Affordable options for students in the Boca area? (Miami, Fort Lauderdale: for sale, real estate)

[gaillarde]

A friend and I are moving to Boca from out of state this summer (she has a scholarship starting in the fall). Unfortunately, trying to find an apartment has been a very frustrating experience thus far. We're looking for a basic 2 bedroom apartment suitable for graduate students working part-time, within walking/biking distance to campus. Listings have been sparse, and difficult to make any headway on—many are old, unresponsive, or taken down just hours after being posted. A good chunk of listings are also restricted to 55+ residents only (especially the north and west sides). The typical rate at some of the larger complexes with perpetual listings seems to be around 13-1400/mo—and as far as I know, Florida's minimum wage hasn't been recently changed to $20, so what college student can afford that? I feel like we've scoured every rental website known to man for the past 3 months to no avail. Was everything just already rented up by the time we got her acceptance letter this past spring? Or is there something we're missing here? Any advice or insight into renting in this area would be much appreciated!

[BVG_Steve]

I do not think you are missing anything, except maybe the fact you are in denial. for any decent moderate, clean 2 bedroom apartment, in a reasonably safe area will cost you $1300 to $1400 a month minimum.

[gaillarde]

I'm not sure we're in denial, merely trying to explore options and get more information about the area. What is it that drives up the rent? Based off of the impression from when we came to visit the school, Boca seemed like a small, quiet town—even somewhat rural in areas. Nearby major cities like West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale are both cheaper to rent in. With rents that high in Boca, how do college students at Lynn and FAU afford apartments? Does part-time work pay well here?

[cfbs2691]

Originally Posted by gaillarde

I'm not sure we're in denial, merely trying to explore options and get more information about the area. What is it that drives up the rent? With rents that high in Boca, how do college students at Lynn and FAU afford apartments?

Mommy and Daddy pay the rent and supply nice cars, and credit cards.

South Florida is filled with silver spoon kids of all ages.

I'm dead serious.

[aridon]

Real Estate here is wacky. Lots of massive swings up and down with you coming in on a major upswing. It is driven mostly by retirees and foreign money looking for a safer dollar based investment. As real estate climbs so do rents. Rents are also artificially high because of the last bust period took some people that were home owners and put them in the rental market with no down payment and perhaps tarnished credit.

End result has a disproportionate amount of people trying to rent in an area that has seen incredible appreciation making rents higher. Many areas also lack duplex and multi family style rentals you see in other places like Toronto suburbs and NY so that limits options to single family or complex style rentals further keeping options small and prices high.

Once the baby boomers stop coming in such numbers (next couple of years, later waves aren't nearly as wealthy) things will stagnate again, then they'll start to die off and we'll see a massive bursting of the bubble as the younger generations aren't nearly as interested in SE FL. Demographics are also rapidly changing in SE FL.

Outlook not so good on property prices much past a couple of more years in Se fl

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by gaillarde

I'm not sure we're in denial, merely trying to explore options and get more information about the area. What is it that drives up the rent? Based off of the impression from when we came to visit the school, Boca seemed like a small, quiet town—even somewhat rural in areas. Nearby major cities like West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale are both cheaper to rent in. With rents that high in Boca, how do college students at Lynn and FAU afford apartments? Does part-time work pay well here?

6021/6025 Le Lac Rd, Boca Raton, FL 33496 - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - realtor.com®

Boca has over 10 listings at 10 million dollars or more........does that seem small, quite town or rural?

How many 10 million dollar homes are in your hometown?

Look in Deerfield Beach or Pompano for cheaper non age restricted rentals.

[gaillarde]

All very interesting info about the area and the housing/rental market. Helps to clarify our confusion, so thank you.

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

How many 10 million dollar homes are in your hometown?

I'm from Chicago; I assure you, there is no shortage of 10 or 20+ million dollar homes here.

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

Does that seem small, quite town or rural?

As I said, that was merely the impression we got in some areas of the town while visiting, hence the disconnect with the crazy rents we're seeing. Going up and down Dixie Highway, everything looks run down and dated; the apartments, likewise. Maybe there's a secret Emerald City or Atlantis we just never happened to stumble upon. The weather was certainly wonderful.

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

Look in Deerfield Beach or Pompano for cheaper non age restricted rentals.

Unfortunately more than a few miles from campus is probably not an option due to my friend not having a car or driver's license and needing to carry an instrument back and forth. And from what we understand, the Palm Tran bus system is so much of a joke as to be virtually non-existent.

[BVG_Steve]

aridon assessment of the rental market is far from accurate. Rents are based on ROI and supply and demand. The outlook for real estate in south Florida is fairly healthy. Common sense applied here will tell you so. Just ask yourself this, in 5 years or 10 years from now will be more people living in SE Florida than there is now? Also the cheaper rents you may see in WPB or Ft Lauderdale are not in areas you would most likely want to live. Rents in good areas of WPB will be similar to that of Boca. a 2 bedroom in good area of downtown WPB will run you $2000 plus a month..

so let me explain how it really works, take a reasonably 2 bedroom price condo at $17,000 lets say . Landlord will expect a minimum of 6% ROI.

170,000 x 6% = $10,200 annually

property taxes $2400 annually

hoa fees $2400 annually

Insurance $480

Repairs and Maintenance $480 annually

Grand Total $15,960 annually / divided by 12 months $1330 monthly. No investor will touch a rental condo for less than 6% return and a lot will seek 7% to 10%

Hence this is why you will see $1300 to $1400 a month rent. The landlord / investor will not rent out for 4% ROI or 3% ROI or in essence less than cost of ownership . Folks wanting to get a mortgage and purchase will pay 3.5% on a mortgage if they have outstanding credit and 20% down. with 10% down you will wind up paying 4 to 4 1/2% on a mortgage when you add in the mortgage insurance premium .


So the rent has everything to do with the cost of ownership.

[Aaverso]

The area immediately surrounding FAU is a hit or a miss, as we continue to approach the start of school, the rents are going to go up in that area as students try to grab housing for the upcoming school year. Due to the fact that your friend does not drive, it really limits how far you can go. As FAU continues to expand year over year, the competition is continuing to increase in that area. I have seen many students moving into Deerfield, Pompano, Delray and Boynton Beach in order to find cheaper rents.

In my experience, I have found there to be many Uber drivers in the area. I am not sure if that is an option for your friend but it might be worth looking into. I have also recently taken the TriRail from Boynton Beach to Miami, it was on time to every stop, your friend would just have to see if there is a connection from Boca Raton's station to FAU.

[ByeByeLW]

You could bike from the TriRail in Boca on the El Rio Trail. I have seen students with all kinds of backpacks, instruments and any amount of awkward stuff. You can put your bike on the train.

That would allow you to live somewhere like Alta Congress in Delray. I'm not sure what the rents are now but they were reasonable.

The complex is across from Delray TriRail.

There are also FAU students at Verano in Delray.

Well I see Alta Congress has definitely gone up in price.