Is Lake Worth a Ghetto? (Miami, Coral Gables: low income, rent, credit)

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by lochmoigh

is it worth moving into Florida right now, or with the economy is it fighting a uphill battle?

Of course the economy is still fighting an uphill battle. Whether it's worth it or not depends on what field you work in, how much money you have in the bank, and if you can find a high-paying job in your field...

Where are you moving from?

[lochmoigh]

TN, currently work in the IT field, I do have sales expierence as well as management exp. have to sell my home here in TN as well

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by lochmoigh

TN, currently work in the IT field, I do have sales expierence as well as management exp. have to sell my home here in TN as well

Probably a good move, since a mass exodus of malcontents from this part of Florida are coming to bring our problems to you...

I'm not even sure that it is dramatically more expensive here anymore due to influx of said malcontents, although property taxes and (obviously) homeowners insurance are much higher. That being said, I would NOT buy a home here unless I wanted to lose a lot of money for no reason. Make sure you have around 800 a month or so to rent a decent 1 bedroom in an area you would want to live in. If you are daring, a 2,000 square foot home in a good area is running in the mid to high 200s right now, but I think will fall a LOT more.

Unless you happen to live near Nashville, probably a better job market too, although still not great. Latin American IT in Dade County is booming, although the centers of the IT industry in South Florida are around Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale. Some people will say your crazy for wanting to go from TN to FL, but if you are open minded and can score a decent job, I don't really see the supposed objective "quality of life" factors being much different and there still being tradeoffs, I.E trade cleaner air here for less traffic there (which is ironic), crime is about the same although nobody wants to admit it, schools are probably better here although nobody wants to admit it, "rude people" is subjective. Different? Yes, much different in every way, and not for everyone by any means. It all depends on what you want.

[lochmoigh]

Thanks for the input.

[BornInFL]

"Probably a good move, since a mass exodus of malcontents from this part of Florida are coming to bring our problems to you..."


TN aint never seen the malcontents like we have here. They could move up there for yrs and it still wouldnt compare. Ask around in the TN forum about that move, and see what kind of answers you get, especially those from FL originally.

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by BornInFL

TN aint never seen the malcontents like we have here.

Of course they haven't, because they aren't all there yet.

Originally Posted by BornInFL

Ask around in the TN forum about that move, and see what kind of answers you get, especially those from FL originally.

Give most (not all) of them about five years...

[big mean bear]

Originally Posted by compelled to reply

Probably a good move, since a mass exodus of malcontents from this part of Florida are coming to bring our problems to you...

I'm not even sure that it is dramatically more expensive here anymore due to influx of said malcontents, although property taxes and (obviously) homeowners insurance are much higher. That being said, I would NOT buy a home here unless I wanted to lose a lot of money for no reason. Make sure you have around 800 a month or so to rent a decent 1 bedroom in an area you would want to live in. If you are daring, a 2,000 square foot home in a good area is running in the mid to high 200s right now, but I think will fall a LOT more.

Unless you happen to live near Nashville, probably a better job market too, although still not great. Latin American IT in Dade County is booming, although the centers of the IT industry in South Florida are around Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale. Some people will say your crazy for wanting to go from TN to FL, but if you are open minded and can score a decent job, I don't really see the supposed objective "quality of life" factors being much different and there still being tradeoffs, I.E trade cleaner air here for less traffic there (which is ironic), crime is about the same although nobody wants to admit it, schools are probably better here although nobody wants to admit it, "rude people" is subjective. Different? Yes, much different in every way, and not for everyone by any means. It all depends on what you want.

Good synopsis of the situation.

Latin American IT jobs are centered around Boca and Ft. Lauderdale? I have seen a lot of Latin sounding technology related businesses in Coral Gables and along the Coral Way commercial corridor (think banyan trees). I don't know exactly what they do, although I know they are technology related and probably staff only Latin Americans as the names of some of these businesses are very hard to pronounce.

[BornInFL]

"although I know they are technology related and probably staff only Latin Americans as the names of some of these businesses are very hard to pronounce."


Probably only staff Latin Americans? Geez. Wouldnt some folks have a problem with that? You gotta be Latin and/or know spanish to work there?

[big mean bear]

Let's just say you won't find many "office space" characters at some of these companies in Miami.

Are there any tech jobs in Lake Worth? I wouldn't think the vast majority of people in Lake Worth would have a chance at tech/IT jobs, people who marinate themselves in urban/hip hop culture usually have a hard time getting hired.

[Tungsten_Udder]

Originally Posted by compelled to reply

I'm not even sure that it is dramatically more expensive here anymore due to influx of said malcontents, although property taxes and (obviously) homeowners insurance are much higher. That being said, I would NOT buy a home here unless I wanted to lose a lot of money for no reason. Make sure you have around 800 a month or so to rent a decent 1 bedroom in an area you would want to live in. If you are daring, a 2,000 square foot home in a good area is running in the mid to high 200s right now, but I think will fall a LOT more.

Unless you think you might move to Florida and decide to move somewhere else very quickly, I don't agree with that advice. You can get homes with bigger square footage cheaper than that (I've got one under contract at the moment . . . just keeping my fingers crossed that it goes through), but I look at it this way. If I rent instead, say at $800 per month, then in one year I have a guarantee that I just lost $9,600, two years, I just lost $19,200, and in five years, I've lost $48,000--there's no doubt about that, it's a guaranteed loss. If I buy a house for 150k, while there's a possibility that I would only be able to get 102k for it in five years (and yes, possibly even less), there's no guarantee that I'll lose that much on it--there's a good chance that I'll make a bit over what I owe when I sell it. And at 150k, your payments (including property tax, etc.) are not going to be that much more per month than you'd be paying in rent anyway.