Hillsborough County, Florida: A Local Guide for Home Buyers and Homeowners

Tampa and Ybor City

Tampa is the county seat, and its Riverwalk runs 2.6 miles along the Hillsborough River through downtown.

Ybor City, the Cigar Capital of the World around 1900, is a National Historic Landmark district with more than 950 historic buildings, most built between 1886 and World War I. Nine key brick and stone cigar factories survive, and 7th Avenue keeps its red and blond brick buildings with wrought-iron balconies.

Plant City

Plant City is known as the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World. It was incorporated in 1885 and named for railroad developer Henry B. Plant, and its Union Depot has been on the National Register since 1975. I-4 runs along the north side of town at Exits 17 through 25, about 23 miles from Tampa and 12 from Lakeland.

Temple Terrace

Temple Terrace was founded in 1920 as one of the first planned golf-course communities in the country, incorporated in 1925 and named for the Temple orange. Its original 1920s homes are Mediterranean Revival, the Hillsborough River forms part of its southern boundary, and Florida College is here.

Brandon

Brandon sits 11 miles east of downtown Tampa. It was platted in 1890 and named for John Brandon. I-75 runs along its west side with exits at the Selmon Expressway and SR 60, and I-4 passes about 4 miles north.

Riverview

Riverview covers about 48 square miles south of Brandon. The Alafia River crosses its northern part, I-75 forms its western edge, and downtown Tampa is about 12 miles northwest by US 301 and the Selmon Expressway.

FishHawk Ranch in Lithia

FishHawk Ranch spreads across more than 3,000 acres in Lithia, about 20 miles southeast of downtown Tampa. Newland Communities began developing its villages in the 1990s, and the Alafia River forms its northern border.

Apollo Beach

Apollo Beach was laid out from the 1950s with dredged canals, and an estimated 55 miles of them give many homes boat access to Tampa Bay. It’s about 17 miles south of downtown Tampa, with Tampa Electric’s Big Bend Power Station on its northern edge.

Ruskin and Sun City Center

Ruskin was founded on August 7, 1908, on the Little Manatee River and named for the writer John Ruskin; its tomato festival dates to 1935. Sun City Center, off I-75 at Exit 240, is an age-restricted community founded in 1961.

Housing Finance Authority of Hillsborough County

The Housing Finance Authority of Hillsborough County offers first mortgages through participating lenders, paired with down payment and closing cost help as a 0% second mortgage. Mortgage Credit Certificates are available with most of its loans. HFA line: (813) 425-5959. The county’s down payment page also lists an Affordable Income Subsidy Grant for first-time buyers.

The HFA’s second-mortgage amount and its income and price limits move with each bond issue. Call 888-601-8344 before you write an offer and we’ll confirm what the Hillsborough HFA is paying, whether it has money for your closing date, and whether the credit certificate helps your loan.

Official program page

Hillsborough County SHIP

Hillsborough County uses its State Housing Initiatives Partnership money for down payment and closing cost help, mortgage buydowns, new construction and rehab, with most of it reserved for homeownership. County SHIP line: (813) 612-5397.

Single-family SHIP help is handed out first-come, first-served, so the buyers who are ready get it. Call us, we’ll get your pre-approval in order, and we’ll check with the county SHIP office on what it’s funding for the address you want.

Official program page

City of Tampa: Dare to Own the Dream and CRA help

Tampa’s Dare to Own the Dream program helps first-time buyers inside Tampa city limits with a 0% deferred second mortgage that’s forgiven if you live in the home for the full term. The award is tiered by household income, you put in some money of your own, and you start with an approved housing counseling agency. City line: 813-274-7954.

The city also runs CRA Down Payment Assistance with the same forgivable structure for homes inside its community redevelopment areas, including East Tampa, Ybor, West Tampa, Drew Park, the Channel District, Central Park, Tampa Heights and Riverfront.

Tampa resets the award tiers, price cap and income limits for these programs as its funding changes. Call us before you write an offer in the city, and we’ll confirm the address is inside city limits or a CRA and that the Housing and Community Development office is taking applications.

Official program page

Florida Hometown Heroes (statewide)

Florida Hometown Heroes is Florida Housing’s purchase program for working Floridians: a 30-year fixed first mortgage plus a 0% second for the down payment and closing costs. The second has no monthly payment and gets repaid, not forgiven, when you sell, refinance or pay off the home, or stop living in it.

In Hillsborough, at least one buyer needs to work full time for an eligible Florida-based employer in health care, K-12 schools, first response, public safety, the courts or licensed child care. Tampa General nurses and Hillsborough County Public Schools staff fit those categories. Active-duty military qualify with any employer, which matters with MacDill here, and veterans, Reserve and National Guard members qualify working full time for any Florida-based employer.

A buyer can use Florida Housing assistance once in a lifetime, so it should land on the right home with the right lender. Limits vary by county and household size and money is reserved loan by loan, so call us first and we’ll tell you what Hometown Heroes will do on a Hillsborough purchase.

Official program page

FL Assist and HFA Preferred / HFA Advantage (statewide)

FL Assist is a 0% Florida Housing second for the down payment and closing costs with no monthly payment, repaid when you sell, refinance, transfer the home or move out. It goes behind a Florida Housing first mortgage: FHA, VA, USDA or a Conventional HFA Preferred or HFA Advantage loan.

With HFA Advantage PLUS, a Freddie Mac Conventional first comes with a second that’s forgiven over 5 years while you live in the home; FL HLP is a second you pay back with a small fixed monthly payment over 30 years.

During the year, Florida Housing changes what each one pays. Call us with the Hillsborough address and we’ll show you which one, alone or next to a county or city award, leaves the least cash on the table.

Official program page

Schools and colleges

Public schools are run by Hillsborough County Public Schools, and the district website is the place to start.

The University of South Florida opened in 1956 and is a member of the Association of American Universities. The University of Tampa, Hillsborough Community College and Florida College in Temple Terrace are also in the county.

Getting around

I-75 runs north-south through Brandon, Riverview and Apollo Beach, I-4 heads east from Tampa through Plant City toward Lakeland and Orlando, and the Selmon Expressway connects Brandon to downtown.

The TECO Line Streetcar, run by HART, links downtown, the Channel District and Ybor City with 11 stations. Tampa International Airport handles airline travel, and general aviation flies out of Tampa Executive near Brandon, Peter O. Knight on Davis Islands and Plant City Airport.

Hillsborough River State Park

Hillsborough River State Park has Class II rapids, which are rare in Florida, plus seven miles of nature trails and the site of Fort Foster, a Second Seminole War fort garrisoned from 1836 to 1838. You’ll find it at 15402 U.S. 301 North in Thonotosassa.

Alafia and Little Manatee rivers

Alafia River State Park in Lithia is a reclaimed phosphate mine with mountain-bike-only trails and 20 miles of hilly trails shared by hikers and horseback riders.

In Wimauma, 4.5 miles of the Little Manatee, a tidally influenced blackwater river and an Outstanding Florida Water, run through Little Manatee River State Park, which has a canoe and kayak launch and more than 15 miles of equestrian and multi-use trails. The river is part of the Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve on southern Tampa Bay.

Manatee Viewing Center

Manatees gather every winter in the warm-water discharge canal at Tampa Electric’s Big Bend Power Station, a state and federally designated manatee sanctuary. The viewing center at 6990 Dickman Rd. in Apollo Beach opens for the winter manatee season.

Gasparilla

Gasparilla Pirate Fest takes over Tampa in late January, when hundreds of pirates sail the Jose Gasparilla across Hillsborough Bay and then parade more than 100 floats 4.5 miles down Bayshore Boulevard.

Strawberries and the State Fair

The Florida Strawberry Festival fills Plant City from late February into early March, and it’s famous for strawberry shortcake. The Florida State Fair comes to the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa each February, and the grounds are home to Cracker Country, a living-history museum of late-1800s Florida buildings.

Columbia Restaurant and the Plant Museum

The Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City started as Saloon Columbia in 1903, opened as a restaurant in 1905, is billed as Florida’s oldest continuously operated restaurant and fills an entire city block. The Henry B. Plant Museum, a National Historic Landmark, occupies the 1891 Tampa Bay Hotel building at 401 W. Kennedy Blvd.

County parks and springs

Lithia Springs Regional Park is built around one of Florida’s largest natural springs, and Edward Medard Park is built around a reservoir. Lettuce Lake Park, Upper Tampa Bay Park and Alderman’s Ford Park round out the county’s regional parks.

Buying a home

FHA is what most of our Hillsborough buyers use: 3.5% down with a 580 or higher credit score, and it works alongside the HFA, SHIP and City of Tampa help above. With MacDill here, VA matters too, with no down payment for eligible veterans and service members. We also do Conventional, Hometown Heroes, DSCR loans for investors and FHA 100% financing.

From Westchase to Wimauma, you’re working with a licensed Florida mortgage broker since 1997 that lends statewide in all 67 Florida counties, so a move from Tampa to anywhere else in the state stays with us. We shop your loan with multiple wholesale lenders and pre-approve you before you tour, so the offer you write is one you can close.

Refinancing the home you have

A refinance can lower your monthly payment, pull cash out for a new roof or hurricane shutters, pay off higher-interest debt, or buy a co-owner off the title.

Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll put your new payment, the cash you’d walk away with and the closing costs side by side, so you can decide on real numbers.