anyone live in Homestead, FL?

[purbeast0]

I really want to get the hell out of this area by the end of 2006, and i've been kind of looking into areas to move just when i've been bored at work. i really want to live near water and where the climate is always warm. i came accross Homestead, FL as a place that i might take interest in. yes, i realize the time is a very VERY long time away, but i'm just messing around now and checking out different areas.

Homestead is about 20 miles south of Miami and about 30 miles north of the floriday keys. The houses there are cheaper than the area I currently live in (montgomery county, MD) and you can have a nice 2 BR townhouse for under 200K. I was looking at just some quick job searches and it seems like there are enough computer science type jobs in that area. The place is near a city (i still like to party, i'm only 23) and its also near very nice water (the keys).

I was jsut wondering if anyone lives there or near there or has been there and if so, what the actual area is like.

 

[CtK]

i live in Miami, FL and everyone is moving to Homestead cause of the cheaper housing. Houses are gonna get more and more expensive so better buy now

 

[ActuaryTm]

Last I was there was September of 1992 for relief effort.

Unfortunately have yet to go back.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: CtK
i live in Miami, FL and everyone is moving to Homestead cause of the cheaper housing. Houses are gonna get more and more expensive so better buy now

how is the area though? is it a pretty safe area? is it pretty clean looking? i was just SHOCKED at the house prices down there for the quality of the house as well.

i went snorkeling for the first time on my vacation in Aruba and I immediately fell in love with it and really want to do it again. it would be so awesome to be in a place like that, so close to the keys where the snorkelling is supposed to be outstanding as well.

 

[tami]

i grew up in south broward (county), which is about 30minutes away from homestead

i'd say that both places are nice, although i haven't really visited homestead that often. it's a nice area -- very woodsy, treesy. typical south florida.

if you want to be near the snorkels, you definitely should look into that area and even possibly further south.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: tami
i grew up in south broward (county), which is about 30minutes away from homestead

i'd say that both places are nice, although i haven't really visited homestead that often. it's a nice area -- very woodsy, treesy. typical south florida.

if you want to be near the snorkels, you definitely should look into that area and even possibly further south.

well it seems that most of the computer science jobs are closer to Miami so I wouldn't want to have TOO much of a commute.

how bad is rush hour traffic in those areas in the morning? i have to drive on I495 every day (luckily AGAINST traffic though) which is rated as the 2nd worst traffic road in the country, so I don't want to move somewhere where there is a shltload of traffic as well.

this area getting so crowded is part of the reason I want to get out of here.

 

[ActuaryTm]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
was just SHOCKED at the house prices down there for the quality of the house as well.

That is generally true of most locations in Florida, save beachfront.

 

[CtK]

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: CtK
i live in Miami, FL and everyone is moving to Homestead cause of the cheaper housing. Houses are gonna get more and more expensive so better buy now

how is the area though? is it a pretty safe area? is it pretty clean looking? i was just SHOCKED at the house prices down there for the quality of the house as well.

i went snorkeling for the first time on my vacation in Aruba and I immediately fell in love with it and really want to do it again. it would be so awesome to be in a place like that, so close to the keys where the snorkelling is supposed to be outstanding as well.

most of the houses are brand new so they should all be clean
traffic aint tat bad aslong as you take the Turnpike instead of US1
most of the tech jobs are in north dade or broward county

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: CtK

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: CtK
i live in Miami, FL and everyone is moving to Homestead cause of the cheaper housing. Houses are gonna get more and more expensive so better buy now

how is the area though? is it a pretty safe area? is it pretty clean looking? i was just SHOCKED at the house prices down there for the quality of the house as well.

i went snorkeling for the first time on my vacation in Aruba and I immediately fell in love with it and really want to do it again. it would be so awesome to be in a place like that, so close to the keys where the snorkelling is supposed to be outstanding as well.

most of the houses are brand new so they should all be clean
traffic aint tat bad aslong as you take the Turnpike instead of US1
most of the tech jobs are in north dade or broward county

how far is north dade or broward county? i don't know much about the area at all. i have some home brochures being mailed to me as well in regards to some new townhomes being built there.

 

[Carbo]

Do you speak Spanish? If not, you'll be lost and unemployable. And the traffic? Mind numbing, to say the least. I know Monty County in MD, and that is definitely the worst traffic on the planet. But I must tell you the traffic down these parts is only about three cars lighter.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: Carbo
Do you speak Spanish? If not, you'll be lost and unemployable. And the traffic? Mind numbing, to say the least. I know Monty County in MD, and that is definitely the worst traffic on the planet. But I must tell you the traffic down these parts is only about three cars lighter.

i understand spanish pretty well, not fluently, and i cannot speak it fluently but i can speak it decent enough to like get by. however, my GF is spanish as well and i've learned a lot since i've been with her (also took it in highschool). so spanish is necessary for even tech jobs (not IT related though, just typical computer science ones, like programming/engineering jobs).?

 

[tami]

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: CtK

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: CtK
i live in Miami, FL and everyone is moving to Homestead cause of the cheaper housing. Houses are gonna get more and more expensive so better buy now

how is the area though? is it a pretty safe area? is it pretty clean looking? i was just SHOCKED at the house prices down there for the quality of the house as well.

i went snorkeling for the first time on my vacation in Aruba and I immediately fell in love with it and really want to do it again. it would be so awesome to be in a place like that, so close to the keys where the snorkelling is supposed to be outstanding as well.

most of the houses are brand new so they should all be clean
traffic aint tat bad aslong as you take the Turnpike instead of US1
most of the tech jobs are in north dade or broward county

how far is north dade or broward county? i don't know much about the area at all. i have some home brochures being mailed to me as well in regards to some new townhomes being built there.

north dade is north of homestead. broward county is north of north dade. (i actually went to private school in north dade, a 10 minute commute -- i was pretty much on the border of both counties)

i'd say you'll get to homestead from there in a good half hour, give or take a few minutes, depending on traffic and how fast you're driving.

traffic isn't bad where i commuted, but it sucks that the speed limit is 65mph in broward and 55mph in dade (at least on i-95). it gets more congested as you go further south, so south broward and north dade are seriously good places to consider.

btw, actuaryTM, there are expensive houses down there. my mother does real estate and i'd be lucky to score a house in my area for less than $200,000. that said, however, purbeast, there are plenty of houses in the surrounding areas that are much more affordable. i guess the pricing in my suburb has something to do with the homes being relatively spacious family homes... the singles, i know of, are in apartments here at least.

 

[dman]

Are you sure prices in homestead are affordable? Prices in S.FL have doubled/tripled in the last 2yrs most places. I'd be surprised if homestead hasn't as well. And if it hasn't there's probably a very good reason for that... not to say it's not worth looking into, just be prepared to not be living in an ideal location.

 

[darkamulets]

Homestead was farm area uptill well it still is in certain parts. It has expanded to a small city pretty quiet. I live in Hialeah a suburb of Miami about 15 west of downtown. Homestead is a good while away but you atleast avoid all the traffic. For partying you got South Beach & Miami Beach on weekends. Further north like 40 miles you have Hollandale beach.

 

[jemcam]

Originally posted by: ActuaryTm
Last I was there was September of 1992 for relief effort.

Unfortunately have yet to go back.

Me too, except I was there from the time teh winds died down until just after thanksgiving. I realize I didn't see the town at it's finest, and the only people I came into contact with were the criminals, so I'm not too impressed with Homestead. I can second the comment someone made about speaking English though. You pretty much have to speak some spanish if you're going to get along down there. I lived in FL 30+ years but it was in central FL, so my opinion of Dade county in general isn't the highest.

 

[tami]

Originally posted by: darkamulets
Homestead was farm area uptill well it still is in certain parts. It has expanded to a small city pretty quiet. I live in Hialeah a suburb of Miami about 15 west of downtown. Homestead is a good while away but you atleast avoid all the traffic. For partying you got South Beach & Miami Beach on weekends. Further north like 40 miles you have Hollandale beach.

hallandale.

that's south broward right there. it's the southernmost coastal city in broward county.

by the way, the spanish thing is highly overrated. spanish would help, but it's not mandatory. i live in new york city now, and spanish would help here too (very much so -- more so than it ever did in florida) but it's not a necessity.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: tami

Originally posted by: darkamulets
Homestead was farm area uptill well it still is in certain parts. It has expanded to a small city pretty quiet. I live in Hialeah a suburb of Miami about 15 west of downtown. Homestead is a good while away but you atleast avoid all the traffic. For partying you got South Beach & Miami Beach on weekends. Further north like 40 miles you have Hollandale beach.

hallandale.

that's south broward right there. it's the southernmost coastal city in broward county.

by the way, the spanish thing is highly overrated. spanish would help, but it's not mandatory. i live in new york city now, and spanish would help here too (very much so -- more so than it ever did in florida) but it's not a necessity.

cool. well i might start looking into it a little more but we'll see.

 

[tami]

there is a benefit to living there since you get the best of both worlds: fort lauderdale is very close by

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

search for the Snark plaque thread....OP is in Homestead

 

[purbeast0]

im gonna bump this. anyone know how hard this area was hit by Hurricane (Tropical Storm) Dennis?

 

[aphex]

I remember driving through homestead about 2 weeks after Andrew.....

Reports from private barometers helped establish that Andrew's central pressure at landfall in Homestead, Florida was 27.23 inches (92.21 kPa), which makes it the third most intense hurricane on record to hit the United States. Andrew's peak winds in south Florida were not directly measured due to destruction of the measuring instruments. An automated station at Fowey Rocks reported 142 mi/h (228 km/h) sustained winds with gusts to 200 mph (272 km/h) (measured 144 ft (43.9 m) above the ground), and higher values may have occurred after the station was damaged and stopped reporting. The National Hurricane Center had a peak gust of 164 mph (272 km/h) (measured 130 ft (39.6 m) above the ground), while a 177 mph (285 km/h) gust was measured at a private home. In 2002, as part of an ongoing review of historical hurricane records, National Hurricane Center experts concluded that Andrew briefly had sustained winds of 165 mph (265 km/h) at landfall (Andrew had originally been classified as a Category Four storm at landfall).