Teri - the truth is it's difficult to qualify here as the average home is at least $300K.  There are less expensive homes further south but a lot of people can't deal with the added traffic.

Leah - anything that helps the situation is appreciated.  As I mentioned to Teri, the starter home in Miami is still hard to qualify for.

MS - opinions are like belly buttons...everybody has one. 

Considering that Miami is and more than likely will continue to be the gateway from Central and South America to North America, my personal belly button, I mean opinion, is that Miami real estate will remain valuable and continue to increase in value, albeit at a single digit rate as is customary in most markets. 

Homestead will always lag behind but the increase in Miami home values will pull Homestead up right along with it, as it has already done.  I am assuming from your comment that if you lived in Homestead you would need to travel 2 hours to wherever it is that you work.  It takes only 25 minutes from Homestead to Coral Gables in normal traffic.  Perhaps you work in Broward County.

You've hit upon one of the bigger problems Miami has fared, the fact that some of our infrastructure hasn't kept up with development, for certainly rush hour traffic is a nightmare...too many cars?  Not enough road?  Wrong connections which bottleneck the traffic?  A combination of this and more? 

Not everyone who lives in Homestead works in Miami.  Homestead is pretty self sufficient and there are many folks happy living there.  As for the drivers on the Turnpike, I've noticed drivers in all of Miami seem to lack some of the basic driving skills, such as signaling when turning or switching lanes, coming to a complete stop at a stop sign, staying under the speed limit, not tailgating.  I don't think the Turnpike has the market cornered in that department. 

You've managed to get me off-topic in my comment.  My post was, and continues to remain, an article about finding affordable housing in Miami-Dade for those who wish to seek it.  As a real estate agent, my goal is to provide such resources for my customers.

I appreciate your stopping by and commenting and merely ask that you keep the language clean in my blog.  There's only one word I would have left out of your comment and it wouldn't have suffered in content at all.  All opinions are welcome here and open to discussion. 

Thanks.