Best place in Florida to raise a family
 

Please help me find a perfect spot for my family to move. My husband is older then me and he loves fishing and being warm, but hates big cities and traffic. We want a small house with some land, so the neighbors are not right there looking in our windows. We are planning to have kids very soon, so nice schools and less crime would be nice. As for me I just want to have some friends that are not 50 as I am 25. Please help, he's trying to make me move to Homosassa!!!

First, there is no perfect place. Some of this is not making much sense. If you move into the country side, then you will not have many neighbors and friends harder to find. He may want to be warm but does he want high heat and high humidity?

This question has be raised frequently on this site so use the search feature.

If you’re looking for small town charm then this city on the Gulf may just be the perfect spot for you. Fort Meyers currently has a population of around 65,000 people and is full of all the amenities one would associate with Florida.

IMO this is little more than a troll post from a first-time poster.

And this is not advice to the lovelorn. LOL

Look in the Carolinas as well as Florida.
For Florida, look at N.W. around Tarpon Springs.
Look at Mount Dora, the New England of Florida.

Suggest marriage counseling to get you and your husband on the same page. Sounds like he wants to live in a retirement community while you are still growing up.

Then suggest consulting relocation web sites which will have info on job opportunities, real estate costs, school evaluations and info on crime, local amenities and infrastructure and population profile.

nytraveler, counseling and consulting about each aspect of life is not going to lead to anything. We are the kind of people who can find compromises without going to counseling. And I didn't ask for family relationship advice, I asked to advice the nice places to live in Florida.

Sassafrass, thank you so much for you reply, Tarpon Springs looks good, it's close to Tampa for me and not too overcrowded and good for fishing for my husband. I checked out the prices on homes, they are not too bad and you can get a nice back yard.

Peter_Hasdon21, thank you for your reply! Fort Meyers has a lot of traffic, but I will look more into that.

fmpden, thank you for your reply, we used to live in Florida Keys for a year and not only high heat and high humidity didn't bother us, but we enjoyed it. We just can't afford 400,000 house there.

If anyone has more suggestions about nice location, I would really appreciate it!

Parts of the Space Coast area might be OK. While, like the rest of FL, it has its fair share of retirement communities, there is a family atmosphere there, some decent schools, and good access to river and ocean. Of course, summers are hot there, but being near the ocean and not in south FL means the summers are a bit more temperate than a lot of other places.

Centcom is at McDill AFB near Tampa. http://www.centcom.mil/
There are plenty of young military types there.
You are a little less likely to get slammed with a tropical storm on the west coast of Florida IMO.

>>You are a little less likely to get slammed with a tropical storm on the west coast of Florida IMO.<<

No need to rely on opinion. A simple Google search will show that the historical likelihood of a tropical storm making landfall in FL is about the same on either coast.

"You are a little less likely to get slammed with a tropical storm on the west coast of Florida IMO."

Tell that to the people in Punta Gorda.

"You are a little less likely to get slammed with a tropical storm on the west coast of Florida IMO."

Forgot to add, this statement could not be further from the truth.

It's an opinion guys--see where he says "IMO"? That's what that means. And it's an opinion shared by a lot of people who live on the west central coast.

tomfuller, Macdill AFB is a pretty old-skewing base, actually--lots of brass, lots of senior civilians, not many junior enlisted. Most people who work on the base and are raising young families live in the suburbs of Tampa: Brandon, Riverview, Fish Hawk, et al.

Lizaveta, Tarpon is a good idea for you, IMO. Also consider almost anywhere in Pinellas County as being affordable, family friendly, near or on the coast, and not far from St. Pete and Tampa.

Thank you all for your replies! What about all the sinkholes? Should it be a concern?

It's one thing for people to have an opinion that FACTS clearly show is not true, but another thing to state that mistaken opinion as if it were true.

I could say " Florda has more earthquakes than California IMO", but that would be about as nonsensical as the above hurricane comment.

Neo: It's a little like saying, "2 + 2 = 5, IMHO."

What has Newbe been drinking?

Republican Kool-Aid.

Actually, Neo, your reply says everything about you! It wasn't stated as a fact, it was stated as an opinion. Ridiculous opinions don't actually require a counter from you--yet you counter them at great length, every time.

Lizaveta, yes, sinkholes are a concern. This website from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection should answer most of your questions:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/geology/contactus/faq.htm#17

Oh, come off it, NewbE. You said "it was an opinion". Like saying my opinion is the Eiffel Tower is in Rome or earthquakes are common in Florida. It was a WRONG statement, no matter how you slice it. What's the point of making comments to someone's questions when your comment is simply NOT true? The comment "You are a little less likely to get slammed with a tropical storm on the west coast of Florida IMO" can be verified to simply be wrong, so why shouldn't the person seeking information be informed that it is WRONG?

And I say this having lived on the Gulf Coast of Florida full time for 38 years -- trust me I have been "slammed" by hurricanes (and severe tropical storms) more than any of my friends on the East Coast.