South Beach in Miami Beach is often one of the most confusing things about our local Miami Beach neighborhoods to newcomers. Often when I am showing buyers properties in Miami Beach and they are not from the area they say, “I think I would really like to live in South Beach not Miami Beach.” And then I reply, “South Beach is in Miami Beach.”
It’s confusing, I know. I was confused when I first move here too.
here is the breakdown…
When people refer to Miami, they often encompass Miami Beach in the term. But in reality, Miami is on the mainland and Miami Beach is not. Thus Miami is not Miami Beach and vice versa. Although very connected in day-to-day life and work, the two are completely different areas of living and lifestyle.
now to South Beach in Miami Beach…
South Beach is an area of Miami Beach from about 23rd street South to 1st Street. It encompasses a lot of people jam packed into about 23 blocks from the uber rich to the working class folks.
View South Beach Condos for Sale in a larger map
The cost of living is right up there with any other major city but definitely a little more affordable than a city like New York. I have heard South Beach termed as “the six borough of New York.” South Beach is very diverse and multicultural. People of all different walks of life, live, work and play in South Beach.
Collins Avenue Miami Beach, Washington Avenue South Beach and Ocean Drive are heavily traveled areas of South Beach for shopping, dining and hotels; Lincoln Road is the center of life on South Beach. Lincoln Road Miami Beach is where the tourists meet the locals through shopping, dining and really great people watching.
Transportation in South Beach is very simple. Drive, walk, scooter, hail a cab or take the South Beach Local. Depending on where you are going and the timing of your destination, South Beach can be a tough place to park.
There are garages and paid meters all over the city but if you are living in South Beach, it is definitely a plus to find a unit with assigned parking. If you are lucky to live in a building with assigned parking, keep in mind that most of the units in buildings with assigned parking typically only come with one spot. (**And yes, that goes for two and three bedroom units too). Often people walk around South Beach to their destinations and most of the areas around South Beach are very pedestrian friendly. Vespas and scooters sell like hotcakes here.
Finding a place to live in South Beach can be a full time job. If you want to rent, it’s good to know that most of the units in South Beach are individually owned, so often, the owners use REALTOR(R) ®s to market their property for rent and secure a new tenant. Usually the landlord pays the REALTOR(R) ®’s fees for this service. If you want to buy, there are many factors to consider and it’s super important to use an experience agent in the area.
Prices for renting or buying in South Beach are all up and down the scale. Your budget will definitely determine how you live in South Beach.
My recommendation whether buying or renting in South Beach in Miami Beach is to first determine your budget and from there your options will often appear very clear.
Key issues to consider when buying in South Beach:
- What’s the financial stability of the building?
- Are there any assessments (for paint, concrete work, window replacement) pending or anticipated in the future? If so how much work is anticipated and at what cost?
- Is the building updated? If yes with what; electrical, plumbing, hurricane impact windows?
- If the building does not have hurricane impact windows are the owners allowed to install shutters?
- Does the building have reserves for future projects? If yes, how much?
- Pet or no pet building? Pets for renters or no pets for renters?
- Does the building allow rentals? How often in a year can you rent?
- Does the unit come with assigned parking? Is it covered, valet? How much does valet cost for the unit owner? How much does valet cost for a guest?
- and much, much more……….
South Beach Neighborhoods:
1. South of Fifth Miami Beach (also known as SOFI). SOFI is one of the pricier areas to live in South Beach.
Popular Buildings that are located in this area are:
- Continuum I
- Continuum II
- Apogee
- Portofino
- Murano at Portofino
- The Yacht Club at Portofino
- Murano Grande
- Icon
- The Courts
- Cosmopolitan
2. West Avenue South Beach Neighborhood
Popular Buildings that are located in this area are:
- Bentley Bay
- The Floridian
- South Bay Club
- Mirador
- Mondrian
- The Waverly
- The Flamingo
- Capri
3. Flamingo Park
4. Collins Park
- Setai
- The W
- Roney Palace
Copyright © By Jamey Prezzi 2011 * All Rights Reserved* South Beach in Miami Beach
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About Jamey
Together for over twenty years, Jamey and Ognjen know the meaning of hard work, persistence, trust and dependability. They have been involved in numerous real estate transactions that involved multi-million dollar properties from high-rise luxury living in South of Fifth to large estates on the islands like Sunset Islands and more.
Thanks rk. Glad you liked it. Great feedback thanks: You know I had made that "light blue" circle to do most of Miami Beach and then the "South Beach" description to mean "the area to the left is South Beach" but I see how that may be a little confusing. Thanks for pointing it out! I will definitely keep that in mind next time I make an image like that. I am going to change it right now. thanks!
I've been trying the "Property Search" embedded in this article, and it works great! It seems to have just the right number of search options without being overwhelming. However, when I go your main Search page via the link at the top above the banner, that page has more options, but some important ones seem missing, e.g. search for rentals only. Also, that page shows in a light-grey hard to read color in IE8, but looks normal in Firefox. When I try to enter a price range (on the main search page) I noticed two problems (a) The down arrows next to minimum and maximum don't do anything, and (b) when I enter a range by typing it in, and click "Update Results", it seems to have ignored the range I did enter. These are NOT complaints, just trying to help you spot bugs. I love your posts and site in general.
Thanks so much RK. I didn't even notice the opacity setting in my CSS was off…..oops! Thank goodness you told me. I use firefox and it didn't show up. The search within the post is from a service called Realbird and they pull the listings from googlebase, pretty interesting concept and it's something different I am trying. The other search is from Wolfnet, provided by my broker. Unfortunately it's not really a good solution for rentals. You can search for rentals under property type there is a rental only search just put your mouse over the 5th one down and if you hold it, it says residential rentals. From there, that's the tricky part because although it will show all of the rentals in the MLS, the pricing is at $10,000 is the minimum/maximum point… not really a good point for rentals. This search was really built more for sales. Try it again and put in your criteria and then hit the update button. Curious to see if this works or not .Love feedback, let me know.
Great artcle, thanks! I specially liked your section about “Key issues to consider when buying..”, and the “Property Search” is great. To add to the “Key issues..” I would suggest (a) What are the HOA fees, and what exactly is included? (b) What percent of units are delinquent? (c) Does the building qualify for financing? (d) Are there any residency restrictions (for condo hotels)? (e) What percent of units are owner-occupied vs. rentals? etc. I know you've covered these in your other posts, but just for completeness for new visitors. For some reason evertyhing from the Search section on down seems to be in a light-grey color in my IE8 browser. Also, the map of “south beach” seems to include most of mid-beach within the blue circle.
and sorry for my super quick reply ……. it's a little rambling but I wanted to respond before I head out for the day, working with 3 clients today.
Thank you for fixing the opacity so quickly, and explaining the rest. You really must care about your work. Everything worked as you stated. The database search is not in your hands, I know, but here are some things I find useful when searching:(1) Search sales and rentals separately.(2) Search any price range (not just multiples of 20k or 10k)(3) Search for "New" listings only.(4) Search for Foreclosures and/or Short Sales separately.(5) Search by zip code.(6) Search for fractional number of baths, e.g. 1.5, not just 1 or 2.(7) Search by Property type, such as Condo/Townhome, SFH, Commercial etc.(8) Search by length of time property has been listed (though this can be tricky since they are often re-listed).The above list is intended for any search database designers who might be reading. Your listings do seem up to date as far as I could tell, with a fair amount of useful data for each listing. The financial information section is very useful, though it would be good to know the listing date. Please keep up the good work, and all the best.