Pinellas County (Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg: real estate, crime rate, homes)

[azurewater]

We are considering moving to Pinellas County around the Tarpon Springs/Palm Harbor area. I hope I can get more info on the area that the vacation ads don't advertize. I know it is hot in the summer, but is it bearable? How warm does the water get during the summer months? Are the bugs bad? Our one child will be attending college in two years and would like to know of good colleges in the area for accounting. What is the best and worst of those cities? Any and all info you can provide will be helpful! Thanks.....

[NameAlreadyInUse]

I'm a Colorado native (drier state, not used to much humidity) and just got back from a 4 day vacation to Pinellas County. The heat/humidity aren't that bad. I recall being in Miami in August when I was a teenager and that humidity and heat down there was unbearable, the smell of ocean and sea things was strong, and the weight of the humid air pressed on my shoulders almost like a sauna, but Tampa-St. Pete is much more tolerable. Sure, you feel it, and when the Gulf breezes aren't blowing (which cool things) you can smell the Gulf in the air, but it was a refreshing surprise to me considering previous to this visit my only memory of Florida was oppressively-humid Miami which hit me like a ton of bricks the second I stepped out of the plane and onto the jetway at Miami International. I also made the mistake of wearing blue jeans to Miami in the summer, which is a big no-no. This time it was capris.

We stayed in St. Pete Beach and only drove as far north in Pinellas as Dunedin, but anywhere near the water is going to get those cooling Gulf breezes. Even without the breezes, it's not that bad and in the summer you get a lot of little rains which also serve to cool things. Temperatures were in the low 90s while I was there, and quite bearable. If you're on the beach with a good breeze coming in off the Gulf, you don't even notice the heat.

The water temperature is in the mid-80s this time of year, very nearly air temperature, so you don't get cold or have to slowly adjust to get in there. You just walk in. It's very warm. As far as bugs, I didn't really notice any except some fire ants near the beach along the wooden walkway from the parking lot at the county beach on Gulf Blvd. across the street from the Dolphin Village shopping center. Even at Mullet Key I wasn't bitten by anything. I've been told that there are sunrise mosquito sprays from airplanes in bad areas. My biggest worry was sunburn.

As far as best and worst areas, I tend to go by demographics and crime rates. Looking at Tampa and St. Pete, as core cities they always have the higher crime rate, and personally I wouldn't touch either one, especially Tampa. What little I drove through Tampa didn't look horribly bad, kind of like Denver with palm trees, but on paper it isn't appealing to me. I really only drove through main roads in St. Petersburg (34th/US 19, Pinellas Bayway mostly) so didn't see that much of the city. On paper it doesn't have a high a crime rate as Tampa, but its more than I will live around.

The nicest place I saw down there was Tierra Verde, but that's $$$$$, and with good reason. Very nice area, right on the north end of Ft. De Soto Park.

I noticed by visiting Wal Mart in St Petersburg (34th) that they sell nearly all the fireworks which were outlawed in Colorado some 20 years ago which I liked to light off as a kid.

[NameAlreadyInUse]

I'll also add that I experienced a bit of culture shock in how the cities in Florida are laid out. Where I live now, the main streets are 4 lanes wide with sidewalks, curbs, and gutters and with a speed limit usually of 35; side streets are 2-lane (if not narrow) with parallel parking on the sides with sidewalks, curbs, and gutters. In Florida its main streets are 6-lane with sidewalks, curbs and gutters, speed limits usually at 45 but up to 50. Side streets are narrow, no sidewalk, no gutter, no parallel parking. I saw NO parallel parking anywhere in Pinellas County whatsoever, and I'm told this is how Florida was built, which is fine by me. Denver/Colorado parking is mostly on-the-street sardine can parallel style, and it's irritating to no end.

[WinterK]

I hardly think a four day vacation to Pinellas County qualifies the above poster to give advice.

Azurewater, I would check out Safety Harbor. It’s a small, cute town near the bay, nice homes in all price ranges, and convenient to Tampa. Palm Harbor is not a town, it’s an area. Of course all of the towns in Pinellas kind of blend together, since we are so overbuilt. One is pretty much the same as the other.

As far as bugs, I guess our vacationer never came across one of our lovely flying palmetto bugs? Look one up on Google images - quite frightening.

Miami heat and humidity might be a little worse than here, but it's HOT and HUMID here from June-September. Gulf breezes don't waft over the whole of Pinellas, and you sure as heck can’t smell them unless you are near the water. The gulf temp during this part of the year is around 88, like bath water. Not refreshing at all.
[SIZE=3] [/SIZE]
Sunrise mosquito sprays by airplanes? Never heard of such a thing, and I’ve been here 40 some years. Maybe someone else that lives here knows of such a thing?

[SacalaitWhisperer]

I lived in Ozona years ago.
Palm Harbor is very close to that marina town and was a very nice little community.
I liked living out of the metro areas... but still close to them.

It is likely far more populated these days. The Dunedin Causeway is close to there if you like a small beach near your life. Clearwater beach is tourist central with anal retentive rules at every turn.

The Palm Harbor area beaches... while smaller and less used, are far nicer, IMHO.

[fuscorayj]

I was just talking to my sister down in St Pete's this morning 'cause I'm looking to be heading down shortly myself to start anew. Anyway, I too am concerned about finding a "nice" area to live in and what I got from her was generally every town/ area is gonna have their nice sides and sides you want to stay away from. She is in what she said was technically part of St Pete's city, but actually considered the county, so it's a little better crime wise than the south side. Her taxes there were also lower but said she is grandfathered in to lower rates. The only downfall to living in the county section was that she has paid higher fees for her kids to sign up for various things/ activities since she isn't really a "city" res.

Yeah, definitely check out the Palmetto bugs -cockroaches on steroids -bigger than the ones they use to have on Fear Factor! They come from the Palm trees to cut down the risk of running into these guys, don't go for a place loaded with Palm Trees!

Best bet would be find a friend that can recommend a real estate agent and see what they can tell you. Also look up the Chamber of Commerce on the web & see what they can tell you

[aninaction]

USF is a third-tier school i believe (i went there, the quality of education is pretty low on the scale), try to send your kid to UF in Gainesville, its higher tier, i believe.

Trust me, you wont regret it.

[JCwasRight]

Originally Posted by aninaction

USF is a third-tier school i believe (i went there, the quality of education is pretty low on the scale), try to send your kid to UF in Gainesville, its higher tier, i believe.

Trust me, you wont regret it.

This post is absurd. I recently graduated USF after attending UF in Gainesville for my first two years. UF and USF are on-par academically speaking. They are both publically funded institutions, with the same state-mandated curriculum. In my opinion, USF had more resources for the students, and was the better school overall. The only time you could reasonably say that UF is a higher tier than USF would be in a conversation about football.

To address the OP- USF has one of the best accounting programs of any public school in the nation. I believe that they have the second-highest passage rate of students who take the CPA test their first time.

[lavender]

Pinellas county is a marvellous place to live, lots of variety in areas, from trendy downtown St Pete to laid back beach locations. Small arty centres like Dunedin, Greek style Tarpon, suburban beachside Seminole and so on. Schools are mixed, but if you are pretty well done with public schools you should be ok. Colleges, Florida has a wonderful state system, UF is the hardest to get into and has a good rep., but New College is very highly rated as an honors college, FSU is in my opinion a fine college too.One of the US largest schools is UCF in Orlando, about 7th in nation I think. Then there is FGCU at Ft Myers, a nice newer and smaller college, USF is one of the top research universities in the state, it sits alongside FSU and UF. Each of these last three are highly subscribed to. UF is almost impossible to get into unless you have marvellous grades and more on your resume. FSU close second and then USF and the rest. The other state schools include UNF (Jax) FIU and FAU over north of Miami, UWF up in the panhandle and I'm sure there is another but I've forgotten for now. They all offer very varied programmes of study, and I'm sure all of them offer accounting as a major. I wish you good luck, but strongly recommend you book at least a week's vacation down here to check out the area and find a good guide to help you.

[rich67]

Originally Posted by azurewater

We are considering moving to Pinellas County around the Tarpon Springs/Palm Harbor area. I hope I can get more info on the area that the vacation ads don't advertize. I know it is hot in the summer, but is it bearable? How warm does the water get during the summer months? Are the bugs bad? Our one child will be attending college in two years and would like to know of good colleges in the area for accounting. What is the best and worst of those cities? Any and all info you can provide will be helpful! Thanks.....

Temps in the summer aren't bad- it's the humidity that will get you. It hovers around 90-92, with close to 90% humidity. But to be honest, I like it. I came from California 16 years ago, and it took me a couple years to deal with the humidity. I enjoy it now.
Bugs aren't too bad. Mosquitos get thick at sundown during summer, but clear out once it gets dark. The love bugs (look em up on Wikipedia) are awful- but only come out two times a year for about a month. So they are tolerable, and they don't sting or bite-they just make your car a mess.
Palmetto bugs are out here too, and they are nasty, but you end up dealing with them and I haven't had any issues with them at all in cooler months.
I'd stick to Palm Harbor. It's a lot nicer and upscale. Tarpon is OK, but many of the neighborhoods are older. Downtown Tarpon is crack town central- you all know where that is: any place off MLK near Safford and Lime. Outside areas of Tarpon near the water are nicer, but the homes are older and more crammed together.