My address is Land O Lakes, but I am really in Wesley Chapel, only one mile from W.C. city limits. City of Tampa is huge, I mean I could be in city limits within 5 minutes, (New Tampa). If traffic is friendly I can get to Downtown in 20-25 min. Ybor City about the same, Temple Terrace 15-20 min, Carrolwood 20-25 min, South Tampa 25-30 min, Brandon 25-30 min. Except for Brandon these cities are the burrows of Tampa, and all within the city limits!

 

I might focus my search in Pasco County. Perhaps Land O Lakes, Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills, New Port Richey, Holiday etc etc.

Seems that these communities are slighly more rural (farther away from the city) and taxes, utillities, and prices of homes are slighly less expensive.

 

You hit it right on the money with those cities. Plus you can get a larger home for your money in one of those cities since it's not Tampa! I lived in Zephyrhills for 21 years, great small town to raise kids in.

 

Do you know what the $25,000 Homestead Exemption is ?

 

Yes, you file for that when you buy your home. Basically the state will allow you to be exempt from property taxes of 25k of the value of your home if you file for homestead exemption. So if your home asesses for 100k and you file for homestead exemption then you would only pay property taxes on 75k.

There is alot of info on-line, but I found this pretty quickly:

http://www.westontitle.com/media_articles2.html

 

The way I understand it, you have to wait until after January 1 to file for the homestead exemption...you have to be the owner on January 1 of the tax year, and you file the exemption in the first quarter of the year.

 

that is exactly true NOVA

 

 

So what is the actual time and distance from Land O Lakes to Riverview ?

I see the two towns on a map but have really no idea what kind of distance it is.

 

well, it depends on what part of Land O Lakes, they have really stretched the city limits, but for an estimatre I would say, oh30-35 min driving time... 25 to 30 miles... it's mostly interstate driving.

 

Yeah, Tampa is pretty spread out, so even though 30 - 35 minutes seem long it really isn't. And lucky for us the interstates aren't too bad. Traffic can get rough, but nothing super serious usually.

 

Does anybody live in a newer housing development ?

 

yup, the Enclave in Land O Lakes, all homes in my sub were built year 2000 or newer, but I don't like the neighborhood as much anymore. The people are really cool, but especially in the entrance road no one takes care of ther ****....

 

Is the home builder Inland Homes for the Enclave ?

 

I live in Cory Lake Isles, in New Tampa, and it's all new homes. Community is based around Tampa's largest lake and there are houses from $300K to well over a million. There are several builders; we built ours through Rottlund. It's a beutiful neighborhood and I would definately recommend it to anyone. Very centrally located.

There are also many new home cummunities in the Riverview area (just south of here) and are very reasonable.