Surfside is a somewhat small coastal town (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Florida. With a population of 5,472 people and just one neighborhood, Surfside is the 271st largest community in Florida.
Surfside home prices are not only among the most expensive in Florida, but Surfside real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.
Surfside is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 87.58% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Surfside is a town of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Surfside who work in management occupations (15.78%), teaching (12.50%), and sales jobs (10.27%).
Of important note, Surfside is also a town of artists. Surfside has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Surfside’s character.
A relatively large number of people in Surfside telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 17.63% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Another notable thing is that Surfside is a major vacation destination. Much of the town’s population is seasonal: many people own second homes and only live there part-time, during the vacation season. The effect on the local economy is that many of the businesses are dependent on tourist dollars, and may operate only during the high season. As the vacation season ends, Surfside’s population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.
In addition, Surfside is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates". Urban sophisticates are people who are both educated and wealthy, and thus tend to be older, richer, and more established than young professionals. "Urban sophisticates" is not just about being educated and well-off financially: it is a point of view and state of mind, one that you might call 'urbaneness'. But such people can and do regularly live in small towns, suburbs and rural areas, as well as in big cities. They read, support the arts and high-end shops, and love travel.
Surfside is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Quite often, nautical areas such as these attract visitors and locals who come to enjoy the scenery and various waterfront activities.
In Surfside, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 32.51 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit.
Despite being a small town, Surfside has a lot of people using the bus to get to and from work every day. Most of these people on the bus are using it to get to good jobs in other cities.
If knowledge is power, Surfside is a pretty powerful place. 57.29% of the adults in Surfside have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns.
The per capita income in Surfside in 2022 was $54,623, which is upper middle income relative to Florida, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $218,492 for a family of four. However, Surfside contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Surfside is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Surfside home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Surfside residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Surfside also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 34.12% of the town’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Surfside include Polish, Moroccan, Russian, Italian, and German.
Surfside also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 41.03%.
The most common language spoken in Surfside is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Portuguese.
Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in Surfside, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Do you like a coastal setting? If so, this neighborhood may be to your liking. The neighborhood is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Often such coastal places have amenities and recreational activities on the waterfront that are attractive to residents and visitors alike. In addition to being coastal, is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.
In addition, vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 46.6% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 98.5% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Arab and Cuban ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 9.4% of this neighborhood's residents have Arab ancestry and 17.6% have Cuban ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 7.4% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Portuguese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.6% of the neighborhoods in America.
How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Surfside are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 64.5% of the neighborhoods in America. With 15.3% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 61.6% of U.S. neighborhoods.
The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.
In the neighborhood, 54.5% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 26.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (12.4%), and 6.6% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 39.1% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian.
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the neighborhood in Surfside, FL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Cuban (17.6%). There are also a number of people of Polish ancestry (9.8%), and residents who report South American roots (9.7%), and some of the residents are also of Arab ancestry (9.4%), along with some Russian ancestry residents (6.0%), among others. In addition, 41.0% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (39.4% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (65.2%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (6.6%) and 5.5% of residents also ride the bus for their daily commute. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.