Revisiting Fort Lauderdale's Fabulous Victoria Park Neighborhood

Everyone who lives in Fort Lauderdale knows Victoria Park. This neighborhood was not always the hot spot it is today. This neighborhood is situated just North of the Las Olas shopping district and downtown FTL, it borders canals on the East side, and the thriving commercial districts on Federal Hwy to the West and Sunrise Blvd to the North. I wanted to take an in depth look at what's happening there now. Get comfy as I go deep with maps and charts!

Walking through the neighborhood, I get the same feeling I always get. I love it! It's just a great area and I think it keeps getting better. Sure some of the older homes have been knocked down and replaced with McMansions but the majority of those big houses look perfectly at home here and many new homes are gorgeous unique homes. Many modern styled homes are popping up all over which adds diversity. The commercial district along Federal Hwy is finally filling in with newer shops and restaurants while the Gateway shopping center keeps it's charm. Holiday Park is always jumping, people are always out walking their dogs, and the trees and gardens are amazing!

If you are interested in real estate in Victoria Park or any other neighborhood in the area, call Adam Ehlmann of Related ISG International Realty at 954-980-7120 or email at adamehlmann@gmail.com.

Here are some great homes currently for sale in Victoria Park - call me for an appointment:
Single Family Homes
Townhomes


One of the many beautiful homes currently for sale in Victoria Park

Maps, Maps, and More Maps!

This is the big view showing the neighborhood within the context of the city and what's around it. You can see why this is such a popular area with it's proximity to everything cool in FTL!


Tighten up map. Some people, especially old timers will probably say that this isn't all "officially" Victoria Park or I'm leaving something out, etc. but this is what I think of as the neighborhood and this is my blog so there.

Zoning

I know, snoooooore. Zoning is something that you only bring up in conversation if you want the conversation to end. The fact is, it affects your property values and your quality of life. Wondering how "they" can allow that developer to build that "thing" next door?? Zoning. When you take a big, impersonal look at it though, it's the way that officials direct the growth of a city. Cities are going to grow and change, that's why they are cities and that's why we love them. Knowing the zoning in your neighborhood and more importantly, knowing it where you want to buy is important. Victoria Park has 5 different residential zoning districts alone! See map and codes below: (call me if you want to really get into it!)



Zoning Codes:

RS-8

Residential Single Family/Low Medium Density - Single Family Detached Residential, 8 dwellings per acre – Single family detached homes ONLY

RC-15

Residential Single Family and Cluster/Medium Density – Single Family Attached and Detached Residential, 15 dwellings per acre – New duplex/townhouse developments allowed on ALL lots

Rcs-15

Residential Single Family/Medium Density – Single Family Attached and Detached Residential, 15 dwellings per acre – New duplex/townhouse developments on detached home lots NOT allowed

RMM-25

Residential Multifamily Mid Rise/Medium High Density – Midrise multi-family residential and tourist accomodation, 25 dwellings per acre or 30 motel/hotel or nursing home rooms per acre. Note that any hotels or nursing homes can only be located on large arterial streets. Hotels with the restrictions in this code would be small, boutique establishments.

RMH-60

Residential Multifamily High Rise/High Density – Highrise, high density multifamily residential and hotels, 60 dwellings per acre or 120 hotel rooms per acre. You can see this only occurs twice where there are existing multi-family buildings.

RO

Residential Office - Dentists, Doctors, Acupuncturists, CPAs, etc. typically in residential buildings

CB

Community Business – This looks like it is only where the Winn Dixie is on Federal and 6^th.

B-1

Boulevard Business – Typical zoning for most of Federal Hwy

CF or CF-HS

Community Facility - Schools

P

Parks, Recreation and Open Space - Holiday Park

RAC-EMU

East Mixed Use Special District - Special use business district along Federal Hwy up to NE 6^th St.

Construction

I took an informal stroll/bike/drive through the neighborhood yesterday to get the pulse of construction and there are quite a few hammers being swung. They are a mix of single family detached homes, some duplexes, a few rows of townhomes, and the large block of homes being built behind the old Bank United tower. See Map below for all current construction efforts that I saw.

Sales Charts

Nothing beats a good map like a good chart! I looked at prices over a full year ending yesterday April 15th so sales are from April 15, 2011 through April 15, 2012 and so on. I can't say this is perfect or even close to perfect statistical relevance but stats are kind of impossible to be completely objective with but at least this way seems simple enough.

Here's what you need to know about the charts below. They start with 2011 because prices tanked in 2007 through about 2009, then were flat through 2011, then they went up - this is the time I'm interested in. Because Victoria Park is a relatively small area, I used a full year as my time measure because when your numbers get too low, you can get weird data.

I see mainly good things. In single family homes (SFH), priced jumped like crazy in 2013 coming out of the recession (27.8% SFH, 18.5% TH) and in 2014 (26.7% SFH, 31.7% TH) then went down in 2015 (18% SFH, 5.7% TH) and back up again in 2016 (19.2% SFH, 6.9% TH) The dip in 2015 could be a number of things but basically priced were up by about 1% in the past 2 years. Notice that the price per square foot has gone up steadily so it could something as random as people bought smaller homes in 2015.

Compared to Fort Lauderdale as a whole, prices in Vic Park are more volatile. They went up faster, then bounced back down, then up again while FTL rose slow and steady. Number of sales in Vic Park were between 75 and 90 per year, days on the market were 50-65 days. Townhouse prices have stayed just a bit below SFH prices overall.