FRoberts

Hi
I'm new to BE. I'm moving with my husband from Hong Kong to West Palm Beach FL area in the next couple of months. I'd really appreciate any advice about best places to live (for amenities, things to do, safe neighbourhoods etc) and things to be aware of when moving to this area/USA generally . Thank you . Looking forward to this group !

moneypenny20

Hi and welcome. I've moved you to the US, will get more info here. The search function works well and you may find relevant info there whilst that half of the US are sleeping.

FRoberts

Thank you moneypenny

ian-mstm

Good morning! One thing people will want to know is whether one or both of you are US citizens or, if not, what visas you will have that allows you to live in the US.

As an aside, my parents lived for 10 years about an hour south of WPB... totally loved it!

Ian

Pulaski

Cost of living maybe a bit of a shock - the US isn't as cheap a place to live as it was.

You will only have a short time to get a local drivers license (most states it's 30-90 days after "establishing residence"), and you probably won't be able to just swap your current license, so will have to take a computer test and take a road "test".

petitefrancaise

Do you have kids? The school choices may limit where you live if you do...

anotherlimey

I've heard WPB is best if you live close to the actual beach. If you live further west you're more likely to be murdered.

Anyway, welcome to BE.

FRoberts

I do but they are grown up (supposedly!) and working in UK. . We're fairly young to have adult children (late forties/ wary
Fifties) and don't particularly want to live in a 'retirement' area ! So knowing where's best to avoid for that would be helpful too

alfista1

If you look on Trulia property it reports the most recent police incidents.

When the incidents state armed robbery/rape/homicide/shootings etc then best to avoid. Just a small change in area can make a big difference.

Twigstar

Hi,
I live 30 minutes south of WPB and it is not an area I would look for a home unless on the ocean as previously suggested. Either go North a little to Jupiter or south to Delray/Boca or West Boynton or even Wellington. I would steer clear of Lake Worth and Lantana.
I own a business that services Boca to WPB so am familiar with the area.

carcajou

You still have not answered the question about your visa - which determines if you are actually moving or whether your question is just a fishing expedition on an Internet forum.

Palm Beach County is incredibly diverse - billionaires in Palm Beach itself (all of the blue-blood American elite, not the nouveau-riche tech millennials have mansions there). In West Palm Beach (which - be careful and pay close attention to place names - is different from Palm Beach, just like a little bit south, Miami Beach isn't a sand-and-water beach, it's the name of a city on an island off the coast of Miami). In WPB there are fine areas and also neighbourhoods with high crime and murder rates. Then, other parts of the county are agricultural and are farming-intensive (citrus and sugar).

Palm Beach County was never really retiree central. That was (ironically enough!) South Beach in Miami before it became marquee-era South Beach about 25-30 years ago. As Miami changed, the retirees moved over to the other coast in the state, the Ft Myers/Sarasota area, not generally north into Palm Beach County.

FRoberts

Hi / I'm sorry , as I said my husband will get a work visa through his company -
I have no idea what I will get yet (we're a few
Months off) I'm not trying to be evasive.
Thank you for your area advice .
It's all appreciated.

md95065

You do realize that, in West Palm Beach, you have some pretty obnoxious weekend visitors just south of you in Mar-a-Lago ...

FRoberts

Thanks for the heads up !

carcajou

I would say, coming to Palm Beach County from Hong Kong - one of the first major differences you will note is that in Palm Beach County (and in the US generally) virtually nothing is walkable. You and your spouse will require your own car. In South Florida public transport is inadequate and is socially stigmatised.

Your $$$ will get you a much bigger house in West Palm Beach than in HK. High-rise condos are also seen as something of a status symbol, and not a function of everyday life as in a geography-constricted place like Hong Kong. Most people will also have swimming pools in their backyard (dug into the ground, not the portable above ground ones). Swimming pools are not a status symbol but something of a rite of passage in South Florida.

Spring, summer, and most of autumn there is a torrential thunderstorm daily at about 4 PM - you can just about set your watch to it - it is ferocious but doesn't last long.

Though in Florida, South Florida and Central Florida are not part of "Dixie" (the old Confederate South). South Florida wasn't developed until the early 1900s and Miami was originally named Lemon City. Southern Florida doesn't have the right climate for commercial oranges, tangerines and grapefruits and instead grows "sour citrus" - lemons and limes. Central Florida (starting at about the northern range of Palm Beach County) is where the "edible citrus" plantations start.

South Florida, instead, is really an extension of the Northeastern US - Miami used to be called the "6th borough" of New York and as mentioned the super-wealthy (who were all from the northeast - not the plantation barons from the south) put their winter palaces in Palm Beach (which is effectively the northern most part of the South Florida Metropolitan Area - Dade [Miami], Broward [Ft Lauderdale], and Palm Beach [WPB] Counties). A guy named Henry Flagler - he was very closely associated with Rockefeller and Standard Oil - thought South Florida would be a good vacation destination and started building a railroad (previously the area was largely inaccessible). The railroad was designed for connectivity to the Northeast and so residents there were who started coming down - it was not designed to provide connectivity to Southern cities like Atlanta or New Orleans. That, plus the invention and popularisation of air conditioning, made South Florida suitable for longer-term residence.

Key Lime Pie is a delicious South Florida delicacy - a sweet lime pie made from condensed milk that you don't have to bake (it was made as a confection for fisherman who spent long days out on their boat, before refrigeration).