TAMPA FLORIDA AREA REAL ESTATE
From the Florida Real Estate Guide

TAMPA BAY FLORIDA

The Tampa Bay Florida area, including Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and the Gulf Beaches, has that elusive quality that many attribute to the "real Florida." Less "fast-lane" than bigger Miami Tampa Bay is the state's second-largest metro area with varied strengths, from broad cultural diversity to a sunset-worshipping beach culture. Florida's third-busiest airport, a vibrant business community, world-class beaches, and superior hotels and resorts -- many of them historic -- make this an excellent place to spend a week or a lifetime.

Native Americans were the sole inhabitants of the region for many years. (Tampa is a Native American word meaning "sticks of fire.") Spanish explorers Juan Ponce de Leon, Panfilo de Narvaez, and Hernando de Soto passed through in the mid-1500s, and the U.S. Army and civilian settlers arrived in 1824. The Spanish-American War was very good to Tampa, enabling industrialist Henry Plant to create an economic momentum that has been sustained through the entire 20th century. A military presence remains in Tampa at MacDill Air Force Base, the U.S. Operations Command.

Today the region offers astounding diversity. The terrain ranges from the rolling, pine-dotted northern reaches to the coast's white-sand beaches and barrier islands. Communities run the gamut as well. Tampa is a full-fledged city with a high-rise skyline and highways jammed with traffic. St. Petersburg, on the southeast tip of the peninsula across the bay, has interesting restaurants, shops, and museums in its compact downtown area -- as well as rising property values and recent development sparked by the re-gentrification of its Old Northeast and Snell Isle neighborhoods nearby. The peninsula's western periphery is rimmed by barrier islands with beaches, quiet parks, and laid-back beach towns accommodating an ever-growing number of million-dollar homes. Inland areas are largely classic American suburbia.