Affluent suburbs of Tampa, do they exist? (Fort Lauderdale, Country Club: low crime, lawyers)

[ksdimarco]

For all of you that are from the area, are there any suburbs where you see most of the professionals living? The majority of northern suburbs of Chicago (lake county) is where many of the huge, expensive houses are. Many athletes, entertainers, medical professionals, CEO's, lawyers reside here and is still set up ideally to raise a family (subdivisions, great schools, etc). My gf and I are both graduating pharmacy school in Fort Lauderdale, and are relocating to Tampa within the next year. We would prefer to go to an area similar to where I was in Chicago. It seems like all of the larger homes are all in the Land O' Lakes and New Tampa areas. Many of the large custom homes I found seem to be built on lots in random suburbs or waterfront. We will probably settle in Land O' Lakes for the first couple years and then move to a suburb that I'm asking about. So who can help me out here?

[Floridasunshine]

Yes they do, you could go to Realtor com and put in 500,000 homes and see the areas .

[Margel]

Check out a new development called Grey Hawk right on route 54. Beautiful new construction there. (Pasco County)

[tampaguy03]

I know places like Avalon and Cheval in Lutz, or Hunters Green in New Tampa are home to many profesional athletes, and professionals alike. South Tampa also has many professionals as well.(Hyde Park/Bayshore Beautiful/Palma Ceia around the Country Club area, New Suburb Beautiful, Beach Park and Sunset Park along the Bay.

[Sunscape]

The places the tampaguy03 is pointing out are much better than Land O'Lakes. Keep in mind those places. They are wonderful areas.

[dplennert]

Odessa, FL is a great place to live and great schools. It is not far from Tampa, Pinellas or Pasco county.

[Obamanation]

Odessa is very rural... if this guy from the Chi moves there, he will think bad of our city. New Tampa, Cheval in Lutz, and Tampa Palms are definitely upscale. Tampa Palms is very exclusive and mostly home to ex-athletes, doctors, etc. Very low crime in all these areas as well.

[cariad]

on our way to Tampa airport from memorial parkway we pass by Sweetwater. Just from passing by it looks like a very exclusive area with homes on the water, docks and boats in the back yards. Anyone know anything about it?

[TBayHomes.com]

Check out Westchase, Florida. Centrally located to beaches, shopping, malls, airport and GREAT neighborhood!!!

[charlesj]

There are numerous high end gated communities (many on golf courses) spread throughout, however they tend to be mix in closely with lower end housing. This is common here as compared to the northeast or chicago for example were you tend to have large areas of simlar housing.

The areas that are most uniformly high end are right along the water or close to the city in south tampa. For example, Hyde Park, Beach Park, Davis Islands, Harbor Island, and Culbreth Isles. Quite a bit of South Tampa is higher end. Ther eis also a nice community along the water just north of downtown st pete. Its called Mission something and is mostly spanish style homes.