Hi everyone, my name is Jennifer and I was wondering if anyone could help me out with a few questions?

We will be moving to the area at the end of May from Arizona... while I've tried looking at many diffrent towns/ subdivions, it's truly hard to tell how it really is.
We believe we have found a nice home in Dundee..
the subdivion is The bluffs of Dundee... I was wondering if anyone could give me their opinons on that neghborhood? I have 4 children, ages 6,9,11 and 15.... I've read what I could find on the schools as well. If this is not a decent area, could you please give me your opinons on any nice subdivions around the area there?
Thanks so much for taking time to read and thanks in advance for any responses!

Hi Jennifer,

I have a good friend who lives in Dundee, the town has really started to grow in the last few years(like all towns) I do not know anything about the schools in the area, but in my opinion, the schools can be as good or as bad as you make them. I think if more parents were involved with their kids schools, we would not have as many issues with schools today. Florida rates their schools as A, B, C, D, & F schools. I think you can check the schools ranking by going to the Polk County School Board website. Hope this helps!

Lisa

Hi Jennifer, My husband works and drives through Dundee a lot. He wanted to know if you had streets near that subdivision so he could recall the exact one. He feels that Dundee is a nice little town. They have a great soccer complex.

On my blog tab or at the link below I have a list of mommy helpful links on the left column. One of the links is school grade and school phone numbers. That can give you a little more background of the area schools.

Good luck in your moving adventure and keep us updated. I hope you get plenty of responses to your plea.

http://polkmomsblog.theledger.com/

Hi again, and Thankyou both so much for the responses! I will def. check out the school website and see what I can dig up there... Shawn, the name of the street we found our possible house on is Bluff Loop... from what I can see its by the small pond in that subdivision, I know that probably doesn't help, cuz there are alot of homes by the pond, LOL.
Thanks so much for your links, it's so helpful! I am thankful to have found this website! I have been searching for days for forums and such to find out how things are in some areas for days now... mostly reading city-data website.
Thanks again!!!

Hubby and I went to lunch together today and discussed your move. He wanted to know if there is a paticular reason why you have choosen Dundee. Not that there is anything wrong with the town , he was just thinking the county has many nice towns/communities. We have a Polk Parkway that can make commuting from one end of the county to the other in just minutes.

I will tell him about the street and get back with you.

We haven't chosen Dundee just yet, it's just that we have read so much about how bad Kissimmee is and other parts, haven't read too many bad things on Dundee... but having said that, we haven't seen too much on it either way.I mean I have seen some really nice houses in Kissimmee for rent, but reading some city-data forums, alot of ppl say it's way downhill and wouldn't even go to the wal-mart there...
I didnt want to flood your forum with questions since I don't live there yet and I know this forum is for Polk moms, but if you give me subdivisions and towns that are nice to live and raise a family in, I would be grateful!!!
If it helps, I can tell you that, we will probably be renting at first to make sure we are in the right area for us, we aren't snobs by any means, but I'd like to live in a family oriented neighborhood, where I don't have to worry nightly about vandals and too much crime and where you can feel safe letting your kids play outside. I understand every area has it's ups and downs and no place is perfect. We can afford a decent amount for rent, but I'd like to stay under $1700. It's just so hard to tell online without actually seeing the area in person. Any help would be appriciated and if you happen to know any websites about the towns, please let me know. Thanks for asking!!!

P.S.

Can you tell me of any towns/areas I want to avoid?

Hey Jennifer,
I grew up in Dundee. My parents have lived there for 35 years now. It has changed alot since childhood but all cities do.
I personally would never buy a home buit by "Meadows properties" or "Eldorado Homes". The Bluffs of Dundee are Meadows homes an they are cookie cutter, they all look the same and are really close together. Not good quality builder. Were you going to be renting in there or buying? I would def rent first. I wish I knew sooner, I just rented our house in east Haines City for $1150.00, 3 bed,2 bath. I live in East HC by "Grenelefe Golf Resort". It's one of the nicer areas of HC. About 6 miles N of Dundee.
Grenelefe is old but they are trying to fix it up. They have great deals on rental units. Lots of Law Enforcement live there because they give a discount to them military.
Lots of homes for rent these days too.

You can go to www.polkmls.com to find some rental homes. As well as www.floridamoves.com The Florida moves site is set up through Coldwell banker and I believe it tells some about the neighborhoods as well as the schools in the area.

Thanks so much for all the info, links and advice! It's very much appriciated and has helped so much!
Thanks again and have a great day!

Jennifer,
Are you guys moving here because of a job transfer? If so, where are you or your husband going to be working? If I not that I could better tell you about some local subs.

Hi Scrappin,

No, my husband works overseas, so where we settle doesn't really matter, just moving to Florida alone, from AZ, will make his commute to work alot shorter... as for me, I don't work, but would like to finish up some classes, probably at a decent community college.

Whoever mentioned it: Polk Parkway is a godsend!

Really, there are nice areas to live all over the county. We chose South Lakeland because of the proximity to my folks, but also because it is easy access to main thoroughfares, so it is easy to travel. Even to get to USF only takes me 30-45 minutes, depending on traffic.

I don't know anything about the area of the county you are looking at, but if you don't need to stay in a certain area, I do recommend a broad search. Best of luck!!

jmabry~

If you are looking to take classes at a community college, Polk Community is a good school. There are two campuses, one in Winter Haven and one in Lakeland. There is also a University of South Florida campus (main campus is in Tampa) at the Polk Community College Lakeland campus. Lakeland and Winter Haven are both nice if you wanted to be a little closer to a college. Just a thought. I've lived in Lakeland all my life, but I'm not that familiar with Dundee. Good luck!

Jennifer,

I would probably agree with the others if you are looking for a good community college you might want to check out South Lakeland-not sure if I can say this publicly or not-but Ernie White is a really good home builder in Polk County. I was told by a Building Dept. official he say a house he built several years ago in need of some repair and repainting and he knocked on the door and told the people he was going to take care of it at no charge to them. They tried to explain they had just bought the house and were going to redo everything, but he insisted. He along with several other very good builders which you can look at by going to the Polk County Home Builders website are awesome and have several good subdivisions in South Lakeland. Let us all know when you get here!