[tinajoanna]

Hi All

Could anyone kindly offer advice and info.

My wife has been offered a 2 years Masters Degree at FIU (miami) starting in Spring 2008. We are looking to find realtors with letting properties within a commutable distance from the University. We have spent many vacations in FL. but have not really much experience of the Miami area. We have friends in Tampa but thought that info. from people in the area would be best.

Can anyone help!!

Kind Regards

Tina & Ian

[MOZIONE]

Hi guys,..First off I wanted to let you know, that I was born and raised in beautiful Miami for 33 yrs now...

FIU (South Campus) is located in between Westchester and the Sweet water area. I would not recommend the Sweet water area.. In the 80's Sweet water was a nice neighborhood, but now it's very different. They've dubbed the city or area little Managua. The neighborhood is "majorly" made up of Nicaraguans or central Americans.
To the south of FIU is Westchester,this neighborhood is predominantly good. However, real estate prices have hit this area hard. Just to give you an idea 3/2 Single Family homes are in the $350-380K range and taxes are pretty high also anywhere from 4-7K a year. and these are homes that were built in the 50's...Also I would stay away from Bird Road and 117 ave area. I lived there for a while and watched the area transform from middle class people to a "Ghetto Light" version not fully ghetto. Anything west of the Turnpike on the Bird Road vicinity is pretty good also.......

The place I would recommend if you can afford it is West of Turnpike on SW 8st (Same road FIU is located on) all the way down by 147 ave and west. Very nice fairly new homes ( built in the mid 90's) between the 350's and all the way up. Another good area is Doral. Located a little more north of FIU, but very nice also.

It's funny, I've been thinking about moving to Clermont, Fl any comments?

[PBCboy]

How much you'll enjoy Miami largely will be depend on your income level.

If you have never been in this section of the state South Florida may come off a culture shock to you. I was born and raised here so I am used to it, but I have heard of others on this site who were very surprised at what they found here (though not always in the best ways).

I wouldn't want to live directly next to the campus, if I remember correctly it's not very nice looking (house-wise and apartment-wise).

You might want to try looking in Kendall, and in Doral, which is north of the campus, there are lots of new, nice looking houses and apartments. Good luck.

[tinajoanna]

Thanks for the info. on areas to look at. Forgot to mention that we are coming over for the 2 year masters course from England, so any info is greatly appreciated. As the study visa doesn't allow us to enter more than 30 days prior to course starting we may be visiting in Jan 08 to research more! does anyone have info on good agents to use when looking for a rental place.

many thanks

Tina & Ian