Tarpon Springs, Florida: A Great Place to Call Home

Tarpon Springs is a great place to live. If it’s Tarpon Springs real estate you are interested in, Tarpon Springs offers many types of homes, from bungalows to gated communities to mansions. You can enjoy the waterfront view from your front porch along the beautiful Anclote River. There are many beautiful waterfront communities in Tarpon Springs along the Gulf of Mexico and bordering Lake Tarpon. For roughly $3 million dollars you can buy a 6000 square foot home that is reminiscent of old European grandeur on S. Florida Avenue that has a wide open view of the Gulf of Mexico. The property sits on 1.6 private acres. On the low end, you can buy a condo-hotel with waterfront access for under $150,000. There are many other great choices in between for Tarpon Springs real estate on and off the water.

For recreational activities in Tarpon Springs, my family and I have spent many days at Howard Park, with picnic facilities, playgrounds and its own beach where we enjoy the beautiful Florida sunsets. Tarpon Springs is known for its historic Sponge Docks and the biggest Epiphany celebration in the country, held annually in the month of January. You can enjoy authentic Greek food and pastries in its many restaurants. We enjoy a little restaurant called Plakas where they say they are the “Greek McDonalds”. They have wonderful gyros and offer appetizers of Greek specialties such as marinated octopus! The Sponge Dock area also offers shopping, day-trip cruises, casino cruises or fishing trips. You can have a tour aboard a sponge boat and watch divers as they retrieve sponges from the Gulf of Mexico. You can also visit authentic Greek clubs where men spend the afternoon telling stories and playing cards.

Along with its Sponge Docks, Tarpon Springs offers a 120,000 gallon aquarium, a Performing Arts Center, a Cultural Center, and the Leepa-Ratner Museum of Art which has been brought to the city by the St. Petersburg College of Tarpon Springs. For the fourth time in four years, St. Pete College has been rated number 1 in the state of Florida for distance education.

We also enjoy attending the Sunset Beach concerts, The Fine Arts Festival each April and attending wine tasting events at the Tarpon Springs Castle Winery. The historic downtown area offers First Fridays and Second Saturdays where the shops and restaurants are open late and there often is free entertainment to enjoy while you shop and dine.

Tarpon Springs, in northern Pinellas County, is centrally located to Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater and is only 90 minutes away from Disney World and Sea World which are in Orlando, Florida. Tarpon Springs is a great place to call home or buy real estate with all it has to offer.

Bob Lipply is a top Broker Associate working in the Tarpon Springs Real Estate market. He and his team work full time in Tarpon Springs helping clients buy and sell their homes. Lipply Real Estate also specializes in Palm Harbor Real Estate. Visit his website where you can search the MLS for up to date available homes for sale all over Pinellas County.

Imagine a little piece of Greece transplanted to the northern part of Pinellas County. The delightful town of Tarpon Springs, which has a population of around 20,000 is famous for its unique Greek heritage and culture. It also has the distinction of being the oldest town in the St Petersburg area.

The first Greek immigrants were attracted to the area during the 1800s when they were employed in the thriving sponge industry. The town was given its name after residents spotted fish jumping out of the water and in 1905 sponge diving was introduced to the town. By 1930, millions of dollars a year were being generated by the sponge industry.

Today, although the sponge industry isn't as profitable as it once was, Tarpon Springs retains its unique Greek culture and not surprisingly, has the largest percentage of Greek-Americans in the country. Today, more than 20 restaurants offer authentic Greek cuisine and the downtown area offers antique shops, boutiques and specialty stores.

The town is also well known for its Epiphany celebrations every year in January – the largest such festival in the United States. Naturally, delicious Greek food and traditional music feature large in the festivities, as well as several religious services.

Undoubtedly though, the highlight of the event is the spectacle of several young men of the town diving into the cold waters of the bayou to retrieve a wooden cross. Tradition says that whoever recovers the cross will be blessed for the next year, and the proud winner is carried triumphantly through the town.

And, if like many others before, you have the urge to buy a home, a second home, a vacation home – or even relocate - to this unique and fascinating town, property in Tarpon Springs is affordable and plentiful.

Homes for sale in Tarpon Springs range from sprawling waterfront properties such as Anclote Isles to exclusive gated golf course communities like Wentworth or Crescent Oaks to imposing mansions in and around Craig’s Park. The more affordable end of the market has a wide selection of condos, modest single family homes, and mobile homes as well. Greece never seemed so easy to get to!

Bob Lipply is a top Real Estate Broker Associate in the Tampa Bay Real Estate area. He and his team have been helping families relocate to Florida and on the selling end get top dollar for their homes with great success. Lipply Real Estate also specializes in Tarpon Springs Homes for Sale visit his website where you can search the MLS for up to date available homes for sale

Have a great Florida vacation!