Tampa vs. Clearwater Crime

[Jennathorn]

Thanks so much, Bob!!

[wsamon]

A quick question I have for you is what are you looking for out of the area? You said it's a dream of yours to move down here. Is it just the weather you're looking for? Or do you want beach, touristy stuff, etc.?

The reason I ask is that if you live in Hillsborough you're probably not going to have the experience you have in your mind right now. While it may be way closer that what you have now, most of the beach and touristy stuff that is unique to this area will be 60-90+ minutes of driving through traffic away from you (no nice stress-free back-country open road driving here). Realistically, that means that you're probably only going to get to experience it maybe once or twice a month? You'll have to figure that out on your own.

Tampa is a nice enough city, but there's nothing particularly special about it IMHO. It's got a lot of the same sort of features as most other cities its size and larger have. The craft beer scene is probably a standout compared to most, but other than that, any city of its size will have some nice restaurants, bars, and clubs; "big 4" pro sports teams; aquariums / museums; amusement parks; parks; events / festivals, etc..

If Disney is important to you, at least you're close enough to that for a day trip, especially if you're on the east side. However, if you want the Tampa Bay experience that most northeners have in mind, you want to live in Pinellas County. Unfortunately, you'll pay more for that, and also have to deal with older, smaller houses; worse infrastructure (getting anywhere can take a while because there's virtually no highways); and be wary of not being in a mandatory flood insurance zone (very expensive).

If your husband can stomach the trip to the office, which hopefully won't be too frequent, I would look into Bradenton and its surrounding areas. I don't know much about it, but I know that there's newer, cheaper housing, you'll be a lot closer to beaches (including the aforementioned Anna Maria Island) than anything in Tampa and you should be able to get to downtown Tampa, St Pete, or Sarasota in about an hour or less without traffic.

The selection is limited, but you should also be able to find some smaller homes in decent areas of nice northern Pinellas suburbs like Dunedin, Palm Harbor, and Tarpon Springs, which are all much closer to beaches and touristy activities with more of a unique feel than most of the other areas mentioned.

[Jennathorn]

I truly appreciate all of that input you have given us! It has definately made me think about things more in depth. A big part of the move is the weather, hoping to help my arthritic ridden hands and body to work a tad better Also, my husband has a job transfer in Tampa. He is not opposed to driving at all, as he has been driving well over an hour each way daily for 20 years now. I am going to really research these options you gave me! I had written off Bradenton as high crime, Palm Harbor too. It is hard to tell from the crime maps on realtor websites. Thank you for all the help!!