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Old 07-23-2013, 12:43 PM
 
8 posts, read 15,079 times
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My husband and I are struggling on where to live. We have been living in FL for 2 years, renting in Longboat Key. It is a beautiful place but no sense of community, not our demographic and too expensive to buy. We are mid 40s, teenage child, both work, and want a house under $500k. We need to live somewhere that is a reasonable commute (45 mins) to both Lakewood Ranch and Tampa. We would like to have proximity to shops and restaurants (we are 5 mins. from St. Armands and 10 mins. from downtown SRQ and love that). We would like to be canal front or have close access to a boat dock. We have looked at Apollo Beach, St. Pete, Treasure Island, Terra Ceia, Bradenton. Nothing has felt right. Are there any other areas that we are missing? Thanks for any feedback.
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Old 07-23-2013, 12:51 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sanddollar226 View Post
My husband and I are struggling on where to live. We have been living in FL for 2 years, renting in Longboat Key. It is a beautiful place but no sense of community, not our demographic and too expensive to buy. We are mid 40s, teenage child, both work, and want a house under $500k. We need to live somewhere that is a reasonable commute (45 mins) to both Lakewood Ranch and Tampa. We would like to have proximity to shops and restaurants (we are 5 mins. from St. Armands and 10 mins. from downtown SRQ and love that). We would like to be canal front or have close access to a boat dock. We have looked at Apollo Beach, St. Pete, Treasure Island, Terra Ceia, Bradenton. Nothing has felt right. Are there any other areas that we are missing? Thanks for any feedback.
There are some nice riverfront communities in Bradenton that might fill the bill for you - have you checked? Some of the realtors on the Sarasota forum can probably name some. What hasn't felt right where you looked?
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Old 07-23-2013, 01:37 PM
 
Location: Tampa, FL
27,798 posts, read 32,448,899 times
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Mira Bay, Apollo Beach.

MiraBay by Newland Communities | Waterfront Living | New Homes for Sale | Tampa, FL


but you won't get "We would like to have proximity to shops and restaurants (we are 5 mins. from St. Armands and 10 mins. from downtown SRQ and love that)" -skeptical that you'll find that anywhere between the two areas (Sarasota/Tampa).
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Old 07-23-2013, 02:02 PM
 
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We did look at Mira Bay and that was nice. My husband really likes Apollo Beach but I felt that it was a bit run down and there didn't seem to be anything there. As for the other areas we looked at--Terra Ceia - remote, St. Pete -some nice homes, we are concerned with the crime rate there (95% higher than the FL average!), Treasure Island-a little far out and same issue as St. Pete. We actually lived in Bradenton in a golf community for about 6 mos. when we first moved to FL but felt like there was nothing there and we were constantly driving to downtown SRQ and the beach areas to do things. We are probably asking too much and will need to concede on something.
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Old 07-23-2013, 02:06 PM
 
Location: Tampa, FL
27,798 posts, read 32,448,899 times
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There really isn't anything in Apollo Beach/Ruskin - it's really a sad place - but Mira Bay seems like a nice place. Brandon shopping is about 20 mins, Ellenton is about 20 mins. St Pete 30-40 mins, and downtown Tampa 40 mins from Apollo Beach. Downtown St Pete is nice, with yacht clubs, restaurants, very little regular shopping. Think expensive condos are what's being sold there.

Not sure how long the drive from Bayshore,Hyde Park is to Sarasota - probably too far, but that's also a nice place to live.
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Old 07-23-2013, 02:13 PM
 
17,535 posts, read 39,141,385 times
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I personally think you should forget about waterfront and locate within a few miles of downtown SRQ - if you want sense of community, you need an older neighborhood. All the areas south of downtown are great, but pricey. North of downtown and west of trail are many nice older neighborhoods near the water with a great sense of community and close to everything. Hubby and I personally live in Whitfield Estates, near airport, near the bay, and great sense of community, all prices and classes represented here. If airport is an issue, look further south of here but west of trail, Indian Beach or Sapphire Shores, etc.

Hope this helps!

ETA - it is 30 minutes to Lakewood Ranch and roughly one hour to downtown Tampa - my hubby makes the trek to Tpa every day.
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