Where to Look in Saint Petersburg (St. Petersburg, Clearwater: foreclosure, city hall, rental)

[subetterly]

My husband and I took a trip down the Atlantic side of Florida ending in Winter Park to scope out a possible retirement area, and buy a home while prices are depressed. We liked Winter Park best of what we saw but had hoped to be closer to the water. I am planning a trip to Saint Petersburg and would like input on where to focus my efforts. We like a place that has a town or central area, rather than a sprawling mess. We would love to be able to walk to some amenities like restaurants, a library, etc. We like mediteranean architecture, or bungalow, or mid-century modern or anything except new subdivision. We would like to be close to a nice beach. We would love to be on water ourselves, but recognize that's not possible in our price range of $300,000 to $450,000.

I saw online that St. Petersburg has over 100 distinct neighborhoods......help!

[lavender]

You CAN be on the water for those prices just now, depending on how big, I looked today and found more than one property along gulf beaches (intracoastal) on the listings for your price range.
At least one of those was walkable to Indian Rocks center and restaurants, churches, park and library.
I even saw a preforeclosure on a condo that is 2000 sq ft with 3/3 huge water views for less than $400K and they were selling in the 800s, so you will find something. It all depends on how you want to use it short term, quick rental or fixer upper over time......

[subetterly]

Does Indian Rocks Center have some character to it? I'll look at it online.....

Thanks,
Susan

[lavender]

It is a small centre - really clustered around the Walsingham Bridge. There are quite a few little restaurants, tapas, seafood, italian, bar kind, a nice breakfast cafe place, mexican even. There is a CVS, a post office, a small local history museum, little shops, board shops, miscellaneous, and that's about it, there is a larger hotel with a restaurant too. There is a marina in front of that. Across the bridge wthin about half a mile is a major shopping strip mall, with Publix and other shops/banks/restaurants/doctors etc. Just north about half a mile is the City of Indian Rocks, which is a small city hall, park, art center, couple more nice eating places and a church. The primary is served by buses from the mainland which link with the trolley. The trolley runs Clearwater beach to St Pete Beach for a dollar a ride. Hope this helps. There are a lot of permenant residential streets in IRB and this mixes well with the vacationer properties which tend to be more by the beachfronts It is pretty safe. There are a number of townhomes with limited water views to buy also, They might work better than buying a fixer upper on the direct water,but it all does depend on what you want to put your money into for the long run. Dont forget you will be subject to higher insuranced costs by the water.