Trend in Ft. Lauderdale (Miami, Fort Lauderdale: real estate, luxury, travel)

[FritzN]

My wife and I, after a very hard working life in California and Colorado, have just signed a contract to buy a waterfront home -- just off the ICW in the Coral Ridge community of Ft Lauderdale. We plan to make this our permanent retirement residence. We love boating, the many restaurants in the area, swimming at Ft Lauderdale Beach, Las Olas Ave., etc.

Our physical observation is that the older track homes near or on the water are being torn down with expensive, large houses replacing them. That is, the neighborhood is ever heading more upscale and the properties becoming more valuable (not withstanding the current real estate downturn). By California standards, the waterfront properties are cheap in FL -- and the recreational opportunities and natural beauty are far better.

My question is: Is the city in general improving or becoming a worse place to live? We are betting that the baby boomer retirement will accelerate the process of migration from the northeast to SE Florida, and demand will consequently rise. Is this a reasonable assumption? Although building has slowed, a water tour of Fort Lauderdale last week, confirmed that this is where the heavy money is being invested. (There is a substantially higher number of newer, beautiful homes on the ICW in Ft Lauderdale than there is in Pompano Beach.)

I see complaints on this board about traffic on the roads, but our life will be lived mostly east of Highway 1. We don’t have to commute to work, and we can pick favorable times of the day to be on the roads. (Last week during five long days of house viewing from Boca Raton to Ft Lauderdale, I commented to the realtor more than once how surprised I was that the traffic was so light compared to Southern California – and at the height of the tourist season.) Even on Saturday, when I went to Ft Lauderdale Beach for the afternoon, it wasn’t that bad.

My wife and I look forward to more recreational activities than are available in Denver, and we like the youth and high energy of Ft. Lauderdale. We’d die in a stodgy, homogenous, keep-up-with-the Jones city like Boca Raton, where everyone seems to be wealthy and the same. We much prefer to live in a more diverse community.

Your comments will be greatly appreciated.

Fritz

[Momma_bear]

Originally Posted by FritzN

My wife and I, after a very hard working life in California and Colorado, have just signed a contract to buy a waterfront home -- just off the ICW in the Coral Ridge community of Ft Lauderdale. We plan to make this our permanent retirement residence. We love boating, the many restaurants in the area, swimming at Ft Lauderdale Beach, Las Olas Ave., etc.

Our physical observation is that the older track homes near or on the water are being torn down with expensive, large houses replacing them. That is, the neighborhood is ever heading more upscale and the properties becoming more valuable (not withstanding the current real estate downturn). By California standards, the waterfront properties are cheap in FL -- and the recreational opportunities and natural beauty are far better.

My question is: Is the city in general improving or becoming a worse place to live? We are betting that the baby boomer retirement will accelerate the process of migration from the northeast to SE Florida, and demand will consequently rise. Is this a reasonable assumption? Although building has slowed, a water tour of Fort Lauderdale last week, confirmed that this is where the heavy money is being invested. (There is a substantially higher number of newer, beautiful homes on the ICW in Ft Lauderdale than there is in Pompano Beach.)

I see complaints on this board about traffic on the roads, but our life will be lived mostly east of Highway 1. We don’t have to commute to work, and we can pick favorable times of the day to be on the roads. (Last week during five long days of house viewing from Boca Raton to Ft Lauderdale, I commented to the realtor more than once how surprised I was that the traffic was so light compared to Southern California – and at the height of the tourist season.) Even on Saturday, when I went to Ft Lauderdale Beach for the afternoon, it wasn’t that bad.

My wife and I look forward to more recreational activities than are available in Denver, and we like the youth and high energy of Ft. Lauderdale. We’d die in a stodgy, homogenous, keep-up-with-the Jones city like Boca Raton, where everyone seems to be wealthy and the same. We much prefer to live in a more diverse community.

Your comments will be greatly appreciated.

Fritz

The section of town you are moving to is a great section for retirees with money. You don't have to be super rich, just upper middle class. It is pretty, convenient and full of people such as yourself. All of SF is pretty diverse, although some neighborhoods are not. You will be close to downtown, and have easy access to Miami, Boca, and points west should you be interested in local travel.

If you do not have to travel at peak hours you will find the traffic quite manageable and gas is less expensive in Ft. Lauderdale than in western Broward. I don't understand why that is, but whenever I am in Ft., Lauderdale I fill my tank for 10-15 cents a gallon less than here in Weston. At any rate traffic patterns are pretty predictable. Once you learn them, you will be able to avoid the worst times.

Don't be fooled the real estate downturn is affecting all price points, all neighborhoods. I would advise you to rent first, make sure you like it here and THEN buy something. You can lose money, even in an up and coming neighborhood. If it turns out you like it here, the money you lose isn't significant, but if you don't, it may be very difficult to get out. NOTHING is selling here in Broward.

The lifestyle in east Ft. Lauderdale is very appealing for retirees with a little cash, but be careful with the real estate right now.

[compelled to reply]

You sound very well suited to Fort Lauderdale if you enjoy water activities. The traffic thing is mostly way exaggerated, and population in the region is starting to stabilize due to buildout. Despite that, there are plenty of road improvement projects in the works, but sadly, not much in the way of mass transit . As far as the baby boomer migration, well, they are heading to new places now. A lot of boomers are staying home, and because of the expense, the population here stabilized and boomers are heading to less expensive cities. There are plenty of boomers coming, but mostly wealthy ones. Also, many wealthy South Americans and Europeans are starting to buy east Fort Lauderdale. For the most part though, Broward County is done growing, and the new residents that are coming are still coming from all over the country, but immigration from the Caribbean is starting to outpace that. Also, a lot of homebuyers are now middle to upper class Hispanic families from Dade County, although not as many immigrants from the Latin countries. If you want to talk about the short term, the luxury market is doing much better in Florida than other segments of the market, and I see no reason any neighborhood east of U.S.1 will do anything but go uphill, as neighborhoods west of the road are in fact still gentrifying to recover from the major decline of the city that occurred through the 90s. As far as the long term, it depends on a lot of factors, but I don't know if I see anywhere in this country doing well in the long term...

Yeah, forget about Pompano. It's going down hill. The coast is starting to look like Asbury Park, NJ. Not good.

[Bette]

I have lived in Coral Ridge and the Landings. Love it. Even though I now live in Boca Raton, I have a fondness for where I used to live. When I lived there, I did not venture past US 1 at all!! There was so much to do!!

[chisoxfan]

We've lived in the Imperial Point neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale since 1994. It's north and a wee bit west of where you'd be moving to (not to mention less upscale), but in the same general vicinity. Though I criticize many aspects of South Florida life from time to time in my posts, I have to say I'm pretty happy with the neighborhood and northeast Lauderdale in general. There's a nice mix of people and we're close to everything.

As for Pompano Beach, I think of that notorious word from the Jimmy Carter administration -- malaise. The city needs imaginative, aggressive leadership to be pulled out of its rut. Unfortunately, many of the same people who ran the city 20 years ago are running it now, so change occurs at a snail's pace -- or not at all.