Help please - moving to FL with young children (Miami: amusement parks, HOA fees)

[movingtoFLnow]

Hi everyone,

I have never lived in FL, only visited Orlando a few times. We are now relocating from Long Island NY to FL and have no idea where to go. I need a neighborhood with good schools, and a good Christian church. In addition I need a family friendly neighborhood. We are in our 30's and my twins are 2.

Any help would be great. Thanks

[Tungsten_Udder]

Originally Posted by movingtoFLnow

Hi everyone,

I have never lived in FL, only visited Orlando a few times. We are now relocating from Long Island NY to FL and have no idea where to go. I need a neighborhood with good schools, and a good Christian church. In addition I need a family friendly neighborhood. We are in our 30's and my twins are 2.

Any help would be great. Thanks

I take it that you either do not need to work or you have a job that you could do from any location?

Could you tell us more about why you're moving?

Also:

Re a "family friendly neighborhood", what kinds of things will that entail? What are you expecting from your neighbors? We know to not steer you to a place that's for folks 55+, and there aren't any areas that I'd call "family hostile", so I'd need to know more about what you're specifically looking for.

How much money are you looking to spend for housing, and for what kind of house (do you want a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house on an acre for 300k? A 3 bedroom, 2 bath house on a smaller lot, but in a more "exclusive" area for 500k?) Do you mind HOAs?

What do you like to do in your free time? What do you want to be near? Do you mind heat? Would you miss hills? Do you like big cities? Rural living? Something in between?

We need more information.

[movingtoFLnow]

Ok here is more info.

I want - playgrounds, young neighbors with children, HOA's are fine, free time is spent in playgrounds or shopping.

I want a 4 or 5 bedroom with a pool and a good backyard for young kids - willing to spend up to $500k. I want to be near all.

[Tungsten_Udder]

Originally Posted by movingtoFLnow

Ok here is more info.

I want - playgrounds, young neighbors with children, HOA's are fine, free time is spent in playgrounds or shopping.

I want a 4 or 5 bedroom with a pool and a good backyard for young kids - willing to spend up to $500k. I want to be near all.

Well, based on that, you could almost throw a dart at the state to pick an area to move.

Anywhere you live outside of a 55+ community is going to be somewhere that you'll have some younger neighbors with children. Nowhere that you'd live will have ONLY younger neighbors with children--that's true of the entire United States, and probably everywhere in the world.

Anywhere urban or suburban that you could live in the state (that is, not areas that are more rural) is going to have small parks with playgrounds--slides, monkeybars, ball fields, etc.--nearby (again, this isn't just true of Florida, but of everywhere in the US).

Lots of newer housing developments are going to have HOAs. Do not forget to factor your HOA fee into what you can afford each month. I know of some areas that have monthly HOA fees of about $400, but that's probably on the high side. I know of places where the HOA fee is only about $60, too.

You can easily find 4 bedroom houses (5 might be more difficult, but just because they're more unusual) with pools and decent-sized backyards in most areas of the state for below 500k--even not too far from Miami, which is probably the most expensive area of the state at the moment.

Everywhere urban and suburban in Florida is going to be near lots of shopping.

As for being near "all"--there are a lot of different things in Florida--the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, lakes, rivers, amusement parks, museums, zoos, The Everglades, professional sports, golfing, quaint rural towns, St. Augustine, Cape Canaveral--all kinds of things, but there is no place that's near ALL of them.

So let's throw a dart.