Palm Beach County (West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Delray Beach: homeowners insurance, crime, houses)

[SgtAJC]

Can anyone advise me the nicer places to live in Palm Beach County and any horror stories. I'm looking for honesty. I would be coming down with a pension but still looking for good employment opportunities. Safety and great school system are also very important to me because I have three school age children. I am considering Wellington but would like any input any Palm Beach County residents have. Thanks in advance.

[LingLing]

Wellington is a good choice. If you want to be close to beach, Jupiter is my favorite place.

[Hondax]

Originally Posted by SgtAJC

Can anyone advise me the nicer places to live in Palm Beach County and any horror stories. I'm looking for honesty. I would be coming down with a pension but still looking for good employment opportunities. Safety and great school system are also very important to me because I have three school age children. I am considering Wellington but would like any input any Palm Beach County residents have. Thanks in advance.

Hello Sarge. You mentioned you want honesty,......on a public forum?!?! Some here will give it to you straight but be informed, thoroughly informed so you will avoid relocation pitfalls. What are the pitfalls? I suggest you spend some with the "search" function. A plethora of info is here in the form of threads and links. Try searching for "PBC" or "Palm Beach County" for starters.

I will be moving in a couple years to SE Florida. Jupiter, PB Gardens, some parts of WPB are good recommended area's but I'm reserving my judgment until I personally visit. Good Luck

[KoZmiC NinJa]

I personally hated florida, but moved here this week due to an
unfortunate family situation and ended up in Juno Beach. To be
fair, I am pleasantly surprised. I will reserve further judgement
but my initial week here has been very nice. I think if we have to
stay longer than a year we wil move to Hobe Sound. Jupiter is nice
too, but a little too congested for this northern mountain troll.
All of MArtin Co. schools except one just made fabulous strides in
quality of education as posted in yesterdays Palm Beach Post.

[bale002]

As mentioned, the first best step is to do a search of this forum. It should take a day to go through all of the relevant threads.

In short, the best communities, it appears, are Boca Raton and parts of Delray Beach in south-County, then it becomes spotty through mid-County until you go west to Wellington, as mentioned, then several communities in north-County, some of which have already been mentioned.

You will probably get a bigger bang for your buck in terms of housing in some of the better communities of north-County than in Boca Raton for basically the same quality of life, though with a somewhat different overall character.

If you have experience in telecommunications and information technology, you may find worthwhile employment opportunities in Boca Raton. If you have experience in aviation technology, you may find some limited opportunities in West Palm Beach. These are just some examples.

The main horror stories derive from two basic issues.

First, the high prices for housing compared to what many people had become used to, complicated by the concomitant rise in property taxes - but these problems are common to some other regions of the country - compounded by sky-rocketing homeowners insurance rates, due to the hurricanes, a phenomenon specific to mostly Florida lately.

Second, the crime levels, especially in mid-County.

I'll refrain from commenting on schools, a subject too complicated to generalize on, and leave it to your thread searches, other commentators, and your searches from other sources.

Anyway, happy searching and good luck!

P.S. Thank you for serving in the armed forces.

[TriMT7]

Places that afford good, safe living in Palm Beach County (not accounting for "affordability!"):

1) Palm Beach
2) Jupiter
3) Palm Beach Gardens
4) Juno Beach
5) Tequesta
6) Boca Raton
7) Wellington
8) Royal Palm Beach
9) "Southside" neighborhoods in West Palm Beach


Places you absolutely must stay away from:

1) Riviera Beach
2) Mangonia Park
3) Northwood neighborhood of West Palm Beach
4) Westgate neighborhood of West Palm Beach
5) Much of Lake Worth has been deteriorating as well.


I don't have enough experience with Boynton or Delray to pass judgment either way!!


There's actually a crime map on the Palm Beach Post that detailed all of the murders in Palm Beach County in 2006. They were mostly clustered in the areas listed above in the "stay away from" list. Lake Worth had a cluster, then it kind of mostly skipped Southside and Cityplace area, clustered back up in Northwood and Riviera Beach. Most of it is black-on-black, gang related crime, from what I can gather, but of course many innocents who wander into the wrong places at the wrong time can become victims of "crimes of opportunity."

[rkumar3]

Delray and Boynton are pretty nice (sometime depending on what part of the town..) I personally live in Delray and like it a lot since it is central , nicer, great downtown and beautiful beaches.

[mom22gr8kids]

I'm not a Palm Beach resident, but I used to live in S. FL. My best friend lived in Wellington and loved it. She had three kids ranging in school age from Elementary through Middle School. She always had nothing but praise for her neighborhood, the schools, and the sense of community that her kids grew up with. Good Luck!

[THX 1138]

Originally Posted by TriMT7

Places that afford good, safe living in Palm Beach County (not accounting for "affordability!"):

1) Palm Beach
2) Jupiter
3) Palm Beach Gardens
4) Juno Beach
5) Tequesta
6) Boca Raton
7) Wellington
8) Royal Palm Beach
9) "Southside" neighborhoods in West Palm Beach


Places you absolutely must stay away from:

1) Riviera Beach
2) Mangonia Park
3) Northwood neighborhood of West Palm Beach
4) Westgate neighborhood of West Palm Beach
5) Much of Lake Worth has been deteriorating as well.


I don't have enough experience with Boynton or Delray to pass judgment either way!!


There's actually a crime map on the Palm Beach Post that detailed all of the murders in Palm Beach County in 2006. They were mostly clustered in the areas listed above in the "stay away from" list. Lake Worth had a cluster, then it kind of mostly skipped Southside and Cityplace area, clustered back up in Northwood and Riviera Beach. Most of it is black-on-black, gang related crime, from what I can gather, but of course many innocents who wander into the wrong places at the wrong time can become victims of "crimes of opportunity."

Your on the same view as me, don't forget Jupiter Island for the mega rich! Loxahatchee and Jupiter Farms if you want some rural'ish living.

Delray and Boynton are full of a lot of senior citizens maybe of which are bad drivers, also a lot of gang related violence. Some nice parts of Boynton and Delray, not a total right off like Riviera Beach and Magonia Park.

The City of Delray has cleaned up Atlantic Ave west towards 95, there are plenty of dumpy drug houses just off of the glam and glitz of Atlantic Ave, many tourists never see it.

Most of the area has nice gated developments west of Jog Road, if you can afford it these are desirable.

[Pablo9]

hi i are west palm resident. and ok if you come make sure for some day.