Move to Palm Harbor? Hurricanes/Schools/Tourists? (Jacksonville, Tampa: RV park, rentals)

[miccikoz]

My dh and I have narrowed down our search to 2 areas of FL. The first was near Jacksonville, in St. Augustine or Ponte Vedra. We were pretty set on there, but my dh found Palm Harbor and seems like we can get a nicer house for our money (less than 400,000). I am hesitant because I didn't really want to be on the gulf side because of Hurricanes and such. DH seems to think Palm Harbor seems to not get hit directly as much and far enough away from Tampa to not be a big problem. We currently live in southern california and have fires and earthquakes, and once we moved here it really isn't as big a deal as it seems.

How has Palm Harbor fared in recent hurricanes? What sort of evac plan do most have? I worry about the traffic, and do you leave early and take the kids out of school (we have an rv) or do you wait until the roads are clogged. If you are not right on the ocean, are you pretty safe, and just hunker down and deal with winds, rain and loss of power for a few days? Jacksonville seems to have a much lower risk of catastrophe.

Also, we have three kids ages 7, 9 and 14 and we are drawn to Palm Harbor because of the schools.

Also, is the area super touristy and is that annoying to residents? What about vacation rentals? Would hate to be next to a lot of houses with weekly or monthly turnover. Any areas that have room to keep our RV on site instead of storing it? I would love residents thoughts. I realize that most people on her are looking for answers, and most permanent residents probably don't go on these boards.

Thank you

[D-R-B]

I live in Palm Harbor. If you were going to pick a location on the Gulf coast to "play the odds" with the hurricane season-the Tampa bay area (including Palm Harbor) is (I should say has been) a good choice in recent history.

I will say this.....if a hurricane did strike this area, it would be VERY BAD. It is very densely populated and the roads are clogged up on a regular day. Most of palm harbor would be subject to damaging winds and storm surge. We had a freak low pressure system hit just north of Pinellas county in the early 90's called the "no name storm". It did a surprising and significant amount of damage.

Palm Harbor High School is rated pretty high. The other schools in the area are probably average at best. I am a Tarpon Springs High School graduate and that school is not rated very good. By the way, the ratings are FLORIDA ratings.....The graduation rate in Pinellas county was 63% in 2008. The school system has MAJOR BUDGET ISSUES and they are closing 7 or 8 elementary schools for the 2009 school year, including Palm Harbor Elementary School. Education has never been a big priority down here.

As far as the RV parking, almost every neighborhood in Florida is "deed restricted" which means that you WILL NOT be able to park the RV at your house. Most of the houses are on lots just barely big enough to fit the house on. 1/4 acre is HUGE down here.

Palm Harbor is one of the "nicer" areas in Pinellas county. Coming from SoCal it shouldn't be too bad of an adjustment. Except the HUMIDITY.

In my opinion, I wouldn't move to Florida in these economic times. Florida has MANY, MANY issues that the current economic climate has made very evident. Florida will continue to experience tough times LONG after the rest of the country begins to recover. In fact......unless the "good ole' southern cracker boys" up in Tallahasee make MAJOR FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES- this state will get much worse.

[miccikoz]

Thank you for your response. I am aware that any direct hit of a hurricane would be bad. I am encouraged that a lot of the homes seem to be older and fine so far...In CA we have fires and earthquakes, and that has been far less of a big deal then it seemed at first. The traffic would stink getting out of there. Think we'd take the RV and head out early if need be. I'm figuring we'll have to store the RV.

Regarding the schools, we are coming from CA which is having a huge budget crisis as well, only we live in a very expensive house from the days my husband had a well paying job. So we'd have the same issues only live much cheaper. I want to be warm! We originally lived in NJ...winters cold and crappy, summers hot and humid, and very expensive to live there so that is why we are not going back. We can also leave in the summer in the RV and go cooler places to escape the humidity.

We will be visiting in Feb to check out homes and the area. I'm guessing a covered pool is amust for bugs. Is it worse living on a lake?

Thanks again,
Micci

[Keeper]

More hurricanes have hit the Jacksonville area than the Tampa area. In 35 years that I lived there hasn't been a direct hurricane hit Tampa. The 'no name' storm caused damage near the gulf with trees down and it rained a lot causing some flooding, IIRC and Charlie's wind caused electric outages but no other damage where I lived not too far from Palm Harbor. They are the only 2 storms that have hit the Tampa Bay area and Charlie actually came across FL from the east coast. In the 80s there was Elena but it never came on shore.

Most ppl have a screened in pool to keep the bugs out and it also helps with the mosquitoes at night. I lived by a lake and don't think the bugs are any worse there than elsewhere.

[bchlver123]

I just moved from Southern Calif 6 months ago. I live in south St. Pete though. I'm thinking of moving up toward Palm Harbor myself. I live in south St. Pete which is an awful area. I'm so used to being able to walk around my neighborhood and I can't do that here. What part of Calif are you coming from?? The beaches here are beautiful!!! Very different from Calif beaches. You can actually swim here and NOT freeze!! The thunderstorms are kinda scary and take a little getting used to. Calif doesn't have many of those. LOL

[nucat78]

Originally Posted by bchlver123

The beaches here are beautiful!!! Very different from Calif beaches. You can actually swim here and NOT freeze!!

Very true. My son lives in Pasadena and I'm amazed at how cold the Pacific feels vs the Gulf when I'm at Santa Monica beach. The Japan / Alaska Current is not my friend.

[rich67]

I moved here 16 years ago after living in So Cal (near Agoura) for 25 years. I like it a lot better out here than So Cal. Palm Harbor is a very nice area.

[miccikoz]

Originally Posted by bchlver123

I just moved from Southern Calif 6 months ago. I live in south St. Pete though. I'm thinking of moving up toward Palm Harbor myself. I live in south St. Pete which is an awful area. I'm so used to being able to walk around my neighborhood and I can't do that here. What part of Calif are you coming from?? The beaches here are beautiful!!! Very different from Calif beaches. You can actually swim here and NOT freeze!! The thunderstorms are kinda scary and take a little getting used to. Calif doesn't have many of those. LOL

Sorry for the delay in response. We are just picking up this again after we visited Palm Harbor in March but by the time we got there my husband had a new job offer he decided to stay put and try it out. It's not working out, and "retirement" seems to be on the table again.
We live in Calabasas area, about half an hour from Malibu. The beaches here are cold. i will miss being able to "get out of the heat" of the "Valley" by driving a short distance. I see there are many houses we looked at back in March are still on the market with lower prices. I cannot imagine that they have much further to fall, unlike houses like ours in the jumbo camp.

Anyway, we loved Palm Harbor, particularly Ozona, when we visited. We weren't very serious with our looking because at that point we decided to give socal one more try. Guess it's time for another visit!