Palm Harbor (Orlando, Clearwater, Dunedin: rent, homes, transfer) - Tampa Bay - Florida (FL) -Tampa - St. Petersburg - Clearwater - City-Data Forum

stevo75 · 03-26-2011, 02:49 PM

Making the move to Palm Harbor from MA. Hopefully it all happens before summer. The only things that keep us from heading down now is selling our current home which goes on the market next week and receiving my wife's RN license for the state of Florida. Wife and I have 2 kids 5 and 2 and reading many threads here I can see the school systems are good. We already have jobs lined up (company transfer for me). The biggest obstacle will be selling our home and thankfully we live in a high demand development and homes have been selling within weeks in the past. Anywho it has been 2 years in the making and we have come to the final decision for Palm Harbor.

Will likely rent first then get our feelers out there for locations to purchase home.

Thanks to many here who have been very helpful to me and others who were in the same process.

Steve

xbillyx · 03-26-2011, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevo75

Making the move to Palm Harbor from MA. Hopefully it all happens before summer. The only things that keep us from heading down now is selling our current home which goes on the market next week and receiving my wife's RN license for the state of Florida. Wife and I have 2 kids 5 and 2 and reading many threads here I can see the school systems are good. We already have jobs lined up (company transfer for me). The biggest obstacle will be selling our home and thankfully we live in a high demand development and homes have been selling within weeks in the past. Anywho it has been 2 years in the making and we have come to the final decision for Palm Harbor.

Will likely rent first then get our feelers out there for locations to purchase home.

Thanks to many here who have been very helpful to me and others who were in the same process.

Steve

Congrats. I'm curious...how did you come to decide on Palm Harbor? Good luck on the move.

I'm moving to St Pete in May, although my wife and I do not presently have kids. If we stay in the area, I'd look at a 'burb like Palm Harbor, Dunedin, or something similar. I'm just not a fan of the cookie cutter neighborhoods. I am a fan of great schools, though.

stevo75 · 03-26-2011, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xbillyx

Congrats. I'm curious...how did you come to decide on Palm Harbor? Good luck on the move.

I'm moving to St Pete in May, although my wife and I do not presently have kids. If we stay in the area, I'd look at a 'burb like Palm Harbor, Dunedin, or something similar. I'm just not a fan of the cookie cutter neighborhoods. I am a fan of great schools, though.

thanks

I have a friend that has been living in Palm Harbor for the past 10 years and the school systems were a big draw. The west side of Tarpon Lake is not as Cookie cut from what I can see but I'm not gonna rule out East Lake. We had 4 areas of interest and 3 were in Florida. Orlando, Ft Lauderdale area, PH or San Diego.

In the last few months we were down to SD and PH. I'm fortunate to have offices in all 4 of the locations and I wanted to do SD but I knew that we would most likely live comfortably in Florida vs SD. Another reason is my folks would like to move to Florida within the next 2 years. There was so much more into the decision but those were the primary.

Good luck in your move.

50teeslady · 03-28-2011, 04:44 PM

what beach would you go to if you live in Palm Harbor?

cariad · 03-28-2011, 04:49 PM

Honeymoon Island is the closest, next closest is the beach at Fred Howard Park in Tarpon Springs, and then Clearwater beach which is 20-25 minutes.

Lipasoma · 03-31-2011, 09:52 AM

Is Palm Harbor a good town for families or is it more retired people? Looking into Palm Harbor for our relocation but we have kids (ages 3-13) and would want some good neighborhoods that have a bunch of other kids for them to play with. Any suggestions?

stevo75 · 03-31-2011, 11:23 AM

I have kids 2-5 and have heard Palm Harbor is great for family's with kids and the school system is very good.

xbillyx · 03-31-2011, 01:14 PM

Yes, Palm Harbor is supposed to be great for families. The public schools are very good, especially for Florida. Palm Harbor is a little younger than neighboring Dunedin (source: CD stats).

Aconite · 03-31-2011, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xbillyx

Yes, Palm Harbor is supposed to be great for families. The public schools are very good, especially for Florida. Palm Harbor is a little younger than neighboring Dunedin (source: CD stats).

For those moving from "up north", Palm Harbor isn't so much a town with a town center as a series of subdivisions united by strip malls. You can find it anywhere in the country-- a vista of McMansions, Olive Garden, and Lowe's, with the occasional local business tucked between. Our version has some palm trees and azaleas. It's nice, in a bland and deed-restricted sort of way. Dunedin has a town center and is more cohesive. You can live downtown and walk to a bagpipe concert or the Green Market in the park. Dunedin is also more diverse chronologically, ethnically, socially and socioeconomically, which is either good or bad depending on your own personal opinions.
Generally speaking Palm Harbor tends to have decent schools (with the qualifier "for Florida"-- nobody in his right mind moves to this county for the schools), largely because there's always been an influential school board member or two in the area. When Clayton Wilcox was superintendent, he lived in Dunedin, but redistricted his neighborhood so his kids could go to school in Palm Harbor. Dunedin, which lacks political clout, has since become sort of a dumping ground for the ghetto between downtown Clearwater and the southern edge of town. (Almost all of the kids who attend Dunedin Elementary are Clearwater residents, due to the county's weird boundary lines.)

Irishiis49 · 03-31-2011, 02:52 PM

The schools in the Eastlake area of Palm Harbor are very good,also Safety Harbor Middle has a good magnet program if you excel in math and Palm Harbor University H.S. has an IB program that is excellent (I know first hand)! To my knowledge Clayton Wilcox lived in Countrywoods that is in a weird limbo type area that has a Palm Harbor zip code yet is considered Dunedin. I think its just the past school year that the area was redistricted I don't think his children benefited from it as he left the area for greener pastures!!On the whole , while Dunedin is quaint for a family Palm Harbor is a better way to go(I have lived in both)!