Moving to Miami from NC - Need Advise.... (Kendall, Coral Gables: apartment, to rent)

[nadodi]

Hello All;

We are a family of four ; me and my wife are in mid 30's and have two kids aged 3 years and 8 months. My company now wants me to relocate to Miami from NC. Some background on us; we are Asians (Indians) and settled down in NC for the past 9 years. We are used to the hot/humid weather in India so that should not be a problem; after getting adjusted. We were thinking of moving to a different (bigger) city like Atlanta, Seattle in a year or two. Miami wasn’t in our plans but we are open to it. But reading some of the threads here makes us have second thoughts; the crime; traffic; cost of living etc. Guess most of them are going to be in any big city not just Miami;

Our company is in Coral Gables. We have a house in NC and we have to sell that before we could afford any in there. We were thinking of moving to apartment for a year or less even if we sell the house we have early to get a feel of the place; see where the schools are good and hoping the housing market to come down a bit by then. We might make an official trip for few days with my family to go around the place and get a feel .

Now here are my question (We both don’t know Spanish!):

1. Having office in coral gables, which would be a place to rent a two or three bedroom apartment and what to expect as rent?
2. Having office in coral gables which would be a good place to buy a house? I would like to have my commute to around 45 min or less.
3. Currently we are living in 4 bedroom house; approx 3000 sqft with huge backyard. Though we don’t expect huge backyard we would like to live in a comparable house. We were thinking of Palmetto bay, Kendall, Pine Crest, Coral Gables (by a long shot). Are those good or any other place and what price range to expect?
4. Which is a better school district? If that means little more travel to work I would not mind.
5. What would be a comfortable salary for one person income? I can negotiate reasonably to some extent.
6. Are there any community /place that has Indian (Asian) population predominant?

Thanks in advance!

[Keeper]

What is your price range for housing?

You can also search this forum for Asians, that might give you some info.

[planetsurf]

CG is awesome to live especially if you work downtown Gables.
The school situation is problematic though.

Most of CG is zoned for CG Elem (ok school) Carver (poor school) and Sunset Elem (awesome school).
Also West Lab (part of UM) is pretty good too, but no zoning for it.
Problem is Sunset and West Lab are magnet schools and require being on the lottery EARLY. SO, if you move in the summer, the lottery is already over for the next school year (and unless they are headed to kindergarten, prob won't get in anyway). Not sure why School Board has a public school that is zoned for an area and still need a lottery, but that's the way it is.

We just went through this so we know. We moved back to CG and decided to put our kids in an AWESOME private school (at least through fifth grade).

Check out Pincecrest area (parts of S Miami too) for really good public elem/middle schools that you don't need a lottery to get into. Commute a little longer, but still way under 45 min.

Good luck.