Caribbean Family from NY trying to decide on Weston, Davie, Pembroke Pines, others? (Miami: appointed, crime rates)

[wizrap]

I think it all depends on what you're attracted to--Weston was developed a couple of decades ago by Arvida, which owned Disney at the time, and it has that Disney feel with the orderly, well-manicured streets and strict attention to zoning.

Some people can't stand that "cookie cutter" look--Palm trees so many feet apart, homes looking very similar on smaller lots (although at your price point I would be very surprised if that would happen--you have far more choices).

When we bought out here in Weston, we loved that orderliness. So for us, it works. You'll have to let us know what you think when you visit. Weston, Cooper City and west Davie are all nice areas and with a $600k budget you should be able to tour many nice homes. Good luck and keep us posted!

[ruski]

Originally Posted by CruzanB

Alex, thank you for the community recommendations. I tend to agree with you on the smaller communities. I noticed that the Meadows seem smaller and still have a decent looking community center. Any opinion on the Meadows? Also - happy to hear about the HOA. I actually thought it was going to be $200+ a month.

Wizrap - great overview of the demographics and geography. I agree that diversity is great and it's a rare thing to get that in a well to do community. So we are excited about that.

Ralanprod and ruski, thanks for the additional tips as well.

I'll be looking at houses next week and all of this information has been extremely helpful in planning the visit.

I also recently heard that although Cooper City and West Davie are great areas, visually they just don't have the beauty and infrastructure that Weston has.
Does anyone on here agree or disagree? I know it's a relative question since there are some who like or don't like the homogeneous look.

Thoughts?

Agree on the visual beauty and the infrastructure You just can't beat Weston

[MacroEconomist]

Don't overthink it, it's a no-brainer. I moved from Long Island to Weston 5 years ago. My kids were 7 and 3 at the time. My budget was similar to yours.

If you want to travel to MIA, then the commute within Weston is not where you'll have issues so whether you live in the Ridges or the Meadows it's not a huge deal. The bottlenecks occur as you get closer to MIA. I live in Savanna. My kids love it and after 4 years I still think it's the best bang for the buck - especially with the 595 express lanes for those who commute that direction. But really, it's slicing hairs, all the communities in Weston are nice.

If you want good schools, good community, lots of kids around, and commute not an issue, then Weston is a no-brainer.

Keep in mind one small thing, not all of Weston is zoned for Cypress Bay, so pick accordingly.

[ruski]

You can throw a dart at a map of Weston, blindfolded, and it will land in a nice neighborhood

I used to live in Savanna which is awesome. But lately I have been more partial to The Ridges...

[AlexRodriguez]

The Meadows is a great community, which is subdivided in three sections, Highland Meadows, Fairfield Meadows and Vista Meadows - in ranking order. Actually, that's the community where Weston's mayor lives and like you said, it's not small, but now overwhelming large. A big plus is that it's surrounded by Weston's largest and only natural lake, so if you get a waterfront property there, you're going to love the views and sunsets.

[croatbob]

all of weston is fine. west pines and communities in cooper city and davie aswell. i personally went with pembroke pines as weston is a little isolated. pines has all the major retail stores at its door steps.

[ruski]

Btu how long does it take to get to the major stores from PPines vs from Weston? I bet the difference is 5 min

[AlexRodriguez]

Originally Posted by ruski

Btu how long does it take to get to the major stores from PPines vs from Weston? I bet thefrom a lot of points in difference is 5 min

Totally agree! I'm pretty sure I can get faster to Pembroke Gardens Mall from Weston than from a lot of geographic points in Pembroke Pines - and I'm not talking about those living far East or far West.

[CruzanB]

Hello everyone,
My family and I visited Weston last week and we really were impressed. We also visited Pembroke Pines and saw houses in both towns. Unfortunately, we did not make it to West Davie or Cooper City.

So my assessment of the communities are based on a small sample (houses in 9 different communities).
At first, I didn't recognize a huge difference, visually, between the areas in Weston vs the areas in Pembroke Pines. However, as we spent more time in the areas, it became evident that Weston definitely stands apart. We also drove around a few areas in Broward (Sunrise, Plantation, etc) and I personally thought that overall, the general areas are well maintained with good landscaping, roads, and store fronts... etc. My perspective also comes from Long Island where some, but not all, of the towns lack that "look" as the homes and other buildings are much older 50-100+yrs old.

Something else we noticed... and again, this is from a small sample of homes that met our criteria of 4-5beds/3bath, pool, gated, $500-$600k. The homes in Weston seem either better built or maybe just better maintained.

Are there differences in build quality between the two towns? We just though it was odd that all 4 houses we saw in Pembroke Pines seemed to have more issues. As I'm writing this I'm thinking it's probably more maintenance than build quality. We saw things like, rusted patio doors, cracked patios, builder grade bathrooms of really poor quality, crooked crown moldings, etc. In Weston, nearly all the homes were in pristine condition. Even when the bathrooms were builder grade, they were still in very good shape. Also Weston homes seemed to have have more upgrades... nicer floors, updated kitchens/baths.

Was all of this just happenstance based on the houses our realtor selected? Online, I've definitely seen pristine homes in Pembroke... although pics don't tell the whole story. What gives?

Overall, both areas were nice, but we have pretty much decided on Weston. We will make probably 2-3 more trips down there in the next several months and will also check out a few more communities and towns.

Thanks again for everyone's insight thus far!

[ruski]

I remember back in 2000, when we moved to South Florida, we were looking in Pemboke Pines before we looked in Weston. We visited Pembroke Falls which was then under construction. Beautiful community, but they kept on pointing out the beautiful fountain at the entrance as one of the main points of interest (at some point I remember thinking to myself "ok, enough about the fountain already").
All the two story homes at Pembroke Falls were made with concrete blocks on the first floor and wood beams and plywood on the second floor.

We then went to look at Weston, where Savanna was under construction. While there were some concrete/wood homes there too, there were many 2-story models that were concrete block all the way up. We chose to build an all concrete house in Savanna.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a total Weston fanboy. There are some things I wasn't happy about in Savanna - for example some exterior home accents are made with a certain kind of styrofoam which is sturdy, but is still styrofoam. Over the years the styrofoam can get a little distorted. But that's pretty minor.