South Florida Home Loan Seekers, Take Note: This is the Next Big City

In certain areas, the South Florida housing market is cooling significantly. Sellers are taking new approaches in order to attract Florida home loan buyers.

As one writer for The Palm Beach Post reports, however, one city is on the verge of taking off. Located almost exactly halfway between Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood looks like this region’s next great town …

Hollywood, FL: Apply for your home loans there today!

This 81-year-old city, with more than 140,000 residents, still resembles the one that its founder, Joseph Wesley Young, envisioned back in the ’20s. A native of Washington, the Florida real estate entrepreneur wanted to create a “dream city” that would be a place for everyone - “from the opulent at the top of the industrial and social ladder to the most humble of working people.”

To give his town its signature look, Young included three traffic circles, which by their very nature are more European than Floridian in character. The result is an atypical, albeit welcome, appearance that should attract those seeking Florida home loans without the expense of other areas.

The city’s pedestrian-friendly Broadwalk is considered the first oceanfront promenade in the state. For this reason, Hollywood became known as the “Atlantic City of the South,” even though it would always face stiff competition from neighboring towns to the south and north.

After a devastating hurricane in the 1920s, the South Florida real estate boom came to a halt. The city recovered, only to lose most of its sparkle by the ’70s. Like so many downtowns around the country, Hollywood’s was largely abandoned.

Signs of neglect are apparent throughout the historic downtown and the beach: older and modestly appointed beach cottages and condos appear to have been ravaged by more recent hurricanes or merely left to face the punishing effects of both time and the saltwater-laced air.

The Hollywood appeal

The thing that makes Hollywood special is precisely that it isn’t another spiffed-up city, with Starbucks and Gaps galore. The fact that the area is just beginning to grow - thereby allowing for a fairly affordable Florida home loan deal - isn’t too shabby, either.

The beach here isn’t a “scene” but a setting; a place where people come to play, mingle and enjoy each other’s company. You can go miniature-golfing, for example, on a basic course that’s a refreshing change from those overly themed ones you find in Orlando. Or you can grab a slice of pizza or enjoy a Greek salad at one of the many beachfront eateries.

Overall, what makes Hollywood unique is that it seems to embrace such diversity in a way that most other cities throughout the South Florida market do not. As steep prices and Florida home loan rates cause foreclosures elsewhere in the sector, the appeal of Hollywood should only grow stronger.