Moving to Palm Beach County (Tampa, Pembroke Pines: short sales, foreclosures, rental)

[dkimsal]

I hope someone can give me a little guidance. My husband and I are relocating because my husband got a job in Palm Beach Gardens. We can't decide where to focus our search for a home. I've never been to Palm Beach Gardens but I heard it's very nice and expensive. We want to buy a home for 300k. Can anyone recommend nice areas/communities nearby with good schools? Someone told us Palm City but how far away is that? I don't want him to have a horrible commute. Please help!

[TriMT7]

You can buy a home in the PBG/Jupiter area for 300k. But first, what are your requirements? Bedrooms? SFH? Townhouse? HOA/Non HOA?

Palm City is about 20-30 minutes away.


I would recommend renting no matter what, however, at least for a year, just to be sure you like an area!

[runswithscissors]

Yes definitely rent. You never know what you'll "really" end up wanting anyway till you live here awhile. It's not like the old days where you could just sell your house and move. Once you're committed that's it for a long time, likely. And we're not even sure what areas will hold value now. If you buy you could be owning a depriciating asset that you're stuck with taking a big loss if you can even sell it, should you need or want to. Get prequalified so if you decide to buy you're all set and don't have to wait too long if you're concerned with interest rates rising or something, imo.

[dkimsal]

We would like a four bedroom in a gated community. We've been renting for a while now and feel that now is a good time to buy with prices being so low. Of course, we want to get the most for our money. The areas that we are thinking about are Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Wellington, and Palm City. Any thoughts?

[OutlawSteph]

My family just purchased a new home in Royal Palm Beach after renting for a while. Your biggest challange may be finding a home that is not in short sale or forclosure. Short sales are extremely difficult and time consuming. It may take the bank up to six months to decide whether or not they are going to accept your offer, and the price that the house is listed for may or may not be what the bank will accept. Forclusures are often in terrible condition and require extensive renovations.

We got lucky and found a home in Madison Green in Royal Palm Beach that was on the market and the seller had no mortage. It's gated and has a public golf course which is very nice, a clubhouse, pool, tennis, children's area, etc.

In your price range, you should look at Royal Palm Beach, you'll get more house here than you would in Palm Beach Gardens, and it's just southwest of Palm Beach Gardens and north of Wellington. I like Jupiter but we couldn't find anything reasonable there. There are many distressed neighborhoods there as well.

As far as shopping is concerned, Wellington has as much as Palm Beach Gardens. Both have Whole Foods Markets. We also have a Fresh Market in Wellington which is quite handy and has great quality and organic meats and produce. The malls all have the same run of the mill stores. I don't have kids but the school systems seem pretty good here in RPB.

[AlexBondar]

In this market you should be able to find a rental with an option to buy at a preagreed price - if the market falls further, you don't have to strike on your purchase option. With a huge number of motivated sellers out there, these deals are done every day. Definitely rent if you are not sure (at least for 3-6 mo). Palm Beach Gardens (Evergreene), Jupiter (many communities in Abacoa), Tequesta Country Club are definitely in your price range. Renting first (with or without the purchase option) can also give you time to get a short-sale under contract and through the bank delays. Short sale deals are being done every day and people get awesome deals on great clean properties - though it does take 3-6 mo to close.

Alex Bondar

[m5*]

Palm City has tons of gated communities with homes for under $300k. The prices are falling in gated communities because of the high HOA's. Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens and Wellington are all nice areas where you will find a home with the requirements that you are seeking. I'd focus on PBG or Jupiter to lessen the commute. I've also lived in both (and Palm City for that matter) and think that they are great places to live.

[gregm]

Though you were not considering it, rent first. The HOA fees are going to be more important than anything else in the future. Remember with foreclosed homes the banks don't have to pay property taxes, throwing the burden to the remaining homeowners and associations. Some of the smaller Condo Association HOA's here have gone up 30% in the last year.

That 4 inch book that they hand you to read containing all the rules and regs of the association is a boring MUST READ!

Take your time, rent first, prices are still in the decline and haven't hit bottom yet, though your choice of really good homes will get slimmer the longer you wait.

[mhd25]

As gregm mentioned, HOA fees are something you really need to consider. Evergrene may be affordable, but their HOA will kill you - plus they were just slapped with a special assessment because there are so many foreclosures not paying their fees.

We just moved from Jupiter to Tampa and I really miss Jupiter, it is wonderful. We lived in Abacoa - New Haven and loved it (not gated though and I think for the $300Ks you would get a 3 bed). The schools are A rated and there is a great community feel. Easy commute to PBG and the Gardens Mall. I would stay north of PGA Blvd. if you decide to live in PBG - you definitely don't want to be too close to Northlake in my opinion. Egrets Landing might be somewhere to look, I believe it is gated (in Jupiter), but I don't know current pricing. If you can give up the gate Cambridge is a new development (still being built) and has gotten pretty affordable.

I'm not a fan of Wellington. Old Wellington has some nice areas, but the newer section around 441 has a bunch of newer (2004ish) communities that were cheaply built and full of investors. I'm not sure who lives in those communities now, it may have cycled through. Definitely has every kind of shopping and chain restaurant you could want though. Far drive to the beach from Wellington. Jupiter has some of the prettiest beaches on the East Coast and a smaller town feel. It really depends on what you are looking for, what you want out of your community.

[compelled to reply]

Wellington along State Road 7 = Pseudo-upscale, even more congested version of Pembroke Pines. The SR7 corridor went from being rural to ultra-congested in 5 years. The 12th Fairway and parts of Sugar Pond Manor look nasty now, and they are nasty too. I could very easily see much of Wellington turning into something like that. I don't like Wellington anymore. IMO Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, and even west Boynton are nicer. This is not to say that most of Wellington isn't nice, but I would feel better about Jupiter or Palm Beach Gardens.

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