Houses for Sale in South Miami & Neighborhood Guide

W.A. Larkins settled here in the late 1890s, opened a post office and served as postmaster for sixteen years, so when the railroad arrived in 1906 the stop was called Larkins. The population reached 350 by 1917, the 1920s boom pushed land values up, and in March 1926 the area incorporated as a town of roughly six square miles. On June 24, 1927 the Town of South Miami became a city, with W.A. Forster as its first mayor. The 1926 hurricane hit hard, and in 1931 the city nearly dissolved until Judge Worth A. Trammell ordered the mayor and council back to work.

The city adopted its commission-manager government in 1953 and runs it from City Hall at 6130 Sunset Drive. Today it covers 2.31 square miles with 12,026 residents in the 2020 census, bordered by Coral Gables to the east, Pinecrest to the south, Glenvar Heights to the west and Coral Terrace to the north. The motto, City of Pleasant Living, describes a low-rise place organized around a walkable downtown and a hospital campus.

Detached houses on modest lots are the norm. The oldest cluster is the Cambridge Lawns Historic District, about 30 Tudor Revival and Mediterranean Revival houses completed in 1928. Around it, the blocks between Red Road and SW 62nd Avenue filled in with 1940s and 1950s ranches, many since expanded or replaced, and the streets south of Sunset Drive toward the Pinecrest line hold larger lots.

Condominiums and townhouses concentrate near the downtown and the Metrorail station, where the city has allowed more height around The Shops at Sunset Place. Buyers weighing a teardown should know that lot size, not the house, sets the price on most streets, and that the city runs its own permitting and zoning from City Hall.

US-1, South Dixie Highway, cuts through the city on a diagonal with Metrorail overhead. South Miami station at 5949 South Dixie Highway opened May 20, 1984 on the Green and Orange lines with a 1,774-space garage, one stop from University toward the airport and one from Dadeland North going south. Sunset Drive, SW 72nd Street, is the east-west main street; Red Road, SW 57th Avenue, is the eastern boundary with Coral Gables.

By road, rome2rio lists 8.9 miles to Downtown Miami, 8.3 miles to Miami International Airport, 13.9 miles to Miami Beach, 11.6 miles to Doral and about 2 miles to Dadeland Mall. Most daily errands stay inside the city or in Coral Gables next door.

Downtown runs along Sunset Drive with historic buildings, restaurants and small shops. The Shops at Sunset Place at US-1 and Red Road opened in December 1998 on the site of the 1986 Bakery Centre, itself built where the Holsum bread bakery stood; the 514,000-square-foot center was bought by Midtown Opportunities in January 2021 for $65.5 million and is slated for redevelopment. South Miami Hospital opened in 1960 with 100 beds and now runs 467 as part of Baptist Health South Florida.

Parks are small and numerous: Dante Fascell Park, Fuchs Park with its pond and fountain, Brewer Park with tennis, handball and basketball courts, Palmer Park, Marshall Williamson Park and Murray Park. Thomas Armour Youth Ballet, founded in 1949 as the Miami Conservatory, is the city's oldest arts institution.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools serves the city through South Miami K-8 Center, South Miami Middle Community School and South Miami High School at 6856 SW 53rd Street in Glenvar Heights, opened November 10, 1971 to relieve Coral Gables High and Southwest Miami High. Attendance zones do not follow the city limits, so confirm the assignment for a specific address with the district.

Gulliver Prep's upper school in Pinecrest and its PK-8 campus in Coral Gables are the closest private options. South Miami Hospital covers emergencies inside the city, and City Hall at 6130 Sunset Drive handles permits, code and the septic-to-sewer program.

Ask whether the house is on septic or sewer. The city is converting streets in phases, starting with a Phase 1 area, and the answer affects your inspection, your budget and a future assessment. Pull the South Miami permit history and check for open violations, since many 1950s houses carry enclosed carports and additions that were never closed out.

The city is inland, but the zone still varies by street, so run the address before you set your number. For condos near Sunset Place, Florida requires a milestone inspection for buildings three stories or taller and Miami-Dade requires recertification at 30 years inland, then every 10 years; get the reserve study and budget. A wind-mitigation report on the roof will move the insurance quote more than the list price will.

Buyers come to South Miami for the walk to Sunset Drive and the Metrorail, so distance to both belongs in the first line. Have the permit file, the sewer or septic status and the roof records ready; a house with those answers in hand sells faster than a renovated one without them.

Price against closed sales on the same side of US-1, because lots and streets differ sharply from one side to the other. Lot size drives value on most blocks, so state the dimensions plainly and let the survey do the talking.