Relocating to Tampa Bay, need help! (Lutz, Westchase: rentals, HOA, low crime)

[Dewddd]

I am having a hard time researching suburbs / areas for my family. We may end up moving from Columbus, OH and if we do, we don't have much time on our hands. We have family that live in St Pete but would probably prefer to live in Hillsborough County as my job will be located in downtown Tampa. We will be renting a home as we do not know much about the area and are not financially committed to do so.
We are looking for a community that:

• Has very good public schools
• Close to downtown Tampa (within a 30 minute commute, 45 at the very most)
• Low crime
• Rental home between $1100 - $1400 /mo

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Kaybri73]

While researching for our move here from NC (we just got here a less than 2 weeks ago) I found that Pasco CO had better schools. What are you looking for? South Tampa has more to do, closer to beaches, and a great vibe but more expensive. North of Tampa the areas I would look into are Westchase, Wesley Chapel, New Tampa, Land O Lakes. Again it really depends on your lifestyle and what you enjoy. We moved to Land O Lakes and I love the house (2200 square feet 3/2 open floor plan great neighborhood 1250 a month) but it is a bit more rural than I would have liked. Shopping and entertainment are only 15 min away though. Downtown Tampa is about 30 minutes in traffic. We are renting until my daughter graduates in 2 yrs, by then I will have a much better understanding of the area and only my husband and I to consider. Have you looked at greatschools.com to get a general idea of the schools in the area? I used it to help me narrow down where we looked at rentals at. Good luck...I hope others can give you more insight as I have only been here a short time and am going a lot off my research and the exploring I have done since being here.

[Dewddd]

Thanks for the input! We've been looking into Wesley Chapel, Land O Lakes and Lutz. We were told that Westchase would be too expensive for us, can anyone back this up? I've been trying to steer clear from greatschools.com, as I find it biased. Our high school in Ohio is ranked one of the best in the state by the department of education, but is only rated a 7 because a few parents disliked the principal. Having said that, anyone with a first-hand experience at one of the area high schools would be greatly appreciated. I've been to the Florida department of education website, but there doesn't appear to be anything for comparative purposes that I would like to see.

[Kaybri73]

We moved here from a military town so I was lucky enough to know people who were from here. I was told the better schools on the North side of Tampa were Land O Lakes High, Wiregrass Ranch High and Sickles High. I did tour Land O Lakes high the other day and it seemed well kept. My daughter will be a Junior this year. Once school starts I can give you a better first hand idea of it. Land O Lakes isnt bad, its just more rural then I was looking for. Wesley Chapel is nice, newer homes, shopping and a straight shot down Bruce B Downs to Tampa. You will probably get more house for your money in Land O Lakes though. We are in the Asbel Estates, nice neighborhood, very quiet (almost to quiet) but no pool. Keep in mind also because we didnt know this, if you want to rent a house and it has an HOA you have to apply with the HOA as well and it can take 10-14 days to get approved. That is a large part of why we didnt end up in Wesley Chapel. We only had 2 days here to find something and sign a lease before driving back to NC and packing the truck. here is a link to Florida Board of Ed that ranks all FL public schools based off testing scores. Im still learning the area but just want through this myself so if you have any questions ill answer the best I can. This forum helped me bunches.

https://app2.fldoe.org/Ranking/Schools/

[Dewddd]

Thanks for the link! I also didn't know that about the HOA. Thanks for the warning though.