SW Fort Lauderdale (Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, Davie: apartment, rental, cheap house)

[IManarchy]

My fiance and I recently relocated to South florida from NYC. We are currently renting a 1 br apt in middle river terrace south of wilton manors. The area is so-so but we have a cheap 1 br ($825) and we have a pitbull so finding an apartment was difficult. I recently started looking at cheap houses to avoid having to pay rent forever. I don't really know my budget but somewhere less than 150k.

I know some areas are to be avoided, Pompano, lauderhill, lauderdale lakes, and from what i understand generally between the turnpike and 95 is not so hot. I see alot of houses in south broward. How is the areas around there. like near davie blvd? or melrose park? Or even southeast like between downtown and the airport?

Im from NYC and i've lived near the ghetto before but if buying a house i would like it to be in a decent area where property values will remain.

Thoughts or suggestions would be awesome. Thanks

[ubuntumatrix]

Originally Posted by IManarchy

My fiance and I recently relocated to South florida from NYC. We are currently renting a 1 br apt in middle river terrace south of wilton manors. The area is so-so but we have a cheap 1 br ($825) and we have a pitbull so finding an apartment was difficult. I recently started looking at cheap houses to avoid having to pay rent forever. I don't really know my budget but somewhere less than 150k.

I know some areas are to be avoided, Pompano, lauderhill, lauderdale lakes, and from what i understand generally between the turnpike and 95 is not so hot. I see alot of houses in south broward. How is the areas around there. like near davie blvd? or melrose park? Or even southeast like between downtown and the airport?

Im from NYC and i've lived near the ghetto before but if buying a house i would like it to be in a decent area where property values will remain.

Thoughts or suggestions would be awesome. Thanks

LMAO, you know the areas to avoid then said Pompano, Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes.

You have an interesting idea of where to avoid, you might want to stay in a box. If you said you know where to avoid then mentioned MLK blvd or Sistrunk... OK, but Pompano?

Those towns you named happen to be in your price range, sounds like champagne taste on a beer budget to me.

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by IManarchy

My fiance and I recently relocated to South florida from NYC. We are currently renting a 1 br apt in middle river terrace south of wilton manors. The area is so-so but we have a cheap 1 br ($825) and we have a pitbull so finding an apartment was difficult. I recently started looking at cheap houses to avoid having to pay rent forever. I don't really know my budget but somewhere less than 150k.

I know some areas are to be avoided, Pompano, lauderhill, lauderdale lakes, and from what i understand generally between the turnpike and 95 is not so hot. I see alot of houses in south broward. How is the areas around there. like near davie blvd? or melrose park? Or even southeast like between downtown and the airport?

Im from NYC and i've lived near the ghetto before but if buying a house i would like it to be in a decent area where property values will remain.

Thoughts or suggestions would be awesome. Thanks

Although the Davie Blvd corridor west of 95 is rough, Melrose is not too bad. The areas east of 95 are also hit and miss, but south of Davie Blvd isn't too bad. You can also find some okay pockets south of Broward Blvd. Do NOT look north of Broward Blvd.

But let's clarify a few things...

-That is South Fort Lauderdale but NOT South Broward.

-South Broward (this is Hollywood, Davie, Pembroke Pines, Hallandale, Miramar, etc) may have more areas where you can buy a home for 150k in a mediocre but not ghetto area. I'll get to that later.

-Some parts of Lauderhill and Lauderdale Lakes are acutally not that bad if you don't mind being in a black area. There are some neighborhoods on the west side of State Road 7 that are just working class and not scary. Even on the east side, some parts are clean, but it requires more picking. I'll give you a street view example.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=ft+lau...2,81.95,,0,6.2

Not too bad, right? These homes would sell for about 150.

-North Lauderdale is another area to look into. Stay away from the rental areas on Kimberly Blvd and it's pretty much fine.

South Broward also has a few areas to...

-Hollywood, State Road 7 corridor. State Road 7 itself is shady, but some of the neighborhoods are okay. Drive on a block and you will get a pretty good idea of the neighborhood.

-Driftwood section of Hollywood west of the Turnpike. Basically 1960s ranch homes, lots of trees, blue collar to the core, not bad.

-East Pembroke Pines, from Douglas Road to the Hollywood border. I realize there was a recent high-profile incident involving a home invasion in this area, but in general, it's pretty quiet and those incidents not common. Try to avoid streets where a lot of homes have burglar bars. If you don't see many, it's probably decent. Overall there is a mixture of housing, ranging from older to 1980s.

-East Miramar, between the turnpike and, say, 64th Ave. Mostly 1960s ranch homes, some fixer uppers, others are in good shape, very similar characteristics to that streetview I showed you, except maybe slightly cheaper and lately a lot of renovations/knockdowns (gentrification?). Avoid the rental areas and Pembroke Rd. West of the turnpike also isn't the worst, but seems to have more drug dealers and robberies.

To use an old analogy of mine, all of these places that I recommend are places where you might have to dodge the occasional burglar rather than stray bullet, but aren't necessairly "top notch".