As someone who used to live in Tampa Bay—and may have to move back for family reasons next year—I find that a little dubious as well. :) Although to be fair, Tampa and St. Petersburg both got measurably more interesting in the last decade than they were when I left in 2002.

Never lived in Jacksonville, but I’ve visited it and have a friend who used to live there. Jacksonville is to Florida what Fresno is to California: bigger than you think, probably perfectly pleasant, utterly non-descript. :)

Us Jaxons think of Jacksonville as southern Georgia. North Florida (panhandle included) is still very southern, not at all like central/south Florida.

St Petersburg is nice. Amazing beaches and kitesurfing at fort desoto, plenty of water access for boating and sailing, generally out of the path of hurricanes. Not much in the way of universities to recruit from though.

Don't know yet. One thing I realized is I can't really decide whether a place is worth moving to without living there for a few months. So that's what I intend to do before I uproot my family and move. I like TX in general, but a week or two does not give an even remotely complete picture, beyond just the basic "affordability" and quality of available housing stock.