Poss. reloc to Ft. Lauderdale-fam/close to beach/great schools? (Fort Lauderdale: neighborhoods, buying)

[kimmerthy]

Hello! Possible relocation from Chicago with husband, 4 year old and 4 month old. His job would be in Ft. Lauderdale, does not have to commute everyday, maybe twice a week. Is there such an area/neighborhood by the beach, lots of families with children, and in a great school district walkable to shops and restaurants (we like beer)? If public schools are good, we will spend more on our house. If not so good and have to send to fee/private/Motessori type schools, we may come down on what we want to spend. We love the Sarasota area, but there are no relocs there now for him, only in Ft. Lauderdale. We do love Ft. Lauderdale too, but I don't think we can find what we're looking for in the heart of the city (maybe we can??)

I know you'll probably want to know what we want to spend and it's pretty flexible, we've even thought about buying a lot and build if there are any in a good area that meets our criteria (not asking much, right?) We want a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, and 3 car garage. Any areas/neighborhoods you all can recommend?

[kimmerthy]

I did find this... https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=...c06&dg=feature

Just trying to navigate through the dark green, standard green areas.

[Momma_bear]

Originally Posted by kimmerthy

Hello! Possible relocation from Chicago with husband, 4 year old and 4 month old. His job would be in Ft. Lauderdale, does not have to commute everyday, maybe twice a week. Is there such an area/neighborhood by the beach, lots of families with children, and in a great school district walkable to shops and restaurants (we like beer)? If public schools are good, we will spend more on our house. If not so good and have to send to fee/private/Motessori type schools, we may come down on what we want to spend. We love the Sarasota area, but there are no relocs there now for him, only in Ft. Lauderdale. We do love Ft. Lauderdale too, but I don't think we can find what we're looking for in the heart of the city (maybe we can??)

I know you'll probably want to know what we want to spend and it's pretty flexible, we've even thought about buying a lot and build if there are any in a good area that meets our criteria (not asking much, right?) We want a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, and 3 car garage. Any areas/neighborhoods you all can recommend?

You're flexible but you must have limits right? Can you spend $1mil? $500K Can you give a range with a top end?

Generally the nice neighborhoods near the beach don't have fantastic schools but there are exceptions.

[kimmerthy]

Hi Momma_bear, I think I read one of your posts earlier tonight which I was able to get some great information from. Yes, definitely limits... around 750,000 would be great with great Montessori/private schools nearby, willing to go up to $1M+ if in a great school district and 10 minutes from beach. I checked out Parkland, but seems far from the beach. It's better to live north of Ft. Lauderdale because of traffic, right? We can be north or south of Ft. Lauderdale since he won't have to go in to work that often. My husband just really wants to be near the beach (me too!) so I know we'll have to pay to be near there. So tell me the exceptions and I'll run the price by him

[ruski]

Originally Posted by kimmerthy

Hello! Possible relocation from Chicago with husband, 4 year old and 4 month old. His job would be in Ft. Lauderdale, does not have to commute everyday, maybe twice a week. Is there such an area/neighborhood by the beach, lots of families with children, and in a great school district walkable to shops and restaurants (we like beer)? If public schools are good, we will spend more on our house. If not so good and have to send to fee/private/Motessori type schools, we may come down on what we want to spend. We love the Sarasota area, but there are no relocs there now for him, only in Ft. Lauderdale. We do love Ft. Lauderdale too, but I don't think we can find what we're looking for in the heart of the city (maybe we can??)

I know you'll probably want to know what we want to spend and it's pretty flexible, we've even thought about buying a lot and build if there are any in a good area that meets our criteria (not asking much, right?) We want a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, and 3 car garage. Any areas/neighborhoods you all can recommend?

Weston. With the express lanes on I-595, you will be at the beach in 25 min. And you will have really good public schools.

[kimmerthy]

Thanks, ruski. Not sure the husband will want to be there far from the beach. I did notice last night there's an area in Boca Raton, The Reserve maybe, had a handful of schools that rated very high. Do any of you know of this area? Looking into it more today.

[drea84]

Originally Posted by kimmerthy

Hi Momma_bear, I think I read one of your posts earlier tonight which I was able to get some great information from. Yes, definitely limits... around 750,000 would be great with great Montessori/private schools nearby, willing to go up to $1M+ if in a great school district and 10 minutes from beach. I checked out Parkland, but seems far from the beach. It's better to live north of Ft. Lauderdale because of traffic, right? We can be north or south of Ft. Lauderdale since he won't have to go in to work that often. My husband just really wants to be near the beach (me too!) so I know we'll have to pay to be near there. So tell me the exceptions and I'll run the price by him

I was raised in Coral Springs and through the years Parkland has always remained nice. If I had the money to live there that's where Id be!! There's plenty of shopping and nice restaurants close by, parks and stuff for the kids and the beach is really a 20-30 minute drive so not bad at all. The schools are nice and you should have no problem finding a good private one close by, even the public schools in that area would be much nicer than others even more than some private ones.

[Nolefan34]

Boca is gonna be the closest area to the beach with the best schools. Boca is in Palm Beach County, just across the county line from Broward. It is about 25-30 minutes commute to downtown Fort Lauderdale on 95, but during peak times can be more like 45+ minutes. For only 2 days per week, its a cakewalk. Also, if you live far enough east in Boca, you can take US1 which flows pretty fast during the morning rush hour.

Parkland and Coral Springs are further out west. It would take more like 20-25 minutes to get to the beaches in Deerfield or Boca from both areas. Weston is the furthest away from the beach in terms of mileage. 595 goes pretty quick these days since they recently added express lanes with no exits between Weston and Fort Lauderdale. So there is no traffic merging on/off the entire way and you fly. It still would take you a good 25-30 minutes to get to the beach.

In Broward County, the cities closest to the beach unfortunately have average to below average schools. It is due to the transient nature of the areas near the beach. The more family oriented communities are the western suburbs.

[kimmerthy]

Thanks so much to both of you, especially for taking the time to write these posts. This all helps me a lot! Yes, looks like Boca is a little closer to the beach than Parkland. 45+min for a commute is nothing, he's a little over an hour right now each way. I'll check out Coral Springs as well, but think Boca will be more up DHs alley. Thanks, again

[Nolefan34]

Originally Posted by kimmerthy

Thanks so much to both of you, especially for taking the time to write these posts. This all helps me a lot! Yes, looks like Boca is a little closer to the beach than Parkland. 45+min for a commute is nothing, he's a little over an hour right now each way. I'll check out Coral Springs as well, but think Boca will be more up DHs alley. Thanks, again

Boca extends pretty far west, so it depends which part of Boca you chose. If you live out by 441, you may as well be in Parkland because its almost that far from the beach. That commute is usually no more than 45 minutes too, but sometimes you can hit a bad accident. Traffic in the winter months is much worse than the summer months. We are entering into the summer season now and the snowbirds are mostly gone. The traffic has improved a lot in recent weeks.