Can anyone tell me about Tampa, FL?

[Kel S]

I might join my husband on a business trip down to Tampa and for a number of years now we've thought about getting a second personal home in Florida and was wondering about Tampa and what part of town I should look around in? I looked at some listings started as low as $16k for SFH, but I imagine those are in the not so great part of town.

Can anyone from that are steer me in the right direction as far as nicer neighborhoods there? It's so difficult when you don't live in the area. Where we live now I can tell you exactly the parts to stay away from...but it's like going in blind when you don't know a new city.

While I'd love to have a SFH, we have thought that maybe a condo would be better. That way perhaps the risk of it being broken into and stripped would be less? Also just our inability to do yard maintenence while we are not there would be a factor. We'd probably live there part time and stay there when it's winter here. At least part of it....until we retire. Maybe we could rent it out seasonally at times (?). In any case the purpose would be mainly so we have a place to escape the cold :mrgreen:

Any particular areas you'd recommend? Maybe certain zip codes or street names?