Happyout274

Good morning all,

I have been reading posts for a long time now to research our move to Florida but this is my first question so I hope you guys can help.

We ( My husband and I with our 4 children ages 12,11,7 and 5) are considering a move to the US at the end of this summer. My husbands company want to transfer him and will be organizing Visas ect..

Having already spent 4 years in Germany we are very aware of the pitfalls that one can fall into when moving country however I have a few general questions.

1. With a young family is living beach side an option or do we need to head further out to eg Weston - are there any good schools near Pompano Beach? Is it safe?
2. Are there many ex pats living in this area
3. House prices beach side V's eg Weston Davie etc

I know I will have more detailed questions as time goes on but if anyone could help I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

RICH

Hello!
I live near Tampa Bay, so I don't have much knowledge about Ft Lauderdale, but there are some BE members around there.

Always, the first question is, which visa are you all getting?

I don't have children, but I know that "beachside"= mega bucks, vs inland, and as far as I know, inland =next to the swamp.

Of course lot's of us live hereabouts ,so don't take the stereotypes to seriously till you try it!

Good to see someone who actually could make it over here.

Happyout274

Thank you for your reply

Flabound oneday

for houses you can use ( and I hope I can post it here) the MLS or Multiple listing service....this is where all relators post the homes for sale....

go to myfloiridahomesmls.com and you can enter the criteria you want

we are on the other cost of (cold old) florida so cant help much other than that

Steve_

We had this thread the other day: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=813791 - my comment at the end.

But anyway to answer your question anywhere east of federal highway is full of old codgers in condos mostly. There are some crappy neighbourhoods about as well but Weston is one of the nicer ones and Pompano is okay.

Ft. Lauderdale beach was "updated" in the mid-90s to appeal to German tourists rather than spring break types. The water is nearly toxic around Port Everglades imo because of the diesel and God knows what else dumped in the sea.

I wouldn't live within a mile of the beach because of the hurricane risk - having been through one I don't recommend it.

I don't know where you're working but Deerfield Beach has a good reputation.

Steve_

Depends which beach it is. There's plenty of relatively inexpensive beachfront property in Florida. I just don't think it's a wise idea because of the hurricanes. Go through one and you won't take the risk, I guarantee it.

I remember when they built all those houses on Galveston island and then on NBC news they had some guy walking around asking people whether they thought it was sensible and they were saying they were willing to take the risk, then two years later Ike hit and guess what, their opinion had changed quite markedly.

West coast of Florida is less likely to get hit by a really strong one, but there have been a couple of really strong ones that came through Tampa Bay about a century ago. It would be a catastrophe of major proportions if that happened again today.

I might be wrong but I seem to remember that one reason Walt Disney put Disney World in Orlando was because he was worried about hurricanes.

Of course inland you have to worry about sinkholes... but those tend to affect only a small area, not like a hurricane.

penguinbar

Deerfield Beach is nice. My mother has a condo there and I have a friend that moved down three about 10 years ago. I go there a few times a year. You could also check out Coral Gables or DelRay

Michael

School Performance Map for the Ft. Lauderdale Area

Steve_

That was quite useful, I concur, Plantation High School is pretty awful.

Happyout274

From what you are all saying should I worry about the education system - do I need to think about Private School

Steve_

I don't think it would make any difference honestly, I'd go by that map, it seems pretty accurate to me.

Hotscot

Many of the private schoosl have less qualified teachers who they pay less. Kinda topsy turvy from the UK.

Steve_

Or... they have the same teachers who work more than one job.

I think I should explain how Florida works.

Florida has no State income tax and low sales taxes, so most of the revenue comes from property taxes. As a result the county or sometimes the city is the most important political entity and the county imx can often come across as being a fiefdom. The main thing the State does is issue driver licenses, incorporate companies and screw up child protective services.

So Escambia county is very different from Levy county and both are very different from Monroe county.

Plus there are also tons of retirees in Florida who don't really care about public schools and sit around all day writing to politicians complaining about other things.

Broward is one of the few counties that is reasonably well run and has a reasonable tax base and not everyone there is an old codger so it's one of the better counties for schools but still you should look into it carefully. What they think is a "good" school is not what you may think it is.

And if you can afford to live in Weston then really you shouldn't be asking on an internet forum.

Steve_

Bizarrely there was a thing on the news last night about how Florida screwed up child protective services so they offloaded it to the municipalities.