Moving from Washington State to Wellington (Jupiter, Parkland: houses, neighborhoods, best schools)

[tomcat6369]

We are a middle age family (early 40's) with one child (9 yrs) still at home. We are looking for a nice place with awesome schools. I lived in S Florida (Coast Guard Opa Locka) before but has been 20 yrs. Loved the area then and have visited often. I have a great job waiting and wife is in a good field, Workers Compensation, state worker from Washington. So we are open to areas around 400K. We like golfing and swimming and THE beach which is accessable from any where in PBC.

Will be working off PGA Blvd.

Any advice is helpful, thanks for your time.

[skylinet]

Why not live in the Gardens or Jupiter? Nothing wrong with Wellington, but depending on the size home you need, you can get a nice home in your price range and cut your drive by a third. Closer to the beach and plenty of golf around as well.
You will get a lot more home for your money in Wellington, but if you want to be close to the beach and your job the areas I mentioned are great.

[wireyourworld]

I agree, its a bit of a haul to get to pga from wellington. Palm beach gardens is where pgs is, jupiter is north of it, and there is a western part of jupiter called jupiter farms thatt has the land and horses if that's your thing. Excellent schools both. And in between jupiter farms and wellington is royal palm beach and the acreage. You can probably do very well right now finding something awesome for for 400k in the acreage. If you want the land.

[garyhitchcock]

I know it is 45 minutes to PGA Blvd but I'd still consider the quality of life and best schools in the US (Forbes) in Parkland.

[SIZE=3]Parkland Lifestyle[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Forbes Parkland Schools[/SIZE]

[THX 1138]

Originally Posted by tomcat6369

We are a middle age family (early 40's) with one child (9 yrs) still at home. We are looking for a nice place with awesome schools. I lived in S Florida (Coast Guard Opa Locka) before but has been 20 yrs. Loved the area then and have visited often. I have a great job waiting and wife is in a good field, Workers Compensation, state worker from Washington. So we are open to areas around 400K. We like golfing and swimming and THE beach which is accessable from any where in PBC.

Will be working off PGA Blvd.

Any advice is helpful, thanks for your time.

I live in Wellington and work off of PGA in PBG. It's around a 25-35 minute commute via Southern and the Turnpike, taking I-95 is way too far east and ends up being a longer daily commute. The commute is tiresome and boring with tons of bad drivers to deal with on a daily basis, so it comes with some baggage.

If you have not been to South Florida in a while, you will be in for shock, Wellington has changed so much over the past 12 years.

Southern is now a multi-lane Expressway from RPB to I-95 with overpasses and SR7/441 through Wellington is a major multi-lane road with heavy traffic and retail sprawl. Just do a Google Maps street view of the area.

If you like the beach, it's definatley nicer to be closer which Wellington is not going to give you, but now via Southern, I can get to the beach in 20 minutes or so depending on traffic and day of the week.

Wellington is still family friendly and the school system here is always praised for being above average.

You can also get a lot of house now for $400K since the housing market tanked and is still tanking.

I like PBG, it has a lot of good points, shopping the Gardens Mall is way better than the Wellington Mall, good restaurants but it lacks a lot of what's here and the adjacent area in terms of selection, it's not as populated there. It's just that Wellington being Central County and ease to the turnpike makes it more accessible to all points south, you can also take SR7/441 south into Boca and avoid the turnpike and 95.

[funder1]

The beaches are great in Jupiter. Probably the best in S FL. If the beach is important, I wouldn't live in Wellington. My wife and kids are at the beach all the time, which would not be possible if we lived that far away.

Each area has its finer points that outweigh what some of the other one has. Having lived here though for 20 years and spent time traveling throughout the county for work, I would still choose Jupiter.

[Hirschhoet]

I live in Wellington and really like it. If you want good schools, this is the place. I would try looking at neighborhoods such as Binks Forest and Meadow Wood among others, since these are very kids friendly and you can find houses in that price range....houses that once were in the 600 k range...good luck!