Is Fishhawk Ranch all its cracked up to be?

[Kathleen1971]

Originally Posted by VaMomatHome

I do not live in Tampa, but I have been researching that area.
I did look at Fish Hawk Ranch, after a military friend mentioned it. We are not military, but if we moved my husband would likely work near McDill.
After looking at Nativity Catholic in Brandon and St Stephen's in Riverview, I definitely want to live very close to Nativity. I taught Catholic school, and I would rather be at a well established parish with a lot of community. Nativity looks like that.

Speaking as a member of St. Stephens I would like to say that I would go with us over Nativity. If you are looking for a sense of community and if you like kick butt Priests then we have all that and more. Not that I am biased or anything.

[FLgirl367]

I'm sure St. Stephen's is a great place; it just doesn't seem to have what I"m after. I want a church with lots!!!! going on and Nativity seems to have that. I also once worked for a newer Catholic school/parish and there were still so many 'quirks' to be worked out, I'd rather not go that route again. I really want a well established place. Finally, I loathe the math curriculum that St. Stephen's has listed on their school site. It is all just my personal opinion. Blessings.....

[zevzen]

I don't know the crime stats; but St. Petersburg has a mixture of nice neighborhoods with higher crime neighborhoods like most cities. There are pockets that are nice with lower crime. I generally would avoid South St. Petersburg which has high crime and the schools are not very good. North St. Petersburg is probably comparable in crime to most cities. If I were to live in St. Petersburg, I would choose the beach or North East. I'm a thrid generation native and have lived in Tampa Bay most of my life. I know the area well. St. Petersburg has always been this way.

I have friends who have bought homes in the Bloomindale area of Brandon. He is a JAG. They like the area because they got a lot of house for the money, and they like the schools. However, the commute is not good he drives to MacDill, BayPines, and VA offices around town. I thought about the area but the deal breaker for me was the pollution levels. The air quality is too low for me. The small particle pollutants are high. There are several nearby heavy industrial plants to contribute to the pollution. However, on a positive note I have heard very good things about The Church of the Nativity (Catholic) in Brandon. It has had a good reputation for at least 20-years, so they have been doing it right for sometime now. There are many good Catholic Churches in the Tampa Bay area, it really depends on what you are looking for in a Church.

If you can, you may want to rent and wait out the market. I read yesterday on a Real Estate blog (Tampa Tribune) they are expecting a high number of foreclosures in June of this year bringing the inventory up and prices down. Home prices will not be rising sharply when it does recover. Renting will give you the leisure of discovering if a comminity is a good fit for you family. I currently, rent and the home I'm living in went down $10,000 last month.

If you can drive in to work during non-traffic hours then anywhere in Tampa Bay is a decent commute. The nice thing about Tampa Bay is there are hours when the traffic is not horrible.

Good luck with your search.

[Floridaobserver]

Hi - welcome to Tampa! My husband and I moved here about 13 years ago when he was assigned to MacDill AFB. FishHawk was not under development yet, and we moved to Buckhorn Estates, which is near Bloomingdale and Lithia Pinecrest in Valrico. We do, however, go to church in FishHawk and it is a beautiful development, and the people we've met are very nice.

There are several things we like about our neighborhood, though:
- The homeowner fees are only $25 a year, and our CCD fees are low.
- FishHawk has very high yearly fees - so remember to ask about them.
- When we moved to our neighborhood, every third house had a military member. We felt very welcome here. The neighborhood has changed and there are fewer military families here, but we still like it very much.
- Deed restrictions - our deed restrictions are not as rigid as in many other neighborhoods, but the neighbors still do a great job keeping up their homes. I also feel we have more freedom to do what we please in our yards.
- Low turnover. This is not a very transient neighborhood, and I haven't seen many, if any, foreclosures. That is something to be weary about - some of the newer neighborhhoods have a lot of foreclosures or stopped dead in their tracks in the middle of development. I don't know if this is an issue in FishHawk, though.

If you'd like more information about my neighborhood in particular, let me know. I can email you our neighborhood newsletter. I also know of a couple of homes for sale on my street. I like our street because we have three police officers living on it, and I feel that helps reduce crime and criminal mischief.

[Floridaobserver]

I also forgot to mention the commute to MacDill from the Valrico/Lithia area. If you can commute during the off hours, it is much better. If you commute during rush hour, you will hit more traffic and longer lines to get on base.

And...on the issue of pollution - the highest pollutant now is the oak pollen. It literally rains oak pollen if you have oaks in your yard.