Beyond Lauderhill: What Caribbean homebuyers should know about Miramar and Tamarac right now

For a generation of Caribbean families arriving in South Florida, the first address was often somewhere in Central Broward. Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes and Sunrise became home base, the places where you could find a good patty, a church service with familiar hymns and a neighbor who knew your parish back home. That map has been redrawing itself for years, and today two cities come up again and again when families sit down to talk about buying a house: Miramar to the south and Tamarac to the north.

The shift is not new. Caribbean National Weekly reported on Tamarac's pull on Caribbean Americans back in 2019, describing how the community had spread outward from its original Central Broward base, west into Miramar and north into Tamarac. At the time, unofficial estimates put Caribbean Americans at roughly 45 percent of Tamarac's Black population, and residents pointed to safety and schools as the reasons they put down roots.

The bigger picture explains why Broward keeps drawing families. Miami-Dade and Broward rank among the top U.S. counties for Caribbean immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute, sharing that list with Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens. Jamaicans alone numbered about 888,000 nationwide in 2024. For many of those households, owning a home is the goal that everything else is built around, from the second job to the partner hand that comes due every month.

Miramar and Tamarac, though, are very different markets. The right fit depends on budget, family size and what kind of home a buyer actually needs.

Miramar: More room, a higher price tag

Miramar has become one of the most visibly Caribbean cities in the country, with elected officials of Jamaican heritage on its commission and a calendar full of cultural festivals. Much of its growth came as the city pushed west toward the Everglades, and that newer housing shows up in the numbers.

The median list price in Miramar was $549,999 in September, according to Movoto's Miramar market trends, with homes listing at about $317 per square foot. Buyers had roughly 572 active listings to choose from. Homes are also selling faster than they were a year ago, spending an average of 50 days on the market compared with 64 days the year before.

That pace matters. Less time on the market usually means less room to negotiate, so buyers who have their financing in order before they start touring tend to come out ahead.

Tamarac: A more accessible way in

Tamarac tells a different story. Its housing mix includes a large share of condos and townhomes, many in communities that once catered mostly to retirees, alongside established single-family neighborhoods. For younger families and first-time buyers, that mix has made the city one of the more reachable options in Broward.

Movoto's Tamarac housing data, which covers both houses and condos, puts the median list price at $279,000, up 7.7 percent from a year earlier. Price per square foot sits around $212, and the median home is about 1,229 square feet. Inventory has grown as well, with 1,069 active listings, a 7.8 percent increase over last year.

Homes in Tamarac still take longer to sell than in Miramar, averaging 92 days on the market, although that is 42 days quicker than a year ago. More inventory and a lower entry price can give a buyer time to compare and, in some cases, a little leverage on price. A scroll through current homes for sale in Tamarac shows the range, from compact condos to three-bedroom houses with yards. Anyone considering a condo should ask about association fees, the building's reserves and any planned assessments before making an offer, because those costs can change the monthly math considerably.

Rates and help with the down payment

Whichever city a family chooses, financing is still the biggest hurdle. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 7.18 percent as of November 5, according to Freddie Mac. That was the third weekly decline in a row, but it remains nearly a full point above the 6.22 percent average of a year earlier. On a $250,000 loan, that gap works out to roughly $160 more per month in principal and interest.

Assistance programs can help close it. Broward County runs a purchase assistance program for qualified buyers, and applications go through a participating lender rather than directly from the buyer. Funding levels and eligibility rules change, and some city programs open and close during the year, so it pays to ask a lender early which programs are taking applications for the city you have in mind.

For families still weighing their options, comparing homes for sale in Miramar with what the same budget buys in Tamarac is a useful exercise. The difference is not only price. It is square footage, yard space, the commute to jobs in Miami-Dade or Fort Lauderdale, and how close the house sits to church, family and the shops that carry the foods you grew up on.

The community that once fit inside a handful of Central Broward zip codes now stretches across the county. Where the next generation buys will shape Caribbean South Florida for decades to come.