[dotti105]

Both my husband and I grew up on Clearwater Beach.

It was beautiful living there "back in the day". My mom still lives in the same water front house, my sister's family lives next door. Beautiful views of the Marina, fun to watch the boats come and go.

As a kid the population of Clearwater beach was about 8,000. Today it is over 100,000. Concrete and high rises everywhere, that is except for the T-shirt shops etc. I hate going back.

We swore that we would never move back to Fla.

Unless you LIVE on the water, it is just like Ga or Kansas for that matter. If you do not have a water view, there are only disadvantages to living near the coast.

The traffic during the season is terrible! You can't get to or from the grocery store, in less than an hour. Seriously! If you are water front you have lots of crowding and lots of commercial. Part of the package!

We visited TV and now we can't wait to get into our Fla home. TV is unique and with the abundant recreation, everyone a transplant, it is very friendly and it is beautiful.
If we had a time machine and could go back to "old " Clearwater, it might be a different story, but even the beauty of being waterfront does not make up for the disadvantages of crowds, commercial and storms.

We evacuated every year, often several times.

We will enjoy visiting the beautiful coasts, but No I would not want to live on the coast. The Villages is the only thing that made us change our minds about moving back to Fla. (And I'm still not sure about the late summer humidity.....and the love bugs..)