Who lives in Weston??? (Miami, Sunrise: short sales, apartment, foreclosures)

[Jersey_Cuban]

Hi,
I'm considering relocating my family to south FL. Originally I was thinking the Miami area, but have heard some good things about broward county, specifically weston. We visited a few 'communities' & our favorite was Savanna. My only concern is that of the 15 or so homes that we saw with our realtor, ALL of them were abandoned forclosures!!! So that leads me to my main question....who lives in weston??? Most of the homes are vacant. Is it a nice family neighborhood? Do young families live there? We have a 7 year old & a 4 year old. Would this be a good move? Any info from residents would be greatly appreciated!

[Tungsten_Udder]

Originally Posted by Jersey_Cuban

Hi,
I'm considering relocating my family to south FL. Originally I was thinking the Miami area, but have heard some good things about broward county, specifically weston. We visited a few 'communities' & our favorite was Savanna. My only concern is that of the 15 or so homes that we saw with our realtor, ALL of them were abandoned forclosures!!! So that leads me to my main question....who lives in weston??? Most of the homes are vacant. Is it a nice family neighborhood? Do young families live there? We have a 7 year old & a 4 year old. Would this be a good move? Any info from residents would be greatly appreciated!

Well, your realtor isn't going to show you the homes of families who are currently living there and very happy with it, lol. They're not selling their homes.

That your realtor only showed you foreclosures could mean that people who buy homes there, who had sensible mortgages, and who can afford it do not tend to want to move from there.

A regular here named "compelledtoreply" lives in Weston. He'll probably feel compelled to reply soon.

[compelled to reply]

Savanna and also the 33326 zip code in general (I think Savanna is 33327) has a lot of foreclosures, but may I ask what price range you were looking at? There aren't proportionally THAT many...

And yes, it's mostly young families, with a couple of seniors and young singles/couples (go figure) in the Bonaventure area.

[Sharkey514]

There are many communities in/around Weston -- do you want to rent first? Did you also look in Weston Hills CC - more expensive...there are some nice homes in there that you can get a good deal on....you may want to rent a house, first, to get a sense of the community. There are tons of kids in Savanna -- good pool and clubhouse for the kids. Friends of mine live there and have a nice house (not expensive) with a pool and room for their 3 kids. The kids bike to school -- it's close by. Good luck. Did you also check out Sunrise?

[compelled to reply]

If public middle and high schools are important, don't check out anywhere in Sunrise except for 84 South, but put that particular area on the very top of your short list. If only elementary schools are important, most of Sunrise is fine.

[tankev]

I just moved to Weston. While deciding whether to accept the job, my realtor showed us many homes in Savanna. Every one of them was either in short sale or foreclosure.
Once we moved (into an apartment) and enrolled the kids in school (middle and high school) we only looked in the school boundaries that the kids are in and stayed away from short sales and foreclosures only because of time constraints. We ended up in The Springs and love it. The neighborhood is about 18 years old. The neighbors are low key and very friendly. We also had the option of living in Miami. But after looking in both areas, we are glad we moved out here. While looking, make sure you are aware of the HOA fees. Ours are close to $400 a quarter! They are different in every community. Also, we were surprised to find out that Weston is in a flood plain so you will be paying extra for that. We paid $469. for the year. We've only been in the home for less than a month but from what we have experienced, we are very pleased. Can't beat the area for kids.

[Momma_bear]

Originally Posted by Jersey_Cuban

Hi,
I'm considering relocating my family to south FL. Originally I was thinking the Miami area, but have heard some good things about broward county, specifically weston. We visited a few 'communities' & our favorite was Savanna. My only concern is that of the 15 or so homes that we saw with our realtor, ALL of them were abandoned forclosures!!! So that leads me to my main question....who lives in weston??? Most of the homes are vacant. Is it a nice family neighborhood? Do young families live there? We have a 7 year old & a 4 year old. Would this be a good move? Any info from residents would be greatly appreciated!

I live in Savanna. It is not mostly vacant. Most of the homes you saw were vacant, but most of the homes in the community are not. Most of the residents in Savanna are families with children. There are many Latin American and Jewish families here. If you like Savanna you should also look in The Meadows and The Ridges.

A good way to get a handle on how many kids are here is to visit when the kids are getting home from school (around 2-2:30 for elementary school) and see how many kids are getting on and off the buses.

There are many different activities for the kids. My kids are into sports. They play football and lacrosse. There are also soccer, baseball, roller hockey, basketball leagues. I am sure there are other sports that I don't remember.

My youngest is at the Charter School and my older kids are in private school. I am not a big fan of the FL public schools but the public schools in Weston are as good as FL public schools get.