Relocating to Florida
 

We are looking for any info in regards to moving to Florida, Will be working at Tampa International Airport and possibly living in Clearwater/St Pete or thereabouts. The drive to and from, and any recommended luxury Apartment homes in that area. Any help or suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated.
Soon to be former New Yorkers, Yippee!
Thank you! :)

I don't mean to sound rude, but in Florida I generally think "luxury apartments" mean those in the well over a million dollar category for purchase, and rentals in the range of $5000 a month and up. Is that what you're thinking? And are you looking for something to purchase or to rent for awhile?

Ok, my bad. Not million dollar stuff. Just good apartment homes. 2 bed 2 bath say $900-1300 a month. Thats 'luxury' in NY! ha
Thanks!

There are many apartments located just over Tampa Bay in north St. Pete, right off of I-275. They are located off of 4th St. N. and 9th St. N., and there are some that are on Gandy Blvd., which is just off of 4th and 9th Sts. You would just have to jump on the interstate and the airport is right across the bridge. I'm sure you would find something in your price range in that vicinity, and it would be a quick drive to and from work, and you would also be just minutes from the downtown St. Pete area. If you need any more info, feel free to email me, maybe I can dig up some apartment names and numbers for you when I get some spare time. Clearwater is a ways from St. Pete.

To Waymar: Not sure if this was a joke or not, but based on your comment . . .:

"2 bed 2 bath say $900-1300 a month. Thats 'luxury' in NY!"

. . . I'm guessing you mean somewhere in the rural wilderness of upstate NY as opposed to NYC. No way could you even get a studio for that price in a decent part of NYC, let alone a 2 br 2 bath, unless you're talking a slum area in the outer boroughs.

My thoughts exactly. Not even in the "wilderness" could you get anything for that price in NY.

Sorry! Judy24 Yes that was a joke! about "luxury' apartments in Ny.
Thats Horseheads Ny to be exact.

What age bracket Waymar? You might want to look at the yuppie area of Hyde Park. There are some newer apartments in SoHo (not sure how expensive)...and it's a terrific area in which to live, right smack in the middle of "what's happening" in Tampa. Downtown too, although I'd take Hyde Park first. Only negative is the horrendous traffic on I-275 between the airport and downtown/Hyde Park, but it's hard to avoid it no matter where you are coming from. Coming across the bay on I-275 is no picnic either.

Oh...there are some Post apartments on Rocky Point on Courtney Campbell too. Very nice! You could easily have expansive views of Tampa Bay, and you'd be no more than 10 minutes from the airport. Negative...they are about to start major construction on the interchange at Courtney Campbell and the roads leading to the airport, if it hasn't begun already.

Waymar, glad to hear that! Actually, I'm surprised they have apartments in Horseheads (just kidding). Best of luck with your move.

Age> upper 40's!hehe I've read elsewhere that The Post Apartments at Rocky Point has a lot of negatives. We don't know wether to believe them or not. Maybe competitors dissing them! We don't know.
How bout the drive to Tampa Airport from say St Pete/Clearwater? Is it worth it? Anyone?

OK...age changes advice. :) Maybe not Post...I think it's a younger crowd. I'm curious though, I know someone who lived there recently, owned his own house in South Tampa prior to that, then left Post when he bought another house to redo in another up and coming area, Seminole Heights. He loved it. What were the negatives you've heard, just curious? I lived one stop light light away from Post and the biggest negative that I could see was the long trek to the grocery store...and a decent gas station...LOL I learned to work around it. :)

I live in Oldsmar and commute past the airport every day. It's only 15 minutes from our house non-rush hour. There are LOTS of places that would be very close by - I would say you should think about what amenities you would like close by and then try to narrow down from there. You could certainly live in Clearwater and just jump across to the airport on the causeway (RT 60), although I don't know what it's like in rush hour. If you lived in Hyde Park as someone suggested, you'd be going *against* the traffic so that commute would be easy. Hyde Park tends to be very expensive though. I think Rocky Park would be fab - all that water, not too far from the beaches and from downtown Tampa. And like 2 minutes from the airport, even in rush hour.

If you give us more info on your preferences (water, great funky shopping, good schools, lots of parks, etc.), then we can probably help out a little more.

Waymar, the commute from St. Pete to Tampa and from Clearwater to Tampa bottlenecks in a couple of places. Rush hour is from 7:45 to 8:30. Lots of folks live in Clwr or SP and work in Tampa but not the other way around.

The Feathersound area of SP is just across the Howard Franklin bridge. Luxury in Tampa would probably mean Harbor Island, or possibly Donald Trump's new downtown sorry-sold-out high-rise. 5000 apartment units are going up in downtown Tampa's Channelside area.

My personal favorite would be downtown St. Petersburg. It has such a nice mediterranean feel now. But I don't know the names of any places, they are sprouting like weeds in downtown SP.

There's a huge development going up on south Westshore Blvd. in Tampa (south of Gandy). Waterside apartments/condos. I've heard all the apartments in Hyde Park are turning condo.

Why don't you check out VRBO? You can walk through some condos that way. Check out what's available in different areas of Clearwater and ST. Pete, maybe a few in Tampa.

Welcome to Florida!

Near the airport-I would suggest the Oldsmar or Westchase area. You get more for your money in those locations rather than St. Pete/Clearwater-also less traffic and shorter distance.
Hype Park and South Tampa has a lot of rentals but I would consider (just my opinion) a young or yuppie crowd. Oldsmar is a little older. Westchase is young families (a newer area)

Hyde Park or Channelside is definitely the area for young professionals to live in Tampa. My parents retired to the area so I'm somewhat familiar.

There is also a relatively new condo/apt. community near Ybor City in Tampa. It looks really nice.

My advice to you is to look at rent.com or apartments.com. You can also request an area booklet from the latter website.

With respect to living in Tampa, you have to be sure that you're actually getting a place near enough to TIA. Tampa has major sprawl issues (in my opinion, which is why I don't live there), as does most of Florida, and the Tampa Bay area encompasses everything from New Tampa, Land of Lakes, Carrollwood, etc. The differences in these areas can be an hour during rush hour, even though they're not necessarily too far apart in actual miles.

Recommend Rocky Point, apt on the water and 5 min to the airport.
Recommend St. Petersburg, 4th Street North close to the Howard Franklin Bridge---many apt complexes.
The only problem is if there is an accident on the Howard Franklin Bridge
you would have to take a longer alternate route to get to the airport.
Down Town St. Pete is just getting rejuvenated with new condos going up, I personally would not recommend living in this area yet, city is too small, too many street people yet, condos are expensive for that area.