TampaFreeRealEstateInfo.com

I’m thinking of moving to the Tampa/St. Pete area, but could use advice on what town or neighborhood to look for a house. I have two young kids, so I am focused on finding a safe place with good schools and sufficient age-appropriate activities for them. Also, I don’t know anything about traffic in the area. I’d like to live somewhere that is within 40 minutes of both downtown Tampa and downtown St. Pete. I am looking for a home in the $550,000 – $650,000 range–the important thing is the neighboorhood and proximity to Tampa and St. Pete. Clearwater? Palm Harbor? Oldsmar? Safety Harbor? Pinellas Park? Apollo Beach? Near the airport? Somewhere else? I really have no idea, and would appreciate any advice. Thanks!

My brother recently moved to this area and he loves it! There are lots of kids and the commute isn’t too bad (within your parameters). It’s north of Tampa in an area with lots of development.

http://connerton.com/index.html

Here’s another popular development – with good schools:

http://www.westchase.com/

Also, while the other person said how nice Lakeland is – and it is a nice place – the traffic is horrendous coming into Tampa. Lithia/Valrico/Brandon are all east of Tampa and there are some nice neighborhoods – go to http://realtor.com to see what’s available.

I live in St. Petersburg and I love it – but if you want a newer home, this might not be the place for you as most of St. Petersburg is well established and any new housing can be pricey. But, the old NE, Allendale, Snell Isle, Jungle Prada, and the Pink Streets – are all exceptional neighborhoods with homes in your price range. Hyde Park in south Tampa is similar to the Old NE in St. Pete.

Apollo Beach is a community with a lot of growth, but I think the commute would be a problem eventually.

Safety Harbor may be your best bet – so I’d recommend that. My mom lived there for 25 years and I always thought it was so nice there.

Good luck with the move – I love this area.

My family currently lives in a 2350 sq ft 4/3/3car home in New Tampa, FL. The location is great as lots of retail development (malls, etc.) is forthcoming. The challenge is that we’d like to find a slightly larger home with more land to accommodate for our future family’s growth. We’re hearing that it’s a buyer’s market (good leverage for us looking to buy but not so good if we need to sell our home to buy a new one). Other complexity is the locations with more square footage and lot size in our price range are not near the modern retail conveniences we enjoy. Land/home prices have increased overall in Florida (as well as taxes and insurance). We expect that they will continue to do over time. We’re wondering if we should take on a larger home (a small stretch) now vs. waiting five years and potentially find ourselves priced out of the market. Any perspectives from those in the real estate arena are welcome.

If you expect to be needing a larger home, this is not a bad time too look. Even though the real estate market has gone up in FL, it is still a buyers market at this time. If you are financially able, you could shop around for some good deals.

On the other hand, the larger and more expense the home the longer it takes to sell. If the outlook of your financial and career future aren’t as stable, you might want to stay put. But if you expect to stay in your new home for more than 5 years, it might be okay.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the lack of modern retail conveniences. The Starbucks and Gaps have their way of finding where their potential customers are – they will find you.