Need some assistance (Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton: house, safe neighborhood, to live in)

[mattywo85]

So I am looking to open a business around Boca Raton but was wondering if its better to live in the Boca area or Ft.Lauderdale area? I am looking for the following things: safe neighborhood, walkable downtown(day or night), and a decent nightlife. Preferrably I would like to find a house that was built in 2000 or newer for about 250k or less. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[Nolefan34]

mattywo85>

It depends on what type of person you are. Both places are attractive, but slightly different. Fort Lauderdale/Las Olas area has the better nightlife by far. It is relatively safe, although there are bums walking around in the streets. Once you get outside of Las Olas and the downtown area, it gets very sketchy very quickly. There are some bad neighborhoods on the northwest side of downtown.

Boca is very rich, snobby, etc. and is quieter. It is far safer than Ft. Lauderdale in general, but is more of a small town feel than a city. Mizner Park is the downtown area of Boca and there are some good places to go out there.

In terms of clientel, if your business is mainly local you'll draw a higher class of shoppers/customes from Boca than Fort Lauderdale. But if your business is more regional or national then you might be better off in Ft. Lauderdale.