Potential move from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale! (Miami, Coral Springs: sale, oceanfront)

[3rdbass]

I'm presently living in Atlanta, GA but will be interviewing for Financial Analyst job for a company in Deerfield Beach. The company is flying me down and housing me near the job in a hotel at Deerfield beach the first 2 days. We will spend the other day at a hotel on Fort Lauderdale Beach. Exciting but scary times since I have lived in Atlanta for 20 years and it has grown on me as the city has been exploding. I'm 48 and originally from West Hartford, CT and my wife is 33 and originally from Brazil. We have no kids but are looking to have a kid in the next couple of years. Our budget is $400K presently. We will hopefully get corporate housing for a few months as I have a house to sell in Atlanta in a great in part of town.

The house we have in Atlanta is 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, no garage 1400 sq. ft 1946 remodeled bungalow that I bought for $340 a couple years ago and is now worth $400K plus. It has a yard but we never use it. I guess if we have a kid it would be nice to have some green space. The area is called Edgewood and it is a very diverse area near Little Five Points(Greenwich Village of Atlanta) with lots of 20 to 30 somethings who are into very openminded and liberal. Definitely mixed neighborhoods with the old black population and the new gentrification. Relatively safe neighborhood now that gentrification started 5-10 years ago. Use to have a lot of drug houses and abandon places. It is near Marta(train) which I use to go to work, downtown which is 2 miles away and the airport. We are walking distance to great trendy areas like Little Five Points, Kirkwood and the belt line. We use to live on the belt line(green space project on the old train Lines). We love going there 3 times a week to do our walking since we don't have to deal with traffic and there is a lot of cool shops and housing going up on it. It also has great views to downtown and midtown. We use to backup on to the belt line in old 4th ward district which exploded. We were looking at bigger place because we use to live in my 1 bedroom apartment 800 sq ft with 2 cats. Even though our house is a in cool area and everything is walkable 10-15 minutes away we miss backing up to the belt line were there are so many people enjoying the outdoors exercising and walking.

We are looking for a place in Florida that is either a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house or 2 bedroom 2 bathroom condo/town house that is close enough to get to the beach within 15-20 minutes in a car and has some walkability. As noted above we would love to be able to do stuff outdoors and walk. We love cool little trendy restaurants that aren't too expensive and still have good food. We also like all the outdoor festivals that Atlanta has. We of course would love to be near a downtown but not sure we can afford that. We have thought about living close to Fort Lauderdale but have also heard that Del Ray beach area as good place to check out. We don't mind a renovated small house like we have now but aren't totally adverse to a new housing as long as it is close enough to the beach and has the walkability nearby.

Based on what I have described and and where I will work what neighborhoods should we check out this weekend? I'm guessing living south of Deerfield Beech will be a reverse commute so that will help. I know Fort Lauderdale area doesn't have the heavy rail system like Marta but you do have Brightline between West Palm and Miami presently. We will be there 3 days including my interview on Friday which is my 3rd one and final one with the company.

Any advice on the forum would be greatly appreciated.

[ruski]

Living south of Deerfield actually won't be reverse commute. I-95 North is pretty jammed up during morning rush hours.

Brightline is super nice. But $10 one way. And it doesn't have stops anywhere near Deerfield.

Tri-Rail, on the other hand may work for you, but still, you first need to commute to the train station.

I think you should check out Parkland (especially if you are planning to have a kid) and the nicer parts of Coral Springs adjacent to Parkland.

Also Boca Raton would work for you.

Delray Beach is very nice, but has some iffy parts.

You should be able to find a very nice townhouse for $400K.

[griffon652]

Originally Posted by ruski

I think you should check out Parkland (especially if you are planning to have a kid) and the nicer parts of Coral Springs adjacent to Parkland.

Also Boca Raton would work for you.

Parkland may be tough on $400K. There are literally only 4 houses currently on sale in the OP's budget. But Boca and Coral Springs are good suggestions. Also, OP check out Coconut Creek. Its right next to Deerfield and has some very nice communities with houses well within your price range. As a side bonus for your wife, it also has the largest population of Brazilians in Broward.

[ruski]

Originally Posted by griffon652

Parkland may be tough on $400K. There are literally only 4 houses currently on sale in the OP's budget. But Boca and Coral Springs are good suggestions. Also, OP check out Coconut Creek. Its right next to Deerfield and has some very nice communities with houses well within your price range. As a side bonus for your wife, it also has the largest population of Brazilians in Broward.

Yes, Coconut Creek slipped my mind. Nice town. Good call. You also have Promenade at Coconut Creek for your entertainment and shopping needs. And it's not very far from the beach by car.

[3rdbass]

Thanks for the suggestions! Much appreciated. We are at Fort Lauderdale beach right now enjoying it. Checked out Delray and it was nice but during the day it is a little slow. Guessing that is more for night crowd. We really liked the atmosphere near Downtown St. Pete(Trendy with a nice art district), when we visited that earlier this year. Not sure if the East side of Florida has anything like that but if it does would definitely appreciate the suggestions. We are going to use tomorrow as the day to explore more as we have a late flight out back to the ATL.

[Mr. Lee]

You might wish to check out the Las Olas area https://lasolasboulevard.com/members.../things-to-do/
http://www.artfestival.com/cities/fort-lauderdale

[3rdbass]

Thanks everybody for the suggestions about to start out checking the Las Olas area as far as entertainment and then work our way up I95 to the other places.

[ruski]

Delray may be slow now because it is low season.

[HotandHumid]

If you like getting out and exercising, Fort Lauderdale isn't much of the place for it as the whole area was developed to move traffic quickly, not that it works that way anymore, but it's basically a city that's crisscrossed by what amounts to 4-6 lane highways with some very small parks here and there as developers ate up most of the land for housing and not much thought was given to creating a large urban park like Lincoln and Grant Park in Chicago on Lake Michigan or Central Park in New York.


There is Holiday Park in the Victoria Park neighborhood but if you're looking for a natural park with wooded trails, quiet and the like, forget about finding it there. It seems that most people don't consider it a park here unless it's got a football field, baseball diamond, playground equipment, etc.


Even though the city has worked hard to create bike lanes on the busy major streets, most people don't ride bikes here, even though there are a lot of bike shops. The shops I've visited said that most people who buy bikes here take them on bike carriers on their motor vehicles to places like the Keys and South Beach to ride around on the narrow streets in those places that traffic can't move fast on.


There's always the beach to walk on if you can afford a place on the oceanfront but if not, you'll have to pay for parking at the beaches here.


There are some more woodsy park areas in Davie and out west near the Everglades but as people have been attacked by alligators in those areas, you wouldn't find me walking or running near any body of water in those areas. Also, poisonous snakes out there tend to move to higher, dry ground when the heavy summer rains get going.

[ruski]

Originally Posted by HotandHumid

If you like getting out and exercising, Fort Lauderdale isn't much of the place for it as the whole area was developed to move traffic quickly, not that it works that way anymore, but it's basically a city that's crisscrossed by what amounts to 4-6 lane highways with some very small parks here and there as developers ate up most of the land for housing and not much thought was given to creating a large urban park like Lincoln and Grant Park in Chicago on Lake Michigan or Central Park in New York.


There is Holiday Park in the Victoria Park neighborhood but if you're looking for a natural park with wooded trails, quiet and the like, forget about finding it there.

Well, there is Hugh Taylor Birch park. It is quite large.

If you can afford an apartment in Sunrise Harbor, all you need is to cross the bridge over the Intracoastal and you are there.