Move our family to Florida?? (Tampa, St. Petersburg: real estate, HOA fees, houses)

[Kellihope]

Hope this topic hasn't been beat to death too much. . .

My husband and I run a farm in Vermont and have been losing money for 7 years now. This year he got a full time job off farm in the manufacturing industry as a production supervisor. We are considering selling the farm and moving to the Tampa Bay area, as his parents live down in Cortez.

First off, any idea what the production/manufacturing management job market is like? We've looked at some job websites and seen a decent amount of listings, but are they actually hiring?

Secondly, we currently live in a very rural area and I am pretty unhappy with having to drive 20 miles for groceries and playgroups for my 2 little ones (6m and 2yrs). There are exactly 2 other women my age in the town I live in and we get together maybe once a month. I'm a very social person and really want a circle of mom friends. My dream would be to live in a community where we can take walks, go to playgrounds, have lots of kids nearby for mine to play with, great schools. . .are there places like that in the Tampa bay area??

We've heard that the real estate is very affordable right now. Looking at some websites we are seeing many houses 3br/2bath for the $150,000 range which is about what we'd like to spend. Are there houses in that range in areas with the things we're looking for?

So to summarize:
*What's the job market for production management?
*What are good family friendly neighborhoods with homes in the $150,000 range.
*Inlaws live in Cortez, I would love to be about a half hour from them and no more than 30 or 40min from whatever job my husband finds. I'm thinking St. Petersburg would be good because it's 30min from Cortez, 30 from Clearwater, 30 from Tampa. . .

Thank you SO so much and sorry to be so long winded!

[MortonR]

The Tampa area, and Florida in general, has little or no manufacturing industry. The majority of businesses here are service related in some manner.

Housing is becoming affordable again, but you have to be careful not to get into an area that was overdeveloped during the boom, as many homes are vacant and as a result the HOA fees are not being paid. This means the common areas are not being maintained.

Unemployment is still high relative to where you are, so I would not pull up stakes and move without having something set up in advance.

One positive aspect - I don't think you'll have problems finding participants for your playgroup....

RM

[Kellihope]

Are you sure there's no manufacturing? We've found job openings at several large companies, unilever for one. Maybe they just aren't obvious?

[Kevin from Tampa]

There are some manfacturing jobs here but nothing like the rust belt states. What is available is with small outfits and there isn't much.

You might find something, but do yourself a HUGE favor.....have a job before you move here.

[Mike1306]

Originally Posted by MortonR

The Tampa area, and Florida in general, has little or no manufacturing industry. The majority of businesses here are service related in some manner.

Housing is becoming affordable again, but you have to be careful not to get into an area that was overdeveloped during the boom, as many homes are vacant and as a result the HOA fees are not being paid. This means the common areas are not being maintained.

Unemployment is still high relative to where you are, so I would not pull up stakes and move without having something set up in advance.

One positive aspect - I don't think you'll have problems finding participants for your playgroup....

RM

I just pulled some of the businesses off the Bay Area Manufacturing Association website.
There are quite a few large outfits here unless billion dollar corporations are small outfits now.
Tampa has the 22nd highest GDP by metro area in the nation, I wish people would realize that there is more than just beaches and a couple of theme parks here.
Yes, unemployment is high and people should secure a job before moving but you really should know more about an area before commenting.

Hunter Douglas Southeast
Johnson Controls, Inc.
Lockheed Martin
Jabil Circuit
Micro Pharmaworks
Southern Manufacturing Technologies
American Tool & Mold
Blue Hawaiian Products, Inc.
Chemtel, Inc.
Chromalloy Castings Tampa Corp
Colts Laboratories
Commercial Plastics Recycling, Inc.
CompuLink
Constellation Technology Corporation
Cornerstone Consulting, Inc.
Creative Mailbox & Sign Designs
Custom Cable
DRS Surveillance Support Systems
Dynamet, Inc.
EEI/Mod Tech
Environmental Engineering Consultants, Inc.
Environmental Resources Management
Florida Forest Products
Formulated Solutions, LLC
GE Aviation Systems, LLC
H & S Swansons’ Tool Company
Haller Industries, Inc.
Harden & Associates
M&N Plastics, Inc.
Mercury Medical
Mid State Screen Graphics, LLC.
Moretrench
NELCO
Odyssey Manufacturing Company

[Kellihope]

Thanks so much mike! That's why I asked if there was manufacturing that just wasn't on most people's radar. The job my husband has now is literally in the middle of nowhere vermont, I'm sure vt isn't known for manufacturing either.

Oh and btw we definitely won't be moving without a job first! Thanks again!

[Innertuber]

Just so you can contemplate - Florida has a monster AG sector although it's not apparent from the coastal regions. Cattle, sod, fruits, veggies, sugars, ornamentals, etc.

[Kellihope]

Yep, my husband knows about all that. I'm not sure we want to sell a farm and get back into farming, but we might be willing to do anything to get us down there and look for something more ideal once we are there.

[BBI]

Originally Posted by Kellihope

So to summarize:
*What's the job market for production management?
*What are good family friendly neighborhoods with homes in the $150,000 range.
*Inlaws live in Cortez, I would love to be about a half hour from them and no more than 30 or 40min from whatever job my husband finds. I'm thinking St. Petersburg would be good because it's 30min from Cortez, 30 from Clearwater, 30 from Tampa. . .

On neighborhoods, you need to find the job first, because commute times are longer than you've estimated. For example, I know googlemaps says it's a half hour from downtown St. Pete to downtown Tampa, but expect at least 45 mins and probably more like an hour at the peak of rush hour.

If you end up looking in St. Pete, the general rule is stay north of Central Ave. There's a long thread here about whether and where the southside is dangerous that may be of interest to you. You also generally want to avoid Shore Acres because there's a drainage problem there so it floods when it rains. Within Pinellas county, but outside of St. Pete city limits, check out Seminole and Safety Harbor. Those two will probably fit your neighborhood wants better than St. Pete proper, except that the further you are from 275, the longer it will take you to get to Cortez.

Also, I'm not sure if you've used it before, but zillow is a great tool for identifying neighborhoods, and if you ask questions about specific neighborhoods here, you'll get better responses.

[NYPhinfan13]

The Tampa / Clearwater area has a lot of defense companies such as Honeywell and L-3.