Kendall, Miami Homes for Sale & Neighborhood Guide

Kendall sits about 14 miles southwest of downtown Miami. US 1 forms its eastern edge, the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike its western edge, and the Don Shula Expressway (SR 874) cuts across the middle. Pinecrest lies to the east, Palmetto Bay to the southeast and The Crossings to the west. The 2020 Census counted 80,241 residents on 16.60 square miles, about half a square mile of it the lakes and canals that thread through the subdivisions.

It is not a city. Kendall is a census-designated place inside the Unincorporated Municipal Service Area, so Miami-Dade County is its local government. The County Commission acts as the municipal body, Miami-Dade Police and Fire Rescue answer calls, and county staff handle zoning, permits, code enforcement, parks and garbage. On a tax bill this shows up as an UMSA line instead of a city millage. Roughly 44 percent of county residents live in unincorporated areas like this one.

The name traces to a director of the British land company that held the area around 1900; a post office opened in 1914. Baptist Hospital opened on Kendall Drive in 1960, Dadeland Mall on October 1, 1962, and Miami Dade College's Kendall Campus in 1967. By the 1970s Kendall was the fastest-growing community in the county. On August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew crossed South Dade as a Category 5 storm and damaged parts of Kendall badly; the stricter building codes that followed still shape what you buy here.

Kendall is best read east to west. The blocks closest to US 1 and Dadeland hold the oldest houses, many from the 1960s, plus the condo and apartment towers that grew around the Metrorail stations after they opened in 1984. West of the Palmetto and SR 874 the subdivisions date mostly from the 1970s and 1980s: concrete-block, single-story houses on curving streets, often around man-made lakes, with townhome clusters and low-rise condo villages mixed in.

Toward the Turnpike, along Kendall Drive and Killian Parkway, planned communities from the late 1980s and 1990s take over, many with homeowner associations, gated entries and shared pools. Anything permitted after the mid-1990s was built under the tougher post-Andrew wind standards and tends to insure more cheaply than an older house with its original roof.

Kendall has the only Metrorail stations in southwest Dade. Dadeland North sits at SW 70th Avenue and US 1; Dadeland South, at 9150 Dadeland Boulevard, opened on May 20, 1984 and is the southern terminus of the system, with 1,274 parking spaces and connections to South Dade TransitWay routes 601 and 602. From Dadeland South a train reaches Government Center in about 19 minutes, with departures every 15 minutes.

By car, Kendall Drive (SW 88th Street, signed as SR 94 for most of its length) runs 13.3 miles from Krome Avenue to US 1 at the Pinecrest line, passing Baptist Hospital and Dadeland Mall near its eastern end. The Palmetto ends at Dadeland, SR 874 links Kendall to SR 826 and the Turnpike, and Metrobus routes 88, 288, 35, 71 and 104 cover the grid.

Dadeland Mall at 7535 North Kendall Drive has grown from 535,000 square feet at opening to just under 1.5 million, with the Dadeland North station next door and a district of offices and apartment towers around it. The Falls, an open-air center on US 1 farther south, and the strip centers along Kendall Drive and SW 137th Avenue handle the weekly errands.

Baptist Hospital of Miami, founded in 1960 on the south side of Kendall Drive, is a 948-bed hospital run by Baptist Health South Florida. HCA Florida Kendall Hospital at 11750 SW 40th Street is a 424-bed teaching hospital and one of two Level I trauma centers in the county. Kendall Indian Hammocks Park, a county park, keeps a 32-acre hardwood hammock preserve beside three lighted softball fields, three disc-golf courses and a skate plaza.

Kendall is served by Miami-Dade County Public Schools, mostly in the district's South Region. The zoned high schools are Miami Killian High School at 10655 SW 97th Avenue, opened in 1965, and Miami Sunset High School at 13125 SW 72nd Street, opened in 1978; G. Holmes Braddock High School at 3601 SW 147th Avenue serves the western edge with magnet tracks in iPreparatory, visual and performing arts, Cambridge and information technology. Glades, Howard D. McMillan and Arvida are the middle schools, and Kenwood K-8 Center descends from the original Kendall School.

Private options include Westminster and St. John Neumann Catholic School, founded in 1981. Because Kendall is unincorporated, the library, parks and fire stations are county facilities. Confirm any school assignment with the district's boundary tool, not the listing.

Start with the flood zone. Kendall is inland, but its lakes and canals mean parcels can map to AE or the shallow-flooding AH zone as easily as to X. Flood insurance is required for any federally backed mortgage in a Special Flood Hazard Area, so pull the FEMA map for the exact address and get a quote before you commit. The county flood hotline is 305-372-6466.

Next, the roof and the year. Much of Kendall predates Hurricane Andrew, and the county sits inside the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone of the Florida Building Code, so order wind mitigation and four-point inspections. For a townhome or condo, read the association budget, the reserve study and, in buildings of three stories or more, the recertification status. Pull the county permit history for any enclosed patio or converted garage; unpermitted additions are common in 1970s subdivisions.

Kendall buyers compare on three things: distance to a Metrorail station or SR 874 ramp, the age of the roof, and whether the lot backs onto a lake or a road. Lead with the documents that answer those questions. A recent wind mitigation report, a permit-clean history and a transferable roof warranty shorten negotiations more than fresh paint.

Timing matters less than pricing against the right comparables. A 1980s lake-lot house should be compared with other lake lots in the same subdivision, not with a gated 1990s community two miles west. If the house still has a pre-Andrew roof, decide early whether to replace it or price it in; the buyer's insurer will force the conversation either way.