Wellington area, with little kids... (Orlando, Boca Raton: short sale, real estate market, foreclosures)

[CravenClan]

I am starting some research about Wellington. I need help, input, especially if you have young kids in school.

We are NATIVE Southern Californians, from a small town that grew big over 25 years to 110k, and recently moved to Texas, to a very small town, like 6k people.... While I do like it here, I am a SUNSHINE girl, and am having somewhat of a time adjusting. The big issue is we own a business in Florida, we did not research the Florida area, as I was against it, because of hearing so many negatives about the schools. BTW we have been in Texas 1 year, owned our business in Florida for 1.5 years, so while we were still in Califonria we purchased our business, and my husband was traveling prior to that to LA from Temecula, for a year. So we have had 3 years of traveling.

While i like it here, i dont love it here, and the fact that my husband does travel, a week at a time, 1-3 times per month, depending on what goes on w business. I do not want to settle myself and then decide in 2 years, i want to move.

The other issue for us is schools. California is in the tank, part of the reason we left. NO extras there, art, computers, music, and PE is only 1x a week. Here the school does offer some extras, like PE daily, music or computers every other week, no art. My issue here is that there is absolutley no parent involvement, you are not allowed to help in your childs class, you can help in another class, but not your own child. The school is friendly, but very guarded. Our kids are 8, 7 and 4.

I am now thinking we made a wrong choice buying here, and not considering my husbands travel long term. We could buy a busness here, but our work is seasonal, meaning no work for atleast 4 months out of the year...Southern California & Florida is all year.

Which brings me to searching out Wellington. Commute is not an issue, but schools are. We would be looking in a price range of about $350k or so. I want about 4k sq. ft, and from looking online, this looks doable. I looked in Versailes, and saw a lot of repos, whether they are actually selling in our price range is another story. I know the old "short sale" listing price, when they have ZERO intentions of selling at that price.

My husband says it is HOT there. Very Humid and a bit buggy....Mind you were from Temecula, it is more desert, like 100+ in the summer. Here in Texas, they said this was the hottest most humid summer, It was not what I expected, I expected alot worse, so i was pleasantly surprised. haha...Don't get me wrong, i was sweaty, but I did not feel i was gonna die!

So am looking on input of schools and a GREAT neighborhood to live in. I would say upper middle class, no ghettos.I don't want to live in a neighborhood with multiple families living under the same roof. I am a stay at home mom, would like to meet some good normal people...is that there??

I looked at Panther Run Elementary, and a few others on great schools, they seemed comparable to each other. It looked like they offered extras, like Music, Art, PE, Technology and Fine arts. Which is a big plus!! Coming from Ca to here, was an improvement in the fact that we saw a few extras. So any input on that would be helpful...i appreciate it lots...it took a lot of time and searching for us to move out of California, this forum was a great help as we researched other places/areas, any help is great!!

[ang08]

Funny - I think I recognize your name from the Austin forums :-) That was where we were headed for a while. But now that we finally sold our house we are headed to FL, most likely to Wellington, in June. So I am not an expert :-) But I can tell you what I learned on my recent visit. We were advised to avoid the temptation to buy in Versailles or Olympia. There are a lot of foreclosures and you could probably get a great deal, but at a price: Lots of instability - kids in and out of the schools, tons of renters, 5 families in one house, etc.

The schools seem friendly but very security-conscious. I was not allowed to visit Binks Forest - no tours, period. That was strange to me. But I know there is a lot of parental involvement. I did a lot of driving and walking around the schools and nearby neighborhoods. Seemed like your average normal people to me. After hearing horror stories about rude people on the S FL forums, I was pleasantly surprised every time I was in a supermarket or restaurant - people were VERY friendly.

My only issue with the area was that it's a bit crowded. Not in the neighborhoods, but travelling the main roads to do errands, etc. But we are coming from the NW and I guess that's the price we'll pay for warmth and sunshine!

[CravenClan]

Funny, we did look in Austin a few years back, It was not the right time an dplace for us. I do like where we are, for the most part, BUT long term the travel coulsd and has had an impact on our relationship. Pluis the weather is a little depressing, considering we are from Ca.

As fas as helping out in school, i looked on the panther school site, and it said they encouraged parent involvement, which was good! Did you talk tot he schools about the programs ie: art, music, computers or PE?? just curious.

So if not Versailes or Olympia, where??

Temecula, is crowded, and it can be stressful...traffic can be irritating and make you, like them..pissed off!!

But here where we are, is sssssooooo small, there is no traffic. We are North of Frisco. Frisco has an amazing school district, but is really like where we came from in Ca, so we opted for a total lifestyle change. Which has been ok, but a huge adjustment.

I know west vs. east coast, people are very deifferent, so I will be curious to encounter that. Since I. myself have not been to Florida, it will be interesting.

I really want to make the RIGHT choice, especially because it was so hard to move away from Ca, especially an adjustment for our kids w no family around..funny they have done just fine, actually y son has accelled, but i think us as adults are having a harder time..I just know I don't want to spend alot more time apaert from my husband, for myself or our kids, i just do not think it is healthy!!

What took you to Florida from Austin??

[mayorhaggar]

I grew up in Wellington and went to Wellington Landings Middle School and Wellington High School. This was quite a while ago though, I graduated from WHS in 1997. I'd say it was a pretty decent education and there were plenty of extracurricular stuff including a literary arts class I took where we did a poetry magazine, lots of AP classes, etc. Lots of sports, people in Florida are crazy about stuff like high school football.

I live in the Bay Area in Northern California and from what I can tell the schools here are really a mess and underfunded compared to how wealthy CA is. A friend of mine who is about my age says when he was in high school they didn't even read novels, when I was at WHS we read like 10 novels a year in my honors and AP classes.

You might also eventually want to look into the high school IB magnet program if there still is one, it used to be at Suncoast which is far away in Riviera Beach. Also there's the Dreyfoos School of the Arts if your kids are inclined towards art or music.

As for weather, temps usually max out around 92 degrees and stay there most of the year. January and February are usually in the 70's with some cold spells that can get below freezing very rarely, March warms up a bit maybe into the 80's, and around April to November it's around 92 and humid all the time, then it cools off in late November and into December. I really don't care for it but it's better than being somewhere that's cold for long periods in winter. I prefer the Bay Area to FL for summer but winters in FL are great.

As for culture clash, I dunno, I guess I'm used to people in South Florida since I grew up there. I find them a lot less obnoxious than people from the South (Texas, Georgia etc)--less judgmental. They can be a little bossy if you run into people from the NYC area but I don't mind, it usually means they're very outgoing. People in California are pretty mild-mannered at least in the Bay Area but people here can be pretty snobby about people in other states. Avoid that attitude if you move to FL and I think you'd be fine.

[Swimmom32]

You could look in Boca Raton but you wont get a 4k Square Foot house for that money although the prices have dropped tremendously..We moved here because of the schools as well as commute for dh for the time being...You can compare Del Prado Elem, Omni Middle and Spanish River HS or Boca Community High School (in Boca) to Wellington so you have a comparision...I would also suggest looking at Jupiter its a beautiful area with very good schools as well...It was a bit too far for us so we decided against it but you might get what your looking for with very nice people....One thing please dont listen to all the people that say South Florida is Rude because there are nice people we have yet to in counter a Rude Experience so to speak..we eat often and have always had excellent experiences with our waitstaff etc and we have made some really great friends as well...We are here 20 months now and love it!! We love our son's High School (Spanish River) and our Daughter will be entering Omni Middle in August..

[CravenClan]

Thank You all!!

I am just trying to research more, we did alot of it, coming here...like I said I don't hate it here, we just don't love it...maybe i would love it more if my husband did not travel...but the school being so small minded, and not a lot of extras, i don't know if i could get past that.

I have not heard so much about reude people in florida, I have heard more negatives about the school than anything.

Another reason for us moving was the type of people in California, the typical snobby ones or the extremely tattooed ones, and heavy hispanic popultation, that felt like in California we would be the minority!! I am ok w some diversity, but to an extent. Texas is very black and white where we are living, it is small, and being small it is a little divided. The average house price is pretty low, so the feeling is here, either peole are really poor or have a really good income, it is weird. It was not like that where we came from.Another thing i don't think i thought about when we moved..

[ang08]

We chose FL for several reasons. My husband and I met in Orlando and lived there for a couple years and we loved the weather. When we decided to leave WA we thought the schools were bad and it was too far from family so we looked into Austin. Then my in-laws moved to S FL (Lake Worth) which made it less scary, and I found that there WERE good schools, you just had to be in the right place. At least I hope they are good - it's hard to compare schools across states. There's always private. Also the whole school choice thing which is a bit confusing but I guess it gives you lots of options.

There are lots of more established neighborhoods - Isles, Grand Isles, Binks Preserve, Greenview Shores, Meadow Wood, Pine Trace, Sugar Pond Manor...

[CravenClan]

Thanks..I will look into those neighborhoods too..and see what i come up with!

It is VERY hard to compare schools between states, for the fact that every state standards are different!!

I think it is all a gamble, anytime you leave your comfort zone, or what you know and are used to...it is scary! But now that we finally left California, we would NEVEr go back there, and now leaving, i know i can make it anywhere, i should've just thought more about the travel, and not been so apprehensive about Fl...it would have saved us alot of money in moving!!(especially if we have to do it again...atleast our stuff is half way to Fl, and not in Ca)

[Bobstar]

I live in Versailles and have 2 little ones in Panther Run. The advice you were given to avoid this community, in my view, is misplaced. Are there foreclosures? Sure. What community does not have them? 5 families under one roof? Give me a break. It is a very good community and doing well considering the economy and the state of the real estate market. The best advice I could offer you is to rent. Do not buy when first moving here. I will never understand why someone would move to Florida and buy a house right away.

[Swimmom32]

excellent advice from Bobstar!! Never buy before knowing where u want to live..