What's the cost of living like?
We’ve got no state income tax, a great outdoor lifestyle and lots of free activities. The cost of living in Tampa, Florida can be another matter if you’re not prepared. You know, it makes Tampa bay really a wonderful option to consider. But what expenses haven’t you got on your radar? What’s the true cost of living actually looking like right now? That’s the purpose of this video we’ll even cover information about what we actually pay for things. Let’s get started.
Housing Prices
We’ll started with the elephant in the room right now, the cost of housing. You know, the cost of housing here has risen substantially.
It seems like everyone decided to call Florida and Tampa Bay home as soon as lockdown started. Quite honestly, we are thriving here, Tampa Bay‘s the second largest Metro in all of Florida. That’s just behind Miami /Fort Lauderdale, which is the largest. Tampa’s also the 18th largest Metro in the entire US. When you compare housing prices and cost of living to some of those other major metros, we’re actually still looking very affordable, and might give you more bang for your buck. We ALWAYS recommend you get a good home inspection completed. No matter where you buy, knowing you are starting from a solid foundation can cut down on unexpected costs later that increase your cost of living. Many people retire, or downsize to Tampa Bay- if that’s you- do your homework, and let us know if you need help.
Geography and what Tampa Bay offers
The majority of our communities are within about a 30 to 45 minute drive of the city of Tampa. You can find waterline and coastline basically everywhere. There’s a bunch of different architectural styles- from historic districts right up to new construction, that’s tending to be built on the periphery of the Bay area. If you want information on neighborhoods and suburbs, check out some of the neighborhood tours, and look out for more to come.
Cost of living: Energy Prices
Let’s say that you’re good with housing prices. What else do you need to consider? That summer heat often has people worried about energy prices and depending on your home, that cost can vary a lot. It’s always a good idea to ask the seller for the range of what their power bills look like. For example, we live in about a 2,200 square foot home built in 2018. We’ve got great energy efficiency and our bills range from about $80 bucks in winter, up to about $150 to $200 in the summer.
If you’re in an older home, get an energy audit by the power company. The power company do an audit and tell you the biggest wins for that particular home. Things like adding attic, insulation, double pane windows, making sure for sure that your AC and duct work sealed. In an older home built, in the eighties and nineties bills can run from a low of about $150 to $200 in winter to a higher of $250 to $350 in August. Sometimes even higher.
Cost of living in Tampa Bay – think about Flood Insurance!
One of the costs in Florida that can be completely sticker shock is flood insurance. On the one hand, it’s great to live with easy access to the water, yet it does mean flooding can be a risk. If you’ve got a mortgage and you’re in a flood zone, flood insurance is going to be required by your lender. floodsmart.gov is a great place to verify the flood zone of a property or area.
Pay attention to flood zones. You can reference the city flood map and it’ll show you a specific address you’re looking at. If you’re located in an X flood zone, flood insurance isn’t required, but it can still be recommended. For that, we are paying about $500 a year right now. Close to the coastline or in a flood prone area that could run from anywhere from $2000 to $8,000 or so.
That’s one of the many things we help our buyers with- finding out all the details of is the elevation of a neighboring home, or even within a neighborhood can vary a lot too. So can flood quotes.
Property Taxes and Cost of Living in Tampa Florida
While we’re still talking about homes. Let’s talk about property taxes. We do always suggest checking out the actual cost on the property appraisers website (Pinellas), reach out if you need help. I’ll put links to that in the information at the bottom. Typically though, just calculated it as about 1.3% of the value of the home. For example, on a half a million dollar home, you can expect to pay about $6500 plus or minus in property taxes every year.
If your home is your primary residence, you can claim a homestead exemption, which deducts $50,000 off of the tax assessed value of the house. It knocks about $800 a year off your property tax bill.
Moving forwards, the assessed value of your house can’t go up anymore than about 3% per year. Now, if it’s not your primary residence, then your property taxes will rise and fall with the value of your home.
Homeowners Association cost or Personal Cost
Depending on the neighborhood, and whether there is a Homeowners Association, or Condominium Association, where fees are collected to pay for things within a community, you may need to be prepared for these expenses:
Yardwork and Landscaping
Tampa does have amazing weather and it’s very tropical like climate. We get rain in the summer, but not so much in the winter, yet you are going to need to keep up with your lawn and landscaping all year, especially in spring, summer… and fall! And I do mean weekly. While you can do it, if you don’t want to, it typically will cost you about $100 to $130 a month for a basic yard service. That’s not likely to include hand pulling weeds. Those things can grow up to a couple of inches a day, especially in summer when it starts to rain!!
Pest Control
Lawn and shrub pest control is also a must that can run you about $30 to $40 a month. For inside the house with termite stations outside and interior pest control expect to pay about $75 to $80 a quarter. With the climate, we do see ants and roaches, mosquitoes, and other pests. Good idea to have that on your radar for your budget.
Swimming Pools
What about swimming pools? Lots of homes in Florida have swimming pools. If you have a pool and you want someone to maintain the chemicals and clean it weekly, it’ll run you about a $100 to $125 a month. On top of that, expect to pay a couple of hundred a year for new filters and plan on a new pool pump every few years.
Then there’s the cost of heating it. If you want to be in it most of the year. There’s you can do gas, solar, or electric- lots of options. With natural gas to heat a pool in winter, it could increase your gas bill about $200 a month.
Wages: Cost of living in Tampa Florida
Wages on the other hand, somewhat typically lower than the national average. Keep in mind here though that we don’t pay state income tax, which could be 6, 7 8, 9, or even 10% in other states. With a good income, it’s a great lifestyle, but recent reports are showing that homes bringing in minimum wages, struggling with the increases in rent, home, food gas, you know, and basically everything else that’s going up in price.
Cost of living in Tampa Florida- Transportation costs are unavoidable.
Oh my gosh, gas right now it’s hovering right around $4.75 to $5 buck a gallon of regular. We don’t have very good public transport. It’s very poorly integrated, especially at the county lines, so either bet on your own car or Uber and Lyft. Traffic can be a nightmare depending on time of day and which direction you’re going.
Plan ahead for time on the road and make sure to ask about local traffic conditions and check drive times on Google too.
Activities around Tampa Bay
There’s always something going on around Tampa bay, and our beaches aren’t the only thing great about the bay. We’ve got access to some of the greatest beaches and boating in the country. A lot of that can be free, but while you are not on vacation, you can get to live like you are!
If you like theme parks and attractions allow for that in your budget. As a Florida resident, we do get a ton of discounts for most of the theme parks, including Disney world. It’s about an hour to an hour and a half away from the bay area.
If you are considering relocating in Tampa Bay, or new to the area and want assistance, deciding where is best for you, take a look at that number on the screen, give us a call, text us, send us an email. We can even book you a personal zoom session with either I or one of the team members. We’d love to help you with your move either into, or around the Tampa bay area. Thanks for watching. And we’ll see you on the next video.
https://www.floodsmart.gov/
Pinellas Property Appraiser: https://www.pcpao.org/
Pasco Property Appraiser: https://pascopa.com/
Hillsborough Property Appraiser: https://www.hcpafl.org/
