30 somethings going from NYC area to Fort Lauderdale (Miami, Coral Springs: apartment, to rent)

[alraq5]

My husband and I will be relocating to Florida and have no idea where to start!
I just got a job working in Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach (traveling between the two). We are looking for nice, SAFE, reasonable condo or apartment to rent. We do not have kids so schools are not a factor. We like to be near restaurants, stores, etc, but do enjoy living in quieter residential areas. Ideally I would like to keep a budget of no more than 1500/ month for a one bedroom with a den (need a home office) or 2 bedrooms (to convert into an office). I currently live in an NYC suburb and have about an hour commute everyday (with traffic). Don’t mind commuting about an hour (preferably less) if I love where I live. So maybe a midpoint to both areas? Any help you can give this very disoriented couple would be helpful. He will be looking for work in the high end hotel/restaurant field, therefore anywhere that is a resonable distance to those areas will be helpful as well.

[Nolefan34]

You could live anywhere between Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach. There are about 30 towns and suburbs in between. You could live on the beach or inland. You are probably best off living further east near the ocean so that you can commute on I-95 between Palm Beach and Lauderdale. There are some great suburbs further west, but it will add to your commute times.

The housing prices are more expensive the further south you go. Broward County is generally more expensive than Palm Beach County. The one exception would be Boca Raton which is expensive because it is upper-scale. But you will notice as you go further north that housing prices drop quite a bit.

[2ForTheSea]

Check out Delray Beach. There's a great downtown there as well as plenty of nightlife, restaurants, shopping, etc. It's very close to Boca Raton where there are plenty of high end hospitality jobs. I'd say it's about 30 minutes (or less depending on traffic which is never good) to Palm Beach and about 45 minutes to Ft Lauderdale.

[ruski]

Boca or Delray

Actually I would like to plug Weston too. It is more west, but it is quite easy to get from Weston to Fort Lauderdale, and is quite do-able to commute to Palm Beach (done that). It is as quiet a residential area as you can get.

Plantation or Coral Springs should work well too.

[Nolefan34]

Ruski-

Do you always just recommend Weston blindly without considering what the original poster said? They said they will have to commute between Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Weston is nowhere near either. It is so far out of the way, it would be over 1 hour from Palm Beach. Weston is also a bedroom community for families with good schools, but no nightlife and nowhere near the beach. Exactly the opposite of what the original poster is looking for.

I agree with the person who said Delray Beach. Just make sure you live in the Eastern part near downtown. There is a great young professional area with newer condos walking distance from the Atlantic Blvd strip.

Seeing that your budget is 1500, you could probably afford a nice beach condo in East Fort Lauderdale or a downtown condo in Las Olas. Las Olas is great because there is so much nightlife you can walk to and you are less than 1 mile from the beach. But it comes at a hefty price.

[ruski]

Originally Posted by Nolefan34

Ruski-

Do you always just recommend Weston blindly without considering what the original poster said? They said they will have to commute between Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Weston is nowhere near either. It is so far out of the way, it would be over 1 hour from Palm Beach. Weston is also a bedroom community for families with good schools, but no nightlife and nowhere near the beach. Exactly the opposite of what the original poster is looking for.

I agree with the person who said Delray Beach. Just make sure you live in the Eastern part near downtown. There is a great young professional area with newer condos walking distance from the Atlantic Blvd strip.

Seeing that your budget is 1500, you could probably afford a nice beach condo in East Fort Lauderdale or a downtown condo in Las Olas. Las Olas is great because there is so much nightlife you can walk to and you are less than 1 mile from the beach. But it comes at a hefty price.

Did you notice that I wrote "Boca or Delray" first?

But I maintain that Weston is do-able in terms of commute to either Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach.

[alraq5]

Thanks all good information. If my husband ends up finding a job in Miami. How long is that commute?

[rickt86]

just moved down from NJ, looked for something like this, went with Coral Springs near the Lake in the south end, its a nice area and a good priced area. PM me if you want info on the complex, we looked a bunch, and it has worked out awesome.

[ruski]

Originally Posted by alraq5

Thanks all good information. If my husband ends up finding a job in Miami. How long is that commute?

From where?

Living in Miami would be a culture shock, even for someone from NYC.

I'd say you could live in Fort Lauderdale's vicinity and commute to Miami or Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach.

[SierraDog]

If your husband ends up with a job in Miami, then you're going to want to be no further north than the southern-most part of Fort Lauderdale.

The traffic to go south to Miami is much worse than the traffic on the commute north. If he ended up with a job around the northern part of Broward County, or in Palm Beach, then you'd definitely want to be as north as possible.

I agree with Nolefan that either way, with your interest in being near the nightlife, restaurants etc, you'll want to look east of I-95.

In Fort Lauderdale, there are several new apartment buildings and loft buildings around U.S. 1 and Broward Blvd area, and this area is close to Las Olas but not as pricey as the buildings just off Las Olas itself.