Any Brandon area locals? (Tampa, Deltona: apartments, lease, car insurance)

[Fbaerga]

Hi the family and I are planning on relocating to the Brandon/Riverview area soon! Just want to hear from some of you on your feelings of the area...I know about the traffic situation there (not an issue for us) is there anything else besides the traffic you don't like? Just want to get a feel for the area in regards to crime, education, people etc....Tx in advance!!!

[JustMeInBrandon]

Hi Fbaerga. We moved to Brandon in December from Birmingham. We picked Brandon because my husband works about 10 miles away and we heard it was an up and growing community. Really the only thing that bothers me is the traffic/congestion. Everything is convenient though, Walmart, restaurants, Lowes/Home Depot, the mall, etc.

The only thing I have information on regarding schools are the high schools as I have a daughter in high school. If I were you I would check out GreatSchools.net as you can type in names of schools and get their ratings, etc. The high schools I know of around here are Brandon, Bloomingdale, Riverview, and Spoto. Just be careful if you pick Riverview or Brandon to live in that you check your address with this school site: https://choice.sdhc.k12.fl.us/locator/Default.aspas (broken link). Just because you are in Riverview and you think your child might go to Riverview High School, you might be zoned for Spoto which does not have the rating that Riverview does. Just across the street from us is a different high school than what we are zoned for. Be careful!

Are you coming from a warm climate now? It may take a little to adjust to the heat even so. Although we lived in Birmingham and it is hot and humid there, I know it will get worse here. We haven't had too many really humid days yet, but I know they are coming, and the ones we did have were miserable.

Oh, one more thing. When we moved from Birmingham our car insurance DOUBLED for same coverage, etc. Our agent (same company, different agent) told us since Tampa has so much more population than B'ham the rates here were so much higher. We couldn't it believe it. You might want to check it out ahead of time and brace yourself if you are coming from a smaller town to Tampa. Again, we are in Brandon, but it is still considered a suburb of Tampa.

I wish you and your family luck in finding what is best for you. Take care!

[Fbaerga]

Originally Posted by JustMeInBrandon

Hi Fbaerga. We moved to Brandon in December from Birmingham. We picked Brandon because my husband works about 10 miles away and we heard it was an up and growing community. Really the only thing that bothers me is the traffic/congestion. Everything is convenient though, Walmart, restaurants, Lowes/Home Depot, the mall, etc.

The only thing I have information on regarding schools are the high schools as I have a daughter in high school. If I were you I would check out GreatSchools.net as you can type in names of schools and get their ratings, etc. The high schools I know of around here are Brandon, Bloomingdale, Riverview, and Spoto. Just be careful if you pick Riverview or Brandon to live in that you check your address with this school site: https://choice.sdhc.k12.fl.us/locator/Default.aspas (broken link). Just because you are in Riverview and you think your child might go to Riverview High School, you might be zoned for Spoto which does not have the rating that Riverview does. Just across the street from us is a different high school than what we are zoned for. Be careful!

Are you coming from a warm climate now? It may take a little to adjust to the heat even so. Although we lived in Birmingham and it is hot and humid there, I know it will get worse here. We haven't had too many really humid days yet, but I know they are coming, and the ones we did have were miserable.

Oh, one more thing. When we moved from Birmingham our car insurance DOUBLED for same coverage, etc. Our agent (same company, different agent) told us since Tampa has so much more population than B'ham the rates here were so much higher. We couldn't it believe it. You might want to check it out ahead of time and brace yourself if you are coming from a smaller town to Tampa. Again, we are in Brandon, but it is still considered a suburb of Tampa.

I wish you and your family luck in finding what is best for you. Take care!

Thanks so much for the information...We are coming from Deltona, FL which is the NE part of FL between orlando and daytona beach. So yes we're used to the weather now...We've been in Florida for 5 yrs now we lived in Kissimmee and Altamonte Springs as well. I'm just a bit turn off with Deltona now...No trees of any kind and a mixture of small ranches with carports, newer homes and older homes...not a well defined community at all here..Also both of my neighbors on either side of me have both gotten broken into and so has my neighbor across the street. I think we got lucky because I keep my flood lights on all night and the streets are really dark...no street lights here whatsoever...Thanks so much for the information I will google apartments in the area and research the addresses and find out which ones are zoned to the better schools.

[JustMeInBrandon]

We too, decided to rent first. We are in a 3 bedroom now off of Providence Road and when our lease is up are trying to find a 4 bedroom because I work from home and use one room for an office, and we have four older kids that will visit from time to time (one still lives at home with us). I'm having a hard time finding a 4 bedroom. We would consider renting a house but the deposit is a whole month's rent compared to about $150-200 for an apartment. We still have until October to find something else. For apartments try: ApartmentFinders.com, ApartmentGuide.com, ApartmentLinks.com, Apartments.com, ForRent.com, and Move.com. A couple of those offer you a $100 debit-type card if you rent an apartment from their site and when filling out the apartment lease application you state you were referred from that site. We got the $100 card that way. It's a good deal.

[Fbaerga]

Thanks I'll check the websites for apartments...What about safety in Brandon? I know there is crime everywhere but how would you rate Brandon from scale of 1-10 in regards to safey?

[JustMeInBrandon]

I have not heard anything bad about the area since we have been here. Actually I take that back - about 6 weeks ago ago a high school girl was raped and brutally beaten (I believe she is still in the hospital) at the Bloomingdale Public Library down on Bloomingdale (about 3-5 miles from here) about 10:30 p.m. on a Sunday night, but it was an area high school student who lived nearby and is now behind bars and will be tried as an adult. I know that was very random and I have heard of no other brutal crimes around here like that, but maybe someone that has lived here a little longer might have more of an insight into that.

[Fbaerga]

It's seems like he lived in Clair Mel with his grandmother and had a history of violent acts....I'm glad they caught him....I read the report and its really sad what the poor girl went through. Seems like he needs some physciatric help locked up some where for a very long time. Poor grandmother doesn't even believe it was him.

[Floridaobserver]

Hi Fbaerga,

We've lived in Valrico (just east of Brandon) for 12 years. I feel very safe here. Crime has picked up, but it seems the crimes aren't very violent in our area. Mainly teenagers who steal things out of open garages in our neighborhood. I've noticed that when a crime occurs around here, the police seem to be very aggressive in trying to find the perps. I'll see police helicopters with spotlights flying around at night, and the next day I'll hear that something happened in the area.

The incident with the girl who was raped at the Bloomingdale Library is very rare, and very sad, of course. We drove by the next day and saw a line of about 100 police officers marching through the area looking for evidence.

The other high profile case around here was the Aisenberg baby kidnapping, and that was about 10 years ago. Another interesting incident happened last year in Riverview - a kid heard money was hidden in a ammonia pipe and he broke it open to find it. The ammonia went spewing out and a small area was evacuated.

I think if you're careful, you'll be fine.

[Fbaerga]

Originally Posted by Sandyt

Hi Fbaerga,

We've lived in Valrico (just east of Brandon) for 12 years. I feel very safe here. Crime has picked up, but it seems the crimes aren't very violent in our area. Mainly teenagers who steal things out of open garages in our neighborhood. I've noticed that when a crime occurs around here, the police seem to be very aggressive in trying to find the perps. I'll see police helicopters with spotlights flying around at night, and the next day I'll hear that something happened in the area.

The incident with the girl who was raped at the Bloomingdale Library is very rare, and very sad, of course. We drove by the next day and saw a line of about 100 police officers marching through the area looking for evidence.

The other high profile case around here was the Aisenberg baby kidnapping, and that was about 10 years ago. Another interesting incident happened last year in Riverview - a kid heard money was hidden in a ammonia pipe and he broke it open to find it. The ammonia went spewing out and a small area was evacuated.

I think if you're careful, you'll be fine.

Thanks SandyT...I'm glad the police are so responsive there...