SperlingViews - Gainesville, Florida

NW Gainesville is a really peaceful and quiet community with very good elementary and middle schools. It is ideal for raising a family. Cost of living is reasonable but real estate prices are higher than Orlando or Jacksonville.[read more...]

Great childhood memories [read more...]

I moved to Gainesville with a friend right after graduation, and fell in love with the area. The people are incredibly friendly--which was a little unnerving after living in cold-shouldered north. The cost of living is low, with good apartments readily available, and the town is visually beautiful. With the university in town and all the forest preserves and historical sites around it, there's lots of sight-seeing venues. There are also many cultural events available in the town and through the university. The shopping is good, for both specialty items and plain old groceries. I've lived all over the country, and Gainesville had the best deals on food (particularly meat) I've ever seen. I really miss going to the grocery store, buying crab legs for $2lb, and having them steamed for me while I shop. Which reminds me, if you're passing through Gainesville, stop at David's Barbecue. They make the best BBQ I've ever eaten. I still special order bottles of their sauce. Gainesville is in the heart of everything north-central. It's located 90 minutes from either cost and Orlando. It's 4 hrs to Tallassee and 3 to Tampa. I can get to Atlanta, GA (another great city) in 5 hrs. Gorgeous Hart Springs and Manatee Springs are located just an hour away. The Devil's Millhopper and Alachua Botanical Gardens are located right in Gainesville. On a more practical note, being in the middle of the state means that Gainesville rarely feels the worst effects of the hurricanes that often hit the coastline. It's a great home base, with easy access to all of Florida's hot spots.[read more...]

GAINESVILLE IS HOOORIBLE!! I was born in Tallahassee, Florida , The state capital. And I Moved to Gainesville at 16 and I lived there for 2 years , im 19 now , we moved back to Tallahassee and I am now attneding Florida State University, Now , when I lived there , there was NO Growth , no night life , the mall closed at 7:30 on weekends , everyone was MEAN , schools were rated Horrible, and when I moved back to Tallahassee , I was Amazed about the new High Rise buildings that ere constructe din such little time , so thats why we moved back , want to move to Gainesville? THINK AGAIN![read more...]

University town gives community high standards for education. Good private and high schools.[read more...]

Gainesville has a young student population, lots of fresh young faces. Gainesville also has an older population that resides here. The town is surrounded by woods, lakes and rivers. Sunshine state is the mama, Gainesville is the child.[read more...]

This is a major college town so you can guess what comes along with that. Lots of young people, lots of parties, etc[read more...]

I moved to Gainesville Florida from Philadelphia Pa. I have a degree in sociology, and currently working with the university. I have found gatorville to be your typical racist southern college town. If you are of european descent this is like heaven, otherwise stay far north of Alachua county. I am English with many ethnic students and friends. I have seen first hand how minorities are treated in this city.[read more...]

Get anywhere in town in less than 30 minutes by car, even during rush hour (which is still only about an hour long). Only exception is on game days, when it might take 45 minutes crosstown if you're going by the University. Bonus: Get anywhere in town by *bicycle* in less than 1 hour, regardless of traffic. Add'l bonus: Though somewhat unreliable, city buses are free for students, faculty & staff of the University of Florida.[read more...]

After living in South Florida for 18 years, my daughter and I moved to Gainesville and we LOVE it here. Yes, the city revolves around the University but it doesn't have to overtake your life. If you are a Gator fan, you'll love it here. If not, they you can live in the NW or SW of town and never have to set foot on campus or cross paths with a single student. The terrain is beautiful with softly rolling hills and big leafy trees. The climate is relatively mild, although the summers can be hotter and more humid than many Northerners can stand. What the schools lack in resources is more than made up for with low student-teacher ratio. Housing is NOT expensive and the growth has been nicely controlled. This would be a nice area to retire - stable housing market, good health care, moderate climate, and nearly every weekend has some kind of folk, music, art or produce festival going on nearby. I don't know how big of a retiree community there is here, though. There are a few large facilities (The Village, Oak Hammock, The Atrium) that are nicely kept. I highly recommend Gainesville for anyone starting a family or looking to settle down.[read more...]

Gainesville has pretty regularly been in a number of top 10 or top 100 type lists of US or US/Canada places to live over the past decade or so. In 1995 it was Money Magazine's #1 in USA, and Gainesville was recently selected the #1 city in north America by Cities Ranked and Rated, 2nd edition (2007). You get Florida living with less hurricane danger, drive to either coast in about 90 minutes. Good health care and schools, including the University of Florida and Santa Fe Community College (which also has upper division degrees via acting as a satellite campus for St. Leo University). Although a town of just over 100 thousand, UF has a Center for the Performing Arts, there is a professional regional theatre (the Hippodrome), Florida's oldest community theatre (Gainesville Community Players) which just opened a new facility a couple years ago, a couple smaller theatres (including Acrosstown Repertory Theatre), a natural history museum and an art museum (on UF campus) and several small private art galleries. The local original music scene is vibrant. There is a large local international population due to UF (I know, my wife teaches English to them!). Just north of town, and throughout the region a bit further out, are some worldclass springs, tubing (floating down a river in a raft or tire innertube) and cave diving opportunites. If you are looking for a big city, look elsewhere, but to me Gainesville combines the best cultural attributes of a big city without the big problems like crime, pollution, congestion/overpopulation. If you don't like dealing with college kids, it's not the place for you. Property values have escalated although still not as bad as places further south. Gas prices are high here though. [read more...]

If you are not 100% a Gators fan, you will find no one to talk with since the natives know nothing else. If you think you accelerate through green lights and brake for red lights,you will have a great number of accidents in Gainesville, FL. If you think gas prices are high elsewhere, you will discover that when the state, county and city can all add tax to fuel whenever the mood strikes them, you ain't seen nothin' yet! If you've been taught to use turn signals for turning or changing lanes, you will make yourself a target. The natives will tell you it's the youth and inexperience of the college students, but the problems exist even when the university is virtually empty. If you expect service in the stores and restaurants, you will be sadly disappointed. If you are not in the business of medicine or education, finding work here will take a very long time -- and the cost of living far exceeds the pay. If you're saving for retirement, you'll stop saving while in Gainesville, FL. I've been in a number of transient towns (where the majority of the population is from somewhere else) and, with the exception of this town, they have been open to new people, new ideas and new possibilities. In this one, if it's not about the sports teams of UF (notice I didn't say just UF -- no one is interested in academics here), no one cares. If you're wealthy and retiring, you might like it here. There is a lot available and Gainesville, FL is 1/2 to 3 hours from a lot more activities. However, it is colder, longer here than one would expect in Florida. Yesterday (3/25) the morning temp was 34 degrees and the afternoon temp only reached 65. If you're coming from Chicago or Boston, that probably sounds great. If you really want to live in Florida, travel another 30-35 miles south and check out Ocala. [read more...]

Gainesville, or Hogge Towne as we locals sometimes call it, is a lovely place. I was once told by a new resident that he had moved there based on his first trip to our city one spring – one look at the azalea’s and wisteria in bloom and he was hooked. We are a “Tree City.” When flying in and out of Gainesville it is very difficult to pick out familiar spots as Gainesville is covered in a canopy of green. We are an outdoorsy community with bike trails, freshwater springs, many outdoor festivals and several nature parks. We are also a university town so we are sport city and a bit of a party city. Many who go to college here stay here. The job market is swamped with over educated folks that just can’t seem to tear themselves away. Thanks to The University of Florida we get an annual homecoming parade, many cultural events, occasional free outdoor concerts, world class speakers, and a diverse population. So you ask what is the downside? If you are in search of the beach scene, be aware that no Florida city is farther from both coasts. Our airport is tiny and unaffordable so most folks fly out of Jacksonville, Orlando or Tampa. If you are not into Gator Sports you will be a little out of the swing of things. People here are nuts for their Gators. Forget about being anywhere near the campus, University Ave. or Archer Road unless you are a part of the game day throng. I think that the nickname of stadium “The Swamp” stems from the traffic and crowds that will swamp you if you dare go near. It is HOT here in summer. We have two seasons summer and fall. The humidity will often make you feel like you are swimming to your car in the morning. Property taxes are particularly high in Alachua County. Our crime rate isn’t so hot either.[read more...]

Interestingly, Gainesville was recently selected the #1 city in America by Cities Ranked and Rated. There must be something good about Gainesville. Why is it that only people "with an axe to grind" seem to post summaries here?[read more...]

I know a couple in Boston making 200k+/yr with no children and no expenses other than mortgage, car payment, prop taxes, cable, utilities, vacations, etc. They think some of the complaints about Gainesville are silly. A 2000 sq ft, 4 bd-room for $350k is a steal. In Boston and nearby area you would need $1,000,000+ to get that. Gainesville, if you can come close to the salaries we make in Boston, we will move there in a heartbeat. I will trade the cool summers here for the warm summers there in a heartbeat. Yee haw![read more...]

Money Magazine once rated Gainesville as one of the best places to live, I'm not sure what criteria they use but they got it wrong. Gainesville is a college town through and through so if you are a college town lover well this might be your place. For the rest of us though, it’s not all roses in Gator town. For a smallish place traffic is terrible, there is a large homeless population and you can't drive down a street in this town without seeing and hearing someone begging for money. If you rent things will be even worse, there is no place in town without a large college age crowd and late night parties and cars parked every which way are the norm. Rent is not crazy but is expensive if you have any standards. There is one major shopping area in town and it can be a cluster if you go at the wrong time. There are a couple great community theaters in town, but not much else unless you like to be swarmed by groups of Frat boys. It is also impossible to go out for a meal in this town without coming back with a screaming headache, and don't go during happy hour. I must sound like a very irritable person, but the truth is I'm a 28 year old, fun loving, laid back guy but this town really gets to a person after a while. If you must move to Gainesville, I would suggest looking for a place outside of town, places such as Newberry, or High Springs are very nice and not a bad drive to work in town. One more thing to consider, Gainesville was at one time a swamp, and there are still a lot of areas around which breed mosquitoes so bring your bug spray.[read more...]

If Gainesville is the best place to live in America then this country has gone downhill and is never coming back!!! If you are a minotiry, homeless, or a communist liberal then this is the place for you. You have to drive two hours to get to an airport. The housing is way too high. The city is run down. Homeless on every corner begging for money. The downtown plaza is covered with homeless who urinate and deficate all over the place. No decent restaurants. Everyone hates the police. I can go on for hours about how much this city stinks. Whatever you do don't move here. This is not Florida. trust me.[read more...]

This area has the best medical care in the state and is among the best regions in the Southeast due to the fact that Gainesville is home to the University of Florida College of Medicine and to Shands UF, a tertiary care center and Level-One Trauma center.[read more...]

I live in Gainesville. The nicest time of the year is the summer when most of the students leave and the traffic lets up a little! Very college student/bar hopping oriented! Other than that there is very little to do here. Bad shopping, hardly any arts or culture(everything is FOOTBALL!), the housing prices are very high. Great place if you're a student or if you work in the medical field; other than that no decent paying jobs. The information listed on this site is all outdated: Median housing price is $216,000 and you cannot get an apartment for less than $750.00 unless you want to live in a shack without air conditioning! The new thing is that they keep building all these ugly high rise apartment buildings downtown with $300,000 condos for the rich students... I don't get the hype about Gainesville....Can't wait to leave![read more...]

The quality of health care in Gainesville - and especially at Shands Hospital - is outstanding. There are multiple research studies in progress, and as a teaching hospital it is without peer.[read more...]