Empty nesters looking for jobs and neighborhood advice (Tampa, Clearwater: appointed, apartment complexes)

[Amyyd71rn]

Hello all, Wow! What a great forum! I've searched searched and searched some more and just seem to get more confused..... Here is our situation and if any of you can help we would be greatly appreciated!

We are currently 45 and 43 years old we are getting ready to send our baby off to college in Ohio. That is where we currently live. We are looking to relocate in the Tampa area before winter. My husband has a job interview for a place in Tampa real soon. If he gets this job we will need to find a place to live pretty quickly. We are wanting to rent at least for six months to a year until we can get to know the area a little better.

My husband works in the automotive industry and I am a registered nurse with supervisory experience. I am also a certified epic ambulatory consultant.

Our desire is to live in an area where we can walk out our door and be within walking distance of a healthy lifestyle. I would love to run near our home or walk to eat or to a local bar/pub. We are very much into fitness and clean eating. We also love boating and we own a cabin cruiser and we would like to be able to dock it somewhere close to where we land. I would like to be less than 45 minutes from the beach. We would need a two bedroom apartment that excepts pets. Looking at a range up to $1200/month. Being that we are in our mid 40's we do not want to be submerged into the party scene but also do not want to be stuck in senior living area. I'm just not sure what area we should be looking at and how far neighborhoods are when we start to look. We aren't real picky on areas only that we do jot want to have to drive far to get to anything on weekends. We are content to spend most of our free time on the boat.

What we are used to is a 3 bedroom house with 2 baths on 2 acres in a nice subdivision. We are already not needing the space with kids moving out and are downsizing anticipating the move south.

I'm just nervous about areas in Florida to look at and want to be educated before we go down. Also not sure about who to call once we are ready to look at and secure an apartment. Hubby would be moving down first as I sell the house and get our daughter settled in college this fall.

thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forwards to seeing your replies!!!
I'm last of family to move out of Ohio....

Amy

[InGateway]

You know what be nice? To have a community feel at affordable prices, asking for walkability is stretching it because in FL that only goes so far and people here haven't fully gotten the concept of pedestrian rights. But ya what I am describing as far as a community feel at affordable prices, I feel I am not getting now. I have a feeling wealth doesn't always need to buy it though. Or just like Paul McCartney says " I don't care too...much for money, money can't buy me love".

[jambo101]

Not rental but when you are looking for house Perhaps something along St Petes Intra Coastal Waterway, maybe around the Treasure Island area,
http://goo.gl/maps/bPvEh

Lots of clubs and restaurants in the area,miles of beaches and most houses have private docking facilities for boats right in your backyard.
This kind of community=
http://activerain.trulia.com/image_s...9857259628.PNG

[PhotoProIP]

Downtown St. Pete.

[dothetwist]

Try Gulfport, plenty of bars and restaurants to walk to; nice mix of ages, families, singles, young retirees, LGBT. Funky cottages, brick streets, very progressive, dog friendly. We can get to Tampa Airport in 22 minutes, non-rush. The bigger Gulf Beaches are 15 minutes drive as is downtown St. Pete.

And the city-owned Marina gives a discounts to its residents!

There aren't many apartment complexes in the Historic area, but house rentals here are very reasonable, though they get snapped up quickly.

We live in the Historic Waterfront area of Gulfport and here's what we can walk to in under one-half a mile:

The City-owned Marina
The beach (albeit a small one, it's a great place to walk and watch dolphins, birds)
City fishing pier
Local restaurants (12+ all independent, no chains)
Retail shops
Library
Yoga Studios (2 private) in addition to City classes at Rec Center
Post Office
Parks (5 parks, including 2 dedicated dog parks)
City Tennis Courts
Public beach volleyball courts
Dance Ballroom (City Owned, also the venue for art shows, galas and private weddings/parties)
Live Theatre
City Rec Center
City Government Offices
Convenience stores (2, each of which has foods for carryout: one Greek, one Thai)
Baseball field
Weekly Daytime Fresh Market
Twice a month evening Art Walks

What we can walk to between one-half mile up to one mile:
Grocery Store (SaveALot, not my fave but it's handy in a pinch)
Fresh Produce Stand open 7 days a week (use this more than SaveALot)
Vet
Dollar Store
Drug Store (Walgreens)
5 More restaurants
More stores
Banks

I'm sure I left some places out!

[Amyyd71rn]

Originally Posted by dothetwist

Try Gulfport, plenty of bars and restaurants to walk to; nice mix of ages, families, singles, young retirees, LGBT. Funky cottages, brick streets, very progressive, dog friendly. We can get to Tampa Airport in 22 minutes, non-rush. The bigger Gulf Beaches are 15 minutes drive as is downtown St. Pete.

And the city-owned Marina gives a discounts to its residents!

There aren't many apartment complexes in the Historic area, but house rentals here are very reasonable, though they get snapped up quickly.

We live in the Historic Waterfront area of Gulfport and here's what we can walk to in under one-half a mile:

The City-owned Marina
The beach (albeit a small one, it's a great place to walk and watch dolphins, birds)
City fishing pier
Local restaurants (12+ all independent, no chains)
Retail shops
Library
Yoga Studios (2 private) in addition to City classes at Rec Center
Post Office
Parks (5 parks, including 2 dedicated dog parks)
City Tennis Courts
Public beach volleyball courts
Dance Ballroom (City Owned, also the venue for art shows, galas and private weddings/parties)
Live Theatre
City Rec Center
City Government Offices
Convenience stores (2, each of which has foods for carryout: one Greek, one Thai)
Baseball field
Weekly Daytime Fresh Market
Twice a month evening Art Walks

What we can walk to between one-half mile up to one mile:
Grocery Store (SaveALot, not my fave but it's handy in a pinch)
Fresh Produce Stand open 7 days a week (use this more than SaveALot)
Vet
Dollar Store
Drug Store (Walgreens)
5 More restaurants
More stores
Banks

I'm sure I left some places out!

Wow! Great info thanks! I'll be checking Gulfport out for sure! Any info on medical community? I'm a nurse and I'll be looking for dr. Office or center job if I can. Floor nursing hard I have back injury. Thanks again!

[steve dunedin]

We looked a lot also when we made our move. Our last to graduated left the nest and is now in college in Montana. My wife and I are from Ocean City, New Jersey. Our trips took us a year and some to finally find Eden. We had one obstacle and it was find a town you can walk around and feel part of a community. We were told to come to Dunedin. And that was all we needed. A safe, working town with something to do all the time. We have restaurants, the Pinellas bike trail, beaches nearby, festivals, parades and I can go on and on. A major hospital on the edge of town ran by BayCare. But you can find out for yourself. Check out our YouTube funedin.lippod and you can see a good part of our crazy town. For renting condos though, a lot are 55+, but at the North end of town there is the Mediterranean Manors which has everything you need plus pets, but for the most $ 1,200 a month you could most likely rent a house. Auto insurance might be a bit of a sticker shock to you and changing your title over to Florida tags. Wow wasn't ready for that one, over $ 400 total with registration, my buddy told me, you are better buying a car here. LOL...Airport is less than 30 min away and most people from Ohio use Allegiant airlines which flies into Clearwater-StPete and that is about 20 min. So what are you waiting for head on down, trust me you won't be disappointed.

[obewan1]

Hilarious, makes me want to come there instead of Tampa proper!

[Amyyd71rn]

Originally Posted by steve dunedin

We looked a lot also when we made our move. Our last to graduated left the nest and is now in college in Montana. My wife and I are from Ocean City, New Jersey. Our trips took us a year and some to finally find Eden. We had one obstacle and it was find a town you can walk around and feel part of a community. We were told to come to Dunedin. And that was all we needed. A safe, working town with something to do all the time. We have restaurants, the Pinellas bike trail, beaches nearby, festivals, parades and I can go on and on. A major hospital on the edge of town ran by BayCare. But you can find out for yourself. Check out our YouTube funedin.lippod and you can see a good part of our crazy town. For renting condos though, a lot are 55+, but at the North end of town there is the Mediterranean Manors which has everything you need plus pets, but for the most $ 1,200 a month you could most likely rent a house. Auto insurance might be a bit of a sticker shock to you and changing your title over to Florida tags. Wow wasn't ready for that one, over $ 400 total with registration, my buddy told me, you are better buying a car here. LOL...Airport is less than 30 min away and most people from Ohio use Allegiant airlines which flies into Clearwater-StPete and that is about 20 min. So what are you waiting for head on down, trust me you won't be disappointed.

Steve, thank you for the great response. Funny, that last time we were there we targeted Dunedin!!
Went there to eat and walk around town! We loved it , at least what we saw. Driving up from Clearwater we disprove some run down places along the way! I'm
Sure where we pick will be defendant on where my husband can find a job!

What are we waiting on???? We are waiting on a job for my husband so far we've seem 40k in the automotive management industry and just can't justify a 40k-50k cut to move. We are still feverishly looking and searching!!!! Hopefully something surfaces soon!

Any help or ideas are greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks again!
Amy

[evilcart]

Originally Posted by steve dunedin

We looked a lot also when we made our move. Our last to graduated left the nest and is now in college in Montana. My wife and I are from Ocean City, New Jersey. Our trips took us a year and some to finally find Eden. We had one obstacle and it was find a town you can walk around and feel part of a community. We were told to come to Dunedin. And that was all we needed. A safe, working town with something to do all the time. We have restaurants, the Pinellas bike trail, beaches nearby, festivals, parades and I can go on and on. A major hospital on the edge of town ran by BayCare. But you can find out for yourself. Check out our YouTube funedin.lippod and you can see a good part of our crazy town. For renting condos though, a lot are 55+, but at the North end of town there is the Mediterranean Manors which has everything you need plus pets, but for the most $ 1,200 a month you could most likely rent a house. Auto insurance might be a bit of a sticker shock to you and changing your title over to Florida tags. Wow wasn't ready for that one, over $ 400 total with registration, my buddy told me, you are better buying a car here. LOL...Airport is less than 30 min away and most people from Ohio use Allegiant airlines which flies into Clearwater-StPete and that is about 20 min. So what are you waiting for head on down, trust me you won't be disappointed.

Love it.