Discover The Hidden Gem: Why Dunedin Is Florida's Best Place To Live!

if you're considered making a move to the Gulf Coast of Florida and you're looking for some honest feedback about the best places to live then this video is going to be for you I'm standing in gorgeous downtown dun Eden which is one of my all-time favorite locations as a matter of fact this is the place that made my wife and I decide to move 1200 Mi South give up everything we ever knew to move to the Gulf Coast we've made videos on done Eden before I'll pin those in the link down below so y'all can go through them but I really wanted to share some more insights because the amount of interest that comes comes in about done specifically is worth note and you guys asked the questions so we want to make sure we give you the answers and in today's video we're going to cover that we're going to talk about the five things that I abolutely love in done Eden three things that I don't necessarily love one of them being is it overcrowded people ask that question all the time and the short answer to that is yes but not always we'll get into those details later we've never met before my name is wan off the LA I make videos that are all things Tampa Bay what it's like to live here what it's like to work here what it's like to play here the food the dining the Outdoors the beaches and the sunshine I'm also a licensed realtor and a team leader here with the true living group where we help people just like you buy sell relocate and invest here in the greater Tampa Bay Area now I want to give you a personal invitation down below is the comment section your comments help a ton of people they also help us we've made entire videos based upon your questions and you give us so much wonderful feedback and trust me the viewers love reading it when I jump on Zoom calls with people people are like oh my goodness the comment section people are extremely helpful so don't hesitate to to connect down there below and also if you have any other questions that you want answered maybe it's not done eeden you want to talk about a different area don't hesitate to reach out to me and my team my contact information is down there in the description including a link to my calendar so you can schedule a time that's most convenient for you but let's get into the five things I think you're going to absolutely love hear about dun Eden now before we get going I want to share a personal story about dun Eden and please please forgive me I'm not trying to make this about me but I believe this will help share some perspective with you about this area in September of 2018 my wife and I flew down to Florida we stayed in Indian Rocks Beach which is a town that's roughly about 8 miles south of dun Eden here um and we explored the coast we started Community shopping if you will and we ended up in dun Eden we didn't set to go to Dun Eden actually really didn't know anything about it but we ended up in dun Eden on one of the days that we were Meandering around checking out these Coastal communities and we fell in love I mean almost instantly um we we came down we had some lunch it was you know a a point in the season where still warm um you know it was out of season you know from the tourist season so it wasn't crazy busy and the town just felt like one of it it reminded me of a place back home um that we call Birmingham it has a a very much Village feel to it um except this one was on the coast and it uh and it ended at a Marina and you know a walkable street with people out and about there's a trail that runs through the community and I just saw shops and restaurants and boutiques and it gave me this really welcoming feel and then we went to uh Josiah Weaver Park and um I I was telling the story before but we we were standing in the park and there's kids running around the playground and they have it covered with like these Shades because it can get warm there's beautiful o growth oak trees there um the bay is literally right across the street there the inter Coast to Waterway and we're there and there's kids running around and I've got my my my newest daughter um cor was with us and there was a peacock that was on the playground and I have never ever seen a peacock that wasn't at the zoo I'm from the North like peacocks aren't hanging out and it was just hanging out on the playground and I you know for me I was like I don't know like that kind of makes me uncomfortable there's small kids everywhere but most of the parents didn't seem phased by it and um you know I I was walking around with Kora and at one point it showed its feathers and it was one of the most beautiful experiences my wife sitting there we're both like wow you know we had great food we walked the town the parks were clean we started asking parents hey what do you like about the area they're like the schools are good the community feels safe to us and they gave us all the feels they gave us all the feels so I wanted to start our story today by sharing that with you and we saw all different ages um at that point you know there was a bunch of families obviously we're at a playground I would expect that but we would see seniors come through rid their bikes down through the panel's trailer cuz it's literally right there um and the park was clean you walk across the street there was a pier we went out and watch the sunset I mean it was just one of those places that just melted our hearts and we didn't even know anything about it yet and we ended up writing two offers um on properties in dun Eden didn't get either one of them accepted and this was prior to all the covid craziness none of that stuff was even happening yet um this is 2018 so this is prior to it but it was still a hard Market to get get into and for for me being in real estate that always tells me that that's a desirable area for people to live and turns out that is absolutely true Now spoiler alert we didn't end up getting a property in dun Eden we ended up moving further south um near nrocks beach but I still love dun Eden we still go up there and spend our money there and I know I took away from this this list or maybe I added to it for you but sharing perspective I think is so valuable those parents sharing into US telling us the pros and the cons and what they have found in their experience in the community and how welcoming it was that was a huge part of our decision so if I can help you um with perspective again this is my own personal perspective on on what we experience you know maybe that is valuable to you let's get into this list now the first thing I think you're going to love about Duneden is all of the incredible activities that are available to you Duneden is a lot of things boring is not one of them you have access to a ton of different opportunities whether it's outdoor or indoor you can go to the marina you can go on a boat ride you can go kaying or paddle boring or even jet skiing down off the dedan causeway you know just before you get to Honeymoon Island which is a whole another experience to itself you can kayak or paddle board or boat over to Caladesi Island you can't drive there which is really cool um you can hang out on the beach over on the dun Eden Causeway you can take the panel's trail you can ride it you can walk it you can run it um and that trail will take you all the way up into Tarpon Springs or all the way down into St Petersburg it's incredible it's over 40 Mi long y'all it's awesome um you've got incredibly walkable streets you can go to Freedom Park where they do concerts down there you've got Josiah Weaver Park we were talking about you can hang out with the kids they got a great top lot there they also have an exercise area there it's completely covered and you can go get right on the done eating Trail there you can go on the pier across the street you can do some fish I mean there is so many activities and it's an extremely dog friendly town I know a lot of people say that but there is a bar right on Main Street um called skips and on the side of this bar there is a dog mural it says done eeden but there's dogs all up and down it and even on the billboard it says dogs welcome bring them in and there aren't too many places in the United States on Main Street specifically that are that dog friendly where they'll literally put them on the side of the building I just think it's such a fun cool thing and it's not easy you know all of our dog um our beaches in penel County they're not dog friendly so to have a community that is that dog friendly is extremely important to a lot of dog owners like ourselves we have a a do pure we love taking Stella out for walks and dun Eden is one of those communities that not only welcomes the animals you know to come hang out but they literally welcome in the bar it's pretty awesome now the next thing I think you'll love about dun Eden is it actually has reasonable housing cost for a community that is located on the Gulf of Mexico because trust me this is not easy to come by I literally am working on another video the 10 most expensive cities um in the Tampa Bay area and all of them are on the coast and they all start just south of dun Eden and when I say that let me explain something to you dunen is not cheap and what I mean by that is the experience is not cheap the housing is still not cheap um but you don't feel like you're you're getting less value what makes dunen different than the other communities that rank in that top 10 is it does not have a proper Beach if you will now what do I mean by that um dun Eden dead ends Main Street dead ends at the marina there's no beach like you have in Clear Water or Indian Rocks or North Readington or St Pete Beach or madira Beach all the beaches that everybody loves to go to um you have to go over to Honeymoon Island on the causeway and you've got some beautiful white sand there but it's not the same thing as you're thinking of Clear Water beach in p uh per se however it has a value all to itself that Marina Town feel makes it live different the community uh acts different and what I mean by that is like um in season it gets busy there but nowhere near as busy against in St Pete or um in uh clear water so it gives you some relief in that respect but it lives a little bit different so I want to share that with you now when I say reasonable housing cost what do you mean by that one cuz um there isn't anything near the Gulf Coast that I would consider cheap where anyone would want to live so let me just be real with that now the average price for a single family home over the last 30 days since the time of this recording has been right around $571,000 and listen y'all I know that's not a little bit of money but we live in an area where you can spend as much as 15 or $2 million if you like so that is more than reasonable especially living on the Gulf Coast um again this is a town where you can literally put your toes in the water some places within 30 seconds other places as many as 10 minutes right so it is a blessing to be that close to the water and these prices are extremely reasonable considering and just to shine a little bit more light on the subject I went and looked today there is a two-bedroom one bath 790 ft home minutes away from Edgewater Park literally on the Gulf of Mexico and that home is currently listed at $250,000 now that's not a big home but it does give you a lot of opportunity you can literally walk across the street and be walking on Edgewater Park checking out a gulf coast Sunset it's unbelievable you can also spend 4.25 million on an 8200 s ft five bedroomroom four full and two half bath home just minutes from the Gulf of Mexico also so that's a pretty wide birth now if you're looking for a condo or a town home you can also pick up a one- bed one bath condo for right around $130,000 right now and you can also pick up a three-bedroom three bath for 1.66 million so again as you can see the real estate is really diverse also but in terms of G Coast living is extremely affordable Okay the third thing I think you're going to love about dun Eden is one of the things that Kate and I absolutely love about dun Eden and keeps bringing us back which which are all of the incredible dining options listen when it comes to the Gulf Coast of Mexico you've got a lot of different options but I'm just going to be real we're Foodies we love to go out on date night and go have an incredible meal um we will skip everywhere else in our life to go have a great experience um especially wrapped around food now um we love to go to a great Steakhouse we love um Latin food we love medit we'll eat anything basically anywhere as long as it comes with a good experience and here's what I want to share our experiences in dun Eden have been wonderful you know you just like anywhere else you can run into some bad service from time to time but for the most part it's been absolutely incredible we continue to drive 30 minutes north of our home and spend money there on purpose our date nights are in dun Eden in Tampa proper in St Petersburg those are the three areas where we typically go we go to St Pete Beach every once in a while but we live on the beach so like that's that's not a thing to us but I want to share this with you guys so you can understand like if it's bringing us back that means they're doing it right now I want to share some of our favorites Okay so we've been to the living room I think that that's a really cool dining experience it's got a beautiful mural on the outside of it they've also got outdoor seating which you'll love great menu wonderful cocktails they have live music there um we went on a Friday night awesome date night there our favorite Latin restaurant uh this is uh fresh mechs in the entire Tampa Bay area is casatina they have some of the most incredible food get the cich and they have a signature dish um oh God uh verac cruzana I can't remember what it is it is uh Hogfish or flounder and it is so good oh it's so good you will not be disappointed there's crown and bull over there there's Cafe al fresco which is always packed to the gills they've got restaurants you can go to the lobster trap we had a lobster BLT there that was lights out um there is a uh hog Hog Island Fish Camp um I love their gumbo they have a it was great they have fried grits in it oh my my word and I know y'all you guys are like w you're out of control listen this is what we do we love eating our way through communities and done eating does not disappoint they've got several local breweries and a Distillery there which you are going to love so make sure you take time to go there seven sun is one of our favorite obviously done eeden Brewery is another good one um House of beer you won't be disappointed there those are great options for you um you can go have dinner at the Fenway hotel we just had dinner there a couple weeks ago still love that atmosphere and that Ambiance they got a great Rooftop Bar which is overlooking the Gulf of Mexico there's usually weddings on the lawn there it's a really really good place to go check out you won't be disappointed if you check those out of course you do have access to Publix's um you know in terms of grocery store there is a Costco in clearw just to the east of you there so that's uh um really convenient for you because that is the only Costco in the entire County Kate drives 25 minutes to go to Costco from where we live and it's right down the street if you live in dun Eden um so lots of dining options you won't be disappointed there the fourth thing you might love about dun Eden is its culture now dun Eden I I've said this before when people call me they' be like ju we really like the video you did about uh Duneden and y'all I'm not judging you because when I saw that sign that's exactly what I thought it said to it's Duneden and um the city and even the street names pay homage to the Scottish roots and um that is where that comes from um it is it is rich in history in that respect and it is pretty in terms of a cultural Melting Pot if you will um the Toronto Blue Jays play spring training in D which is another thing that makes the town very very cool it's in the marina you can go watch a a real baseball game with professional baseball players um and just a few miles to the south of Philadelphia Phillies playing clear water so you've got options you know and speaking of that you can go out to Tampa to see the the Yankees you can go to Lakeland to see the tigers um you can go to uh Bradon to see the Pirates you can go see the Braves in Northport I mean you've got so many different options when it comes to baseball as well so again lots of activities but with that you know having um the the Blue Jays come it brings some diversity right Canadians reside in dun Eden um we have our snowbirds who come down annually for anybody who's wondering what that term means anybody who comes south for the winter typically those are the Northerners and midwesterners um I'm from Detroit my family would go down to to Florida for spring break in the winter like they call them snowbirds that's what we call people here that come out uh during the season and our season runs from November um to right around Easter it technically it goes all the way in in into mother's day but right around Easter is when the pressure starts to let up but you'll see a lot of different people from all over the world who come and call dun Eden home and hang out here and visit again the downtown area is so hard not to love right people come just to check out the town they end up falling in love with it just like we did and then they never leave the fifth thing that I think you're going to love about dun Eden is it is extremely friendly and it technically ranks as a safer Community now here's what I want to say I hold a professional license I can't tell you whether something is safe or it's not um we have an awesome public crime r or you can go check it out but if you go Google it you'll find out that the crime rate in dun Eden is lower than the Florida average and significantly lower than the national average so these are things to keep in perspective they do block parties they have um uh neighborhood movie Nights of course we talked about the concerts they do um you know uh farmers markets I mean there is always something going on in this town and the community is involved and active right you've got the dun Eden city hall right downtown there's a police presence you know it and here's what I'll say from my personal perspective never ever have I ever been concerned about spending time in that Community I take my family there on purpose my wife and I go down there for a date night we've never had to look over our shoulder you know I've go down there all the time um I've never had anything happen to my car or even seen anything while I'm down there now here's what I'll tell you I know it's not perfect go check out the crime map but in my anecdotal experience and from our personal um you know what we've witnessed I don't have any reason to be apprehensive about calling dun Eden home again we tried to and we may end up being back there one day but you know in terms of um the the safety I'm not concerned about it now friendliness people always ask this now here's what I'll say about it because you're going to read these comments later and there's going to be someone in there saying Florida is full I guarantee it there's going to be someone else in there saying that we don't want any of your politics coming here and that's fair and I understand it um but here's what I'd like to say that small snapshot is not a fair representation of what we have experienced here in this community because so many people in the greater Tampa Bay Area are from somewhere else I have personally found found that this is one of the most inviting communities that I have ever been to now I want to also share what that means I traveled corporately um I was in business development and I saw a lot of different cities across the country and to be quite honest I was always showed the best because that's what we were in but I was also places that were not welcoming to strangers and um that has not been our personal experience here now I had a great mentor one time tell me he said Juan wherever you go there you are so if you're looking for problems I assure you you'll find them if you're looking for rude people I'm I assure you you'll find them too but if you if you just add to the community rather than subtract from it I think you'll find that dunden and the greater Tampa Bay area for the most part y'all is one of the most inviting places that you will ever experience we love it all right now the first thing on our list that I don't necessarily love and you might not either I was alluding to it earlier is it can get crowded now I did mention that we talked about being in season so during the the offseason dunen is a pretty much very laid-back town on Friday or Saturday you know on the on the weekend events it it definitely is going to feel full it's supposed to that that's the representation of a great healthy Community you want it to be that way but once you get in the season after you know the the Christmas season holiday the New Year's it can start to swell especially when the Blue Jays get into town because when they arrive so do the snowbirds and when spring training is going on and there's a game and there's thousands of people down at that ballpark in that um in that small area because D is not a huge city right it can swell now there is public parking for the ballpark but there are people walking everywhere it can just get busy now the city's not designed to host 20,000 people at any one given time so just be mindful be patient during season the the traffic can swell of course it's it goes down to one lane on Main Street y'all and you know if you got people coming up and enjoying the coast and the marina and downtown Town it can feel congested and I'll be honest like it's not the best in the world but all you got to do is sneak through one of the side streets in the neighborhood and avoid all that nonsense anyways it's a great Community again I still would live in dun Eden so I'm just sharing my perspective but if you don't like crowds at all it's probably going to throw you off so just keep that in mind now the second thing you may not love about Duneden Florida is basically there is only one season we have summer we do have summer Junior kind of have summer Light Winter is winter it does get cold for a couple weeks and when I say cold please keep that in in in mind because I've used my heat maybe three times this year it January tends to get some temperatures that dip into the the high 30s at night but we're usually you know high 50s or low 60s the next day and there there are very few days like that per year um we average right around 70° temperatures in January mid-70s and in in February um April and May same thing upper 70s at that point so just kind of lending um my my vision on what that looks like but it's green all the time y'all um we do have these beautiful old growth oak trees um they're covered in Spanish moss they're gorgeous they shed they do shed their leaves but it is mind-blowing if you're not used to seeing what happens because um up north when a tree sheds all of its leaves it's usually bare these old growth oak trees just put new leaves up underneath it so you'll see leaves on the ground they're brown but like there's it's so strange um so you really only have one season some people that wears on other people not as much like myself I love it and during the summer it gets hot y'all hot hot hot I'm just sharing the truth but I would gladly sweat through two pairs of clothes every single day than ever have to you know um bundle up again and freeze and shovel snow and be gray and dreary and break you know your car parts come flying off cuz plastic doesn't like me I don't want no part of that and if that's you you won't mind that either but if you you need seasonal change it's going to be hard on you and that's why a lot of people love to call Florida uh home for the winter and not home forever so you'll see a lot of that activity and again um you know we definitely have the the the second home owners down here there are definitely vacation spots where people come hang out to because it's not for everyone a gulf coast summer can be pretty tough on people um if you're not prepared for it or if you don't love the heat so keep that in mind and the third thing I think you may not love is that employment opportunities are difficult to come by here in dun Eden dun Eden is is not a um U an area that is driven by Massive Commerce typically people who live here are business owners or they work in areas like Tampa or St Petersburg so they drive to work they they commute so I I want to share that because if you're coming here thinking you're going to you know there's all these areas to go work at like a financial district and stuff it doesn't exist there is a hospital so obviously that's an opportunity uh you know small boutiques restaurants um service industry based those types of activities but most of the people who call done Eden home either retire here this was voted one of the best places in America to retire actually the best place in America to retire in 2022 you know you're going to have to go elsewhere to find employment and you may have to drive to clear water again St Petersburg Tampa those types of areas again a lot of remote workers call done Eden home so not great on the employment opportunities but the surrounding areas have more than enough to uh accompany that and we're going like crazy here so um I don't know anybody that's looking for work currently I know there probably is somebody in my network but like everybody that I know who has skills they are not finding a hard time finding a job here in the greater Tampa Bay Area now I would love to know down in the comments what you heard or saw today that you absolutely loved or what you heard or saw today that made you a little uncomfortable please put that in the comments down below like I said the viewers get a ton of value out of your perspective so don't hesitate to share that with with them and also please feel free to reach out to me and my team all of my contact information is listed down below like I said there's even a link to my calendar so you can schedule time that is most convenient for you I'd love to meet up make sure that we can match the your ideal lifestyle with the ideal community that way you can just absolutely love everything Florida has to offer especially here in the greater Tampa Bay Area YouTube is going to put two videos right here that they think you're going to love don't hesitate to watch that last done Eden video I'll put that down below and until next time go out and live that Tamp of [Music] 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