Where Should I Live When Moving To Boca Raton, FL - Find The Perfect Spot!

Alright, so you’re thinking about moving to Boca Raton, Florida and you’re looking for the perfect spot, what neighborhood should you look into? Where should you be in Boca?

So if that interests you, let’s get after it right now.

Hey, I’m Andy with the Mandel Team at Remax, and if this is your first time through the channel, this is where we go over everything there is to know about South Florida. Eating, living, sleeping, playing, enjoying the beautiful South Florida lifestyle.

So if that interests you, make sure you subscribe to our channel and tap that bell icon so you get notified every time we do a new video.

So let’s get into it.

When you’re moving to Boca, it really depends on the kind of lifestyle that you want to determine which neighborhood is best for you, and where you should be.

So, you know, East Boca is gonna have different lifestyle and different types of houses with different places versus West Boca. You know, you got country clubs, you got a lot of different kind of options So I want to break it down for you.

So if you’re moving to Boca, East Boca is typically anything east of the turnpike. So there you tend to get, and it’s not every single neighborhood, but you tend to get older homes, you’re a little closer to the beach and the water. There’s more shops, and restaurants, and amenities, and nightlife, and things like that if you go a little farther east.

The homes tend to be older, they tend to be a little bit more expensive, but that’s kind of the East Boca lifestyle.

West Boca tends to be more bigger homes bigger lots, a lot more gated communities. Typically more family-oriented but they’re doing a lot of commercial development, or at least some commercial development over in West Boca to put more shops and restaurants and things like that that families can enjoy, and anyone who lives there can enjoy.

But to get from West Boca to East Boca, depending on which street you’re on, and the time of day and traffic, it’s not like it’s a different country and it’s super far away. So it really just depends on what fits your lifestyle best.

If you got families and you need more bedrooms and you want space for the kids, West Boca is probably a better bet than East Boca depending on your price range.

Then we have country club neighborhoods in Boca Raton. So if you’re not familiar with the country clubs here, the way those typically work is a really large initial equity buy-in. So they can go from, like, $40,000-$50,000 one-time fee when you buy-in, up to $200,000 for St. Andrews, which is the most expensive.

That’s a one-time fee, you can’t roll it into your mortgage. It has to be paid in cash. Sometimes it has to be paid just prior to closing.

And then there’s the annual fees that you have to pay as well for the amenities, sometimes it goes to a food and beverage minimum at the restaurant at the club. It just depends on the neighborhood and, you know, if you’re a golf member versus a social member. There’s differences there, and every club’s a little bit different. And sometimes, when you move out, you might get some of that initial equity back. Again, it all varies depending on the club.

If you’re thinking about a country club in Boca, we have all the financial information, all that kind of stuff, reach out to us. We’d be more than happy to provide that for you.

My favorite, personally, my favorites are Woodfield, and St. Andrews.

So Woodfield, my wife actually grew up in Woodfield, so before her parents moved out, when we first started dating, you know, we got to enjoy the club a lot. That was really my first experience personally, living that kind of country club lifestyle.

So obviously it’s expensive, it’s not something that fits my personal needs and desires right now. But you got beautiful clubhouse, you got bunch of restaurants. If you want to golf, they got a world-class golf course, a beautiful gym they just remodeled.

St. Andrews is another really nice country club.

St. Andrews has the highest initial buy-in. So that’s the one we were talking about where it was $200,000. So it is very expensive but you’ll get very affluent people in St. Andrews.

The homes are really nice. They have a developer program right now so they’re seeing a lot of these homes sell, get torn down, and they’re building up these 5,000 sq. ft modern mansions. And you know, we just sold one in there for a little over 6 million dollars. So it can get very, very expensive in these country clubs.

But if you like that lifestyle and you have that kind of money, the country clubs are amazing. Those are two of my personal favorite.

So the next kind of community I wanna talk about would be the gated communities.

Now, there’s a bunch of these in Boca. The Boca has a lot of gated communities, so it’s hard if you’re moving here and you’re not familiar with the area to get in and see the kind of houses.

But my personal favorite, in no particular order, Boca Isles, Boca Falls, Saturnia, The Oaks, Lotus, Boca Bath and Tennis, Les Jardins, and Long Lake Estates.

Now all these are gonna be a little bit different. They’re in different price ranges. But these are all really nice neighborhoods.

Boca Isles is in West Boca. So you’ll have Boca Isles North and South. They’re gated, you got the clubhouse with the amenities.

Boca Falls, same thing. It’s Palmetto Park Road all the way west. Really nice houses with a really nice community clubhouse.

Saturnia is a very similar feel. The homes tend to be a little bit bigger in Saturnia. than in Boca Isles or Boca Falls.

Then you got The Oaks. So The Oaks is that really expensive Mediterranean style looking home. So I’m seeing a lot of people have the Mediterraenan style but make it modern, which is a cool twist, and I really like that. The Oaks is a very nice neighborhood.

Then you got Lotus, which is basically new construction. It was, you know, finished in 2021, 2022. That’s the modern — it was built by GL Homes which is the biggest developer in this area, Palm Beach County. They build really nice, good quality homes so Lotus is a great community with the big clubhouse, and all of those kind of country club amenities without the initial buy-in.

Boca Bath and Tennis is a beautiful community. Really, really nice. Closer to the east side of Boca. So it’s gated there, you still get the clubhouse and all the amenities. But you get a little bit of an older home that has been remodeled. And it’s a really, really nice community you should definitely check out.

Les Jardins is East Boca but it’s more centralized and they have really big lots. That’s kind of what it’s known for. So it’s not like they pack a million homes into that neighborhood. They’re good-sized lots, really good-sized homes. And it’s a very nice upscale gated community.

Then you got Long Lake Estates, which is gonna have, out of all of these neighborhoods, the biggest lots. A lot of them have these really, really nice waterfront views over the lakes. It used to be, you can get in there for $1M-1.5M for a decent home. Prices now are kind of starting in the 3 million-ish range, still for very, very nice homes. But they can go up significantly from there for new construction. There was a $7M house I was showing in there the other day. So Long Lake Estates is a really, really nice neighborhood if you want really big lots, and you wanna still be in Central Boca surrounded by all the country clubs, but not have those country club fees.

So the next type of neighborhood we’re gonna talk about is NO HOA neighborhoods.

Now Boca actually does have a lot of these as well. So my personal favorites: Boca Square over in East Boca, Palm Beach Farms, also in East Boca, The Golden Triangle, what we colloquially call, “that area right behind Mizner”, between the inner coastal and Mizner.

There’s a lot of older homes, you know, 50’s, 60’s homes that are being torn down and rebuilt into very big mansions. So it’s an expensive area. You got some waterfront properties in there where you could park your boat behind your house. But there’s no HOA, so it’s a really nice area.

Then you got Old Floresta. So that neighborhood was developed by Addison Mizner. Some of the homes are historic and there’s certain, you know, restrictions on what you can and can’t do with those homes. But they have really nice, cool features. It’s that old 20’s kind of feel. But a lot of homes have been modernized on the inside. It’s a cool, unique neighborhood, just east of 95 off of Palmetto Park Road.

Finally, Downtown living. If condo lifestyle is for you and you wanna live downtown, you know, walking distance to some of the best restaurants, and shopping in Mizner, there’s two brand new condo towers that are there. You got Tower 155, which is now completed and sold out. That’s a really nice community. It’s literally right in the heart of downtown.

And then you have Alina, which they’re building that in three phases. So Phase 1 is complete and sold out. They’re building phases 2 and 3. This is a very high end building. It overlooks the Golf Course of the Boca Raton Resort. So if you’re high enough, you can see not only the golf course, but you can see the ocean. It’s a really, really, really nice building right in the heart of downtown.

So if condo lifestyle’s for you, those are two great options to choose from.

They do come with a slightly higher price point, but they’re two of my favorite condo buildings in downtown.

And finally if you’re looking for waterfront, Boca has a lot of waterfront options. There’s a ton of different neighborhoods. Not all of them are gated, in fact, most of them aren’t. But if you look obviously farther east on the inner coastal in Boca, there’s a lot of neighborhoods with, you know, some of them are still the older one-storey homes that have been remodeled. Some of them are, you know, they haven’t been remodeled and developers are coming in and buying those.

There’s a lot of different waterfront options for you in Boca if you’re looking to park your boat behind your house. Waterfront does come with a hefty premium but for a lot of people, the savings on having to park your boat somewhere else makes sense when you are parking it behind your house. So you can pay a little bit more for that sometimes.

So those are some of my personal favorite neighborhoods in Boca Raton.

No, you know, rhyme or reason. No order for any of those kind of stuff, just my personal favorite and where I see a lot of our clients really like.

So if you have any questions about moving to Boca Raton and where you should live, make sure you give us a call, shoot us a text, or send us an email. And always remember, We got your back when moving to South Florida. Whether you’re buying in 9 days, 9 years, 9 months, we’re here to help.