What cities in Florida would you suggest for a young couple to move to? (Tampa: crime, house)

[WeWantOutOfMichigan]

Hi! My fiance and I will be moving to Florida next June after we get married and we are wondering which cities in Florida you would recommend us moving to based upon our "requirements" listed below:
- not too much crime however, we do live in Lansing, Michigan, so crime isn't out of the ordinary for us but we would prefer to live somewhere safer.
- within 5 miles or so of a nice beach
-good schools
-we are in our twenties so we would prefer an area that has a decent amount of younger people in the area
-lots of fun things to do
-nice single family homes under approximately $400,000
-not too much traffic
I know there may not be a city that matches exactly each one of these things, but somewhere similar to these requirements would be much appreciated! We love the hot weather, nevermind the hurricanes, snakes, alligators, etc. Also, we have been taking a vacation every year to Clearwater Beach and loved it, but I have no idea what it is like living there year round. Could you please list specific areas in these cities you would recommend us moving to.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

[lavender]

You may find a nice home in Old North East, (st pete)good for walking downtown, lively and lots going on but if you are thinking schools down the road, and are notplanning on paying for private, you might not want to be there, zoned schools are not good.

[ferret111]

You should find jobs first and let those city(ies) go to the front of the list.

[WeWantOutOfMichigan]

Originally Posted by ferret111

You should find jobs first and let those city(ies) go to the front of the list.

The job part is not my top priority at this moment, seeing as though my fiance and I will be continuing college full-time. We have all finances covered, once we graduate is when we will focus on where we should move for employment. We want to put all of our focus into our education which is why I would like an area that has good colleges, and also good high schools just incase we decide to stay in the same city long-term. I just want to know which city we should move to based only on the requirements I listed in my first post.

[starwins]

Most likely St. Pete has most of what you are looking for.

[jambo101]

As getting jobs in Florida is tough at the moment you may not have the luxury of picking a city to move to, whatever city gives you employment is probably the one you need to move to.

[Innertuber]

Orlando

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by jambo101

As getting jobs in Florida is tough at the moment you may not have the luxury of picking a city to move to, whatever city gives you employment is probably the one you need to move to.

This ^^^.

[tewas]

Well lets see:
5 miles form beach and young people, yea that does not really exist in Tampa.
Good colleges are far away form the beach (USF and UT).
There is quite a bit of traffic if you want to move from one side of the city to another.
Jobs ... Well depends on what you do. There are jobs out there, but it might not match of what you are looking for.

[BBI]

Originally Posted by lavender

You may find a nice home in Old North East, (st pete)good for walking downtown, lively and lots going on but if you are thinking schools down the road, and are notplanning on paying for private, you might not want to be there, zoned schools are not good.

The school ratings for the Old Northeast are very inconsistent over time. I'm not sure if that's the result of zoning changes or what, but the one constant seems to be that race is highly correlated to FCAT passage rates. Considering the racial (and socio-economic) composition of the neighborhoods serviced by the schools, I expect that kids from the Old NE easily pass FCATs at a clip that would merit an "A" rating by the state, and the school ratings are dragged down by kids from other neighborhoods. Overall rating and school reputation is something I would be much more worried about at the high school level than elementary/middle -- though St. Pete High is rated "A" by the state and 8/10 by greatschools. Thankfully, I'm many years from worrying about high schools.

To the OP's other requirements, St. Pete could be a decent fit. Traffic in town is nothing. Outside of town, things can get a little congested, particularly at rush hour (Pinellas county is basically all suburban sprawl). It's 10 miles to a gulf beach, not 5, but there's also a small-but-active beach in town on the bay. I'm not sure there are as many young people as the OP would want, though. Downtown is vibrant, and there are a bunch of festivals and things going on all the time. Nightlife's fun Thurs/Fri/Sat. But it'd be a big change from something like 50k undergrads running around at Michigan State. We (married, late 20s, no kids yet) find it's a great speed for us. Not sure I'd have felt the same way when I was 21 or 22, but I was also single back then.

On that note, not specifically on the requirements list, but it sounds like the plan is to transfer to a college after the move. I don't think the college options anywhere in the bay area are very good. I'm aware of three colleges in St. Pete -- USF-St. Pete (which I think has limited curricula offerings), Eckerd College, and St. Pete College (which I understand was a community college until recently). I'd never heard of any of them before moving here. Of course, the OP is talking about a $400k house straight out of undergrad and is uninterested in job markets, so which school they attend may not matter.

The other neighborhood in the bay area to consider is South Tampa. There are more early-20-somethings there, and there's plenty to do. It's much farther from the beach (45ish minutes) and single family homes are more expensive, though you could find a nicely updated smaller house in your price range. The public schools are consistently very good. In terms of colleges, U Tampa is right there, and USF is on the other side of town.