Need some honest advice on South Florida! (Miami: buy, income)

[InTheZona]

Funny, I haven't the term "Westonzuela" in ages...

To the OP, the suburban communities in northern Palm Beach County such as Wellington, Palm Beach Gardens, and Jupiter are more akin to the communities in southern Orange County, CA than Weston, Parkland, and Pembroke Pines. If you're white non-Hispanic, I highly recommend northern Palm Beach over western Broward any day of the week.

Coral Springs is supposed to be a safe, desirable community and a great place to live and raise kids, but other than the northwest corner of the city, it's hard to imagine why, especially if you're as familiar with the city as I am.

I've driven down Sample a million times from I-95 to Coral Ridge because I had friends who lived at Coral Ridge & Sample, and I hate paying tolls. Needless to say, if you do that drive at nighttime frequently enough, you'll begin to wonder why on earth Coral Springs is considered such a great place to live.

IMO, Boca has Coral Springs beat ten times over.

[xusnatc]

We just moved here and we live in West Boca. We looked everywhere and, well, Coral Springs was taken off our list because of what we were seeing in our home search. About 1 month ago we went to the mall in west coral springs and we were like WTF. Ghetto! Glad my kids wont be going to school with those "MALL KIDS".

It seems to me that where we live, everybody has too much money and not enough time in the day. Folks come across very self centered and seem to be wanting to knock you over to get by. Lot's of boob job's & duck lips. Though I feel safe where I live, I will not buy a home in this area because home prices are way overpriced. Be prepared to pay about $170.00 a sq. ft. for a home. Glad I'm living in Florida now, but I'll rent for the next 4 years till I retire and then I'll buy further north. Parkland is over hyped!. Nice there but WOW (insert big eyes) are the homes expensive.

Traffic, well my drive into Miami isn't so bad. Traffic moves pretty good down the Sawgrass, and theThe drivers down here are HORRIBLE. Way too many folks drive in the left lane, THE DAMN FAST LANE doing 65 MPH. My road rage has gone up with these people and I've been teaching lesson. : ) I know, it's not good doing what I do, but I'm slowly making a difference one car at a time. I think their bad driving skills are all cultural though as most of these left lane dreamers are spanish looking.

[SXN]

Originally Posted by NurseDreamer

I see patients in the Emergency Room weekly that have this fate. To all the "white American haters" out there I just want to say "BLESS YOUR HEARTS!!!"

Your posts are full of conjecture, vast generalizations and hyperbole. If you're projecting based on your experiences with people in the ER then you are biased. I used to work at one of the "gunshot" hospitals in Boston and quickly turned biased against certain demographics. I took a few years away from that job to deprogram and look at the population of the city through a clearer lens.

[THX 1138]

Originally Posted by xusnatc

It seems to me that where we live, everybody has too much money and not enough time in the day. Folks come across very self centered and seem to be wanting to knock you over to get by. Lot's of boob job's & duck lips. Though I feel safe where I live, I will not buy a home in this area because home prices are way overpriced. Be prepared to pay about $170.00 a sq. ft. for a home. Glad I'm living in Florida now, but I'll rent for the next 4 years till I retire and then I'll buy further north. Parkland is over hyped!. Nice there but WOW (insert big eyes) are the homes expensive.

Traffic, well my drive into Miami isn't so bad. Traffic moves pretty good down the Sawgrass, and theThe drivers down here are HORRIBLE. Way too many folks drive in the left lane, THE DAMN FAST LANE doing 65 MPH. My road rage has gone up with these people and I've been teaching lesson. : ) I know, it's not good doing what I do, but I'm slowly making a difference one car at a time. I think their bad driving skills are all cultural though as most of these left lane dreamers are spanish looking.

In a nutshell South Florida is a playground for the rich, reason you see what you do. There are a big mix of haves and have nothings here, a lot of people do not work or have to work just simply put. They can be of the retired age or much younger does not seem to matter. You will see a lot of spoiled kids in public, some which have entitled attitudes.

Some people are not authentic, many come off being pretentious and as you said self-centered which is spot on. Shopping at Publix or Whole Foods you will often find people's antics and attitudes to be annoying, I had plenty of shopping carts rammed into the back of my heels here with no apologies, also seems on the road here people are totally oblivious of their surroundings and other drivers.

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by xusnatc

We just moved here and we live in West Boca. We looked everywhere and, well, Coral Springs was taken off our list because of what we were seeing in our home search. About 1 month ago we went to the mall in west coral springs and we were like WTF. Ghetto! Glad my kids wont be going to school with those "MALL KIDS".

It seems to me that where we live, everybody has too much money and not enough time in the day. Folks come across very self centered and seem to be wanting to knock you over to get by. Lot's of boob job's & duck lips. Though I feel safe where I live, I will not buy a home in this area because home prices are way overpriced. Be prepared to pay about $170.00 a sq. ft. for a home. Glad I'm living in Florida now, but I'll rent for the next 4 years till I retire and then I'll buy further north. Parkland is over hyped!. Nice there but WOW (insert big eyes) are the homes expensive.

Traffic, well my drive into Miami isn't so bad. Traffic moves pretty good down the Sawgrass, and theThe drivers down here are HORRIBLE. Way too many folks drive in the left lane, THE DAMN FAST LANE doing 65 MPH. My road rage has gone up with these people and I've been teaching lesson. : ) I know, it's not good doing what I do, but I'm slowly making a difference one car at a time. I think their bad driving skills are all cultural though as most of these left lane dreamers are spanish looking.

I will say there are plenty of $5 millionaires in Boca...."they have $5 in their pocket but act like a millionaire!" I was a financial planner in that area and couldn't believe broke client's stories. One guy was a 400K a year Dr. yet he had no savings, didn't own a home and spent every nickel. Another guy was a retired butcher from NY, never made over 40K a year but had been spending 100K a year in retirement (club memberships, 2 leased Lexus cars, dinners/entertainment nightly) but he only started with a 400K nest egg! In my opinion, the bigger the flash.........the lesser the cash!

Clients were bad but the financial advisors were really insane! Guys spending tomorrow's commissions yesterday! Went to Houston's for happy hour.....tab was $80/ 5 guys.....so I figured $20 each and we are done. 4 guys whip out Amex Gold Cards to split the tab..........Nobody had a $20 bill!

[gardenpearl]

The above posts confirm my suspicion that South Florida attracts many who prioritize living a glitzy, flashy lifestyle and blow all their money doing it.

[THX 1138]

Originally Posted by gardenpearl

The above posts confirm my suspicion that South Florida attracts many who prioritize living a glitzy, flashy lifestyle and blow all their money doing it.

People move here to live the good life, tend to party and the clubs, bars and eateries are always packed. Visit the Blue Martini in Boca sometime, you will see what I mean, also drive around the parking lot of the mall on any given day...you will see BMW, Merc, Porsche, Audi and etc., brand new and thrown into the mix some higher priced exotics.

I have clients in Boca, all have very HNW and are not phonies but they do drop money on things like their is no tomorrow, wives drive Bentley's GTs, S65 AMG, Range Rover and etc., not blowing their money though, cash flow and disposable income is very high.

Imagine what it costs to have 3 kids in St Andrews, a wife that doesn't work, likes to shop at the Boca Town Center and you live in a 2 million dollar home, 2 luxury cars along with a couple $250K+ Italian exotics in the garage...do the math.

Boca is not the only place, Gardens Mall in PBG is Boca's little up and coming step sister.

People like to flaunt their wealth, status or whatever you want to call it. Mixed in are a lot of average people though and poor folk who are being pushed out of some parts.

[JacobMAX]

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

I will say there are plenty of $5 millionaires in Boca...."they have $5 in their pocket but act like a millionaire!" I was a financial planner in that area and couldn't believe broke client's stories. One guy was a 400K a year Dr. yet he had no savings, didn't own a home and spent every nickel. Another guy was a retired butcher from NY, never made over 40K a year but had been spending 100K a year in retirement (club memberships, 2 leased Lexus cars, dinners/entertainment nightly) but he only started with a 400K nest egg! In my opinion, the bigger the flash.........the lesser the cash!

Clients were bad but the financial advisors were really insane! Guys spending tomorrow's commissions yesterday! Went to Houston's for happy hour.....tab was $80/ 5 guys.....so I figured $20 each and we are done. 4 guys whip out Amex Gold Cards to split the tab..........Nobody had a $20 bill!

It's true, a lot of people are like that here in SoFL...down in Miami-Dade is generally even worse still...just a look at the avg. income, avg. poverty rate and how many German cars (mostly rubbish compact sedans and SUVs - all of which I wouldn't keep even if I was given one, can't compare Dodge American muscle with eco-boxes) there are here...and nearly always they're leased...let alone that most of these people live in a skip (I know some who are acquaintances of mine)

But there are still people scattered about who still cherish proper and traditional American values and are not into that whole flashy/fake wealth time wasting scene...

[gardenpearl]

The flashy wealth brings opportunists to South Florida too, who pretend to have more than they do to fit in and attract wealthy people to them.

[THX 1138]

Originally Posted by JacobMAX

It's true, a lot of people are like that here in SoFL...down in Miami-Dade is generally even worse still...just a look at the avg. income, avg. poverty rate and how many German cars (mostly rubbish compact sedans and SUVs - all of which I wouldn't keep even if I was given one, can't compare Dodge American muscle with eco-boxes) there are here...and nearly always they're leased...let alone that most of these people live in a skip (I know some who are acquaintances of mine)

But there are still people scattered about who still cherish proper and traditional American values and are not into that whole flashy/fake wealth time wasting scene...

None of my clients lease, they either buy them outright or at Manheim.

American cars like Cadillac, Corvette and etc are quite popular as well, Tesla is also becoming popular, one of my clients just bought a top of the line Model S, I rode in it and drove it as well, very nice but not my cup of tea.

There are plenty of posers here, pretentious types who act like they are wealthy.