Miami

[updated september 2024]

SO, roomiematch.com's Miami roommate rundown:

Miami is a singular experience. Miamians really are their own affair, and they're a lot . . . but ordeal or adventure is up to you!

Miami Beach is nearby, and it's probably the most popular spring break destination on the planet. Because topless sunbathing is, of course, allowed. The crowds are drunk and rowdy. If you love drunken people watching, you might be in heaven. But if you hate crowds, you might have to avoid your favorite beach along with anything vaguely resembling it for a good long while.

In other words, if you roommate in Miami, you'll either gleefully join in, or completely steer clear. No resident of Miami is completely indifferent to Spring Break.

Similarly, this second most visited city after NYC is also known for nightlife, in particular the boutique hotels and expensive clubs in the Art Deco District along Ocean Drive and South Beach. These "exclusive" clubs may or may not contain wealthy celebrities at any given moment, but what you can always rely upon is that everything else will be expensive. It starts with the door charge, then all treats inside cost multiple times more than everywhere else, and finally all staff frequently require large tips.

We're not sure we'd actually recommend most with large door charges but without live music for anything at all . . . except their creative and stunning architectural designs. If they don't sound like the kind of good time you can afford right now, save that experience until you can . . . after which point it probably won't sound like a great idea anymore, but whatever. In the meantime, you and your roommates can patronize one of the many businesses with great food and live music charging no to minimal cover you'll likely find more welcoming. They're definitely out there.

What else is hot or trendy could change between us typing and you reading, because Miami nightlife has been through so many iterations, most revolving around the Miami sun almost never not shining. It's sunny about 250 days a year, and almost always 75-95.

It's rarely a bad day for the beach or boating. Or your bikini pants. Miami's residents have been dramatically depicted in almost all American mass media worshipping the sun. Some depictions are realistic, some are just sensationalistic, and some are crime-fighting TV characters! It's easy to depict Miamians excitingly!

No one even has to go indoors if they'd rather not, not just because of the weather. They don't even have to wear coats.

Not even one sensible sweater!

And we hope the lack of winter along with its outerwear keeps them cheerful in traffic. Along with near constant sunshine, Miami is known for constant traffic, constant crime, constant air conditioning, and a constant Cuban influence. Most appreciate the last two.

There's heavy traffic everywhere and on-street parking is mostly impossible. That's the terrible news, but the good is that Miami has an extensive public transport system covering the city. Almost 20% are on it daily! And since everything is constantly air conditioned everywhere, so is the public transit. Many neighborhoods are walkable as well, depending on how you feel about heat and humidity.

Miami is also known for its high crime rate, yes . . . but most is related to narcotics from South America, or tourists from everywhere. Be aware of pickpockets in any touristy area. Don't leave anything valuable in a car, ever. We'd recommend NOT wearing flashy jewelry or carrying an obviously expensive purse all over town.

Along with arctic air conditioning, Miami also loves its several generations of Cuban exiles. Miami hosts the largest Latin American group outside Latin America. Almost 70% are bilingual, with capability in both English and Spanish. When you switch back and forth in the same sentence, that's often referred to as Spanglish.

And Miamians of all nationalities love their Cuban culinary traditions. "New World," "Nuevo Latino" or hyperlocal "Floribbean" cuisine combines local produce with traditions of the Caribbean and European cooking techniques: medianoche, Cuban espresso, croquetas, pastelitos, Cubanos (sandwiches), empanadas, tostones, and last but not least, killer tacos.

Miami can be a bit of a mess during a heavy storm. Hurricanes are frequently a serious problem. Even though they don't come all the way inland, they often cause heavy rain which causes power outages. You and your roommates will need a "go bag" if you're on a flood plain. The rains are probably getting more severe due to global climate change, so keep that "go bag" on a high shelf.

OR, slightly different source of concern if your house is on sand possibly instead: There are scorpions and a few poisonous spiders. Same climate plus sand that's so great for beaches is also a cozy habitat for some scary creepy crawlies. So if you and your roommates see a unidentified creeper . . . assuming poison fangs are possible is never going to be the wrong attitude to take, you know?

In other exciting environmental news, Miami is the only American city with two national parks!

Everglades National Park is the largest tropical wilderness in the US, providing an important habitat for many endangered species like the manatee and the Florida panther! But remind all new roommates from elsewhere that swimming is completely prohibited. Why?

Well, park rangers probably imagine a variety of reasons but here's just one discussion ender: The alligators and crocodiles might swallow you whole! Or just chomp your leg.

Or guess who else has been chomping legs but usually not swallowing anyone whole as far as they know? That'd be BURMESE PYTHONS. Meanwhile, there's also a few other poisonous snakes that won't swallow you at all, but still have poisonous bites. You could still totally die.

That's good enough for us to say this is not the park for swimming! 100% eager cooperation at all times! Don't even dangle outside the boat!

Of course, you could just go kayaking through the peacefully ancient mangroves of Biscayne National Park instead . . .

The rest of the Miami roommate lowdown:

• largest metro area in Florida, at over 6 million, almost 500,000 in town, near the southern tip of the Florida Peninsula, and the southernmost metro area in the country
• covered in causeways
• Miami has a tropical monsoon climate - hot wet humid summers with sudden downpours are possible June-November - cooler drier winters - but often the threat of tropic storms resulting in floods, in about 40% of Miami. That percentage may grow with global warming. Real estate prices in Miami are already reflecting this concern, with higher elevations commanding higher prices.
• The little fire ant is an invasive pest.
• mostly over 90F June-September, severely humid, day and night, in winter it's usually around 75F
• almost all homes and vehicles have air conditioning
• good news for drivers: roads in Miami are easy to navigate, as the mains are in a grid system, with most roads numbered based on their distance from the city's center
• bad news for drivers: traffic is also constant
• Their public transport system covers the city. Most buses run roughly every 20 minutes, but delays seem always possible so check your routes in advance.
• Metrorail has almost 25 miles of elevated rail connecting downtown with the airport, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Lowe Art Museum, the Miami Museum of Science, and a lot of nearby shopping. Around downtown the Metromover will take you around and connect you back to Metrorail.
• The airport is both one of the world's largest, and most congested. Allow extra time to do anything at all.
• PortMiami is the world's busiest cruise port, about 5 million cruise passengers a year.
• Miami has more sports teams than you could probably properly enjoy, including the Miami Dolphins (NFL), Miami Heat (NBA), Miami Marlins (MLB), Florida Panthers (NHL) and Inter Miami CF (MLS)
• most important city in the US for Spanish language media, including Telemundo, UniMas, Univision, and Sony Music Latin
• Miami has the country's largest community college system. Miami-Dade College has over 200,000 students, with campuses all over town.
• also home to Florida Memorial College, Johnson & Wales University, Trinity College, Saint Thomas University, Barry University, Florida International University, University of Miami, and Nova University
• There's a lot of golf - over a dozen courses
• no state income tax
• Like many other large cities, Miami hosts a number of music festivals. Miami usually takes a break in July and August due to the heat and humidity, hosting their events all the other months. This is mostly the reverse of colder cities who party the heartiest in July and August then calm down for the other ten months.
• There are many long stretches of beautiful beach, many with different safety regulations. You should ask a local for yours. No, all beach rules are not the same across Miami and at all times, they can differ according to the marine life common to that particular beach, plus today's predicted weather.

After you're settled down, you and your roommates should experience Miami's:

• Boynton Beach: Sea turtles!
• The Kampong: "Discover your own relationship with tropical plants." Nine acres of exotic flora. A plant research and education center on Biscayne Bay, in colloboration with Florida International University. Take a self-guided tour or a seminar. You can even take home some plants (during one of their sales, of course).
• Pegasus and Dragon: This is the 2nd tallest statue in the US, but probably at least the largest horse? It's 110 feet tall. That's a lotta pony. Sometimes there's a laser show.
• Ocean Drive: Largest collection of art deco buildings in the world. Take a tour during the day, or try to get into the clubs at night.
• Museum of Graffiti: "The World's First Museum Dedicated to Graffiti" ... they're showcasing their group of artists who "began their careers in the streets."

Here's the city of Miami's official .gov for trolley information, including schedules & maps.

Notes

1.   The non-traditional roommate rent average for this city we've experienced over the last 3 years. We can't predict future rental availability, because we're neither in control of any rental market nor psychic, sorry!

But in most cities most of the time, the recent and relatively recent past are the best predictors.


2.   This idea came from smartasset.com's ranking of what a roommate saves you in 50 cities. They ranked where roommates will save you the most money, based on the average cost of a 1BR as opposed to a 2BR ÷ 2. Unsurprisingly, the more expensive the city, the more you can save, but the savings are significant in all larger metros. So we got the data for the rest of our cities from Zumper too.

This is really the minimum you could save, as you could live with more than one roommate, split more services, share food or other supplies, etc. More sharing tends to lead to more savings too, as per our roommate roadmap.

As per the rest of the description at the top of this page, we're calling this "traditional" roommate rent.


3.   From zumper.com.


4.   Directly quoted from the Trust for Public Land's parkland rating system.

"The ParkScore index awards each city up to 100 points for acreage based on the average of two equally weighted measures: median park size and parkland as a percentage of city area. Factoring park acreage into each city’s ParkScore rating helps account for the importance of larger “destination parks” that serve many users who live farther than ten minutes’ walking distance."

While each city's rundown already includes their individual ParkScore, nature lovers might like to see all roommate cities ranked for parkland.


5.   Directly quoted from Walk Score's Cities and Neighborhoods Ranking. They've ranked "more than 2,800 cities and over 10,000 neighborhoods so you can find a walkable home or apartment."

While each city's rundown already includes their individual Walk Score, dedicated pedestrians might like to see all roommate cities ranked for walkability.


6.   From various lists here on our own best roommate cities.


7.   From hoodmaps.com: a collaborative map where residents use tags describing social situations you're likely to find. Other users can thumb up or down, so the largest tags have been thumbed up the most.