Hello. We are going to relocate from PA to Florida (Tampa area). I am looking into buying a home in the Valrico or Brandon area. Which area is more suitable for families with small children? Where we live now has a very conservative tone. What if any cultural differences should we be aware of? We have never lived in FL and we are interested to hear if anyone has had a similar relocation and any advice?

My sister-in-law lives in a very nice area close to Brandon with good schools. It is right off of Bruce B Downs Street and Cross Creek Blvd. Next to Hunter's Green development, which is also very nice. Her developmeent is calld Kingshire. But there are many other in the area.

Many people in her area are in the same relocation boat. So they all depend on each other since family is not near. Its pretty nice.

You are definitely going to find diverse culture in most big towns in Fl. Her children both went to middle and high school which has about a 30% bussed population. She has been very content with their education.

Good Luck!

You might want to check out how high your property insurance will be. That is a very sensitive issue in Florida and most government decisions are made in favor of native Floridians(who vote) rather than people who move to Florida. Most property insurance companies have been ridden out of Florida over the past few years, mostly at the behest of Governor Charlie Crist.

Wow...I grew up in Brandon and my family were one of the first to settle in Valrico so I can tell you how it has changed from a very rural area (I had horses at my house, I'm in my forties) to a very large suburb of Tampa. I live in Birmingham now and my children grew up here.

You will notice a big difference if you are coming from a very conservative town. The area is now very diverse and the schools are pretty crowded. I still have a lot of family that live there. My nieces graduated from Bloomingdale High School in Brandon and they got a very good education. The main difference I noticed was the schools dress code (or lack of one.) Kids are allowed to show their belly and facial piercings. My nieces could wear pretty much anything they wanted to school. So, if you come from a town that has a school with stricter dress codes, you will definitely notice a difference.

The traffic is also pretty horrendous. The area has grown so fast in the past 10~15 years that the infastructure is struggling to keep up. That being said, I would move back in a heartbeat because it is home. I would probably relocate to the city of Tampa so I wouldn't have to fight the traffic to get there.

I think most people that move down like it. The weather is gorgeous and the city is just the right size IMO. Good luck and bring your sunscreen!

"You might want to check out how high your property insurance will be. That is a very sensitive issue in Florida and most government decisions are made in favor of native Floridians(who vote) rather than people who move to Florida. Most property insurance companies have been ridden out of Florida over the past few years, mostly at the behest of Governor Charlie Crist."

George, actually property taxes are in favor of those already living in Florida. Florida has a Byzantine property tax system which shifts the burden onto out-of-state owners, rental properties and new homeowners. romcoy, be aware that the taxes the current owner pays on a house would have no relation to the taxes you as an out-of-state moving into Florida would pay.

In regard to insurance, the insurance companies (many owned by private equity firms) have poured back into the state lately - at vastly increased rates. My homeowners insurance is 4 times what it was 7 years ago.

321go is correct, insurance rates don't favor anyone at all! But they are lower across the board this year than last year, and insurance is easier to get, too. Add to that that Brandon/Valrico aren't near the water, and insurance shouldn't be a problem, although romcoy should definitely check on rates in advance. It will cost more than in PA.

As for property taxes, romcoy, find out what they are for the properties you're considering. Keep in mind that since FL has no income tax, property taxes are very high, and will be higher for you than the current owner. Homestead exemption is a mere pittance.

Brandon and Valrico are sprawling suburbs with a vast array of subdivisions at many price levels. Both are chock full of families with young children. I don't see a difference between the two, really. Do consider commuting times to work, because traffic to and from Brandon and Tampa is horrendous during rush hour, despite lots of new road construction.

Also, Brandon/Valrico are considered way more conservative and homogeneous than Tampa, where I live, so it's interesting to me to hear the area called "diverse".

Newbe, I'm basing my opinion on the way Brandon/Valrico has changed since over the last 40+ years. Also, comparing it to the suburb of Birmingham where I live now.

IMO the high school in Brandon that my nieces attended are much more diverse and liberal than the one that my children attend (which is not really a bad thing.)

romccoy, what part of PA are you coming from?

Thanks to 321 and NewB for clarifying my statement. Property taxes is tha major local political issue in Florida, from what I have read.

Thank you everyone for your helpful input. We are planning our first trip there in May and I am so excited about seeing more than pictures of the area.

I am from a tiny town called Elizabethtown, PA. It is in Lancaster county, which is known for its Amish population.

My husband, who is a CPA, is going nuts investigating the property tax and other tax issues. Thank you for all of your help on those.

I don't think I've ever seen any Amish people in Brandon/Valrico or Tampa come to think of it.

It will be very different, but I think it will grow on you.

Good Luck!

My best advice ( learned the hard way) is to go there/ visit in the summer.
Stay as long as possible and do the sort of things you would do if you lived there, not the sort one does on holiday.
Go to the grocery store, get gas for the car, etc..

We moved from the NorthEast to Jacksonville Florida, after vacation and short trips in winter and once in March.
They told us there were no hurricanes.. ( seems they never hit Jax "" because of the shape of the coastline") .

Our first summer there, there were 5 hurricanes, several tornado watches and insects who were close to the size of my large dog...
At midnight it was too hot and humid to go outdoors.
And this was Northern Florida..

So do yourselves a favor- don't go in the winter or spring when you are sick of cold weather .. go in August..
We were lucky, we were able to easily sell the house and get out of there

Cultural differences:
I grew up in the South...it was still a little shocking coming from NY to Northern Fl..
Tampa etc has so many snowbirds and Northerners living there, it might not be so shocking there

Start reading the newspapers online and researching online chat boards of people who moved South or have done what you want to do...it all will be helpful.

Good luck ~

Scarlett is correct about the snowbird/northerners. When I go home every year I find fewer and fewer natives....wonder where they are going..hmmmmm. And yes, in the summer it is really humid, hot & buggy. Make sure you get a house with a pool (screened) and surround it with citronella candles. Then you can just float and relax.

Fifteen years ago we moved from Montreal to South Florida (near Ft Lauderdale). Not Retired.

It took some getting used to. It's amazing how different things can be. Eventually it became home. The heat and humidity in the summer was less of an issue than the intensity of the rain. That was a bit of a surprise.

Some time ago they passed a law call "Save Our Homes". Essentially the tax evaluation of your home cannot increase more than 3% a year. Of course, they can make up for the dollars lost by increasing the tax rate. However, that was difficult to do as people who just moved in would have no accumulated tax savings and they paid enormous taxes until they accumulated years and others paid more.

The problem with the system was that it wasn't portable. If you moved, you had to start over. Of course, some people with quite large houses couldn't down size as they got older because they would end up paying more property tax on a smaller house than on their previous house.

A few months ago a constitutional amendment was passed making it sort of portable. However, it's being challenged in court.

My neighbor across the street pays more than double what I do in taxes since I've been in the same house for 15 years and he moved in several years ago.

Property insurance. this varies widely. I was insured by a company that increased by 70% in each of two years.

I switched and then a month later got a better deal and switched again.

The law in Florida is such that if your roof and/or shutters meet certain criteria, they must give you a discount.

After switching companies twice I then had the house inspected (there are 2 or 3 companies authorized to do this type of inspection). I was surprised that for technical reasons I got no credit for my shutters but got 2 out of 3 for my roof.

I sent the forms in to the insurance company and was certainly surprised when my premium dropped by an annual $1,800. Now I'm paying less than I did 4-5 years ago.

All I can say is that there is little time to work because of all the required investigating.

But, it doesn't snow here and we golf in shorts almost 12 months a year.

Thanks Scarlett for your advice - About the hurricanes??? What is the real possibility that hurricanes will greatly affect our ability to live normally there? And the bugs? For the past two summers, the bees around here have been more aggressive than normal for some reason...What sort of bug problem are you referring to?? Any other advice? Thanks!

lol, I am not a fan of most insects...We had a "garden" spider come out of the chimney where she had been living for a long time...she was about the size of my husbands hand.

Waterbugs/Palmetto bugs/cockroaches..whatever name they go by, they are huge.. like longer than my cell phone..they fly, they drop out of palm trees..they love hot and humid and stormy weather makes them happy..we had the yard AND the house exterminated monthly.
I and my dog are lucky we did not keel over from all the bug spray flying around lol.

mosquitoes...no getting around this fact of Southern living..Florida + rain/water + heat = mosquitoes.

Friends of mine on these boards know Tampa and hurricanes etc...they can better answer that question.

With all my doom and gloom, I absolutely understand your wish to move to a new place..we have done it a few times lately lol
It rejuvenates you in ways you never thought of, makes you see things in a new light..brightens life..
Best best wishes whatever you do!!

They are palmetto bugs...my brother used to try and catch them and tie leash strings on them. Harmless critters.

I survived plenty of hurricanes (not as big as Katrina.) If you heed all of the warnings and evacuate when you are told, you most likely will be fine. I've never understood the mentality of people that want to "ride out hurricanes."

I agree with nolefan on hurricanes - I've been through 4 or 5 now. You will be inundated in hurricane info during the season - every newspaper and TV station provides more info that you can imagine. Just plan ahead (have emergency supplies, know your evacuation routes, etc.).

Here in Florida, I wake up every morning almost certain to see the sun at some point that day! Having lived most of my life in the Pacific NW, that means a lot. Personally, the pros outweigh the cons.

If you are at all scared of lizards, we also have little 3-4 inch long Anole lizards everywhere. They come in your house sometime and drive my cats crazy when they are looking out of the sliding glass door to the screen porch. Kids usually love them and they are totally harmless.
Also all kinds of other bugs and also you might find snakes in your yard also.
All kinds of creatures here in Florida.

I'm guessing you will have the entire area to look for houses, so I'll write as if this were Tampa. Essentially it is, it's just a suburb.

I LOVED living in Tampa--would go back in a minute if I didn't worry about the tax issue. I'd been living in the south for years and years though,...New Orleans, Dallas, Savannah, then Tampa, so the heat didn't bother me in the least, although I grew up in New England. I loved it humid! Your skin gets dewy. If you go to AZ on vacation from FL, you literally shrivel up, your skin has been so well fed by all the FL moisture.

Our kids had flown the nest when we moved there. Most of my friends in Tampa sent their kids to private schools, but they were horrendously expensive. They were paying as much (more actually) for private school as we paid for our kids college tuition. A couple of the areas had good schools and parents were quite happy...Davis Islands (a part of Tampa) for one, south Tampa/Plant High School for another.

Tampa was the first place I came face to face with "portable classrooms". I was SOOO glad it wasn't anything we ever dealt with. Basically the area has grown so fast, and school building has not kept pace, so you have your traditional school building, then you have rows of trailers on the school grounds where the overflow get their classes. I can't imagine it, but of all the things people in the area complained about schools, for some reason that didn't seem to be one of them!

Hurricanes. The last time there was a direct hit in Tampa was 1911 or 18...forgotten which now. Of course you get scares...we had 3 serious scares in just 90 days one year, but nothing hit. One was close enough for some downed trees on our property. As with tornadoes and my horror of them when we first moved to Texas, I soon learned that although hurricanes could come near, could be predicted to hit, rarely if ever would they hit where we were or impact us seriously. One took out our electricity for 3 days. Annoying, but we lived to tell about it and the horrors of cleaning out a freezer after. I didn't worry that much about them. They always went somewhere else...both living there and when we lived in New Orleans. Perhaps we are lucky tokens?

Oddly, I never saw many palmetto bugs when we lived there. We lived in a hotel casita, and they sprayed, but still you'd think you would see them every now and then inside. We never did, but I'm very familiar with them from living in Savannah and New Orleans. Freaked me out and as a consequence one of our kids, now grown, is terrified of them today. I'm sure because when she was a baby and we were in New Orleans...I involuntarily screamed any time I saw one. Mosquitoes likewise...not something we saw much of. No-seeums though, yes, but we lived on the water with mangroves around us and that is their habitat.

As Scarlett said, Tampa area is full of people from elsewhere, Midwest, New England, you will not be alone. It's a very relaxed lifestyle, everything very casual. If that's the sort of people you are, and we are, then you would be happy with it. You adjust to the weather, you don't like hurricane season but get used to it. The weather the rest of the year is just unbelievably beautiful.

Do you have an option to live elsewhere? We love the water and for me Brandon would be too far to go as frequently as we enjoyed going.

lol, 321go- and we moved to Portland ORegon after leaving Florida

I did love the little lizards...go figure, bugs bother me but the little gheko types were cute...I had to save them a few times from ((&)) and those tiny frogs that hopped in at night when letting Pup in and out..

I am glad OO has answered, she always made me wish we had moved to Tampa instead