Relocating from Los Angeles to Bal Harbour or Surfside: which building fits?

Three buildings on our file answer three versions of the move. Rivage Bal Harbour is the estate answer: ~56 homes across 25 stories, 3 to 6 bedrooms from ~3,300 to ~12,600 square feet, ~2.7 oceanfront acres with ~200 feet of private shoreline, house cars and private marina services, From $14,100,000. Ocean House Surfside is the private house answer: 25 homes of two to five bedrooms, private elevators, staff quarters with a service kitchen, a private garage for six cars and the Bal Harbour Shops half a mile away, with no published entry price. Ocean Terrace is the village answer: ~52 boutique residences in a 20 story tower at the quiet north end of Miami Beach, a 42 key hotel, a club and ~15,000 square feet of street level retail on ~5 acres of park, From $3,250,000. The Los Angeles questions, the California exit, the cars and the school dates, are the same for all three and are set out below as mechanics.

The same five axes, from the developers' published material only.

Rivage Bal Harbour. Price point: From $14,100,000. Delivery: no date in the material on our file. Unit mix: ~56 homes across 25 stories, 3 to 6 bedrooms, ~3,300 to ~12,600 square feet. Position: ~2.7 oceanfront acres with ~200 linear feet of private shoreline, the final oceanfront parcel in Bal Harbour. Operator or brand: no hotel brand; Related Group and Two Roads Development develop, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill design, Rottet Studio interiors, Enea gardens.

Ocean House Surfside. Price point: no published entry price; pricing held by the desk. Delivery: no date on our file. Unit mix: 25 residences of two to five bedrooms, balconies up to 12 feet deep, ceilings up to 12 feet in the penthouse. Position: 9309 to 9317 Collins Avenue, on the ocean between Bal Harbour and Miami Beach, views east, south and west. Operator or brand: none; MTP Oceanside LLC is the developer of record, marketed with Multiplan; Arquitectonica, Bernardo Fort-Brescia.

Ocean Terrace. Price point: From $3,250,000. Delivery: no date on our file. Unit mix: ~52 boutique residences in a 20 story tower and ~24 furnished resort residences in the other, two duplex penthouses in each with private rooftops and lap pools. Position: 7400 Ocean Terrace, North Beach, ~350 feet of ocean frontage on ~5 acres of parkland. Operator or brand: a 42 key boutique hotel in a restored Art Deco building and a private members' club; Witkoff and Ocean Terrace Holdings develop, Revuelta architecture, RAMSA interiors.

A Los Angeles family reads this question first, and the three buildings answer it differently. Ocean House publishes the Bal Harbour Shops half a mile away, which is a walk, and a private garage for six cars with 24 hour valet and EV charging, which is for the days you drive. Ocean Terrace publishes ~15,000 square feet of street level retail at its own door and ~5 acres of parkland around it, the closest of the three to a village where the errand is on foot. Rivage publishes house cars among its amenities, the answer for a household that would rather be driven than park, and private marina services for the family that arrives by water. None of the three files publishes a distance to a school, a grocery or an airport; measure them on a map. Read parking, EV and storage at Ocean House, concierge and services at Rivage and Bal Harbour vs Surfside vs Miami Beach for how the three streets differ on foot.

A house in Los Angeles often comes with a garage for four or six cars and rooms for the people who run it. Ocean House is the one of the three that publishes both: staff quarters with a service kitchen, a private garage for six cars, private storage and a covered porte-cochère, in a building of 25 homes. Rivage publishes homes to ~12,600 square feet and 3 to 6 bedrooms, the scale at which a service room is on the plan rather than in the amenity list, and its Wellness Penthouse publishes two service rooms and two laundries as the developer drew them. Ocean Terrace publishes private elevator landings and a hotel next door, which is how a smaller household staffs itself. For every building the questions are the same: who may occupy a home besides the owner, whether a live in employee is an occupant under the declaration, and which entrance and elevator the household staff use. Read household staff and service entry at Rivage and at Ocean House, and how to read a Miami floor plan for finding the service room on the drawing.

California taxes income and Florida does not, and a family that keeps a Los Angeles house, an office or children in a Los Angeles school has not necessarily moved its domicile by buying a condominium. That is counsel's question, and the facts that answer it are where the family lives, works and schools. Read moving from California to Miami: domicile, does buying a Miami condo make you a Florida resident and moving to Miami: the first ninety days. What the deed does change is the property tax, which resets at the price paid, and the insurance, which on this coast carries a flood policy and a named storm deductible. Read why property tax resets when you buy a Miami condo and Miami Beach flood maps and insurance. What does not change is the Pacific habit of living outdoors: Ocean House's balconies to 12 feet deep and Rivage's ~200 feet of shoreline are the published outdoor facts; the beach itself is public in Florida below the high water line, which a buyer from Malibu reads before the word private. Read what private beach access means in Florida.

None of the three publishes a delivery date in the material on our file, so a family that sells in Los Angeles before the beach is finished plans the months between: a rental, a finished home elsewhere, or a contract whose outside date it has read against the school year. The purchase agreement's outside date, not the sales gallery's season, is the date to plan around. Read delivery timelines and how they slip and which dates in a Miami pre-construction contract you cannot miss. A family with children reads children and family life at Rivage for the published rooms and rules, and asks every building the same thing: which amenities are for residents only, and what the rules say about guests, pools and hours during the school holidays.

Rivage suits the family that wants the estate: the largest homes on this coast, private shoreline, house cars and a marina service, on Bal Harbour's last oceanfront parcel. You pay the highest published entry of the three and buy without a date. Read the Rivage dossier and is Rivage worth it.

Ocean House suits the family that wants the building to behave like the house it is leaving: 25 neighbours, a six car garage, staff quarters and the Shops on foot. You give up a published price and a date. Read is Ocean House worth it.

Ocean Terrace suits the family that wants a village, a hotel and a park around a smaller home, at the lowest published entry of the three. You give up Bal Harbour's address and the largest plans. Read the Ocean Terrace dossier.

The Bal Harbour and Surfside zone page and the North Beach zone page map the coast; relocating from Dallas to Surfside or Bal Harbour runs the same move from Texas, and relocating from Los Angeles to Downtown Miami is the same family choosing the city instead. The desk reads the plans by line, the outside date and the household rules with the family before it flies in.