Naming a New City: Factors to Consider

A recent study evaluated correlations between neighborhood name and things like home value and household income.  You can read the full report here.

In prior posts, I speculated that property values would increase if the area were annexed by Aventura, and decrease if the area were annexed by North Miami Beach, because of the premium/stigma (collectively, the "baggage") associated with those names.

Annexation options have evaporated since those posts, and this year the focus is exclusively on incorporation of a new city, an issue which appears on the November general election ballot.

If it passes (which is nowhere near certain), the decision to create a new city would create an opportunity to devise a city name that might increase (or at least not diminish) home values.

One interesting note from the Porch.com study: the household income numbers already correlate to several of our neighborhood names:


Oak Forest contains the #4 "Oaks" and #9 "Forest"
Highland Lakes contains the #6 "Highland"
Sorry Sky Lake and Enchanted Lake.

The more important list is "Highest Home Values" (bottom part of the graphic).  In the top 10, only "Highland Gardens" has a word that makes the list ("Gardens," coming in at #10).

So in response to the oft-asked question "what should we call the new city?", I would propose:
"Island Beach Harbor Hills Village"
;)

This blog always refers to the potential new city as "West Aventura," but a compromise incorporating elements from the names of existing communities "Highland Gardens" and "Oak Forest" could be simply "Highland Oaks," which could explain how the area's original schools came to be named, decades ago ("Virginia A. Boone Highland Oaks Elementary" and "Highland Oaks Middle" respectively).