Relocating to the Tampa Area

[bnepler]

Beaches are nice but are not worth living to close to. It takes us 40 minutes most of the time. Put in a pool, you'll use it more then the beach. My wife also wanted to live by the beach, until the hurricanes hit and then talked about storm surges at high tide. Most places would be under water if a big one hit. She's happy here now and we visit the beaches. Some take advantages of rental bargins on the weekends at the beach and Disney World, which I enjoy more.

[Shores9]

MOBOYLE - There’s an awful lot in the bay area and its spread across 5 counties or so. First thing I would do differently (I moved from Long Island in ’01) I would buy a streets and trips type software product. They are very helpful in mapping distances and finding points of interest (restaurants schools shopping). You can plot a desired location such as a neighborhood that may interest you and then find out how far (drive time) you can go in a given time frame or draw radiuses around that point. Very helpful in visualizing where you are in relationship to where you want to be.

I currently live in NE St Petersburg and have lived in Seminole/Largo and NW Hillsborough (Westchase area). NW Hillsborough has a lot to offer good schools shopping and convenient to major roads. You can be down town Tampa or even St Pete in about 30 min or Clearwater beach in the same. Great neighborhoods [in NW Hillsborough] newer home very friendly people. Suggested communities Westchase and Waterchase and surrounding areas. It’s very hard to be specific without knowing more about your preferences and expectations regarding size, price, bedrooms, proximity to work and the like. However that would be one area I think has it all and with a wide range of sizes shapes and prices as well.

Good news for your son, with our weather here there’s plenty to do all year round and he will most likely make friends quickly

Good Luck

PS when you come to scout the areas get a portable GPS nav if you don’t already have one. Great investment for helping you get around and find things you might otherwise pass everyday and not know are there.

[jamesdsimpson]

Consider the city of North port. Go to www.cityofnorthport.com for info.

Jim

[zeus1fl]

look at Lakewood Ranch. It is a large master planned community on the Sarasota/Manatee county lines. Right off the hwy for easy commutes to tampa or sarasota. 12-15 miles from the beaches.

[BigJimSlade]

You could look into Tarpon Springs and New Port Richey. They are getting more crowded (not as bad as Clearwater), but they are still close to the beach and within an hour of Tampa. You could even go farther North to Brooksville. Maybe someone who lives closer to the area can help, but I believe the Expressway pretty much extends from Brooksville all the way down to Tampa. Probably take at least an hour to commute, but it's not too far from the coast.

[efort]

We are also relocating to Tampa and have done our research. The Westchase and Waterchase areas are very nice, the schools are excellent including Highschools which is practically unheard of especially where we are coming from (Miami).
The Lutz area, about 6 miles north...has beautiful homes as well with very good schools. We are currently working with a realtor that has helped a lot.

[bnepler]

Westchase is nice if you can stand the gridlock until the main drag is widdened to six lanes. It's on the drawing board for next year.

[toals]

Originally Posted by moboyle

My family and I are relocating from Pennsylvania to the Tampa area. One of our biggest concerns is our 10 year old son. His education is very important to us and we are not sure what areas to be looking at. We will also be purchasing a new home and also are not sure of family style areas and costly areas. Can someone help atleast get us started in the right direction.

I suggest going there before hand...moving from the north east to you will find a very differnt living style here in FL get to know the community names thats a big plus..they hardly go by street names here it's always the community name Good luck to you... I may watch you post closely to see what others post because tampa couldbe in our future too, I have two boys to so I know your concerns!!

[BigJimSlade]

Where in Pennsylvania are you moving from? Tampa is ok, but I can't imagine anything more beautiful than the rolling farms of Lancaster county or the forests (or lake) near Erie or the view of the Susquahanna just North of Harrisburg.

[CityFan]

Originally Posted by moboyle

This will be a big adjustment for my son leaving his friends and an excellent school. We are trying to not traumatize him more by finding a home with a not so good school district and where he will be uncomfortable. I will keep looking and pray for the best. If anyone else has ideas, please forward along. Thanks

I know St. Petersburg very well since I have lived there for almost 18 years. It's close to beach about 20 min. drive. and 20 min. drive to Tampa. As to schools, local school system is improving. If your kid goes to magnet program or gifted school, he can learn something. Otherwise family has to spend much time with kids and you need to send him to Sylvan learning center for addtional work. There is a charter school on south side call Southside Fundamental Middle (www.southside-ms.pinellas.k12.fl.us) which is in process to be an IB middle school. St. Petersburg High offers IB programm which is ranked in top 50 among high school nationwide. If you want to live on water, St. Petersburg Beach or Treasure Island are good places.