Coconut Creek Question (Township/Karanda Village) (Miami, Tampa: realty, for sale, condos)

[SnHominid]

My wife and I currently live in Tampa, but have both just accepted jobs, one in Davie and one in Boca Raton. We're just out of graduate school and looking to start a family. We think we can spend up to 235,000 on a 2 or 3 bdr condo/townhome, and would consider moving in 3-5 years (for better school districts, for instance).

Cocount Creek looks like it's fairly convenient to both Davie and Boca, with decent access to the turnpike/I-95. We're looking at a few places in the Township development (our favorite so far in the Karanda IV area), and are curious what people think of the development and overall area. I've heard the North end of Coconut Creek is nicer than the south, and am wondering whether Township is the nice part or not.

One thing we noticed is that there are 77 properites for sale in the Karanda Village area (according to Karanda Village Condos - Coconut Creek). This seems like an awful lot of properties being sold at once. Is there something we should know about the area? Any reason so many properties would be on the market at once, or is this not really an odd number?

Thanks for all your help,

Eric

[compelled to reply]

Why dont you look into living in Davie or Boca Raton? Both house the superior school districts. Coral Springs creates a nice halfway(well i guess more of a quarter-way) point between the two with good schools. God knows if the schools will still be good in 4 years though!

[compelled to reply]

I think you should post this in the Miami forum by the way, but the negativity there may ruin your post

[SnHominid]

Thanks for the comments, fort lauderdale. Coral Springs does seem to be liked by many, although a little more expensive. Like you suggest, it creates more of a commute to both Davie and Boca, which we'd like to avoid if possible.

One thing is that we have family that live in Boynton, and we're hoping to make it easy to visit them (and get their help when the baby comes). Maybe the traffic situtation isn't that big a deal, but I'm not sure.

Thanks,
Eric

[bale002]

Originally Posted by SnHominid

Like you suggest, it creates more of a commute to both Davie and Boca, which we'd like to avoid if possible.

One thing is that we have family that live in Boynton, and we're hoping to make it easy to visit them (and get their help when the baby comes). Maybe the traffic situtation isn't that big a deal, but I'm not sure.

It all depends on the time of day. I often drive between southeast Palm Beach County to Coral Springs during off-peak hours and I've never had a problem with traffic. This should be good news for you in terms of visiting with family from Boynton Beach.

Your rush-hour commute, however, will be another question. The positive aspect of your situation is that neither of you will be going towards Ft. Lauderdale, though going towards Boca Raton could be a problem depending where in Boca Raton the place of employment is located, possibly hellish if in east Boca and you travel on I-95, especially if the exit is Glades, and I'm not so sure that the main north/south thoroughfares, with the traffic lights and everything, are that much better.

But again, it all depends on your exact points of destination. If you study well a good road map, you could trace out alternative routes worthy of experimentation and possibly minimize your commute times.

Do you both work a stiff 9-to-5ish or does one of you have flexible hours?

Anyway, good luck!

[SnHominid]

Thanks bale002. It's good to hear that travel to Palm Beach County outside of rush hour isnt too bad.

We will both be teaching, she at FAU in Boca, and I at NSU in Davie, so we are lucky that our schedules will often allow us to avoid rush hour traffic, but this will change each semester. So, I think I'm more woried about communting in general. My family lives just east of the turnpike in Boynton.

[Coconutz]

Coconut Creek is a small, very family oriented city. It's location is the best.
you've got I95,turnpike and sawgrass very close by. And they are going to build a new downtown area which is the buzz of the town. I live on the north side and yes it is nicer because its newer. But the Township area is kind of in the middle, it is not in the south side that you here about. There are many places for sale because of the realestate slowdown. Make sure you know exactly what your monthly payments will be so you don't end up in forclosure. That's becoming a big problem, people who bought recently didn't do the math. Well if you decide to come this way, Coconut Creek is a very fine choice. Hope this helps.

[compelled to reply]

Come to think of it, the schools in Coconut Creek are a bit better than I thought. I just checked out greatschools.net and coconut creek has some nice options for schools depending on what section. Still not as good as Springs though

[Tinkee]

I live in the Township and have for ten years. We have been very happy here. I am not familiar with any of the condo or townhome developments as I live in Township Estates, which are single family homes. But I can give you a few insights re the Township.

First, North Creek is considered "nicer" because it is newer, but as someone else said, the Township is not rundown like the areas south of it. I actually do not care much for the developments in North Creek because zero lot lines predominate and they don't have much character. Where I live, there are mature trees (well, fewer than there were before Hurricane Wilma) and fullsized lots. My street faces a nature preserve, so I drive through woods on both sides when I come and go. This is something I value greatly.

Next, the main drag through the Township is Copans Road. One nice thing about Copans is that when you head east on it, there is only one housing development between you and I-95, and no school zones. Having lived in Coral Springs, I can tell you that it often took 30 minutes just to get to I-95 because all of the traffic pouring into the east-west roads and all the slowdowns because of school zones. To get to the turnpike you just take Copans east and then loop back around to the BCC North entrance, or go north to the Sample entrance. They are very close to the Township.

One thing I do not love about the Township, however, is the demographic--specifically, retirees. Half of my neighbors are seniors and almost all of the activities in the clubhouse are geared toward them. Coral Springs definitely has a leg up on CC here.

I highly recommend it, however. Good luck!

[julz]

I've known several people that live in the Township and they're very happy there.I'm not sure what the H.O.A. fees are.We lived in Creek for several yrs. and we loved it.We looked at condos in Cocopark before we decided to move North.I thought they were very nice.