I definetely will try to stay away from gettos, gangs, areas with high criminal rate and so on. I don't want to stay in rich areas, because it's too expensive to rent an apartment there, but I would prefer to live in a quiet area where live non aggressive, educated and friendly people.

I have a friend who leaved in Omaha. Once she told that there were some areas which they (she and her boyfrind) tried to avoid to drive through, because it wasn't safe there.She said that there lived mostly black people. I repeat that I don't have anything against any race or color but I would try to live away from that kind od area.

She also told me that she had a friend from Saint Louis. He took his family and moved away from there, because one day he realized that "he is 23 and he is still alive". He was black and he grew up in St. Louis area where some of his friends were killed when they were young. Then he said "I should change my live if I want my family to leave in safe place and not to worry about their lives".
I can't even imagine how people live in such areas with high crime rate...

Yes, if I look atModerator cut: link removed results, then most of Tampa's areas seem to be unsafe (it's just only stats), but e.g. "Hillsborough Ave / Countryway Blvd" has overall rate 70% (=it's safe there). Also areas like Hyde Park have low crime rate.

The problem is that it's only numbers. And sometimes they don't reflect the reality, e.g. there could be a getto from one side of the road and at the same time there could be non-getto at the other side of the road.

Maybe I do mistakes in my conclusions, but I live in place where there are no gettos at all, no shots, and the 95% of people are white.


ferret111,

You shouldn't get too much noise from the planes and you'd get used to it fairly quickly, just like you would living next to a railroad. Traffic out there can be pretty bad with Hillsborough, the Veterans, and the airport interchanges.

Oh, but I truly believed that e.g "Camden Bay" - 11302 W Hillsborough Ave, Tampa, FL 3363 should be relativly a quiet place, because it's about 5 miles away from Tampa ITL Airport. You can see that Hyde Park is also about 5 miles away from that airport.

And if we look here: Orlando Traffic Report | Florida FL Traffic Conditions, then we notice that Tampa is mosty "green". Maybe it's not a good example...

[SerjR]

I noticed another problems with apartments while serfing the Web:

1) I don't not about how much and for what service I should pay besides paying rent per month. I mean such services like: Water, Electricity, Garbage Disposal, and so on. So, when you see only the cost of rent, it's hard to calculate the estimated price for living there.

2) A lot of negative reviews like:

For example, these are for Camden Bay in Hillsborough (Town 'N' Country):

- "[LEFT]People hanging out in an apartment complex drinking and blasting music? Welcome to South Tampa. Unless you pay $5000 per month and have a committee who keeps the gutter trash from moving in, apartment living sucks here. Ghetto, ghetto everywhere."
- "[/LEFT][LEFT]True, Tampa is mostly trashy and I'm so glad I got out of there!!!!"[/LEFT][LEFT]

3) It seems that there is public transport problem in Tampa... I have no car and it'll take some time to buy a car...
[/LEFT]

[ferret111]

On public transportation:

It really depends on where you are. The best service is within Tampa city limits. There are a few routes that go through T'n'C (16,30,34,47LX, and 88), but frequency can range from 20min to 60min. Don't let people scare you away from the bus system. It's very clean, almost always on time, and very safe. HART has extended service on a number of routes, allowing them to operate past midnight, sometimes even to 1 AM.

[Occifer]

Where are you going to be working? Relying on public transportation here isn't something that is going to be in any way convenient for you, and as ferret said the service (in either Tampa or St. Pete) is going to be better in the cities than in the suburbs. An ideal situation would be living near enough to your job where you could walk or ride a bike, however that may not be feasible depending on what you're going to be doing.

As to the crime statistics you found on NeighborhoodScout, they are flat out wrong. Those statistics say that there were 30,700 reported crimes for the population of a little over 300,000. In 2009, the city actually reported 15,500 crimes and the population is estimated at 340,000. I'm not sure where NeighborhoodScout gets their information, but it is simply grossly inaccurate. With such incorrect information it's no wonder why NeighborhoodScout says Tampa is more dangerous than 98% of the cities in the United States.

Here's a link to the actual crime statistics that the City of Tampa reported in 2009 : http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/feb...-nearly-16-09/