So you're thinking about moving to Boca Raton and you want to weigh the pros and cons. Well, in this video, I'm giving you my top five pros, my top five cons from a Boca Raton resident, and we're getting after it right now. What's up everybody? My name is Andy Mandel. I'm a broker associate with Remax Advisors. And if this is your first time to the channel, this is where we go over everything there is to know about South Florida, working, living, eating, sleeping, playing, and enjoying all the beautiful things that South Florida has to offer. So if you like that, make sure you subscribe to this channel, make sure you click that bell icon so you get notified every time we do a new video. Honestly, I get so many calls, texts, and emails every single day from people looking to move here to South Florida and we absolutely love it. So if you have any questions about South Florida, make sure you give us a call, shoot us a text, or even send us an email, or a smoke signal or carry a pigeon. However you want to communicate, we got your back when moving to South Florida. So let's start with the pros. Pro number one of Living a Boca Raton is the location. We're the southernmost city in Palm Beach County and we're just a short 15-minute car ride or Uber from Delray Beach in Atlantic Avenue. Now Atlantic Avenue has a ton of shops, restaurants, nightlife, and other events to do. There's a ton going on. It's a great place to get dinner and drinks on the weekend or after work with friends or family. It's just got a lot going on. That's just a short ride away. We're also conveniently located only about 30 to 40 minutes south of West Palm Beach. We're also only 30 minutes away from Fort Lauderdale and about an hour from Miami. So you can get to any of the major cities along the coast here within a short period of time. Downtown Boca has also been approved to build a Virgin Bright Line station. So that's going to be a train that's going to be able to take you to Miami Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and then eventually over to Orlando. The whole leg will be about three hours but it will allow you to get to these major cities without having to get on your car and get on the highway. So that's going to be super convenient. We're one of few cities who has a stop and that's coming soon in the next couple years. Pro number two is the excellent schools. You can check greatschools.org but all the schools in Boca are at least an 8 out of 10 if not 9 or 10 out of 10. There's excellent schools whether it's elementary, middle, or high school. Whatever kind of school you're looking for, Boca schools are all a-rated. It's an excellent place to raise a family. We also have a ton of colleges down here. So in Boca Raton, we have FAU which is Florida Atlantic University. It's quickly growing to be one of the best and biggest schools in the state of Florida. We also have Lin University which is another great university. In Fort Lauderdale, we have Nova, South Eastern University. And then in Miami we have UM University of Miami and FIU, Florida International University. So if you have college-aged kids who want to stay home while they go to college, this is a great place to live to commute to some of the best colleges the state of Florida has to offer. Number three is safety. Boca is one of the safest cities in South Florida, especially compared to some of the surrounding cities and areas in South Florida. We have one of the lowest crime rates down here. So it's a very, very safe place to live and to raise a family. We have our own police force and fire fighters. So we have Boca Raton Police Department instead of having the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. So they're extremely professional. They're very reliable. And just in general, it's a very safe place to live. In order to pay for the private police force, our taxes are a little bit higher here. But again, safety is typically what's most important for a lot of people. And this is one of the safest places to be. Number four is outdoor living. Boca Raton has 46 public parks. We got about four miles of pristine beautiful beaches down here. There's even a dog beach. So there's a ton of outdoor activities to do. Tons of things to do with your family. It's a great place to live. We have great weather in South Florida. So you might as well enjoy it being outside at one of our beautiful parks. If you go up and down A1A, which is the street that takes you up and down basically the ocean, you'll constantly see people riding their bikes, skateboarding, roller running, anything like that. So there's tons of outdoor stuff to do here in Boca. Number five is a high quality of life. Boca Raton has all the features and amenities that you would want in a big city while still giving you that suburban feel. So we have tons of restaurants, shops, a world class mall. The restaurants range from the big brands and chains that you I'm sure you know to small mom and pop shops that are excellent. Same thing with the retail. Big chains, tons of mom and pop little shops there. So there's anything you could ever want all within Boca Raton. If you have a ton of tree line streets and neighborhoods that really gives you a friendly, warm, inviting feel, exactly what you'd be looking for for a suburban city while still giving you all the urban amenities that you're going to love. It really is an excellent place to live and raise a family. All right. So let's get into the cons. Con number one, it's a relatively expensive place to live. Housing costs are a little bit higher in Boca Raton than they are in some of the surrounding cities. Boca Raton is kind of called the millionaire capital. We have a ton of millionaires and billionaires who have these big mansions here in Boca. But we also have a ton of a four more affordable single-family homes, townhouses, condos. So housing in general is a little bit more expensive in Boca, but there are some affordable options for you. Con number two, it's traffic. Traffic can be pretty bad down here especially in the winter time when we get a lot of snowbirds coming down from the northeast and from wherever else to coming from. Snowbird season is typically December through about the end of April. That's when you see the most traffic on the roads. And even though South Florida isn't very far from the ocean to about as far as you can go because we have the Everglades a little farther, if you're going from east to west especially during rush hour traffic can be really bad. Con number three is the weather. While we do have excellent winters that are very, very mild and people love it down here in the winter from June to September, it can be really, really hot. We're talking highs in the mid-90s and humidity at almost 100 percent. So you walk outside, you feel sticky, you feel very, very hot. It's not a dry heat like you would get in some places like Arizona. It can be very hot and very humid. Also in the summer, we get rain almost on the dot every afternoon. You can almost call it about one o'clock. You'll get a downpour for like 30-ish minutes or so and then it'll clear up. But just about every single day in the afternoon, you will get a thunderstorm. Con number four is hurricanes. So we're right in Hurricane Alley. We've been very lucky at least on the east coast southeast Florida to not have hurricanes for really 10 plus years now. The last bad hurricane we had was 2006 with Hurricane Wilma. But you got to be prepared for hurricanes. You have to know what to do. Hurricane season is from June until the end of November. It peaks really in August and September. Just about Labor Day. Almost every single year we had a hurricane scare. It's one of the things just have to deal with because of that our insurance costs for our property are a little bit higher. So you just got to be prepared for hurricane season. Con number five is the lack of nightlife. With Inboke Raton, we don't have a ton of clubs and rowdy bars that are open till the wee hours of the morning. The good thing is you can take a quick ride to Atlantic Avenue or to Fort Lauderdale Miami and there's a lot more options there. But there just aren't a ton of clubs and late night bar options that are out here. Inboke Raton, it's more of a family friendly area. So they try to keep all the bars and stuff closed and the noise level down, especially past 2am. So that's it for my pros and cons listed Boke Raton. I'm personally a Boke Raton homeowner. So where I chose to live or I'm going to raise my family, this is just a really good place to be. It's got tons of everything you could ever want here. You don't have to drive anywhere else. It's a really really nice place to live and I know you're going to love it too. So if you're thinking about moving to Boke Raton or any of the surrounding cities in Southeast Florida, I'm your guy. Give me a call, shoot me a text, send me an email, don't be a stranger, I'm always here to help. Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next time.