Denver To Tampa - Looking at Trinity, Odessa, Land o Lakes, Wesley Chapel and New Tampa (Citrus Park: appointed, real estate) - Tampa Bay - Florida (FL) -Tampa - St. Petersburg - Clearwater - City-Data Forum

jcmichae · 08-04-2015, 04:32 PM

Hi All,

We are under contract on our house here in Denver and will be making the move to Tampa in the near future. We've made a few visits to the area so far, but still feel lost as to where exactly we want to live.

We have a 2 year old, with another on the way, so schools and family friendly areas are a must.

We are looking at new/newer homes, and feel that somewhere along highway 54 is where we'd like to end up. I work from home, but my wife is in Finance and will likely work somewhere near downtown, so i'd appreciate any feedback you can give on commutes.

I haven't had a chance to visit many areas in Wesley Chapel, but have heard Wiregrass Mall is very nice, they have a newer Hospital, and there is an Outlet opening later this year. Are there any specific areas/communities you would recommend?

Lastly, our budget is $350,000.

Thank you in advance!

Jake

EngGirl · 08-04-2015, 09:10 PM

Take a look into Arbor Woods community in Wesley Chapel. You can get a house in the area you are considering since the location is just perfect and this community has no CDD fees.

Tim Tim Tim · 08-05-2015, 05:33 AM

there are tons of new communities in the area that will fit your budget, thats quite a drive though if your wife will be around down town. wesley chappel to down town is probably about 45 minutes given there is no traffic, if she is working normal work hours that will easily top 1 hour or more

mrviking · 08-05-2015, 02:55 PM

That drive can only get worse as time goes by and more and more people buy out in that area. Perhaps Westchase would be more practical of an option, or rent for the first year till you get a better lay of the area.

jcmichae · 08-05-2015, 03:07 PM

Thanks for the feedback. Are there other areas with New/newer construction that are closer to downtown, but still have good schools?

We do like Westchase, but it seems that the drive is almost the same amount of time as it is from Wesley Chapel...

Also, real estate is much higher there...

EngGirl · 08-05-2015, 08:17 PM

There is nothing really closer to downtown not even older homes, not to mention new constructions. Taylor Morrison is also building somewhere in Citrus Park mall, somewhat closer to downtown, but the same floor plans as Arbor Woods is offering will get you out of your budget.
Personally I will suggest to look into Westchase, but the budget must be re-thinked.
Commuty from Wesley Chapel might not be as bad if you wife will be willing to leave a little early than normal crowd is moving towards downtown. The reason I mentioned Arbor Woods is because of its location. It's pretty close to I-75. If you look at other new building communities in Wesley Chapel, the travel time to I-75 will be much different. For the same reason I didn't even mentioned Land O Lakes because getting from there to I-75 will take much longer.
Riverview area has new communities, but besides the horrible commute the schools are not very strong.
Renting before buying might be a smart move.

Wille-MO · 08-22-2015, 07:05 PM

Hi,

I was just in the Wesley Chapel area house hunting a couple weeks ago prior to this post I'm writing. Lots of places to choose from and every area I looked at was paradise compared to what you get out here in California. I somehow ended up in the Country Walk area looking at new homes there. The club house is Ok but not as nice as Seven Oaks where my sister bought a town home. I have a couple of kids 3 and 7 and finding good schools was one of our main objectives. The schools near Country Walk were rated high and I've heard good things about it. Our home budget was $350K but we went over a bit due to structure add ons. Seems like a lot of places in Florida you get hit with CDD and HOA. The HOA at Country Walk was 46 dollar ever quarter. Hope that helps and if anyone has input about the above please let me know. I'm still not sure about moving because its a big change from California.

EngGirl · 08-22-2015, 10:32 PM

Double Branch Elementary (County Walk zoned to it) dropped its rating recently. Hopefully it will be recovering soon. And I hope upcoming school rezoning will not change boundaries for you.
If you bought brand new home you are safe and it shouldn't effect you, but County Walk is known for numerous homes with toxic drywalls (built around 2006-2007) which caused home values to go down.

tpot · 08-23-2015, 12:04 PM

Hi EngGirl,

We moved from Denver to Odessa in 2012 to be closer to family in Lutz and Tampa. We chose Pasco County as home tax rates are literally half of that of Hillsborough County and Odessa has more of a rural feeling to it. Lots of lake communities and a little bit of everything when it comes to housing. We too are on the SR 54 corridor. I work downtown, however I leave at around 6:00 am and I generally make it in about 35 minutes. I will admit that coming from Denver I was a bit disappointed by the lack of near by amenities, but that is rapidly changing. This entire area is experiencing a bit of a boom and there are tons of new subdivisions going in and the amenities are following closely. We looked in Wesley Chapel initially, but felt it was growing too fast (sort of like New Tampa, with a somewhat inadequate infrastructure to support such a rapid expansion). Traffic there is a nightmare and only going to get worse with the addition of the new outlet mall (and it is rumored that a new Costco will be going in too).

We don't have little ones, but I have a neighbor who subs for Pasco County schools and she is favorably impressed (that's saying a lot as she is a recent transplant from Minneapolis).

Tampa has a lot going for it, but I agree that you won't find anything new there. All we saw was a ton 1940's style ranches that needed a lot of upgrading that were still pretty darn expensive. Westchase is lovely but you'll need to stretch your budget a lot to buy there.

We love our neighborhood, and were lucky enough to purchase a 4 bed/3 bath on a decent sized lake (for us the water was a priority). Houses sell very fast these days, so make sure you have a super real estate agent that is willing to make you a priority. I pretty much lived on the "FloridaMoves" real estate website for a couple years before we purchased. Although it was daunting, at least I knew where we DIDN'T want to live and ruled in a few areas in which I consistently liked the homes. Best of luck with your search!

bentlebee · 08-23-2015, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wille-MO

Hi,

I was just in the Wesley Chapel area house hunting a couple weeks ago prior to this post I'm writing. Lots of places to choose from and every area I looked at was paradise compared to what you get out here in California. I somehow ended up in the Country Walk area looking at new homes there. The club house is Ok but not as nice as Seven Oaks where my sister bought a town home. I have a couple of kids 3 and 7 and finding good schools was one of our main objectives. The schools near Country Walk were rated high and I've heard good things about it. Our home budget was $350K but we went over a bit due to structure add ons. Seems like a lot of places in Florida you get hit with CDD and HOA. The HOA at Country Walk was 46 dollar ever quarter. Hope that helps and if anyone has input about the above please let me know. I'm still not sure about moving because its a big change from California.

When you look at Meditate Homes than check for the A/C and if there are 1 or 2 units and depending on your sqft you may want to talk to an AC company to see if you are fine with how it is set up.

We recently looked at Meditate Homes for a client and in different communities they had different AC set UPS. They had an approx. 3500 sqft. home where the thermostat was located upstairs and 1 unit.

From experience I can tell you that for a 2 story home you save more money if you at least have 2 thermostats and I wonder how you can make the entire family happy with one thermostat and different areas with the same temp. while you can make changes and often it will not even feel the same at different levels.
According to their rep. it was perfect with their energy saving windows but after talking to the utility company we discovered the energy bills for similar homes were at a level the client and neither any one at our office would be comfortable with.

At other communities they did have more thermostats but it seems builders are nowadays trying to cut cost in the weirdest places so be aware and check for it and if you are fine with it at least you were aware.

They have some nice homes built and especially the larger sqft. Have been lowered in price the last year.

Keep in mind that Country Walk had Chinese drywall issues and sink hole issues as far as I remember and they have a CDD and from what I remember also a 2nd HOA fee, as I'm not sure ..please verify.