Sara B

Hi, my name is Sara, my family are moving to Florida with my husbands business. I have 2 children 9months and 4yrs. Just wondering if anyone has any advice on nice areas to live, Tampa / Tarpon Springs / Palm Harbour areas of Florida?? Top of the list is obviously a good school for my 4yr old who will be 5 in Nov of this year. Feel a bit nervous about the move as have lived in same town in Uk all my life and have close family /friends but also looking forward to new opportunities and some warm weather!! Can anyone help? or recommend any good web sites? Thank you so much.....

ImHere

Hi Sarah.

Welcome to the board. Members here are from all over the world, buts it a good place for advice. If you want info more directly about moving to Florida (and on E2 visas) then have you tried Florida Days? (http://www.floridadays.co.uk)

vegas

Hi I have lived in Tampa for 2 years now. With hindsight I would not have moved here in the first place. The areas you mention on the coast are very prone to flooding when the hurricanes come. Also if any hurricanes come off the gulf then you will have a strong hurricane to contend with. As I have said in previous posts it is 9 months of paradise and 3 months of hell here ( Very hot in summer, Humidity thats oppressive, Wrath of god lightening storms like you have never seen before). If you are determined to come here then I would advise you buy a Brick built, tiled roof, storm shuttered bungalow with good drainage and not near any rivers. A lot of houses here are wood built with a stucco covering which allowed the very heavy rain of the storms to come through. If you buy a house here and sell it before 2 years then any gain is subject to capital gains tax. I will have lived here 2 years in August I am selling up and moving to Texas as soon as I can. Tampa is fast becoming the 2nd hispanic city of America after Miami and because of this wages are extremely low. The 2 most desireable areas of Tampa are Westchase ( can be prone to flooding there ) and New Tampa. The beauty of new tampa is that it is 30 miles inland so any hurricanes have weakended slightly before they hit. Also A huge shopping mall is being built there so making that area the most desirable. You are 20 minutes from Busch Gardens and 1 1/4 hour from Disney Orlando. House prices are rising by 25% per year in Westcase and New Tampa. We bought our house for $340k in Aug 03 it is now worth $450k

Ray

What can I say ..Vegas you are a wimp...a little breeze and you fall out off bed...

NC Penguin

You've got admit the home insurance in parts of FL is steep, right?




NC Penguin

vegas

I am paying $1200 per year with a $6000 excess

Philgr

Having lived in Tampa and Houston I can't figure out why you are thinking of moving from one to the other (OK, Texas is a BIG place so hopefully you're not going near Houston) - basically everything you don't like about Tampa applies equally to a lot of Texas. Maybe you should rethink your next location

Oh - and your insurance is pretty reasonable - ours is double that in N California - of course, Tampa doesn't have earthquakes.

ImHere

No. Its steep all over Florida. In some parts you cant even get house insurance this year.

Dan725

I like Tampa very much, but agree with a lot of the valid points Vegas has made, we are pretty much adhering to them, i.e, a bit inland (Brandon area), away from any main rivers and waterfront - we didn't do that for the weather effect reasons, however - you can also get a lot more for your money if you do that!

Prices are going nuts, we've been on the ladder for a few years so hasn't impacted us too much as the houses we've sold have also gone up. If you don't already have a foothold on a rising market somewhere, it would be I suspect increasingly difficult to afford a decent house here, there has been a lot of coverage about this in the local press, prices have been attracting people for years and now the effects of that are that prices are rising sharply. The rate its moving is akin to the last few years in the UK, I would say, even in the once cheaper areas its taking hold. Building trade is very busy, new homes coming up everywhere. It's definately a place on the rise.

ironporer

As it should be perhaps... I mean there are certainly many more issues in florida than say in Kansas or North Dakota. Auto Insurance for people in groups that have excessive claims is also much higher (kids, drunks..)

Ray

I have been told by a resident of ND.. that there is actually only 11 people left there now ...

NC Penguin

Why's that? Homeowners who've made a claim/some claims who are now blacklisted and can't afford hiked up premiums?




NC Penguin

Ray

No ..Its cos 4 smaller companies went broke due to last year storms ..and the fact that the big companies are so crooked they won't take on anything with a slight risk....

Tone

Tarpon Springs / Palm Harbour are both in the Pinellas County side, if you are going to work in Tampa that will probably mean you'll have to negotiate the Courtney Kamakaziway, which from everyday personal experience, would not recommend.

TouristTrap

As Tone said, Tarpon Springs/Palm Harbor are actually quite a ways away from Tampa.

Where is your husband going to be located? If on the west side, then Westchase would be great, but if he's not on the west side of Tampa, I wouldn't live there, its very far away from everywhere else. There are great little neighborhoods everywhere if you don't fancy living in a deed restricted community.

There are wonderful homes in South Tampa and if you want to sell up in a couple of years' time, there is nowhere like it to make a load of $$ on, even though the prices are pretty steepish there.