Carrollwood area nice or boring? Commute to USF? (Tampa, Orlando: rentals, townhome)

[eifvfeuin]

My wife and I are planning to relocate to Tampa later this year and plan to enroll at USF. I will be taking night classes in a grad program and she will be taking day classes. We were also considering Orlando and UCF but decided on Tampa instead.

We are considering renting a home in the Carrollwood area, specifically on Indian Oaks Drive. We have only been to Tampa once and are not familiar with that area. Any advice on that area generally, and whether the commute to USF from there would be bad?

Because I am in the Air Force Reserves, we are also looking in South Tampa close to MacDill, but that seems too expensive for what we want to rent (a house, not an apt).

We also found a place (townhome) in the Countryway area that is described as "Westchase", but doesn't appear to be in Westchase according to Mapquest. It is near the intersection of Waters and Countryway Blvd.

Thanks in advance!

[CrowGirl]

I was not familiar with either Indian Oaks Drive or Countryway so I pulled them up on GoogleMaps. I agree I would not consider Countryway to be Westchase. I also wouldn't consider Indian Oaks Drive to be Carrollwood, although there is some variety on where those boundaries lie. As you have probably gathered both Westchase and Carrollwood are considered desirable areas so landlords are incentivized to characterize their rentals as located in those ares.

As far as your commute to USF, if will depend on what time of day you are going and what you find tolerable. I would estimate about 25 minutes but again that will vary quite a lot depending on what time of day you'll be going. Either would be better that commuting from the MacDill area.

[Tim Tim Tim]

Indian oaks drive itself is decent but up henderson there is kind of crappy. Overall the area isnt bad, its only a few miles from where I live actually and were looking into the new neighborehood there building across the street there possibly.

South tampa is a lot more expensive, that house down there would probably be a half million+ depending where its at exactly.

Countryway isnt bad either, waters and countryway is westchase. People tend to think just up and down linebaugh is westchase but it extends out from racetrack all the way to hillsborough.