Sunrise (Miami, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale: real estate, apartment, city hall)

[BMo2xl]

My family and I maybe moving to the Ft. Lauderdale area and are considering Sunrise. Can anyone out there give me your insights? We're currently living in the Capital District of NY.

As an aside, they're forecasting a blizzard tomorrow that will bring approximately 30 inches of snow! Florida is looking really good right now!!!

[dono_can]

just did a search for sunrise as well and nothing is comming up. It looks like my wife is going to be offered a transplant to sunrise in the comming year. Can anyone offer insights to the area and surrounding communities. Is sunrise a nice place to live or should we be looking at cooper city, plantation areas. we are in our late 20's and very active in sports - I play hockey so being close to the Florida Panthers is a great bonus! - we will have a household income of roughly 120k what kind of lifestyle can we expect to have with this type of income? Can we buy in a safe neigbourhood and still have enough money to beable to live comfortably?

any help would be appreciated.

[dono_can]

*bump* anyone??
*bump* anyone??

[mom2justynsarah]

I live in Sunrise! YAY!

My husband & I bought a 3 bed 2 bath home in Sunrise about 4 years ago. We live in community called Welleby. Our home has now quadrupled in price. . We are also next door to a top rated elementary school.

A forewarning about Sunrise...The Welleby Home Association runs this city. They are known to be the biggest pains in the ****. Their rules are very very strict. They are quick to try to put a lien on your house if you don't fix something ASAP. You must stay within their parameters. They are constantly on the look out for something they can site you for....So just an fyi...

Aside from wicked Welleby, I love this area. We are 5 minutes away from the famous Sawgrass Mills Mall. I believe this mall is considered a top tourist destination. It is a great mall (if I don't say so myself). We are close to the Sawgrass Parkway & 595. So it's not to difficult to get to any location.

In addition, the Panther stadium is right across the street. So it's been great to drive 5 miles to see a hockey game. Plus a lot of celebrities perform here as well. We have seen Shania Twain, Bette Midler and even George Bush.

Sunrise is on the west. So we are close to Weston, Plantation, Davie, Pembrooke Pines. Heading east, we are close to Tamarac, & Coral Springs.

ALL of these areas are nice. All of them have their good points & not so good points. It depends on what your looking for?

We are actually considering moving OUT of Florida. We are tired of the hurricanes. We JUST finished fixing our fence from LAST year's hurricane. A lot of homes STILL have tarps on their rooves. A lot of homes are still damaged from last yeart's hurricane.

In addition, since our home has gone up in value, we would love the opportunity to cash in on it. We also miss the seasonal changes. My husband & I love the mountains and rolling hills. Yep, can't wait to move north....

All in all though, S. Florida is a good place to live. We have the infamous South Beach. & tons of other beautiful beaches...There are constantly things going on throughout the different cities. We are still a top tourist destination.

Just an fyi...I hope you like former New Yorkers. You will find them here.
There are tons of us. We are like cochroaches. We seem to creep around everywhere. So expect this area to be like a mini scaled down New York city.

[robivi3]

I agree with mom2, I also live in Sunrise/welleby, it is the best kept section of Sunrise. Sunrise the City is a living pain in the a** as far as code enforcement. Even to get a window replaced here requires multiple permits and blueprints and takes months. It is a VERY small business unfriendly, church unfriendly and family unfriendly City Hall. This was once a nice town, I have spent a good part of my life in the old Sunrise and hate what it has become since that stinking Mall and that damned stinking Arena dragged the dregs of Dade County north to invade and crowd us.

The Federal Government is building a beautiful Veterans complex near me, the City gave them so many hassles that they filed a special injuction used only when local authorities stand in the way of Federal projects. Now the a**holes from the City cannot enter the property ever.

I do not recommend this City at all having lived here for many years, predating 595, sawgrass, and the I75 extension. We are doing hurricane repairs and the impedences and encumbrances placed on us by code enforcement show the what has become the spirit of our once quiet and nice town. They work against the residents.

Now, that being said because of all the blight bringing improvements the city is convenient, becoming pricey and the real estate is very high. The City has declared that they are building a "Western Skyline" and are putting two new 24 story condos right by the arena in the backyards of the folks at Sawgrass Preserve. I have three teens at the local high school (Piper) and it has alot of racial tension and problems. Cooper City and Davie are much nicer areas and very safe. Weston, once a nice community has become Hialeah North since I-75 connected everything, my mother lives there. She lives in Windmill Ranches near Dan Marino. They now have a gang problem, graffitti and she has even had a break-in despite the surrounding small hill barriers and Wackenhut manned gate.

I am an old Sunriser, this has become a terrible community, i do not recommend it. Sorry for the honesty, I will be retiring and moving to Colorado in several years.

Compared to what it was, you can have this neighborhood, I am waiting to get out. I recommend Davie and Cooper City just a little to the south. I know your post is old but i would discourage anyone from moving here.

[robivi3]

I wish to reiterate this today for anyone doing a search on Sunrise or Welleby. Welleby HOA is horrible. Sunrise is resident unfriendly in every way, from corrupt old Mayor Lomelo who was loved and accessble to the current administration is a huge difference. Mayor Lomalo was for his town. These folks are allowing huge buildings while turning this into a very unfriendly town. Most hispanics I know think it is ok, I guess compared to what they have seen in South America it is. To an American this community has become a horror.

[beckp1111]

Originally Posted by BMo2xl

My family and I maybe moving to the Ft. Lauderdale area and are considering Sunrise. Can anyone out there give me your insights? We're currently living in the Capital District of NY.

As an aside, they're forecasting a blizzard tomorrow that will bring approximately 30 inches of snow! Florida is looking really good right now!!!

Hi,I live in Sunrise Florida.We are loving the area so far.My younger child attends a school called Country Isles Elem in Weston.It's a superior rated A school.My oldest goes to Western High in Davie.It is also a great school.The neighborhood I live in is wonderful.It's becomind very diverse and everyone is so friendly.We are surronded by I 595,I 75 and St Rd. 84.These Hghwys can get you anywhere throught the tri county area.We have a major mall 10 minutes away(Sawgrass).ABout three or 4 movie theatres and loads of restaraunts.This area is perfect for a young couple.

[mooie2e]

I also remember Sunrise back in the late 70's to late '80s. It was actually a golf village. Yes, dear old Mayor Lomelo was one of those old-timey crooked politicians but he was also approachable and a lot of Sunrise residents cared about him. Sunrise, at that time, was so quaint and was one of the best kept secrets in SFL. I have since moved to the countryside of upstate NY (I absolutely love it in spite of the cold winters) and I thank God that I no longer live in Sunrise. I have kept up with the goings on in Sunrise online and it sounds horrid. This was not the city I remember. Way too much construction, way too many strip malls and I hear it is way too crowded. I was told that University Drive is one of most crowded streets. I used to live near Sunrise Lakes, when I was first married, and I worked at Motorola in Plantation. I arrived there in 7 minutes flat (yes, without speeding) from home. We finally bought a house at the end of western Sunrise which as I look at the map is now the center of Sunrise.
Thanks for the reminder of Mayor Lomelo and what Sunrise used to be.

[Nolefan34]

BMo2xl>

I will give you a modern perspective, coming from someone in his 20's. I was not here in the 70's or 80's so I will ignore history. Today, Sunrise is a large suburbia type of area with a mix of newer cookie-cutter developments and small apartment communities. The 2 main attractions are the Sawgrass Mills Mall which I believe is the largest mall in FL, and the hockey arena. Everything else is pretty boring. Most of the stores in the area are large, big-bog chain stores and there are a ton of strip malls just like the rest of Broward County. Very few unique, small businesses. All were overtaken by the big corporate stores years ago I'd imagine.

For entertainment, you'll find yourself traveling east often to Fort Lauderdale and the beac. That's where most of the nightlife is plus the beach. The good thing about Sunrise is that you have 3 major expressways that are easily excessible and will get you where you need to go quickly. 595 will take you directly east to Fort Lauderdale and towards the beaches in a matter of minutes. The Sawgrass bypasses all of the development to get you north to the Turnpike if you are headed north to Boca or West Palm Beach. And I-75 will get you to western Miami-Dade quickly. Now if you are headed to downtown Miami and South Beach that's another story because you then have to take other expressways to get east. But overall its hard to beat the expressways and highways in Sunrise.

There are also 2 other shopping malls near Sunrise that I'm aware of besides Sawgrass Mills. You have the Broward Mall about 10 minutes to the east on University Dr. and the Pembroke Pines mall which is newer along I-75. Also, if you feel like taking a trip across the Everglades the other coast of the state, the Alligator Alley (I-75) takes you direct west from Sunrise to the other coast of FL (to Naples).

Overall, if you don't mind Hispanics, I'm sure you'll be happy in Sunrise. On this message board you will hear a lot of negativity from old-timers who've lived here a while and have seen the changes, explosion in population and development, etc. I understand their views, but you have to understand that they moved here when the area was wide-open, more land, less population, less big-box stores dominating the landscape. There used to be more natural beauty here, and today there is very little of that. But for a young couple you should be happy here. I love it because of the beaches, the nightlife, the weather (even though I complain about the heat too; its brutal here in the summers), and the girls!

Just a suggestion, but you may want to look in some areas further east like Hollywood or Coconut Creek, or maybe Davie and Pembroke Pines. Not that those areas are better, but they are comparable. Hollywood is close to the beach so its more convenient if you want that and there is more to do there.

[heydade]

I just recently moved to Davie and avoided Sunrise as well from what I read doing my research. Sunrise definitely has a ghetto feel to it.