Miami area question

[Seppia]

Hello all,
A quick question for the south floridians among you.
There's a chance my wife and I I might be moving to south Florida (it's not done but there's a chance it happens) and have to start thinking about where to look for an apartment.
I am 100% flexible in terms of work location as long as I am reasonably close to a major airport (let's say no more than 45 minutes to an hour), but my wife will have to work in an office, so location is not totally settled at the moment.
Because of her line of work she will most probably be within the downtown or immediate metro area, so places like west palm beach have to be ruled out.
Because of the uncertainty related to my wife I am just looking for options, and would pick the one closest to her work location once she's found it.

My requirements:
1- married couple, mid 30s, no kids yet but in the works. At this point we're  looking for a 1 bedroom, no need for more.
2- nice beach within short biking distance.
3- as bikeable / walkable area as possible.
4- some sort of life other than the mall. Not sure how to explain this but we would like a place with a sort of "town center", not just a town developed around a 4 lane highway with walmart and CVS stores left and right (this is kind of a corollary of point 2 and 3). Art and music a definite plus.

We would be ready to pay more in exchange for a place that better matches the points above, we have lived our last 5 years in NYC and 7 years split between Paris and Nice in France prior to that so we are used to active cities.

The main reason we are considering the move is to be closer to nature and the outdoors (we are both divers), but keeping an eye on our careers.
I have worked in large and midsize FMCG companies (sales) and my wife is in the luxury goods business (product development), if it were only about location we would probably move to Salt Lake City, but we are still a good 7-10 years away from being completely FI and thus want to stay in an area where we can easily continue to progress work wise (we both love what we do thankfully).

Thanks a ton in advance for all your help!

[Mrs. PoP]

Traffic in Miami can be a nightmare and public transit isn't great. I'd let the location of her work dictate where you'll end up or she could end up with a horrendous commute.  Living against the grain of rush hour traffic would be a good idea if her hours aren't flexible.  Also recommend renting before buying, if you buy at all.  If you can stand being in flux, a friend of mine sublet in medium stints (a couple months at each) in several locations around the city before finding a place to rent when he moved there.  I think that was probably the best way to do it, but it's much easier when you're fresh out of college and all of your belongings fit in a suitcase.  Really, it's a great city with lots of different neighborhoods with hugely different personalities that appeal to many types of people.  Best of luck!

[Seppia]

Thanks for your reply!
Yes we are definitely letting her job dictate the approximate location, I just wanted to have an idea of the different neighborhoods in the extended miami area that might fit our needs.
We would for sure rent, not buy, our jobs have brought us to change 5 cities and three Countries in 13 years between the two of us, we need flexibility.
At our stage in life we would not be ready to share an apartment with others but we don't have a lot of stuff so we can move very quickly and often if needed.