The good and bad of Odessa, Trinity and Wesley Chapel (Tampa: for sale, foreclosures)

[Sunny-Days-in-Florida]

We have just decided that are ramping up our goal to be in Florida within the next year or sooner and we are now looking at these three areas heavily.

Please post your thoughts of those three towns including the positives, negatives and any information you feel is important.

I appreciate the responses.

Sunny




We have 2 of our 3 properties up for sale now and listing the third next week. If 2 of the 3 sell soon we will be in Florida before sundown!

We do not want to come to Florida having to carry 4 mortgages, so we are hoping to sell at least 2 of them before we head south.


The pit in my stomach to be in Florida is growing. We are coming down next month for a week to vacation and spend some time in these areas and will be looking at homes in those areas.

[Sunny-Days-in-Florida]

Forgot something.

Does anyone know if the Odessa schools have open enrollment?

The reasoning is if we live in Trinity or WC we can drive to Odessa for schools since Odessa on paper seems to have the better schools.

Any thoughts on schools also appreciated.

[Loren.]

Wesley Chapel is pretty congested these days. It's so easily accessible to Tampa via I-275, and property was such a good value in recent years, that the place just exploded. I think it's a mess, myself, and you couldn't pay me to live there.

Odessa is a bit more rural, don't know anything about the schools.

Trinity should be decent, too. Probably more established than Odessa. LOTS of traffic on CR611 coming from Pinellas, though.

All of these areas are pretty "bland" for Florida. If you're gonna move, why not move somewhere closer to the water? The areas you mentioned are all just plain ol' flat, boring, inland Florida. Get out closer to the beach, or at least a river or lake, or at least minimize your beach-drive time to under 20 minutes so that you'll be more likely to head out there more often!

[Sunny-Days-in-Florida]

Originally Posted by Loren.

Wesley Chapel is pretty congested these days. It's so easily accessible to Tampa via I-275, and property was such a good value in recent years, that the place just exploded. I think it's a mess, myself, and you couldn't pay me to live there.

Odessa is a bit more rural, don't know anything about the schools.

Trinity should be decent, too. Probably more established than Odessa. LOTS of traffic on CR611 coming from Pinellas, though.

All of these areas are pretty "bland" for Florida. If you're gonna move, why not move somewhere closer to the water? The areas you mentioned are all just plain ol' flat, boring, inland Florida. Get out closer to the beach, or at least a river or lake, or at least minimize your beach-drive time to under 20 minutes so that you'll be more likely to head out there more often!

I am wanting to be more central as we can and still be able to get to the antique markets as easy as we can the beach. Trying to stay within a short drive of both the beach and the favorite markets.

Also, we love the rural feel and do not mind living away from the bigger towns.

We chose this circle of towns because it fits what we like to do within a short drive. Beach, Disney, antiques etc.

Schools may be the deciding factor in the end. I am hoping someone knows if Odessa has open enrollment just in case we find something outside of Odessa.

[bgirldeb]

Originally Posted by Sunny-Days90

Forgot something.

Does anyone know if the Odessa schools have open enrollment?

The reasoning is if we live in Trinity or WC we can drive to Odessa for schools since Odessa on paper seems to have the better schools.

Any thoughts on schools also appreciated.

You may want to look into the Florida School Choice program. I'm not sure if you can choose outside of your school district.

Trinity and Wesley Chapel are in the Pasco County School District, and the Odessa schools are in the Hillsborough County school district.

[bentlebee]

There is a time limit for the Open School Choice and it might be that you won't know until school starts if your child is accepted ....that is what we were told the last time but due to the large amount of foreclosures and people who moved, the school we chose was the school he went too. The school told us more or less that they were sure about it but the County didn't want to say it until a later day.

[Loren.]

I think (not sure) that the school choice still requires you to stay within your school district.

Regarding "rural feel", I don't see Wesley Chapel as being that way any more. Used to be. Odessa probably still is.

Look at a satellite view of the area. Places where you see 2-lane roads and no big housing developments will have that "rural" feel. If they had to add 4+ lanes and traffic lights to handle the influx of new suburbanites... it's not rural any more.

Try looking at Gunn Hwy and Race Track Road between SR54 and about Patterson road. That area is still pretty rural and very pretty.

(My Mom lived in Dade City until recently, so I used to take the back roads from there to Safety Harbor all the time... I still go that way driving to Brooksville every month or two. Nice drive.)

[bentlebee]

I think you have to stay in the same county as where you live....

I recently saw a nice house that was for sale on Patterson Road. It is on a Lake and the house has gorgeous views......for the rest, I know Wesley Chapel better than Odessa and like it here very well.

[Sunny-Days-in-Florida]

Thank you both for the information.

Since we do not know when we are moving until a couple of the properties sell we probably are stuck with the schools in the area. Especially if we move during the school year.

I will look into this so we will know for sure.

Several people have told me that the Odessa schools are very good.

Any other input on schools, etc in these 3 towns would be very much appreciated.

We have been in all three of these towns many times so we kinda know our way around but still comes down to the schools as being one of the most important factors.

And of course we will be close to all the things we enjoy in any of these towns which is a huge plus.

[Danzjeepn]

Trinity area is not over-developed like Wesley Chapel and is a planned community.

Trinity
The good - New hospital is going up, lots of newer stores, generally you will have professionals as neighbors, lots of sq feet for the money and low taxes.
The bad - long commutes if you work in Tampa or St. Pete, adjacent to big homes but cookie cutter burb's, lots of forclosures and pre forclosures right now.