Moving to SW Palm Bay... Help! (Jupiter, Malabar: house, to buy, construction)

[sugar0911km]

Me and my husband, our 3 year old daughter and soon to be newborn son are moving to SW Palm Bay off of Harper Blvd which is just off of Jupiter SW. We know it is a bit rural, but we are ok with that and we will have to deal with well water for the first time. But I was wondering if anyone lives over that way and can give me any thoughts or experiences dealing with that area. Also thoughts on the schools/ and stores around that area. Thanks so much! Also, our future house backs up to a canal, can anyone tell me why there are so many canals in Palm Bay and if I should be concerned for our Pets when they are outside ( The house has a chain length fence around it). And also where we could go to test our well water?

[Slopfrog]

My friend lives very near that area currently, and I lived off Malabar a few years back. There are some pretty nice places back where you'd be. I like it a lot better than other parts of Palm Bay. It's quieter and doesn't look nearly as bad as some of the older areas.

There are enough stores on Malabar Road to satisfy most needs. You've got home improvement stores, grocery stores, numerous chain restaurants, a post office, and a Wal-Mart. Be advised that red light cameras infest Malabar Road, and they love to catch people who don't stop 100% while making a right turn on red.

Some of the shops are a little run down. There actually is a pawn shop on Malabar Road in the Winn Dixie plaza closest to your house called "Rx Pawn." Shocking -- come steal stuff to sell here so you can get money to buy your pills! But there are also a lot of nicer, newer stores along the road too.

Most people seem to just keep to themselves, but there are some pretty scuzzy people around. Like if you go to a gas station at night, you'll probably encounter some obnoxious guy with a hoopty playing rap at a ridiculous volume as he pumps gas. When I was down there I just tried to avoid going places late at night, especially on weekends. Don't get me wrong, it's not an especially dangerous place to be -- I just don't like to be around trashy people.

Not sure where you or your husband might be working, but it probably won't be that close and Malabar Road can have very heavy traffic at times. That stretch of I-95 always seems to be under construction too.

You will probably grow to hate the City of Palm Bay. Very few services are provided. Most of the city is on well water and septic. There are very few cops. Many of the roads are in poor shape, especially in the residential areas. It's the classic example of a city that just annexed too much area too fast.

As for the canals, it's all built to keep the land drained. If they weren't there, you'd have floods periodically. Probably nothing major, but standing water on the lots nonetheless. The St. Johns River floodplain isn't much further west than where you are. I wouldn't worry too much about flooding. The area has been known to have wildfires though. And there is always the threat of a hurricane.

All in all, it's not a bad place.