Relocating to Florida (West Palm Beach, Jupiter, Wellington: apartments, lofts, crime)

[Michigan16]

I am considering moving to Florida. My adult children just rented an apartment in West Palm Beach. I want to know how safe is the area that they live in. They live on Northwood Road and Dixie Hwy? Thank you for any knowledge you have about this area.

[TriMT7]

Ummm..... wouldn't be my first choice. Northwood is very "transitional." The neighborhood of Northwood itself is a very nice neighborhood..... but a couple blocks over are the bad areas. Stay as far east as possible. The other side of Broadway is basically a mess.

If you are moving to the area, there are better areas.

[DaniellaG]

I am not familiar with that area but I see you are from MI possibly unless your name just states that. Anyhow I am from MI and just moved to Boca. It is really different in FL the housing and areas so just fyi. I am not sure where you are in MI but where I am from the city is good or bad basically and in FL that is not the case. It is important to drive aorund or get the area info like you are here. If I can help you I though I am clueless still about Fl you can email me.

[Reedsmit]

I also moved from MI to FL, 30 years ago. I love it and would not go back.

But I would not live in West Palm Beach. There are some beautiful apartments near City Place, but the area is a concern. As you go further west, toward Wellington and Royal Palm Beach, they are nice family neighborhoods.

Riviera Beach, Lake Park areas are also a concern. From West Palm Beach north to Northlake is questionable. I managed an Association at Military and Blue Heron, near the VA hospital, and we had crime, even with a guarded gate.

Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter and Tequesta are great areas.

Lake Worth is questionable.

Boca and Delray are very nice. Delray seems to try very hard to have city events to keep people involved. A couple weeks ago the merchants had Trick or Treat on Saturday afternoon.

To the west Wellington & Royal Palm Beach are very nice.

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by Reedsmit

I also moved from MI to FL, 30 years ago. I love it and would not go back.

But I would not live in West Palm Beach. There are some beautiful apartments near City Place, but the area is a concern. As you go further west, toward Wellington and Royal Palm Beach, they are nice family neighborhoods.

Please do not paint all of West Palm Beach with the same brush. The southend (South of Okeechobee Blvd, east of 95) of West Palm Beach has many beautiful, ungated safe neighborhoods, family homes, tree lined sidewalked streets, etc. There are also some great areas of Lake Worth, east of 95. West Palm gets stigmatized because of the bad area on the North end of town, which bleeds into Riviera Beach.


Every city has its bad spots, including Gardens and Jupiter. Delray as well.

[THX 1138]

If they are coming from Detroit or Flint, then the worse of WPB is nothing compared to the latter.

[Reedsmit]

Originally Posted by THX 1138

If they are coming from Detroit or Flint, then the worse of WPB is nothing compared to the latter.

There are communities outside of Detroit that are very nice, Plymouth, Canton, Dearborn, Ypsilanti but because they are small communities, people may say they are from Detroit, as someone else would not have a clue where Ypsilanti is, but they have an idea of where Detroit is.

Just like any City, there are areas that have a higher crime level. Flint and Detroit both have been hurt badly by the decline of the auto industry. When people lose their jobs they sometimes move away and abandon their homes or they don't have the money to care for them as they once did.
When people abandon their homes, the cities budgets are impacted in the form of uncollected taxes.

Many cities with high unemployment rates are having to cut back on Safety Forces such as Policemen and Firemen.

[DaniellaG]

Well I think most will say they are from the suburbs of Detroit. I know they have build some new lofts in Detroit that people from the well of areas in WB or Bloomfield have moved to but in my eyes Detroit other then to go to the Fox is not so safe. Flint is a no. I lived in West Bloomfield which is like Boca here but it is surrounded by safe areas that are either more expensive or less depending on direction but safe which is the difference here in FL where it is so patchy of good and bad. You can have a couple million dollar home near a bad area with in a mile or two. Also the expense here of apts from MI is hugely different so that is something to consider. Even in a very good area in MI you could get a very nice 2 bedroom with garage etc for 1000 a month and that gets you very little here.