Miami Miscellaneous

[pahonu]

4 hours ago, Paul Veres said:

Definitely a tricky subject. For example, I'm surprised Indian Creek didn't make it - the gated island community near Miami Beach where Jeff Bezos now owns not 1, not 2, but 3 lots/mansions. Homes there probably average at some $40 million. 

I disagree on the zip code approach though. Often neighborhoods will have very defined architectural and social fabric, into which a zip code would tear or add "unnecessary" homes. For example in Dade county, some highways separate moderately affluent areas from some pretty rundown relatively dangerous places, though they might have the same zip code. Averaging home prices across such zip code would misrepresent home values in both areas (up in one, down in the other). Though the most expensive zip codes might sometime coincide with the most expensive neighborhoods, it would be despite the zip code's administrative borders, not thanks to them. 

I agree that a clear definition of what a "neighborhood" is would definitely help with such rankings. I certainly faced that problem when working on my own ranking of Miami-Dade neighborhoods by price. Indian Creek didn't make it into my list either, because there are so few homes and therefore so few deals, there is just not enough data to calculate an average, even though I defined it as a neighborhood of its own (after all, they are their own incorporated unit, not just part of the county).

Zip codes are far from ideal, but a gated community isn’t close to being a neighborhood.  There need to be schools, stores, parks, libraries, etc…  In very populous urban areas there are multiple zip codes, I believe 7 in my home of Long Beach.  Zip codes may be overly broad, but finding a very high priced zip code would seem to indicate more general affluence.  Using a gated community as the measure seems more about bragging rights than anything to me.  There’s such a community in Orange County called Coto de Caza.  It’s nothing but multimillion dollar homes.  But they all go into Newport Beach to shop and eat, etc…

[Paul Veres]

1 hour ago, pahonu said:

Zip codes are far from ideal, but a gated community isn’t close to being a neighborhood.  There need to be schools, stores, parks, libraries, etc…  In very populous urban areas there are multiple zip codes, I believe 7 in my home of Long Beach.  Zip codes may be overly broad, but finding a very high priced zip code would seem to indicate more general affluence.  Using a gated community as the measure seems more about bragging rights than anything to me.  There’s such a community in Orange County called Coto de Caza.  It’s nothing but multimillion dollar homes.  But they all go into Newport Beach to shop and eat, etc…

I see what you're saying, yes, if we to define neighborhoods as having o have certain infrastructure and services (which makes sense), a lot of these gated communities won't qualify. Now I wonder if not all zip codes will qualify either! So it's all about a neighborhood definition.