Moving to Tampa area, Clermont good community?
 

My husband is transfering to Tampa from Michigan. I would LOVE to work for Disney. Is there a town somewhere in the middle that is a great place to live? Husband is willing to drive an hour, if need be. We will be renting a house. Two daughters are BIG into dance and so I started doing research in that area of Florida for a dance studio. I love the looks of a studio in Clermont. How is that area? Anyone familiar with the school districts? I have one daughter in HIgh School and one in Middle School/Junior High. Dh is going down to Tampa next week to start looking around but he needs to know more specifically some promising communities. We are moving in July.
Thanks for any help you can provide!

For relocation advice go to city-data.com.It will answer everything for you in their forums.Good luck.Enjoy

Ashley24,

I'm not an expert on Clermont, but it is approximately 80 miles (each way) from Tampa. That is not a commute I would enjoy.

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Vic's travels: http://my.flightmemory.com/vogilvie

Suggest you start your search with the school district info. Many schools in FL are not up to what you might expect coming from Michigan - and you really need to pick carefully. (We have friends who moved near Miami - and they had to send their kids to private schools since none nearby were decent options.)

Hillsborough County has excellent public schools, the best of which are in South Tampa: Gorey/Wilson/Plant. They routinely rank among the best in the nation.

Do not, I beg you, sign up for a long daily commute along I-4. When bad wrecks happen, and they happen often, this is a highway that gets shut down. Further adding to the misery, there are no good alternative routes along that corridor, there aren't even any decent ones. If your husband is going to be working in Tampa, you should live in or near Tampa; Orlando is just not a commutable distance given the roads involved.

South Tampa is an excellent, vibrant community. I am not very familiar with the dance studio options here, but since both the U. of Tampa and USF offer very strong dance major programs, and there is a large population of well-enough-off families with kids, I would guess there are loads of them. Beware of some of the sprawling developments in Westchase, Riverview, Brandon... property values are low now, but they'll go lower. You don't want to rent in a foreclosure wasteland, or risk losing your rental when your landlord loses the house.

OK, I just reminded myself where Clermont is, thanks to Google maps! No way is that commutable to Tampa. IMO, and it's a strong one, that is a bad idea indeed.

Phillyfly,
Thanks so much for that website! It's exactly the information that I need!

You know, maybe I'm just cranky today, but it's a bit rude to acknowledge just one out of four responders, days later. Good luck with your relo.

Sorry NewbE. My husband is flying down to Florida on Sunday and will try the commute to see how bad it is. He would rather drive longer and have his daughters in a good school district, dance studio, and have me happy (working for Disney). Plus the kids love Disney too and will be happy being so close. My husband is looking forward to the warm weather and is used to long drives in MI to go to work.
One reason I don't like the Tampa area is because the houses that I can afford are pretty old looking. I can get a much newer and bigger house further from the ocean.
Thanks for your insite.

Ashley24,

Allow me to comment on what NewbE has said about commuting on I-4 to Tampa. We are in total agreement!

There have been some spectacular traffic jams and multi-car pileups due to fog, construction and other causes and (once on I-4) there is no realistic alternate route. If your husband does a test ride (make sure it is a weekday morning), he will probably see I-4 without problems and not at it's worst.

Regarding working at Disney, I don't know what your skills are or what kind of training you have, but Disney's entry-level jobs are not that glamorous and you would be paid a little more than minimum wage.
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Vic's travels: http://my.flightmemory.com/vogilvie

I'm going to add to the chorus: I-4 is bad and the fact that there aren't any good alternatives makes it even worse. You really want to avoid an I-4 commute.

As for schools, take a look here: http://fcat.fldoe.org/fcatscor.asp

Well, it's pretty clear what we think! Having lived in Minnesota, I suspect that the OP is used to long drives with little or no traffic. My SO had a 90 minute one-way commute when we lived there, but it was through small towns and soybean and corn fields. I-4 is a much higher circle of hell! But oh well, you can't make people's choices for them.
FYI, Ashley, there is new construction in areas like Valrico, Riverview and Brandon just outside Tampa. Still great schools. I really wish you'd reconsider Clermont, it won't even be fun getting to and from the Disney properties from there. Best of luck.

We have close friends who live in Clermont and love the area, but they said they would never want to commute from there to Tampa - just too hectic on I-4. The husband does work for Disney and doesn't mind that commute at all. There has to be some nice areas in the Tampa Area.

What about taking 50 to 75?
That website on schools looks great! Thanks!

I am not very familiar with 50, but I can tell you that it takes 75-90 minutes to get from Tampa to Brooksville (north) on I-75 during rush hour. From what I can tell, you'd then head east on 50, so add more time to that. If your husband does this drive during rush hour, he'll see if he can deal with it, it's pretty consistent.

Hi Ashley24,

I actually live in Clermont and commute to Tampa/St. Pete. I am actually just across the Howard Franklin Bridge. I have been doing this for the past year and on average it takes me about an hour and thirty minutes. Out of the last year I have been stuck in traffic for longer than that about 6 times. There was one case where I-4 had a sink hole problem so I opted for the 275 to 75 to 50 route and that actually took about an hour and 40 minutes. For me it is 86 miles one way. I do love living in Clermont but have to admit the drive can be hard on me at times. Mainly it is hard on your back sitting in a car for 3 hours a day. Also important to note, is that I get to work at 7 and leave by 4 to miss most of the traffic. Otherwise, it would take longer.

Lakeland is about half way between Tampa and Orlando. Near there is a town called Auburndale, I drove through it on the way to a sporting event and it looked like a nice little town. I remember thinking that it looked like a very livable town houses on a lake, quaint downtown area, etc. Clermont is a rally bad commute to Orlando, I would assume a nightmare of a commute to Tampa.

Hi, kasper021 - I live in Clermont also! We moved here back in '94 and have seen our cute little town grow into a pretty homely adolescent.

At any rate - I have had to commute to Tampa from time to time for work, when we had a project going on. First, it depends on where in Tampa you are going, and where in Clermont you are coming from.

Having said that, you can plan for a good 2 hours each way during the normal commute hours. We've also had occasions where I-4 was closed due to fires (that seems to happen yearly anymore), sinkholes, spectacular accidents, etc. When that happens, everybody funnels onto alternate routes like kasper021 described, and the traffic through town can be pretty dismal.

I commute into the Orlando area (to Apopka, actually), and it takes me an hour each way. Luckily, I can work from home a couple of days a week.

Trust us, and look for a community closer to Tampa.