Is Delray Beach a nice place to live?

I am a white male looking to move to south FL but not sure where. Looking at Demographics, there seems to be alot of 'you know who's' living in Delray but driving thru there and seeing pics, it looks really nice so I am not sure. Can someone living there advise as to where the nice area's are?

I used to live there from 2000 and moved away in 2005. I got out just in time. And sold my house at the top of the real estate fiasco. The city while it has nice parts, is littered with nasty con men, old people, and criminals. Jobs are non existent or they are not “real” jobs. Not too long ago, the Dunkin Donuts not too far from where I had once lived got robbed at gunpoint. Some of the parts of Delray that were once considered nice, are not so nice anymore. There is a bad element that lives there and their numbers are growing. Are you retiring? Or do you plan to work there? The job market in Florida stinks. South Florida is a very hard place to make friends. You have to watch your back constantly. Hard to trust anyone there. Everyone it seems has a plan. It is a very transient state. If you want to make friends or meet the love of your life, you won’t find it in South Florida. If you want to do that move to Utah. I can think of hundreds of other places in the US I would rather live than anywhere in South Florida. Yeah the weather's nice, but that isn't reason alone to move to such a crappy place to live. My opinion - don't go there or find somewhere better. I live in the Northeast now and it is much better here and the people are much nicer. yeah its colder but I will trade that any day for nice, genuine, and trustworthy people. And when I retire, I will not be moving to South Florida. Been there – done that.

Just east of I-95, off Atlantic is pretty nice.....or all around Atlantic and Military Trail.....

Huh? Just east off 95 is the Delray ghetto. You have to drive quite a ways east to get to the nice part of Atlantic. Think more like Federal Hwy and A1A. In my opinion, the best part of Delray is way west near 441 (if that is even Delray still?) Military Trail used to be nice but when you start seeing shopping carts littered on the side of the road you know the neighborhood has gone to shit.

Delray is an amazing place if you have children. Best place are by A1A or Lake ida. Small town and really nice people. Been here 10 years with my kids and we love it!!!

Delray is beautiful and is a great place to live, however just like everywhere in South Florida, there are lots of crazies and you are always one wrong turn away from a different ghetto

came on holiday and it appears the shops are full of older people who are not exactly welcoming you to shop and one hardware store by the library completely offended me as a mature brit, being asked to remove my bag so if they are in a ghetto area which I assume they are if they treat everyone like a criminal, I wonder if they will replace my money, driving licence, credit cards and passport if they got robbed while they had my bag at the till area!!I think not! Such rude people not very friendly at all. Dont come in July much too hot and no-one says but full of mosquitos which bite seriously. Wished I had gone someonewhere else for a long holiday. Shops are not interesting once been around once full of out of date clothes. The hardware store is the worst I have ever been in and there loss as I needed a few items and went to a better class mall. Would never return to this area.

Its a lot better now than it was years ago. A lot of new clubs and resturants and renovations went on.

Years ago Boynton and Delray was loaded with pimps pushers hookers/strippers diseases and topless bars, the cops cleaned it all up, shut them down, got the diseased trash out sent them down the road, its so much better now, crime is down, the cops did good.

I would stay away from lake worth and west palm through, they have NOT cleaned up, they allow those diseased bars to continue, AIDS must be up and crime in high, LW and WP should do what boynton delray did.

There are a couple of areas in delray to stay away from, more north towards LW, but all in all its nice kind of expensive, but SO much better now.

Sorry I meant boynton when I said north of LW. In Delray its more Southwest, the shady areas, unfortunately there is one "crime" area in every city of Florida, you cannot stop that, but WP and LW go over the top! People scramble to move from those places so many murders, rapes, and other crimes.....

Warren wrote:

Huh? Just east off 95 is the Delray ghetto. You have to drive quite a ways east to get to the nice part of Atlantic. Think more like Federal Hwy and A1A. In my opinion, the best part of Delray is way west near 441 (if that is even Delray still?) Military Trail used to be nice but when you start seeing shopping carts littered on the side of the road you know the neighborhood has gone to shit.

You have to drive quite a ways east to get to the nice part of Atlantic.

WHAT???

Downtown Delray -- the strip with all the fine restaurants are (the "nice part") is just less than 1 mile from I-95. It's not such a LONG WAY. You don't "have to to drive quite a ways east to get to the nice part of Atlantic."

It's 9/10 of a miile.

- Brett Loebel, Delray Beach

Brett-Loebel wrote:

<quoted text>
You have to drive quite a ways east to get to the nice part of Atlantic.
WHAT???
Downtown Delray -- the strip with all the fine restaurants are (the "nice part") is just less than 1 mile from I-95. It's not such a LONG WAY. You don't "have to to drive quite a ways east to get to the nice part of Atlantic."
It's 9/10 of a miile.
- Brett Loebel, Delray Beach

this is true! brett is correct. its less than a mile to the bad part of town from east atlantic ave, it "drops off" quickly so to speak a few blocks of really nice restaurants and clubs then all of a sudden not so good. be careful at night.

Warren was talking about living in Delray around Atlantic, not about how nice the shops and restaurants are. The boardwalk is fantastic, but if you want to live between the 95 and Swinton, there are a bunch of halfway houses and a high petty crime reate. If you want to live there, you need to go east of Swinton, save for a few safer pockets in between.

I see the Original question was asked over , but for any one with a similar concern I would suggest choosing a different area of South Florida . Above someone mentioned Halfway Houses...whew, the drug problem is terrible here and in all of South Florida . Pill Mills all over, people all doped up all over . Old woman getting robbed by drug addicts in the super market parking lots . Drug addict , bums coming up to you in most shopping centers or on every single main inter section asking for money .. its incredible how it's legal . I left Long Island for this , hahah...what a mistake .. The beach is beautiful but hang around early evening and you will see the bums come on to the beach or near the dunes to hang out . My wife was followed by a drugged out , crazy guy just as she exited her car on Ocean to go onto the beach . Of course the small strip with restaurants is nice, but unless you are very wealthy and living in one of the small nice areas it is the pits ... For those with average income the best areas in Delray, Boca , Boynton seem to be more west . West of Military has less crime, but an older population . In Boca , the Delmar area is Nice , as well as west Boca from Glades north . Good schools . that's another thing about Delray ...The schools are absolutely terrible . I'm finally leaving and it can't come too soon .

This is disappointing to me. I had heard from numerous people that Delray was a nice area with a real downtown which is what I want for a second home. Have been thinking of purchasing a second home down in florida and thought it would be a good place to consider but this makes me rethink.

are you guys kidding yes theres about a 10 block stretch thats not so good but the rest is beautiful the delray downtown is by far the nicest place in south fl and the beach is wow

Delray Beach is great. We moved from East Boynton because of the crime there. The Delray city government plans to extend commercial/ retail on Atlantic Avenue all the way to I95. Yes, there are pockets of iffy areas but the cops in Delray keep a close eye on things unlike Boynton Beach. Delray's redevelopment plan has been extremely successful and will continue going forward. The sober house/rehab facility we live near, since it was mentioned as a negative, is full of young people from all over the country. And, it's very expensive. We have never had a problem nor have our neighbors.

I have lived all over South Florida and can honestly say that fort lauderdale is the nicest place to live. Boca and Delray are filled with snotty, materialistic people.(Delray used to be cool, but not anymore).
Fort Lauderdale has many different neighborhoods offering different vibes. If you want a pedestrian life, then live off Broward Blvd to the South and USI.

If you really want to make friends, migrate towards the natives. They are the nicest people around.
I'm from Wisconsin and felt that the natives were the most down to earth.

Graham Wellington wrote:

I am a white male looking to move to south FL but not sure where. Looking at Demographics, there seems to be alot of 'you know who's' living in Delray but driving thru there and seeing pics, it looks really nice so I am not sure. Can someone living there advise as to where the nice area's are?

Well I am not so happy with Hollywood ft lauderdale. It is going to become miami dade soon and if you are offended im sorry but I dont speak Spanish and I dont intend to IM SICK of it. I looked in PBC and the people are too extreme opposite snotty as the other poster said, need a balance and ENGLISH speaking

you should grow up Amanda...unless you're a native american,your family came from somewhere else and i'm sure someone didn't like the language they spoke.
Grow up and travel - learn about life

you should travel and grow up amanda. unless your family is native american than they came from somewhere else and probably didn't speak very good english when they arrived. bet you wish you could speak italian, german, french, whatever...your comment is borderline racist. definitly full of prejudice