Moving to Tampa from Utah (Miami, Brandon: sales, real estate, homeowners insurance)

[triznaynay]

We're going to be relocating in the next few months to the Tampa area. I know next to nothing about Tampa, having lived in the West my whole life. I've got a bunch of questions that I'd love if someone could help out with. Answer any or none or all..........anything is appreciated.

Where is a good place for a family? (schools, low crime, etc.) - I can work from home much of the time so I'm pretty flexible on where around the Tampa area we choose.
What are the good schools/districts?
Anyone know about the LDS (Mormon) presence or areas of concentration (any members of the LDS Church on this board that would have details)?
Or a resource where I could find out more about the LDS presence in Tampa?
I've heard the cost of living in Florida is high.....why is that?
Are you required to have expensive flood and/or hurricane/wind insurance on your home in Tampa?
Does Tampa get hit by hurricanes?
How's the traffic in and out of Tampa/Tampa airport?
Any areas I should definitely avoid living?
Anything else unique to Tampa that I would not be prepared for having never lived back east or to Florida?

Thanks in advance!

[maggiekate]

Originally Posted by triznaynay

We're going to be relocating in the next few months to the Tampa area. I know next to nothing about Tampa, having lived in the West my whole life. I've got a bunch of questions that I'd love if someone could help out with. Answer any or none or all..........anything is appreciated.

Where is a good place for a family? (schools, low crime, etc.) - I can work from home much of the time so I'm pretty flexible on where around the Tampa area we choose.
What are the good schools/districts?
Anyone know about the LDS (Mormon) presence or areas of concentration (any members of the LDS Church on this board that would have details)?
Or a resource where I could find out more about the LDS presence in Tampa?
I've heard the cost of living in Florida is high.....why is that?
Are you required to have expensive flood and/or hurricane/wind insurance on your home in Tampa?
Does Tampa get hit by hurricanes?
How's the traffic in and out of Tampa/Tampa airport?
Any areas I should definitely avoid living?
Anything else unique to Tampa that I would not be prepared for having never lived back east or to Florida?

Thanks in advance!

The new tampa and wesley chapel area are good. The price of homes has gone down and insurance for homes is hard to get. The Seven Oaks in
wesley chapel is a real nice place and safe. It also is near the wiregrass mall
etc. read the tampa tribune and get a good real estate person. I have been here 11 years and still doing ok after the year we had in 2004! Traffic is bad
so I do the drive when traffic is slow! Snow Birds also give us traffic and the roads were not made for the people here. All in All it is real neat to have hot
at least for me in mid october! No snow either to deal with and no state income tax some of the good.

[mquintana]

Where is a good place for a family? (schools, low crime, etc.) - I can work from home much of the time so I'm pretty flexible on where around the Tampa area we choose. New Tampa, Wesley Chapel, Riverview, Valrico ***Remember, crime has no address but these areas are "better" than others.
What are the good schools/districts? New Tampa, Wesley Chapel and Riverview and Valrico have A rated schools
Anyone know about the LDS (Mormon) presence or areas of concentration (any members of the LDS Church on this board that would have details)? I was going to move to Orem, UT at one point--not for religion but because a friend was out there. I understand that there are more LDS churches out there, but we have a few here...We have 1 here in Brandon and a few in the Tampa area.
Or a resource where I could find out more about the LDS presence in Tampa? Here is a link to Google search on LDS churches in Tampa Bay lds churches tampa bay area fl - Google Search
I've heard the cost of living in Florida is high.....why is that? Maybe higher than UT, but it all weighs out the same. You get paid less elsewhere and cost of living is less and vice versa. It's not as bad here as people say--no state taxes and 7% sales tax...
Are you required to have expensive flood and/or hurricane/wind insurance on your home in Tampa? Flood insurance depends on the area-having a home in the areas I listed it may not be required. Hurrican-yes, we are the state a Florida.
Does Tampa get hit by hurricanes? hardly ever, but it still can happen. The last tiff we had was in 2004 and it wasn't anything major.
How's the traffic in and out of Tampa/Tampa airport? BAD-usually. But traffic is everywhere. I-275 is the worst when it comes to downtown and traffic.
Any areas I should definitely avoid living? Certain areas of Temple Terrace-anywhere on MLK (Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd)-Seffner (not bad but not the greatest) as well as Mango. Downtown Tampa.
Anything else unique to Tampa that I would not be prepared for having never lived back east or to Florida? There is a large hispanic influence here, you will have to get used to listen to people speak spanish (if there isn't as many in UT). There seems to be a good amount of Asians here too (I am half myself). Hot, hot weather-as in anywhere in Fl. 2 seasons-we really don't have 4 here, and as for Tampa Bay...well-there's always something to do-Lowry Zoo, The Aquarium, Busch Gardens, Adventure Island (water theme park) and ect...

I am sure you will love it here, Fl. isn't really that bad and the Tampa Bay area isn't bad either! Good luck on your move and if you need more info, let us know! Hope this helps!

[seain dublin]

Coming from Utah the humidity is going to be a shocker. The beaches are nice but it is a flat as pancake here.

We are also from the western US and miss the mountains.

MQuintana said people get paid less elsewhere????? Than where Mississippi...LOL.

FL for the most part has very low wages and they don't match the cost of living.

Many people move here and leave better paying jobs thinking it is cheaper to live here and find themselves stuggling more.

Homeowners insurance is expensive and in many cases your car insurance rates will go up. FL has many uninsured drivers and therefore the rates are higher.

Coming from Utah you will most likely see an increase.

[mquintana]

YES! Car insurance! I didn't mention that. Anything with a Tampa address-you're insurance will be higher than it would be if you lived in a community of Tampa. Some food for thought...

[SLCPUNK]

Tampa is night and day from Utah. I prefer Utah myself.

The LDS presence in Fl is NOTHING like what you have been used to coming from Utah.

The humidity will take a bit of getting used to, but it's not that big of a deal. Some people hate it. I always suggest having access to a pool in the warmer months.

Yes Tampa gets hit by hurricanes, but nothing like Miami does. Home insurance is much higher than down here than Utah. When we lived in SLC it was a fraction of what we pay here.

In Utah the majority of people stop when you are in a parking lot to let you cross. In fact I found it was rare if they did not stop. The opposite is true here. So don't walk out in front of a car and expect they will stop.

In general I also believe (putting on flame suit here) that people are nicer in Utah. Everybody that would visit me out there always commented on that. It's just how that state is IMO. Not saying there aren't great people down here, there are, but I think you may be put off at first. I'd ask you not to be. Give it a chance.

[TampaKaren]

I'm in the Northwest area of Tampa in a suburb called Carrollwood. Comparatively speaking, our area is safe and the schools are very good. We have been spared from the hurricane's wrath so far. Our homeowner's insurance costs $1600 annually on our 1900sf 1980's home. We also have a flood insurance policy and that's $600.

One of my neighbors is Mormon (we also worked together for about 10 years). Go to the maps on the following link and type in zip code 33624 --> LDS Maps. You will find several choices. I hope this helps a bit!

[gypsychic]

I don't know how close you have to be to the airport, but if you would like a small town with lots of lush green hills (very unusual for Florida) and very friendly people you might consider San Antonio/Dade City, just 30 miles NE of Tampa proper. There is also an LDS church there for you:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

We lived there for many years, it's really beautiful and a great place to live and/or raise a family if you don't need lots of fancy shopping/dining options. It is also consistently several degrees cooler than Tampa, due to the topography and trees there.

[Nav]

As far as home insurance, the farther inland, the better insurance will be. There are still companies writing policies as long as your residence is east of I-75. As far as costs, make sure you purchase a home built after 2003. These homes are built to the new hurricane codes and carry substantially lower rates. I have a 4k sq ft home in Plant city insured for 450k built in 05 and pay right around 2k per year for full coverage. In contrast, my stepson has a 1400 sq ft home a few miles away built in the mid 60's insured for 170k and pays around 3.5k per year for the same coverage.

Auto insurance will be the real shock. It will be double or more what you are paying in Utah. A large percentage of uninsured drivers, coupled with extremely rude, dangerous drivers has driven the costs through the roof. Road rage is common during rush hours (unfortunately). Make sure you get a quote for different areas of Tampa. The rates will fluctuate with the location.

Nav

[seain dublin]

The drivers are the worst. Another school bus was bit by another drunk driver yesterday, she was doing 100mph and of course a suspended DL.

We have been here two years and this is about the 10th crash that I have heard of involving a school bus and a reckless/drunk driver.

We have lived all over the country and I have never seen so many reckless drivers. Oregon had the most considerate drivers, like UT you didn't have to worry about getting run over in a parking lot.

There is a very "me first" attitude here.

But FL allows them to drive with no car insurance and doesn't impound cars like other states. You have to assume those around you driving are uninsured because chances are good that they are.