Differences between WPB and Ft Lauderdale areas

[BNBR]

Originally Posted by ruski

Oh, man, you need to check out downtown Fort Lauderdale some time soon and get updated on the situation.

I'm there plenty. I have friends that live there. Just had lunch at Del Friscos the other day.

It doesn't seem much different now than it ever has in my opinion. Riverfront went to hell and is getting rebuilt, Himmarshee is the same dive it has always been, Las Olas is "meh" just as it's always been - yes, restaurants come and go and new bulidings pop up... but it's the same old thing. The beach is probably worse than it was 20 years ago. I mean, it's an ok area, but nowhere I'd want to live when there are obviously better options. If I want an overpriced dinner, I can always spend the 20 minutes driving down there.

And again, I grew up here. Owned a restaurant, know many other restaurant owners and go out quite a bit. I very much have my pulse on where people out here go. Nobody goes downtown anymore. That stopped when Hard Rock was built, and it's only gotten worse now that so many more entertainment zones and great restaurants have been popping up out west.

Downtown Fort Lauderdale is no Brickell, that's for sure. It's nice if you are in one of the large buildings like Riverhouse like my friends. But if you are in some dumpy little apartment a couple blocks off Las Olas, what's the point?

[ruski]

Originally Posted by BNBR

I'm there plenty. I have friends that live there. Just had lunch at Del Friscos the other day.

It doesn't seem much different now than it ever has in my opinion. Riverfront went to hell and is getting rebuilt, Himmarshee is the same dive it has always been, Las Olas is "meh" just as it's always been - yes, restaurants come and go and new bulidings pop up... but it's the same old thing. The beach is probably worse than it was 20 years ago. I mean, it's an ok area, but nowhere I'd want to live when there are obviously better options. If I want an overpriced dinner, I can always spend the 20 minutes driving down there.

And again, I grew up here. Owned a restaurant, know many other restaurant owners and go out quite a bit. I very much have my pulse on where people out here go. Nobody goes downtown anymore. That stopped when Hard Rock was built, and it's only gotten worse now that so many more entertainment zones and great restaurants have been popping up out west.

Downtown Fort Lauderdale is no Brickell, that's for sure. It's nice if you are in one of the large buildings like Riverhouse like my friends. But if you are in some dumpy little apartment a couple blocks off Las Olas, what's the point?

You don't have to be in the dumpy little apartments a couple of blocks off Las Olas

Depending on your budget, you could be in the Icon Las Olas or in the Amaray.

Or if you don't want to spend the crazy bucks on Icon Las Olas ($5K per month)- there are beautiful new apartment buildings all over Flagler Village, still with resort style amenities. And many more are being built, one-upping the previous ones in terms of comfort and amenities.

[HotandHumid]

West Palm Beach has a better mix of housing styles than this area does. You pretty much live in a high rise here or a ranch style house on low lying land that is starting to see flooding. Not much here in the way of wood houses, bungalows, or cottages that you'd expect to find in Florida. Downtown West Palm Beach is situated on land that slopes downward towards the water so it doesn't see flooding from high tides as parts of Fort Lauderdale now does.

There is always something going on there downtown near the water with concerts, an antique market and green market on Clematis and more of the vintage Florida outdoor feel with one and two story downtown businesses than downtown Fort Lauderdale has as most of older downtown Fort Lauderdale has been torn down and replaced with high rise buildings. There are lots of nice little restaurants in downtown West Palm Beach with a good mix of a local crowd whereas Las Olas is mostly Latin tourists and a wanting to see and be seen crowd goes there.


The neighborhoods around downtown West Palm Beach are being gentrified and the move out crowd is moving to the Fort Lauderdale area near I-95, which has caused the traffic in and around Fort Lauderdale to become almost unmanageable and the once multi-cultural mix to be lost in neighborhoods around I-95 where even my African-American friends advise me not to go.


You'll spend a lot of time in that traffic here going to not much of anything except big box stores to shop at. Nobody really walks or bikes anywhere in the Fort Lauderdale area and the city is looking into banning the small motorized vehicles people can rent downtown as the crazy drivers here don't watch out of them and someone was recently killed riding one by a hit and run driver.


Boosters for Fort Lauderdale are usually real estate agents selling property here and the super wealthy who can insulate themselves from the large number of homeless who roam downtown and have made Broward Boulevard their main hangout as that's where most of their social support agencies are located.


If you want a "Florida" lifestyle, move to West Palm Beach. If you want an aggravating big city stuck in traffic daily going from store to store looking for something to do with your time lifestyle, move to Fort Lauderdale.

[shugabooga]

So here it is August, are you in Florida yet? If you're serious about buying, maybe you should find a buyer's agent. I'm also thinking of moving to the area and have been diligently researching neighborhoods and condos for sale on zillow, redfin, realtor.co, trulia. But I think the best thing to do is actually go to open houses, and work with an agent. Good luck! Let us know what you find/learn.

[FloridaDude]

whats your budget?

[PP2TJF]

I am looking also and from what I have recently checked out for a second home is if you can afford it
Downtown Delray and downtown Ft Lauderdale are great places to live and meet new friends that are young at heart. I have same thing. Same age bracket but don’t want the over 50 communities I want the people that are young at heart or in their 40s