Possible relocate to Tampa area (New Port Richey, Zephyrhills: rental homes, HOA fees, homeowners insurance)

[ctwhitechin]

Ok Floridians need a little help. Currently my wife and I live in CT. I am pushing hard for a transfer to the Tampa are with my employer. We are in our 40s, no children. Thinking of either New Tampa, Wellsly Chapel, or Zephyrhills. Wife is in medical field, employment for her not an issue. I am familiar with the Florida lifestyle, lived and went to college at Nova Southeastern in Broward county, so no issue there. Love the warm and hot weather. Tired of snow, and have more opportunity if I can get transferred...CT is losing businesses quickly.

My home here is under contract to sell. Would like to find something in a decent neighborhood for about 180k?? We know about neighborhoods with HOA fees, etc. We have good credit, mortgage shouldn't be an issue, just if we make the move want to be sure we are in a nice SAFE neighborhood.

So out of the 3, which would you pick? We really dot want a long commute to work, wife seems to have her sights on working in an eye center in New Tampa, and my office would be in new Tampa as well I believe...but don't mind driving 10-15 miles to work.

[gulfer]

Price may be too low for what you want in New Tampa. Any home you find at that price will cost another 300+ a month for HOA, CDD, and the increase in taxes in Hillsborough County.

Recommend Wesley Chapel and Eastern Land O Lakes. Zephyrhills is a large area, so you can effectively be closer to the Wire Grass Mall in Wesley Chapel, but still have a Zephyrhills address. They all run together anyway and you can't even tell you are in a different city.

Areas North of the Wiregrass Mall have that price range, as well as subdivisions off HWY 54. Follow 54 where it splits with HWY 56 and start going North a little. Properties off Hyde Park, StageCoach, Grand Oaks meet your price range and most have very low HOA's. Your only a couple miles at the most from I-75 as well so very easy to get around.

A new Hospital opened recently just North of Wiregrass Mall on Bruce B Downs.

There are options for you for sure!

[ctwhitechin]

excellent thank you for feedback.....we just want to be safe, live in a really nice town in CT, never had a problem except CT picking our pockets with taxes on everything from car taxes, etc etc

[gulfer]

Then I think that you will really like the areas that I have mentioned. There is some crime around here, but not very much at all. I rarely see any homeless people in this area, but occassionally things do happen unfortunately.

[Stewabby]

I live in New Tampa, but I think with your budget you probably want Wesley Chapel. Safe area, lots to do with Wiregrass and surrounding shopping. Zephyrhills seems very rural to me, but if that is what you are looking for then that is an option.

[ctwhitechin]

ok thanks for info, just trying to get my handle on expenses in terms of homeowner's insurance for a house around $200k, car insurance for 2 vehicles, (an 04 F150 and an 10 Ford Escape) etc etc. I know one thing, no car tax which we pay about $800 or so annually.

[Stewabby]

Our tag fees are expensive though. I think for homeowner's insurance you can expect to pay roughly $1,000 a year for that amount of house in that area. We pay $400 a year in flood insurance on top of that. We didn't have to buy it, but we feel better having it. Car insurance is hard to say, but it is higher here than in most places.

[gulfer]

Echo the home insurance. The first year registering your vehicle it is expensive. You basically buy your plate here. I think mine was 350 or something like that. This past years renewal was 70. So it does drop off significantly after you own your plate.

Our auto insurance increased as well. But we moved from MS to settle here.

[MortonR]

Originally Posted by lorsman

My Future wife and I and her12 yr old and 2 well behaved rescue mix breed dogs are trying to move down by mid July. We have been searching for rental homes, but most want 300.00 for each dog and all kinds of fees. we have been trying to find houses for rent by owner, but they are few we need a 2 to 3 bed 2 bath garage fenced yard with dogs ok. Been finding such rentals in developements for around 900.00 a month. Is there any websites for florida home owners that rent their own property? What are some good towns to check between Tampa and port richey, New Port Richey?I heard Ruskin is nice, are there any jobs around. I collect SSI, but my girl needs to find a job. She is working at walmart here and stop and shop Grocerie store ,but they only give part time hours.
Any help with anything would be greatly appreciated!

I would start with Craigslist.

While you may not be aware of it, there are several large property investment firms that have come into the market and are buying up properties left and right, then turning them over as rentals.

The properties in my area they are marketing have what I consider to be rather optimistic rents, and I have yet to see one become occupied yet. I will say that these have only been on the market for a month or two, however, the rental market here has been very active, so I can only assume that they are not yet rented due to their cost.


RM

[MortonR]

Originally Posted by Stewabby

Our tag fees are expensive though. I think for homeowner's insurance you can expect to pay roughly $1,000 a year for that amount of house in that area. We pay $400 a year in flood insurance on top of that. We didn't have to buy it, but we feel better having it. Car insurance is hard to say, but it is higher here than in most places.

$1,000/year for homeowners insurance on a $200k house in Wesley Chapel would be pretty optimistic, based on my experience. I would expect closer to $2,000/year depending on the home's age and location.

As for car insurance, be careful and shop it. State Farm is here, but they don't want to be, so they write policies but they are very expensive. Allstate and others seem to do a far better job with car insurance.

You will get nailed with the one time $225 fee per car when you register your vehicles. Unless you are a former resident with old registrations in the system or are in the military, there is no way around this one.

RM