I live in Delray Beach area, about 20 mins north of FTL. Its fine there, the city is huge you can live just about anywhere around there and still be 10-15 mins from your office.
If you want family stuff, areas like Plantation, Weston (way west), Boca Raton are a good choice, if you are gay you will want to live around Wilton Manors, if you are a beach goer you live right along the water, if you are poor you live somewhere 1-2 miles west of the ocean to I95. If you are a boater you have a condo or TH with deep water access in a canal somewhere near the water but not on it. If you are wealthy you live off Las Olas and the Intra coastal, a little strip of area along Pompano Beach (Lighthouse Point) or in one of three key areas of Boca Raton. If you are single then the rest of the land is yours ;). Downtown FTL offers several high rise condos that have ocean views and you can walk to all the bars. Deerfield Beach a few miles North is where a lot of younger people are, you can hit the scene there and find a lot of 'college girl types'. Also a lot less expensive living with similar amenities. Delray Beach has one of the larger concentrations of party goers in one street (IMO). The only place you will find a guy asking for a handout, the street lined with benz/bmw's, and a drug dealer in every bar, oh not to mention everyone that works in those bars is in some program or another (Delray leads the nation I think in rehab programs). It makes for very interesting night life. Don't get lost though, two blocks away is some pretty bad ghettos. Oh yah all tucked inside this little 'strip' are 500-750k townhouses and condos. (The beach is clothing optional, I think, or at least it seems quite a few people like to go topless and no one ever says anything) Ive been down in the area for 15 years (South Beach to Boca Raton, to Delray) The housing market has pretty much tanked as much as its going to, lots of short sales and bank stuff going on in certain areas. The wealthier areas of course you wont find anything, I guess its whatever your looking for. Owning a house here isn't all its cracked up to be, real estate tax is high in lieu of a state sales tax (we have no state sales tax, just city/fed). You also need a HELL of a lot of insurance, and if you live east of I95 that can cost 50% of your mortgage payment depending on flood zone or not. Also there is no tradeoff for the breeze from the water, it makes a big difference between being on the water and getting that light breeze vs being 10 miles west and sitting in the swamp. As someone who owned homes out West and now rents right on the water, I can say Im much happier for about the same money. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
