Water, Water Everywhere-And plenty of sunny places to play

All present-day visitors need to do is look out an airplane window to see what makes this slice of West Central Florida one of the most appealing places in the world in which to live.

It's all that water. Miles and miles of some of the most beautiful beaches in the world stretch along the coastline, offering wide expanses of soft, white sand for snoozing, strolling and sunset watching, plus plenty of shallow, placid surf for playing.

Tampa Bay itself, a curvaceous expanse of blue between Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, provides even more waterfront views, plenty of room for recreational boating and a protected port for ships.

Then there are the many lakes, rivers and springs dotting the landscape and flowing out to sea. These shimmering bodies of water-some huge, some tiny and many intersected by manmade canals or natural tributaries-provide some the choicest real estate in Florida.

Suffice it to say, just about every imaginable water view, short of white-water rapids, is readily available in the Tampa Bay area. You can live on the Gulf in Clearwater Beach, on Tampa Bay in Hillsborough County's South Shore, on a river in Hernando County or on a lake in central Pasco County.

While the seemingly endless selection of water views is definitely a big attraction, the almost endless sunshine is probably a bigger one.

On a slow news day in 1910, the publisher of the Evening Independent in St. Petersburg came up with a brilliant, but inexpensive, marketing plan. On days when the sun didn't shine, the afternoon paper would be free.

The idea was brilliant because it indelibly stamped the "Sunshine City" moniker on the laid-back community, which was already emerging as a choice destination for northern snowbirds. It was cheap because the sun shines an average of 361 days a year in the Tampa Bay area. Therefore, for the next 75 years, the paper was obligated to forego circulation revenue only rarely.

Indeed, during one remarkable, 768-day stretch between Feb. 9, 1967 and March 17, 1969, the sun shone every day, earning the city a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.

But if the sun and the surf attract people to Tampa Bay, plenty of other recreational opportunities keep them here.

For lovers of the arts and sciences, there's the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, the Tampa Museum of Art and The Museum of Science and Industry, to name just a few high-profile venues.

Thrill-seekers can check out Busch Gardens, Adventure Island and the Ybor City nightlife. And sports fans can watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Tropicana Field and the Tampa Bay Lightning at the St. Pete Times Forum. A number of professional baseball teams, including the New York Yankees, tune up during spring training games. The area has even hosted two Super Bowls.

Not surprisingly, this winning combination of natural beauty, plenty of leisure-time amenities and a thriving local economy have made the Tampa Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area among the fastest growing in the United States, with nearly 2.5 million people now occupying Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties.

Despite the area's rapid growth, housing remains relatively affordable. According to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index, the median price of all homes sold in the Tampa Bay area was $172,000 during the second quarter of 2005.

Concurrently, the region's median household income was $52,200. Thus, according to the HOI's calculations, families earning the region's median household income could afford to purchase 54 percent of the homes actually being sold. That makes the Bay area more affordable than either Orlando or Miami.

And there's no sign that the region will run out of homes for the influx of new residents anytime soon. Pinellas County, which is nearly built out, is starting to build up, with a boom in condominium construction.

And, while parts of Hillsborough County are fully developed, wide expanses on the east side are sprouting amenity rich, master-planned communities.

Pasco County, with the Suncoast Parkway running up its spine, has become another new frontier for development. And Hernando County, also blessed with Parkway access, is hot on its heels.

Without a doubt, the Bay area offers a rich array of home choices. We can help you narrow it down.

Following is a neighborhood-by-neighborhood primer, in which you'll find everything from new master-planned developments to charming historic neighborhoods. Undoubtedly, there's a home just right for you and your family.

Hillsborough County at a glance

LAND AREA (SQUARE MILES): 1,051
PERSONS PER SQUARE MILE (2000): 950.6
POPULATION (2004 ESTIMATE): 1,101,261
POPULATION INCREASE (1990-2000): 19.8 percent
COLLEGE GRADUATES: 25.1 percent
MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK (MINUTES): 25.8
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME (1999): $40,663

BRANDON

Settler John Brandon gave his name to this sprawling community in the 1850s. Then the railroad arrived in 1890. But not much else of significance happened here until 145 years later, when the giant Brandon Town Center Mall (now Westfield Brandon) opened.

Even then, plenty of cows were around to witness the hoopla. A herd of curious bovines, kept in a field near the mall, broke through a barbed wire enclosure and into the mall's parking lot, startling drivers and pedestrians alike and leaving odorous souvenirs behind on an otherwise festive opening day.

"Nowhere but Brandon would you see that," says Mary Odum, a local realtor for Coldwell Banker since 1984.

Cattle are getting rarer in Brandon, which has the advantage of being located conveniently at the end of the LeRoy Selmon Crosstown Expressway and near the junction of both I-4 and I-75, creating easy access to both Tampa and Orlando.

In 1960, the first year a census was taken of Brandon, there were 1,655 residents. By 2000 there were 77,895. And the geographic boundaries have grown as well, with Brandon now encompassing an area south of I-4, east of I-75 and north of the Alafia River to Big Bend Road. The towns of Lithia, Seffner, Mango and a new rising star, Dover, are all considered part of the Brandon area.

Despite its size, Brandon isn't a city. Instead, it's one of the largest unincorporated communities in Florida, with more than 1.1 million residents. Indeed, newcomers are often surprised to learn that Hillsborough County provides Brandon's police and fire protection as well as other governmental services.

A couple of decades ago, Brandon offered a wide array of solid if unremarkable homes attracting a large contingent of military families as well as retirees from nearby MacDill Air Force Base. The average price was around $50,000. Today, the median home price in Brandon is pushing $300,000-and there's no shortage of $1 million-plus homes.

Brandon has always been known for its family-oriented neighborhoods, a tradition that continues with FishHawk Ranch and FishHawk Trails, two large master-planned communities packed with amenities. And local schools are considered to be excellent, another big draw for buyers.

FishHawk Ranch, in Lithia, once a working ranch, is a breathtaking tract planned for some 5,000 homes as well as miles of walking trails, a skate park, community pools, a movie house, an aquatics center and even a roller hockey rink. FishHawk Trails, a gated custom-home community on the east side of Lithia-Pinecrest, offers beautiful new homes on half-acre-plus lots. Resales are available in Bloomingdale, a Brandon mainstay now built-out with more than 4,000 single-family homes.

There are several entertainment venues in the area. The Florida State Fairgrounds provides year-round events and festivals. The new Ford Amphitheatre on the fairgrounds regularly presents pop, country and rock concerts with boxed, fixed and festival lawn seating.

The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, complete with a 50-foot-tall guitar at the entrance, offers live entertainment, restaurant and bar options and a full-service spa as well as slot machines and roulette wheels.

DOWNTOWN TAMPA

Tampa started out as a fort. President James Monroe approved a military post to be built at Hillsborough Bay in 1823 and, by the following year, Fort Brooke was completed. It seems the peninsular Tampa area, which juts out into Tampa Bay, has had a military presence ever since.

In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders were stationed in Tampa, which was a major staging ground for 30,000 troops preparing to invade Cuba. And MacDill Air Force Base remains on the tip of the Interbay Peninsula, about eight miles from downtown.

For many years, downtown Tampa was only a place to work. Now it's increasingly becoming a place to live as well, with condominiums planned from the downtown core through the Channel District, adjacent to the Port of Tampa, and all the way to historic Ybor City.

Replicas of the city's 1920s-era historic streetcars make it easy and fun to get from one end of downtown to the other, and there's already plenty to do. The city's impressive skyline marks the bustling waterfront region and provides a gleaming glass-and-steel backdrop for many of the area's high-profile attractions. The St. Pete Times Forum, the Channelside entertainment complex, the Florida Aquarium, Yacht StarShip and Ybor City provide visitors and residents alike with plenty of opportunities for fun and relaxation on or near the water.

The west side of downtown, along the scenic Hillsborough River, is home to the Tampa Convention Center, the Tampa Bay History Center, the Tampa Museum of Art, the University of Tampa, the Henry B. Plant Museum (formerly the Tampa Bay Hotel) and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

But there's probably no place in Hillsborough County with a more active nightlife than Ybor (pronounced E-bore). This funky National Historic Landmark District-the second largest in Florida, after St. Augustine-was once home to cigar factories where Cuban immigrants toiled for hours, hand-rolling cigars as el Lector read newspapers and even novels to them.

Some of the red brick former cigar factory buildings and social clubs remain, as do a significant number of other structures built around the turn of the last century.

The influence of Cuban culture is still particularly strong along Seventh Avenue, the community's main drag. Within a few blocks, you can buy a Cuban-style cigar, eat an authentic dinner of Cuban sandwiches or black beans, rice and plantains, and enjoy a caffeine kick with a cup of steaming Cuban coffee.

Among the district's most notable restaurants and bars are The Improv, Centro Ybor, Green Iguana, The Rare Olive and the century-old Columbia Restaurant, an Ybor landmark known nationwide for its Spanish cuisine. And no fewer than 25 major events are celebrated each year in Ybor, including illuminated night parades, cultural and arts festivals and even a weekend farmers market.

Ybor's energy has also attracted a burgeoning creative class, including architects, engineers and designers. And on the east side, there's an industrial area teeming with manufacturers and distributors. Plus, today's "Cigar City" is becoming a place where newcomers want to live as well as work and play, and condo developers are struggling to keep up with demand.

"Everyone, from baby boomers to investors, is buying condos as vacation homes in the city," says Marc Hamburg, owner of Florida Real Estate Associates and chairman of the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce. "People are using these condos as a getaway from suburban sprawl. They stroll down Seventh Avenue, pick up a cigar and enjoy the atmosphere."

The relatively new Camden Ybor City apartments were recently converted to condos while new multifamily projects are rising on long-empty lots. And many tiny shotgun-style homes-known locally as casitas-are being restored as private residences. Several have been preserved and relocated to a square near the Ybor City State Museum, where one is being used as an art gallery and another as a tearoom.

"There's pent-up demand for residential housing in Ybor," Hamburg says. "There's a lot of potential, just like in similar sections of Boston, Savannah and Chicago."

Ybor, with all its patina and history, is adjacent to one of Tampa's newest and fastest-emerging residential communities, Channelside. A decade ago, few would have been brave enough to predict a condo craze in this once-gritty industrial seaport district. But considering the spectacular waterfront views from up high, it's surprising that it took so long.

In addition to the spectacular condos, there are several mixed-use projects either announced or under way featuring ground-floor retail, restaurants or offices with residential towers above.

"If even half get built that were announced, it will be incredible," Hamburg says.

Century-old Seminole Heights, one of the city's first suburbs, is another thriving neighborhood in the downtown area. Blighted 20 years ago and located in the geographic center of Hillsborough County, it's yet another Bay-area turnaround story.

When Hamburg moved there in the 1980s to be closer to downtown, he began buying older homes on the cheap and renting them to low-income tenants. Lately, as leases have expired, he's found buyers competing for his properties-and offering top dollar.

"Values have gone way up," he says. "Properties that were once rented are now being bought by professionals. The housing stock is making a big change."

The Hillsborough River anchors Seminole Heights, which is dotted with a number of small parks. Private properties on the little river are selling for prices over $1 million-sums that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. But buyers came to realize that its tributary's direct access to the Gulf of Mexico was a premium Seminole Heights asset.

Neighborly porch parties are routine, giving new residents a chance to get to know each other and veterans the chance to gossip. And an annual Seminole Heights tour of homes is a popular event.

"It's unbelievable the investment people have made in their homes," says Hamburg.

NEW TAMPA

Tampa Palms was the community that changed the course of Hillsborough residential development. But nobody would have expected that until Denver developer Ken Good came to town in the 1980s with fistfuls of cash and a vision of a neighborhood like none other.

For generations, Bruce B. Downs Boulevard had been known as "the Road to Nowhere," carved out so a few prominent families could access their hunting camps in northeast Hillsborough.

Eventually, much of the land was sold off in large tracts to developers, including Good, who developed 9,100 acres as Tampa Palms. In 1985 he convinced the city of Tampa to annex the land, which was barely contiguous to Tampa proper. It became the city's largest annexation of residential acreage in 100 years.

Good's grasp eventually exceeded his reach, but Tampa Palms survived his personal and financial travails, eventually inspiring a generation of developers to build similar amenity-rich, master-planned communities, which are now the backbone of New Tampa: Hunter's Green, West Meadows, Cory Lake Isles, Cross Creek, Heritage Isles, Pebble Creek, Richmond Place, Live Oak, Arbor Greene and Grand Hampton.

In 1993 a group of business leaders formed the Northeast Area Council and christened the area New Tampa, a name intended to give it a distinct identity while firmly tying it to Tampa proper. Today the organization is known as the New Tampa Community Council.

"It's a consistent neighborhood," says Dale Bohannon, a Coldwell Banker realtor. "Other areas were developed over time. You might see homes elsewhere from the 1930s or 1970s side-by-side with commercial development and mobile home parks. There is nothing 30 years old in New Tampa-no trailer parks, no industrial development. And there aren't any billboards, either."

Most New Tampa communities are gated and boast elaborate community centers with two or three swimming pools, spas, fitness facilities, walking and biking trails and parks. Many of New Tampa's 30,000-plus residents relocated from out of state.

"Homes in New Tampa are priced from $200,000 to $4 million," says Joel Brumbach, a realtor at Keller Williams Realty. "We've seen increases of up to 40 percent in the past two years in home values." One reason: tight supply. Realtors working in New Tampa say the inventory of homes available has shrunk dramatically, meaning those that do come on the market are snapped up quickly.

NORTHWEST HILLSBOROUGH

Carrollwood is a rapidly growing community 15 miles northwest of downtown Tampa. Lifetime resident and Real Estate Mart realtor Robbie Henderson explains its development in terms of two communities: "Original" Carrollwood and "New" Carrollwood.

Original Carrollwood is defined as the homes built from the 1950s through 1974 by developer Matt Jetton and his company, Sun State Builders. Those 983 homes, all with access to 200-acre Lake Carroll, sold at prices ranging from $20,000 to $40,000.

"The thing I always found fascinating was that to live on the lake, people paid an additional $1,000 to $2,000," says Henderson. "The difference today is $400,000. We had one buyer that paid $650,000 just for a teardown."

Demand in Carrollwood's older sectors is certainly extraordinary, even for less desirable properties. Henderson says a small home on a busy road recently sold for $220,000, "and had 10 contracts on it."

New Carrollwood is far more diverse, with approximately 30 communities offering homes in a variety of styles and price ranges. There are middle-income neighborhoods, such as Lake Magdalene and Northdale, and there are wealthy neighborhoods, such as Avila, where custom homes start at about 4,000 square feet. Among the more outrageous Avila homes is the 40,000-square-foot mega-mansion of former corporate raider Paul Bilzerian.

Westchase, a 2,000-acre master-planned community on the Hillsborough-Pinellas county border, has been one of the hottest new communities in the area since the early 1990s. Its first homes were built in traditional suburban fashion, but more recently the community has adopted a New Urbanism approach, with homes arranged around a multi-use town center called West Park Village.

The once-rural, rustic communities of Keystone and Odessa in Hillsborough's northwest area have been discovered in recent years by the moneyed. "If you drove through Keystone, you'd be blown away by all the lakes and million-dollar homes," Henderson says.

SOUTH TAMPA

Located just minutes southwest of downtown, South Tampa features the longest continuous sidewalk in the world-yes, the world-along beautiful Bayshore Boulevard overlooking Hillsborough Bay.

The bayfront is also the site of Gasparilla, Tampa's longest-running and most renowned event. Since 1904, the city's movers and shakers in Ye Mystic Krewe Gasparilla have donned pirate garb, boarded a replica pirate ship and "invaded" the city. The colorful celebration, held each January or February, also features parades, balls, fireworks and other festivities.

But South Tampa is home to more than the occasional festival. It also boasts a huge number of eclectic shops and outstanding restaurants.

The Palma Ceia Community and Country Club and Bayshore Yacht Club have traditionally been home to the city's power-elite. But all of Bayshore Boulevard, with its majestic homes and its see-forever views, is a magnet for the wealthy. Hyde Park, an early Tampa subdivision, is also a prestigious address. In addition to a healthy stock of renovated older homes, the community boasts an eclectic outdoor shopping district called Hyde Park Village.

MacDill Air Force Base sits at the tip of the Interbay Peninsula. Activated in 1941, MacDill became a major staging area for Army Air Corps flight crews and aircraft following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Later the facility was featured in the 1955 movie Strategic Air Command, starring Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson.

Today, MacDill is home to the U.S. Special Operations Command and gained international prominence during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm as the home base of U.S. Central Command and General Norman Schwarzkopf.

South Tampa also offers bicyclists and rollerbladers a link to Pinellas County via the "old" Gandy Bridge to St. Petersburg. After a new bridge was completed in 1997, the circa-1924 span was spared demolition by elected officials, who were pressed by citizens and business groups. More than 500,000 people annually use the renamed Friendship Trail Bridge.

SOUTH SHORE

South Shore is a relatively new name for a geographic area of Hillsborough County previously known, rather generically, as "South County." The emerging South Shore region includes the communities of Apollo Beach, Riverview, Gibsonton, Ruskin and Sun City Center. It's a rapidly developing area, with an estimated 15,000 new homes on their way and more in the pipeline right behind them.

Accommodating the population growth will be a challenge to the area's roads and infrastructure, says land-use attorney Michael Peterson, owner of Commerce Realty Services and chairman of the South Shore Roundtable, an umbrella group of community service organizations.

"Fortunately, our area has the benefit of coming after other areas where it didn't work out so well," Peterson says. "We started early to be a squeaky wheel through the South Shore Roundtable."

As a result of the Roundtable's efforts, the area's new government services center and regional library bear the name of South Shore, further helping the area establish its own identity.

Following, from north to south, are the communities of South Shore:

Riverview, first named "Peru," was settled on the banks of the Alafia River in 1856 and received its supplies from Tampa via a small steamboat. Now, thanks to modern roads, Riverview is just minutes from downtown yet maintains the feel of a small town, where residents can enjoy canoeing or fishing on the river or bay.

While the community is mostly built-out with single-family homes, it's now seeing a wave of multifamily development and new commercial projects, such as Westshore Development Group's huge Riverview Town Center at U.S. 301 and Gibsonton Road.

Gibsonton enjoys a global reputation for its ties to circus performers who winter there and affectionately call the community "Showtown USA." Appropriately, The National Showmen's Association is headquartered there, and a permanent museum is planned to commemorate the community's wilder days. It's still not uncommon to see a carnival booth parked in a front yard or even an occasional elephant lolling about.

The local café, Giant's Camp, was founded by two retired sideshow performers, Al and Jeanie Tomaini, who were billed as "The World's Strangest Married Couple." Al was a giant, at eight feet, four inches tall, and Jeanie, who was born without legs or a pelvis, was billed as "The Only Living Half Girl."

Al and Jeanie have died, but Giant's Camp remains a popular hangout.

Apollo Beach has a front-row waterfront seat on the bay as well as 55 miles of navigable canals, making it a haven for lovers of water sports. All that water provides a tranquil setting for many outdoor events and festivals, including the Manatee Arts Festival. Visitors can learn even more about the gentle, but fatally slow, mammal at TECO Energy's Manatee Viewing Center.

Most of Apollo Beach's first homes were waterfront, ranch-style and modestly proportioned. Many of those homes are being remodeled, gaining more style and square footage. An increasing number, however, are being torn down to be replaced by mansions.

Ruskin was founded in 1910 as a socialist colony by George M. Miller, a Chicago lawyer and educator. It was named for British social philosopher John Ruskin, an active promoter of art education and museums for the working class. But Ruskin is now more associated with the prized plump tomatoes grown there than with any social philosophy.

In addition to its tomato patches, the community at the mouth of the Little Manatee River also boasts sun-dappled inlets and bright bay waters, mangrove islands and marshy canoe trails, all perfect for fishing, boating and swimming.

Ruskin is experiencing unprecedented growth as a number of new communities rise around its many lakes. Newland Communities, for example, is developing MiraBay, Covington Park and its latest project, Waterside, on the east side of U.S. 41, west of I-75.

Sun City Center, about 25 miles southeast of Tampa, was one of the first active-adult communities in the country. And it remains a popular place for busy 55-plus homebuyers. Residents enjoy more than 200 arts, social, craft and civic clubs as well as a plethora of activities and special events year-round. Then there's the most popular activity of all-golf.

WCI Communities, developer of Sun City Center, has maintained a steady construction pace of 300 new homes a year. The sprawling community will approach buildout in about five years.

PLANT CITY

Plant City, the self-proclaimed "Strawberry Capital of the United States," is one of the area's older communities. As early as 1839, Fort Hichipucksassa-named for an Indian village-was here, housing several hundred intrepid settlers.

In 1843 a town was platted bearing the same tongue-twisting name as the fort. But when a post office was established six years later, an Irish postmaster is said to have renamed the community "Cork" because of the not-so-surprising difficulty even locals encountered when trying to spell or pronounce the original moniker.

The area was incorporated as Plant City in 1885, but the name had nothing to do with strawberries or any other sort of agriculture; it refers to railroad magnate Henry B. Plant, who extended tracks to the burgeoning community.

Today, Plant City's downtown is charming and picturesque, with small shops and restaurants, an array of antique emporiums and three buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.

"We still have brick streets," says Marion Smith, president of the Plant City Chamber of Commerce. "It's a family-oriented community with character."

Plant City is also the world headquarters of the International Softball Federation and the future site of the World Softball Hall of Fame. But it's the city's agricultural heritage that's celebrated every February during the city's 11-day Strawberry Festival. The big event, which attracts more than 800,000 people, features strawberry shortcake made with locally grown berries sweet enough to make you sass your mother. Big-name country musicians, rides and exhibits further enhance the county-fair ambiance.

Despite its folksiness, though, Plant City's days as a small town are numbered. The population has topped 30,000-still no metropolis-but about 6,000 homes have been approved for construction over the next five years. Plus, there are another 40,000 people living just outside the city limits.

"Housing is just going through the roof here," Smith says. "We're facing some growth issues. It's going to affect traffic, schools and everything. It's something everybody's talking about."

Communities offering new homes include Magnolia Green, Reynolds Ridge, Trapnell Ridge, Walden Reserve, Alexander Oaks, Eunice Estates and Walden Point. On deck are Clairmore Estates, Eagles Crest, Wilder Meadows, Lake Side and Green Tree.

TEMPLE TERRACE

Sandwiched between Tampa proper and New Tampa, Temple Terrace may appear to be just another difficult-to-distinguish suburb, but this city of about 23,000 is one of only three municipalities in all of Hillsborough County (the others being Tampa and Plant City) and has a rich history all its own.

Temple Terrace was originally conceived as a place where well-off, winter-weary Northerners could come to play golf and tend their own small citrus groves.

Burks Hamner, Vance Helm and D. Collins Gillette bought the land that would become Temple Terrace in 1920 and 1921 from the Potter Palmer family, who had been using it as a hunting preserve. The trio began carving home sites and a golf course out of what had been dense woods. Grove acreage was set aside so that homebuyers could also become small-scale, gentlemen farmers.

The city of Temple Terrace, named for the temple orange, was incorporated in 1925. Sadly, however, most of the orange trees were wiped out by freezes in the winter of 1927 and 1928. Then the stock market crash in 1929 put an end to most development in the community. Only the golf course and about 80 homes had been built by then. Some additional buildings, mostly connected with the golf course, had also been completed, but Hamner, Helm and Gillette's downtown vision never materialized.

Residential development in Temple Terrace resumed during the housing boom following World War II. And although the city is now mostly built-out, planners have revived the idea of building a downtown district.

Among the sites of historic interest in Temple Terrace is Florida College, a Christian college founded in 1946. The original golf clubhouse is now the college's Sutton Hall, and the Morocco Club casino is, ironically, its student union.