ngodeia

My husband and I are relocating to the south Florida area from the Atlanta area. His new office will be in Weston, but we have ruled out living there. We live in Decatur now and love it. Does anyone know if there is an area that is similar to Decatur in the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area? We like Decatur because it has easy access to restaurants and shops both in downtown Decatur and Virginia Highland/East Atlanta. We are in our 30s with no kids. I will be telecommuting from home, so traffic does not affect me. My husband is willing to commute 30 minutes. We now live in a house but understand we may have to move to a loft or town home or condo. I know this is a rather vague question, but we don't know anything about south Florida.

Thank you in advance for any help. Like another poster in another thread said, I'm sorry that I am asking a relocation question in a travel site, but I've had very good advice from everyone before.

Judyrem

Boy are you in luck! We lived in Roswell for 9 years off of Holcombe Bridge rd. My take on FLL is to live as close in, as possible...lots of great restaurants and things to do here. I live on Bayview drive near the Galleria...it is wonderful. There are lots of nice townhomes which are not quite as shocky as a condo IMO. Victoria Park is gorgoeus,,as is Las Olas.....lot's of new places going up there. E-mail me if you want more info...judyrem at yahoo.

amcc

Hi, I lived in Midtown a couple of years and now live in Coral Gables, Fl. I would say Coral Gables is similar, but it may be too far way from Weston for a commute. Weston is by I-75 west. You might check out Miami Lakes, which has a nice small town feel (so they like to market) at the east end of I-75, or Miramar, which is a little further west off of I-75 (still east of Weston). I can tell you that a new 3-BR townhouse in Miramar is selling for about $250,000 (we just bought one). I'm not familiar with Broward at all, so you would be well served to take a trip here and look at all these areas. I think that traffic goes from north to south in Dade County in the mornings, but, again, I'm not sure of the broward patterns.

miguelgcuadra

If you live south of weston, traffic is going to be a pain for your husband. coral gables and coconut grove are nice, but both south of weston.
lots of places north of weston.
The new city of Doral is not really that far away from weston, plenty of restaurants, shopping centers, airport is close. my favorite community in Doral is Costa Del Sol.

miguelgcuadra

Costa del Sol is the oldest development in Doral, townhomes are big, lots of green areas. It is surrounded by a golf course, so once in, no traffic, no noise, very nice neighbors...very important in miami area.

Heartburn3

I have lived in Broward County all my 49 years. I live near I-595 and University Drive (actually in Pine Island Ridge at Pine Island Rd & I-595). This is in the Davie/Plantation area. I work to the west and it only takes me 10 minutes to get there (about a 6 mile drive.) He'll love commuting to the west -- sooooo easy!

If you need any assistance about the area, feel free to email me at [email protected] (earmark it FODORS so I'll know it's not junk mail.)

Depending on what you want to spend, you would probably like these two cities. Lots of shopping, restaurants, easy commute to/from Weston, new and older developments, close to parks, and easy to get to the beach areas of Lauderdale and Hollywood. Davie has some new townhome and condo developments being built (the market for multi-family units has been down in the past and now more people are buying them because the real estate prices have consistently gone up, up, up the past 4 years.)

You might want to consider a "seasonal" lease (April-Sept & Oct-March, typically)and look around for a nice home, and to see if you like the area. Pine Island Ridge tends to have lots of seasonal rentals with and without furnishings. One of the local realty companies is Pine Island Ridge Rentals & Sales (954) 473-0480 and I think they deal with areas outside of Pine Island Ridge, too.

Good luck on your move and I hope you find I nice place to live.