Almost 90 minutes west of South Florida lies a hidden small town, Ave Maria, surrounded by lush, sprawling greenery, quiet neighborhoods interrupted only by the sound of birds chirping and the occasional cheerful greeting of neighbors.
Ave Maria has become an unexpected haven for those looking to flee the expenses of South Florida’s tri-county area.
The town has seen a surge over the past few years as South Floridians have been making their way over there, lured by the promise of a quieter, laid-back lifestyle, a safe and family-friendly environment, and a chance to escape the rising affordability crisis making it difficult for families to make ends meet.
“You come here, and there are these gates, and it’s almost like you can hear singing,” said former Miramar resident Candyce Haynes, 35. “I was like, ‘What is this Pleasantville town and how to do I get in?'”
She, her husband and her son moved to Ave Maria pre-pandemic, enticed by the prospect of having a new-construction home that didn’t need renovations or updates and the safety the community offered their family.
“I don’t really miss South Florida,” Haynes said. “You can go into the chaos of the city and come home and be like ‘I was just visiting.’ I don’t hear police sirens all hours of the night.”
Josias Manzanillo, and his wife, Delmaris, former residents of Davie, moved to Ave Maria in 2020 after having trouble finding a home they liked for the price they wanted in South Florida.
“Ave Maria came up and we thought ‘What a jewel we found.’ We didn’t just find a house, we found a place where we want to spend time,” Manzanillo said.
The decision to leave South Florida behind
Located almost 20 miles off Alligator Alley, Ave Maria is master planned community developed by Barron Collier Companies, in a partnership with Tom Monaghan, co-founder of Domino’s Pizza. Construction started in 2005, and the first residents moved in 2007.
The whole of the community spans 22,000 acres, with 17,000 acres set aside for nature preservation, leaving about 4,000 acres for residential and commercial building. Currently there are about 4,100 homes built, with room for there to be around 11,000 total.
With four home builders offering a slew of different products ranging from condos starting in the low $200,000s, to coach homes and sprawling single-family homes overlooking a golf course, potential residents are able to get in at various price points.
Combined with amenities such as a water park, pickleball courts and tennis courts for families, as well as a university in the middle of the town, it offers a sense of family that some say they felt was missing in South Florida.
It was with this in mind that Serf Sanchez and his wife, Lourdes Sanchez, and their five children found themselves at Ave Maria.
Unhappy with what they felt was a lack of safety in Miami, and deeming family the most important thing, they toured Ave Maria after Lourdes stumbled across an advertisement for the town. Four days later, they made the decision to buy a home there, despite already having purchased a new home in Miami, they said.
They were able to take advantage of the market and sell their home in Miami, and rented for a year while waiting for their home to be built.
“When we saw the prices here for the first time, there was a difference in what we had purchased in Miami,” noted Serf. “With us making our decision, it was geared toward family, but the affordability factor helped.”
Their home in Ave Maria in cost them about 30% less than what they sold their house in Miami for.
According to CC Homes Senior Vice President Diana Ibarria, homes that they develop in Ave Maria are usually more affordable then the ones offered in Southeast Florida.
For example, in their community called Kingfishers Reserve in Cooper City, a home would probably cost a buyer around $1.2 million. The same type of home in Ave Maria may cost a buyer about $650,000.
The average price point of their homes in Ave Maria, depending on the collection and upgrades, starts in the $320,000s and can go up to the $650,000s.
The Sanchez’s home in Ave Maria sits at 3,100 square feet, with four bedrooms, three and half bathrooms, a patio and a three-car garage. Their overall costs have gone down as well — they’re paying about half in homeowner’s insurance than they were in Miami.
For them, life there has exceeded their expectations: Serf only has to commute back to Miami about two to three times a month to oversee his real estate team there, their children have made friends and are involved in extracurricular activities.
“In Miami, there is a lot of hustle and bustle. The traffic is just so different when you’re here. Life is just more laid back,” Lourdes said.
The surge of South Florida residents
CC Homes, based in Coral Gables, has been building in Ave Maria for years, attracted by the availability of land there and the accessibility to Broward County.
According to Ibarria, 75% to 80% of their buyers come from the South Florida area. Some are first-time homebuyers, others are South Floridians who can work remotely, while others have professions, such as nurses, where they only need to drive into the tri-county area three times a week.
“Right away when we got there, that was our focus and we got a lot of people to come, especially from Dade and Broward,” noted Ibarria. “It’s the affordability, you couldn’t find a house in Broward or Dade like that.”
Lennar, another builder there, noted that while it’s been hard for them to get a grasp on the trend, they did see South Florida residents making their way over during the pandemic.
And Broward County residents are packing up their lives and establishing themselves in the small town.
Tucked away in the Avalon Park division of Ave Maria lies a sprawling five-bedroom, four bathroom home, with a freshly manicured lawn and flowers growing near the entrance. On a Tuesday afternoon, the neighborhood is largely peaceful, save for the shouts of school kids who are pedaling furiously on bikes as they race each other to be the first to make it home.
It’s home to Juan and Ariel Hernandez, former residents of Pembroke Pines, who moved with their two young children to Ave Maria two years ago.
“When we started to have children, we were mindful of the overcrowding in the Broward County area,” said Ariel. “It was so compact and didn’t have that family feel anymore.”
And now they feel that Ave Maria offers them what they had been missing in Broward County: Neighbors who wave and greet you when they see you, the ability to walk across your driveway to ask your neighbor for sugar for your café con leche and the persistent ringing of the doorbell as your son’s friends as if he can come out and play.
“It’s a slower pace of life,” added Ariel. “Your neighbors bring you pie! We had carolers during the holidays. It was like, ‘What? In South Florida? Have you ever heard of such a thing?’ And they brought cookies. It was adorable.”
Like other homebuyers, Ave Maria came up in their search for a home and once they visited, they were sold. They purchased their home in 2020, and officially closed on it in 2021.
For them, they came at the right time, as they have seen equity rise in their home. After seller credits, they paid about $605,000 for the home, and believe they could probably get around $900,000 if they were to sell now.
The main disadvantage, however, is the commute Juan Hernandez still makes to work, he said. Working in the Broward County Sheriff’s Office as a school resource officer, he drives one hour and twenty minutes back and forth each day to make it to work.
But living in Ave Maria is still worth it, he said.
A small-town lifestyle
Life in Ave Maria doesn’t seem far off from the small towns portrayed in Hallmark movies. In the late winter and spring months, a weekly trolley tour takes place of the entire town, presented by an older man named Joe, who regales groups with his fountain of knowledge and sly jokes about small-town life.
At the town’s local coffee shop The Bean, residents grab a quick breakfast or a cup of coffee, while some residents sit on rocking chairs outside the welcome center, listening to music playing over the speakers.
“We didn’t just find a home, we found a community,” added Josias Manzanillo. “We do more things together now than we did before.”
He and his wife, Delmaris, have carved a life out for themselves in the thriving small town. Some of that includes volunteering at the church in town, or visiting the local brewery or going to Mercato at Ave, where they host Latin nights.
The town, for the most part, has everything residents would need inside of it. There is a giant Publix for groceries, a Mobile gas station, a fire station, a dialysis center, a veterinarian, a fitness center for residents and a handful of restaurants ranging from the Pub and Grill to the Oasis Kitchen Lounge.
Some of those stores are owned by former South Florida residents who have moved their businesses to Ave Maria, such as Dr. Luisa Del Toro, the local eye doctor, and Ana Garcia-Iguaran, an obstetrician and gynecologist.
Mercato at Ave is a bustling marketplace owned by husband-and-wife team Jorge Arroyo and Reina Del Mar Torres, former residents of South Florida. Having lived in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, they were looking for places to open a business, according to Arroyo.
One day, on a road trip heading to the west coast they saw a billboard advertising Ave Maria. They visited, decided it was a good fit for their goals and stayed ever since. Originally, they launched their business at the Ave Maria farmer’s market in 2020 but have since been able to expand.
Now Mercato at Ave is a flourishing home to about 15 small businesses selling items from ice cream to scented candles. They also own a boutique clothing store called Hoja de Mentro.
“It’s a growing market, and it’s going to take time, but we love it here,” the couple said.
