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The Momma Bear is calm, cool and collected. No flames here!
As to whether to buy now or later I think you know that later is a better choice if you are talking only about the financial aspects. But if you have other, emotional reasons for wanting to buy now you will have to square that with the practical. I think that only you can make that decision.
Pompano is a crappy neighborhood. That's why you are finding a new building near the beach for that price. Some cities are mixed with good and bad neighborhoods (Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood) but Pompano pretty much sucks. When you visit go to the neighborhood supermarket and other places you will shop. Look at the people in the stores. Look at the cars in the parking lot. Look at the types of items the stores stock. Could you live there?
I am not a real estate expert but I do live in Broward. On my block prices have dropped. Houses that sold for $850K are listing for $640 and sitting for months at a time with no buyers. Can prices drop more? Nobody really knows but I don't see any signs that they have stopped. Weston is different from Pompano but I think the real estate market is bad across all 3 counties in our area.
I don't know about whether you can find $300-400K near the beach but you might try Hollywood, Dania, and Hallandale. All 3 are cities with mixed neighborhoods but I think that the condos near the water are in nice areas. Prices tend to be lower than Ft. Lauderdale and neighborhoods better than Pompano.
Where would YOU buy a nice condo, (I don't want to mow the lawn or clean the pool anymore, plain and simple, or do any of the other homeowner things associated with single home ownership...I want the ease and lifestyle of a condo building that offers a nice pool and some great amenities on-site and/or within walking distance.) I'd like to be near the water. It can be the beach. It can be the Intercoastal. Either/Or. Fair enough? What towns are the most desirable within the 300-400K price range, TOPS? (Final selling price..not asking price.......surely I'll offer less than asking price in the current market, so maybe listing prices in the 500K or less area? Just blue-skying numbers here...help me here too!)
Depending on just how near/far you want to/can be from the beach, your desires above can open up a huge number of properties for you, because especially in the southern half of Florida, (1) there are tens, maybe hundreds, of "gated communities", with HOAs, that function just like condos except that you have a home instead--where there are all the same amenities (and maybe more), and there are quite a few of them where the community hires landscapers even to cut your grass around your house (that's part of your HOA fee there), (2) Aside from condos, there are tons of townhouses and villas, many with HOAs and again all the amenities, etc. (and no yard work). Townhouses and villas are kinda in between a condo and a stand alone home--in a villa, you're usually have one adjacent wall with a neighbor. In a townhouse, you usually have two or more, but there are not usually more than four townhouses in a cluster.
At the moment, you can find properties in all but the most "ritzy" areas for your price range. So you're not going to end up on the island of Palm Beach, or Star Island in Miami, for example, but there aren't that many places excluded by your price range.
My belief again is that no one can predict where prices will go--any better than we can now predict the weather for three weeks from now, and I think that anyone who claims they can is full of you-know-what (and I could go into very detailed (academic) philosophical reasons for my beliefs on this end). Prices HAVE continued to fall recently, however. I just got a call last week about a condo my wife and I had looked at in Miami--they dropped the price almost 25%. It was enough that we might have more strongly considered that option, but we've currently got a house in Palm Beach County under contract instead. If the house doesn't go through, and those condo prices are still that low--or even lower, then we might consider that instead.
As for where to go, it's extremely difficult for someone else to tell you this. Liking a place couldn't be more subjective, and since there are so many areas to choose from, each with their own "atmosphere", each near other places with their own "atmospheres" and features, you really need to spend time visiting the area to get a feel for what appeals to you. The places that I'd like, and the reasons I'd like them (which are sometimes ineffable and simply have to do with the aesthetics of a place) are going to be different than what you like, and as you noted, for such an important decision, it would hardly make sense to go by what appeals to me.
Townhouses and villas are kinda in between a condo and a stand alone home--in a villa, you're usually have one adjacent wall with a neighbor. In a townhouse, you usually have two or more, but there are not usually more than four townhouses in a cluster.
I've always considered a "villa" to be one story, regardless of amount of walls shared, while a "town house" is always more than one story.
There is a LOT of prime real estate in between Pompano Beach and the Treasure Coast that this OP can consider. I'm not sure how close to "action" is requisite, but it's almost guaranteed that anything on a barrier Island will remain good 8 years from now. Palm Beach MAY be out of range (but not necessarily. Southern Palm Beach Island has older condos that start in the 200s).... Singer Island, Hutchinson Island, Hypoluxo Island, etc. etc.
OK...so now I am getting some great info! Thanks so much!
It looks like I was mislead by the great looking building I found on-line in Pompano, and it seems that it isn't the place I'll want to retire to after all.
I do absolutely understand that everyone looks for different things, and as mentioned, what you like may not be what I like, but I'm sure we'd agree on a couple of fundamentals, like not buying in a "crappy neighborhood", as Pompano was labeled here.
PLEASE, guys and girls, tell me what the "crappy neighborhoods" are! I do intend to come down and shop, of course, but you folks could ave me a LOT of time by advising me of where NOT to look. (like Pompano, apparently.)
That way, I could eliminate wasted days of looking in neighborhoods I shouldn't consider anyway.
Tell me where YOU looked, and what you liked, and what you didn't.
Tell me what YOU like and dislike about your own neighborhood
Tell me what I can expect to find out about living in south Florida that everyone loves, and the things that make some people regret the move.
Tell me why YOU are happy!
Tell me why YOU are unhappy!
Folks, you could really help me here. Please don't say, "what you like and what we like might be so different it doesn't make sense to answer those questions".
People are more the same than they are different!
NO ONE wants to live in a "crappy neighborhood"
NO ONE wants to live in an area that is far more expensive that what it brings to the table by way of amenities and quality of life.
I am sure we have more in common that you have considered!
I agree I have to make several trips down there and look around at a LOT of places, but that said, I have already been helped a great deal just by the Pompano enlightenment!
THAT is the kind of specific help I need, and I really appreciate any more feedback you'd be kind enough to offer.
LennonGuy - are you only looking on the Atlantic side? If you are open to the Gulf Coast, you might look at the Sarasota/Bradenton/Venice region.
I am a Florida native, have lived in various areas of west central Florida. My favorite city in Florida is Sarasota, and these are my reasons why I love it ( you asked to tell you where and why)
1. It is a place of incredible beauty - some of the most beautiful beaches in the world here - soft white sand, and turquoise waters.
2. Cosmopolitan feel - people from Europe and all over the United States come here to visit, relocate, retire or snow-bird.
3. There is a tremendous variety of wonderful places to eat - all kinds of food in every price range. As a person who appreciates good fresh food at a bang-for-the-buck price, I am in heaven here.
4. All kinds of great grocery shopping, from organic produce, farmer markets, Whole Foods, Fresh Market, gourmet markets, Italian bakeries, French bakeries, homemade chocolates, etc., etc. it can't be beat for such a small city.
5. Sarasota is a cultural center featuring many museums, symphony, opera house, etc. Many artists make their home here which gives the city a unique vibe
6. It is a college town, with a branch campus of USF, also the ever-expaninding acclaimed Ringling Art College, and New College.
For a funkier feel the small city of Bradenton is just a few miles to the north, and despite somewhat high crime rate for this little city, much of the crime is concentrated in certain neighborhoods on the east side of town. There is also a neat little artist village here, and just a more rustic, rough-around-the-edges feel to it - it is also beautiful with a lot of great funky places on the beach to eat and hang out. Also there is a nice Harley dealer there!
Last but not least - there are tremendous deals to be had in real estate right now. We went ahead and bought our little house because we found what we loved NOW and didn't want to wait to see what happens with the market. We have a low mortgage and payment and are thrilled to be moving (this weekend). I personally believe that if you find a town you love, and a place you love, at a price that is comfortable for you now, that you can't go too far wrong. Sarasota is the kind of place that for as long as I can remember, has been considered one of THE most desirable places to be, and is getting even more so. I can't believe the positive and beautiful changes to this beautiful city in the last decade.
Anyway, LennonGuy, these are the reasons I (and my hubby) have chosen to go back to Sarasota to live from now until (and through) our retirement. We lived there over a decade ago and moved, and saw our once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy back in, and are the happiest we have ever been in our lives.
Good luck to you wherever you decide to land - despite what many naysayers have to say, Florida has a lot to offer to those who wish to be here, and there is something for just about everybody.
OK...so now I am getting some great info! Thanks so much!
It looks like I was mislead by the great looking building I found on-line in Pompano, and it seems that it isn't the place I'll want to retire to after all.
I do absolutely understand that everyone looks for different things, and as mentioned, what you like may not be what I like, but I'm sure we'd agree on a couple of fundamentals, like not buying in a "crappy neighborhood", as Pompano was labeled here.
PLEASE, guys and girls, tell me what the "crappy neighborhoods" are! I do intend to come down and shop, of course, but you folks could ave me a LOT of time by advising me of where NOT to look. (like Pompano, apparently.)
That way, I could eliminate wasted days of looking in neighborhoods I shouldn't consider anyway.
Tell me where YOU looked, and what you liked, and what you didn't.
Tell me what YOU like and dislike about your own neighborhood
Tell me what I can expect to find out about living in south Florida that everyone loves, and the things that make some people regret the move.
Tell me why YOU are happy!
Tell me why YOU are unhappy!
Folks, you could really help me here. Please don't say, "what you like and what we like might be so different it doesn't make sense to answer those questions".
People are more the same than they are different!
NO ONE wants to live in a "crappy neighborhood"
NO ONE wants to live in an area that is far more expensive that what it brings to the table by way of amenities and quality of life.
I am sure we have more in common that you have considered!
I agree I have to make several trips down there and look around at a LOT of places, but that said, I have already been helped a great deal just by the Pompano enlightenment!
THAT is the kind of specific help I need, and I really appreciate any more feedback you'd be kind enough to offer.
When I decided to move to SW Florida I was looking to get away from the murder capital that was Washington DC. No more parking lot beltways.
When I saw Naples I knew that I'd located what I was looking for. While everyone calls Collier County Naples, the city of Naples is a small town along the coast (1mi x 3mi). I liked being able to walk the streets any time of the day. I loved the landscaping, the beach, the openness of my neighbors. The closeness of everything I needed, great restaurants and small town events.
Naples today is not the little small town I moved to, it became well known and Collier County grew up around Naples. Once again I had traffic paralysis. The lighting of the Christmas tree on Third Ave. became wall to wall people and less enjoyable.
Naples is still a special town but just a bit too popular.
I've moved a bit north to Venice, where much of what I loved about Naples still exists. A small town, with pleasant small town events, a great uncrowded beach, a neighborhood where every house is unique. I can walk/bike to everything I need. I know my neighbors, people are pleasant.
People find joy in different things, but I like the water(boating) in SW Florida. Fishing is usually very good, I see things on the water that most people never will experience. I grow tropical orchids in my backyard, I have neighbors that feed the egrets and it's not uncommon to see a dozen of these large white birds in the trees and roof.
Monk Parrots fly the area.
I like being warm in the winter.
I like the humidity, the sun, the summer storms.
I like having a pool and a screen room that makes the usable size of my house double.
I like summer when many head north, and return my town to it's quiet slower pace.
Well, I don't agree that everyone agrees what neighborhoods count as "crappy" ones--that's one of the things I frequently argue with others here about . . . and my "bag" is all about stressing how people are different from one another (and that we should accept difference as such rather than trying to compromise and reconcile on everything).
I do not think that there's anything that everyone loves or everyone hates.
I personally think it's a very bad idea to narrow down locations based on things that strangers on a message board write.
Anyway, since you really want to know, lol, the crappy neighborhoods to me tend to be those with one or more of the following: (1) lots of snooty people/elitists/classists, (2) cookie-cutter suburbias (either in looks, attitudes, or both), and (3) gestapo-like HOAs. (There can be some seeming contradictions to this for me, though--more on that below.)
I'm also not a big beach person. It's not that I never go to the beach, but I don't tend to go to the beach for the normal reasons. I like hiking on beaches, I like beach flora and fauna, and I like snorkeling (and like marine flora and fauna a lot). What I don't like so much is the sun beating on me during the middle of the day on the beach. I never go to the beach to just hang out there, sit in the sun, etc.
What I like the best is some combination of the following things, many of which are incompatible with each other, but I don't like just one thing, so it's always a balance of factors for me: (1) areas that are more or less right in the middle of a downtown, (2) rural areas, (3) areas that are close to the activities that I like doing--so it could be close to hiking and national and state parks and other lands, or lots of shopping, or museums, etc., (4) places that appeal to me aesthetically, as well as the more vague factor of "feel" or "atmosphere"; I don't really know how to describe what appeals to me on that end in words--I just know when I go to a place whether I like the "feel" of it or not, and (5) areas that seem to have lots of different kinds of people doing different kinds of things; I also like "transiency" on that end, and I like tourists being around. I also love professional sports, amusement parks, mountains (out for Florida), deserts (ditto) and forests.
One question that I ALWAYS ask myself before considering a place to live (so this goes for a place that matches any of the (5) things above) is this: "Would I come here (that is, within a few miles of the place at least) for fun if I didn't live here?" If the answer is "No", then I do not want to live there.
I don't care about crime statistics, school ratings, etc. Largely because I do not believe that they tell me anything that's going to have any relevance to the day to day existence/experiences of my family and I. (Which you should read as me not believing that they'll tell me how safe my family and I are going to be, OR whether my kids are likely to become well educated, be critical thinkers, be able to get into the colleges of their choice, have successful lives as adults, etc.) I also don't care about that stuff from a resale perspective. I buy a house because it's a place I (and my family, of course) like, in someplace we want to live, etc. I don't buy houses as investments,except for an investment in our happiness. Money isn't a deity to me. ;-)
So, with this in mind, since you asked, here are some of my favorite places in Florida and why (where that's not clear from the above):
Downtown West Palm Beach and downtown Miami. Also the older sections of West Palm Beach near downtown--for example, south of Okeechobee Blvd. between Dixie and Flager, as well as the area known as "Northwood"--north of Palm Beach Lakes, between US1 and Flagler/North Flagler.
Downtown Fort Lauderdale and most of Broward County I do not care for as much. It's difficult to say why--it's largely one of those "feel" things. The same is true for me for Tampa/St. Pete. It's fun enough to visit, but I don't like the "feel" of those places to live there. In general, I haven't cared for the west coast as much, but I haven't spent near as much time there either.
Palm Beach (the island). I love the architecture and the decadence, and despite the plethora of snooty folks, I contradictorily like the feel of it.
The older sections of Lake Worth, close to the Intracoastal and close to its small downtown.
The "western communities" of Palm Beach County--namely Royal Palm Beach, the Acreage and Loxahatchee. Wellington I do not care for as much, because I've long had an impression (though maybe it's unjustified) that it's a bit snooty. While I like the western communities a lot for a few reasons, including that they're so multicultural now, that Loxahatchee and the Acreage are fairly libertarian in what folks can do with their property, that you've got all the chain stores and restaurants that you could want right there, that there are lots of parks, including some good hiking in the communities or very nearby (and more planned for the future), that a lot of it is semi-rural, etc., what attracts me to it even more is that I grew up there and it feels like "home" because of that, and my parents still live in Royal Palm Beach (and most of my siblings live in various parts of PBC too).
South Beach and Miami Beach in general.
Coral Gables and Coconut Grove--I find both very aesthetically pleasing, and they have that ineffable "feel" factor for me.
Homestead and Florida City--primarily because they're right next to the main entrance to Everglades National Park and they're very near Biscayne National Park, John Pennekamp, etc.
Key West -- lots of tourists, that ineffable "feel" factor again; the other keys are okay, too, but I like Key West the best.
Everglades City on the west coast--it's basically right IN Everglades NP, it's right next to Ten Thousand Islands, it's close to the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, it's close to Big Cypress National Preserve, and I like the "feel" of it.
Jupiter/Jupiter Farms, Tequesta--lots of good state parks and such in that area.
Anywhere within about 20-30 miles of Disney and Universal--because I love amusement parks that much, and those are two of the best in the world imo.
That's probably enough for now . . . it's a lot of typing to list them all.
Last edited by Tungsten_Udder; 12-09-2008 at 01:37 PM..
Tungsten - I know what you mean when you say you like the "feel" of a place, I'm the same way. I know instantly whether I like the "feel" or "vibe" of a place, and can tell even just by passing through if an area appeals to me or not.
Also, another thing to mention is that places change - in fact most places are either moving forward, stagnating or even going backward. I absolutely LOVE Sarasota now, but didn't so much when I first moved there over 25 years ago. Back then it was way too conservative, had NOTHING going on downtown, and the people running the city didn't have a clue... fast-forward to today, it is younger, hipper and far less conservative. It is becoming known as just about the "greenest" city in the state in terms of sustainable living, and also green in the sense of more lush landscaping - I read that the city has planted more than 15,000 new trees in the past few years. I expect the city to stay on this same trend which is why it has the right vibe for me. Even though it is small, I too love the "hustle and bustle" of the vibrant downtown and St. Armand where you will find many temporary visitors and residents - nothing worse to me than a dead downtown. Sarasota today is tremendously eclectic, in every way, and I just love that.
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