Dtile

I took a rv with my pregant wife of six months for a ride to FL and "looked" around the whole state for two months, from Key west to Pensecola last year. Sold the Fountain, kept the house on the Jersey shore, sold my NY home and bought in Tarpon Springs. Love it. Water is a little low at times, but I get used to it, bought a smaller go fast (26 Seebold) and enjoy cruising and fishing the Gulf. Its very beautiful, but sometimes I miss the shore (LBI) and my FOUNTAIN! Most people are friendly, though I dont find any speed boats out there, though I hear them on the water sometimes cruise by since Im on the bay, near Howard Park. We chose this area cause of the culture in town, Tampa being a small city and the hills. Yes, hills. Im finding the marine police intrusive when offshore, they board at least weekly when im out for no real reason. THough I heard years ago there was a drug trade here. Some of the beaches are really the nicest ive seen- been to the red sea, south america and asia and they blow them away. Real estate and taxes are the same as NY/NJ, though NJ has increased in the last year past this house, and its locked upped 6 months out of the year. I couldnt afford waterfront down here, junk houses are 650k in this area. Im a stone throw away and I spent 250k, Lots of niegbors with docks and ramps
Skilled labor is hard to come by, most people dont show up...And to build my motor for the Seebold was hard to find a good shop.
Marine mechanics are too busy here, and most never see high perfomance boats in there travels I assume. Mostly outboards, and flat bottom boats cruise the bay...But its sure is nice, I see Dolpins and Manatees on every trip out, most swimming close to the boat...Im here to stay.

Donzilla

D tile,
You say LBI did you sell the house here? I have been here all my life just built a bayfront home and decided there is no reason to stay here anymore.

Dtile

Ya, I still have the beach house in NJ, in Tuckerton.

cuda

Wait until you move to Pinellas County. It make Orlando look like a freeway. I lived there 33 years, and the main reason I left is because I couldn't stand the traffic.

Dtile

I lived outside NY for 30 years, nothing compares to what I had to deal with. They upgraded rt 19 recently and the Suncoast Highway is getter alot more traffic in Pinallis...Its not that bad.

cuda

I've lived in Florida all my adult life, and lived here a couple times when I was a kid. I've been in almost every city and town in the state. As far as pure boating pleasure, you cannot beat living in Pinellas County. You have the big bay to run it, the gulf, which has many different passes to get to it (something I sorely miss here on the east coast), dozens of places to go on the water, and dozens of different ways to get there.

I've said for twenty years, that when I retire, I was going to retire on a canal that leads to the St John's River in Deland. Two and a half years ago, I figured out I'd never retire, so we moved here. I absolutely love it here. No traffic, yet I can be in downtown Orlando in 45 minutes, or on Daytona Beach in 30 minutes. The Daytona area isn't exactly a hotspot for hipo boats, and as I pointed out, if you go out Ponce Inlet at Daytona, the next inlet in either direction is about 50 miles. When I sold my house in Pinellas, I figured to really make any real profit off the sale, I'd have to move out of Pinellas. The housing here in Volusia county is still reasonable, compared to most of Florida, but it went up about 30% after the first year I was here. Someone mentioned Palm Coast, which is just north of Daytona, which is a good spot. It was booming back when the tech stocks were the rage, then died off. A couple years ago, you could have bought a real nice place there for next to nothing. It is coming back real fast now.

I've never lived in Jacksonville, but I have done a ton of work there, and it has tons of boating opportunities, but I think the traffic there is even worse than Pinellas, especially if you have to cross the Buckman Bridge during rush hour.

Destin was brought up. When I was a kid, my dad was stationed twice in Panama City, and Destin was nothing but a tiny, tiny fishing town. Panama City would be my second choice of places to live in Florida, but be aware, it does get cold there, and in Destin (at least by Florida standards). There was basically nothing but deserted beach from PC to Ft Walton, and it wasn't like Ft Walton was a booming metropolis either.

Imho, the west coast is just too crowded for my taste anywhere from New Port Richey south, but does have great weather, and boating opportunities.

Like I said, for pure boating, you can't beat the Tampa Bay area, except for maybe Miami/Bicayne Bay area, but you had better brush up on your Spanish if you move there.

Here's a shot of the Skyway, which connects St Pete to Bradenton/Sarasota. The second picture is coming into the Vinoy Basin for a card stop in a poker run. Did I mention I miss the boating there?

cuda

I agree the Veterans Expressway makes it a lot faster to get from about Crystal Rive to Tampa.

Debbie just got back from St Pete a couple minutes ago. She left here at 6am, picked up her son there, and got back here about 12:30.

I don't know what traffic is like around NY, because I can't go anywhere that grits ain't on the menu.

bowtie

uh, what are grits? Better yet, what do they taste like?

GAUGETHIS

Check out the Cape Coral area. It has some of the greatest boating in the US. If your interested I have a couple of houses for sale on the water. You cant go wrong with real estate on the water.

el indio

why?