Family friendly places to live around FLL
 

Considering a move to the FLL base from out of state: what are some family-friendly good public school neighborhoods to consider which are 1h or less from FLL?
Are there any places (e.g. near a nice mall) where kids could walk/bike to school and we wouldn't necessarily have to take the car every time we run an errand?

I know that Hollywood Beach is decent, and I've heard nice things about Boca Raton. Any other suggestions that I could investigate?

How old are your kids? Weston is close and very nice. Parkland second. If you want to live North, Wellington, Palm beach gardens and Jupiter have good schools.

be prepared to pay… it ain’t your grandmas Florida anymore.

That Boca to MIA drive could be pretty nasty on a reserve call out.

worth it……..

Hollywood beach is great for going to the beach, but living there...let's just say it's called "Holly-hood" for a reason

I don't know man, if I were married with kids I would seriously consider our MCO base and the central Florida area before looking here. So many more family friendly options up that way, not to mention way more affordable.

Weston, Cooper City, Davie, Southwest Ranches are nice areas. Davie and Southwest Ranches are a bit more spread out and in most cases it won’t be so easy to ride a bike to school unless you live pretty close.

Pretty much all of Broward and Dade county are private school only territory. In palm beach county it’s Boca Raton and Jupiter for good schools.

I wouldn’t move to SE Florida with a family these days. Cost of living is very expensive for not much ROI when it comes to QOL outside of work. It really is a lot of the worst of humanity. The weather is miserably hot 10 months of the year. Almost zero green space. Most of the population is completely entitled and complete A-holes

the A holes in Florida are not from Florida. The good news is they are east to spot. Just look for the Mets/Giants gear. There is a Ton of open space. Plus, central South Florida north of the glades is full of farms and country stuff to do. Not to mention incredible beaches and rivers; this is water sports country. If you can’t square the temps, then that’s a non starter. just like living in the northeast where it’s freezing most of the year with minimal daylight, you get used to it. Very used to it. I get cold below 75 degrees now. It is getting crowded and the cost of living has risen tremendously. I’m not sure where to go to isolate yourself from the last one, but at least we are free people.

I'm yet to go to the interview but... how senior is MCO as a base?

More generally, does anybody have the Base seniority vs Pilot seniority numbers for each base (anonymized obviously) that they'd be willing to share? Something like the following: https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?c...V7WgXkLXAgABxk

Thank you for that list.

Thanks. They're grade 1 and grade 7.

I second this. I lived in both South Florida and Central Florida. MCO for family life and schools hands down.

Prior to falling head over heels for a purchase, ditch the realtor, and physically drive the route from potential home to base both ways between 7am-9am and 4:30pm to 6:30pm. During school season, on Friday or Monday, preferably in the rain. If you choose FLL/MIA all roads to hell or heaven include 95 or the turnpike. In MCO try I-4. For bonus points, take your BP before and after.

Don't forget a fistful of pennies to chuck back at the car on your @ss behind you and your Glock.

or just draw a 40 mile circle around the airport and look at Apple Maps directions during rush hour.

As someone that has lived on or near the water in FL my entire life I cannot recommend the tri county area to anyone. We moved down here about 13 years ago from another part of the state and it has progressively gotten worse. We live in one of the couple great school districts but anywhere else get ready to pay up big for your children’s education.

It was always the most populous region of Florida but it has grown so much since Covid. I have no idea where the larger population is finding a place to live bc there is no more land. Ocean to the east and glades to the west. The constant cramped quarters has everyone on a short temper. It’s not just NYers. People are from everywhere and everyone has a bad attitude.

You used to be able to escape to the keys for some R and R but all the insurance money from Irma had all the small boater friendly inns remodeling and charging obscene prices with many no longer catering to boaters bc we don’t stay onsite during the day spending money. The northern keys have turned into an extension of Miami with loud music, bad attitudes, drunks, jet skis, and people throwing trash everywhere.

Boating north of Miami and south of palm beach is mostly nonexistent inshore and the ditch once again is filled with drunks that have no idea how to operate a vessel. Offshore the water is beautiful but aside from the extremely hot months the wind blows a lot down here making going offshore with kids somewhere between pretty uncomfortable to very unsafe much of the year. If you have a boat that costs as much as the median America home with more mx costs then yes the Bahamas past Bimini are in reach but it won’t be cheap. Bimini just like the northern keys is now Miami east. Let’s not even talk about how bad bad the fishing has become bc of the overfishing, population growth, and criminal pollution runoff from sugar country.

Non of this is hyperbole. Come see for yourself. A few of the nice folks that moved into my neighborhood from their commi states during Covid are having major buyers remorse. They moved in for the great schools and paid up for a small house. Without a boat, which may not be worth it anyway for reasons above, and golf being miserably hot much of the year, they are wondering if the juice is worth the squeeze and I can’t argue with them honestly.

Right now FLL is our “fortress” base at spirit and does offer the most in scheduling options and flexibility because of its size. That and buying in a very low price in a good school district are the only things keeping us here but we are seriously considering and looking at options upstate or out of state.

How's homeowners insurance?

I'm down to the last limb, 2 eyes, and a mouth on my newborn. Otherwise, it's fine.

self-insured Brah. I’m not poor.

This is a pretty good assessment for living south of PBI.

I know, you're a very big deal.

How's the trend line on homeowners insurance? Getting better or worse?

As are you, very impressive. 😂 the insurance market is a mess. Some lenders are no longer requiring wind coverage. Roof coverage is changing, insurers are now requiring extremely high deductibles and are now pro rating roofs. I think FIGA will probably wind up taking the whole thing over.

Yeah but it makes for some great entertainment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH3nsTqdAd8

:D

Why are rates and risks going up so much?

Much worse.

Just look at Google News for "FL homeowners insurance" and you'll see dozens of articles about it.... many insurance companies are pulling out of the state

Because homeowners would file a wind damage claim on a 20 year old roof when there hasn’t been a hurricane in the area for years. When the insurance company denies the claim, they sue. If the homeowner wins, the insurer has to pay the legal bills. I’m not saying all claims are fraudulent but possibly a portion. Also, there are people called public adjusters that Jack up the damage estimates.

So the end result is the insurance companies pull out.

when I bought my house 4 years ago my insurance was $1800, 2 years ago they quoted $7000. So we paid it off and now self insure. All that means is that we keep a larger emergency fund.


Roofs in Europe are concrete and last 400 years. Ours last made out of plywood, plastic and concrete decoration. Seems stupid.

People don't file fraudulent insurance claims in other states? Doesn't sound like an honest answer for why the rates and risk are increasing so much.

The limited research I’ve done pointed to the shear amount of claims from hurricanes that caused a large area of damage one too many years in a row

the claims wind up costing the insurer $400,000 for a roof replacement. Calling me dishonest isn’t cool. This is my assessment of a market I’m familiar with and friends with insurance brokerage.


what are your thoughts BD?

I wasn't calling you dishonest, I'm saying the people pushing this narrative are being dishonest.

I can't think of a reason why fraudulent insurance claims would be more prevalent in FL vs other states.

Assignment of benefits. You can assign your insurance benefit to a contractor in FL. Contractor finds one broken tile and says you need a new roof. They file a claim with your insurance for double the cost of a new roof when all you needed was a small repair. That happened over and over after Irma

I was dropped by my insurance company every year after Irma. New company would be 50%+ increase each year then drop me again the next. Now I can only get insured from the state backed company and they constantly shop my home to outside companies. If they can find someone to insure me for less than a 25% increase on their premium then they can drop me as well. Their renewal on my policy was 30% increase this year.

If I had a lender that allowed you to not be covered for wind (hurricane) coverage that would be great but I didn’t know that even existed. My plan is to pay off and self insure when my premiums out cost the advantage of my 2.25% interest rate on my mortgage. That may happen sooner than later at the rate they’ve been increasing.

Oh and btw if you don’t have all the wind mitigation on your house like impact rated windows and doors, and a strapped roof you’re screwed bc the insurance companies will require it. That could be $40-$100k++ depending on the size of your house.

The crazy thing is that surge is what causes all the damage in a storm not really wind even in a cat 3 or 4. Yet all the insurance shenanigans are based on wind coverage which is required by lenders.

It’s not a thing typically initiated by the homeowners, after the hurricane the vultures swoop in and pepper neighborhoods with flyers and mailers, take out ads on local radio, even the ambulance chasing local lawyers get involved with handling claims. It’s not an exaggeration, even with some minor roof damage or a few missing shingles they will convince people of the possibility of water leaks and what the damage could do to their house, and once explaining it “won’t cost them a dime” many people figure they should just go ahead and get theirs. I know several people who were dropped after getting a new roof and have trouble finding affordable coverage again. With thousands of claims and not enough time to investigate each one, lots of shady people siphon tons of money in the wake of a disaster.

lenders are moving away from wind coverage.

Is "assignment of benefits" unique to FL?

Is it a new law?

If that is causing the problem, why doesn't the FL legislature change the law?

Why aren't these practices happening in other states? Still trying to understand what is unique about Florida that is causing this problem?

They 100% happen in other states. Opportunism doesn’t only exist in FloRida country

Then why is it Florida having the insurance crisis?

I’ve read that it’s because Florida has gotten hit with some pretty bad hurricanes in consecutive years that insurance companies don’t think it’s worth the hassle to stay in Florida

What we should do is stop building roofs out of wood. I’m willing to bet that if we did that, homeowner insurance wouldn’t be as big of a deal as it is now

They have roofs that are built for hurricane winds, problem is, people don’t want to pay for them. So hurricane come, blow the roofs off, insurance says “too much risk, we out” and the asphalt single roof crowds say “but who will replace our roofs?!”

See the issue? If you want to protect your house, protect your house. Stop depending on insurance companies to pick up the slack where you fail to protect your house. This is Florida, not Iowa, you live in hurricane country, act accordingly.

I’m not sure Iowa is a good state to use to represent roofs that are safe from high winds…

This 1000%