Where to find 5+ acre Tampa home for $800k budget?

While TPD has their issues calling Tampa high crime just indicates a lack of perspective or experience travelling. I have lived, worked, and sold homes in every neighborhood on both sides of the bay and Pasco and Sarasota, and can say that I have never felt uncomfortable or scared anywhere I’ve ever been.

Anyways, you will want to look at the state school scores, but even with them there’s a lot of nuance that gets left out.
https://www.fldoe.org/accountability/accountability-reporting/school-grades/

Ignore any website with a neighborhood score or a school score. They do not disclose how they arrive at such calculations and haven’t actually visited the schools. They are just trying to further abstract the state school scores for clicks and revenue.

The main limiting factor is going to be the larger lot size. That is going to put you significantly outside the city, and eliminate Westchase as well as Brandon. Brandon you may start to see 1 acre lots in that price range, but not 5. Westchase no none at all since it is a CDD and their development valued density. Odessa, yes, 5 acre lots up there but price will be in the milllions.

5 acres is doable but is going to limit geographic option. That’s going to put you significantly outside the city and close suburbs, basically out to Plant City, Zephyhills. There are 3 homes with that size lot in Seffner / Riverview area but they are probably not what most people have in mind when they are relocating here looking for “$800k home with 5 acres”.

Problem is the value is in the land, as price per acre has climbed to roughly $80k – $150k / acre in most locations close to interstate until you get 1-1.5 hours away from Tampa. So 5 acres in Brandon would sell for $400k – $600k just for the land, which means that $800k with 5 acres is probably not going to be a house you like (mobile home or usually a much older home, 1960s-1980s, 1500 square feet or so).

The “800k home with 5 acres” meaning 2005-2023 build, 2500 square feet or more, 3 car garage on 5 acres you will find in much of the rest of the country is currently $1.4M or more in the greater Tampa Bay region.

This is compounded with Florida development following a much different course than the rest of the county historically, so 1-5 acres lots are not terribly common close to the city. The much more common development cycle is straight from pastrure to dense planned community, which is also why $/acre has increased, since developers can spend more for acreage since they will build 10-50 houses on them and recoup the money.