Sunrise Blvd, Daytona Beach

Having had two different family homes on this street over several decades, this street which was at one time almost all retirees has changed some in the last 10 years or so as aging homeowners have passed and homes have either been sold, rented out, or been moved into by relatives and family of the original owners. There are a couple rental homes that have tend to be occupied by younger, lower income types who usually do not stay in the area for long, so you never know who will end up in those few homes and when it's not someone good, they usually are gone within 6 months or so.

There are several younger (mostly 30-somethings) couples and families who now live here, as well as a few rental homes that attract an even younger resident. But there are still slightly more older, established retirees on the street which gives the street a nice "look" to it with most home well maintained and neat looking from the street. There are some children on the street who are usually well-behaved and only seldom seen in the front yards or street playing, which is a good thing safety-wise as there tends to be a fair amount of non-resident cut-through traffic doing the 1/4 mile drive from A1A to Penninsula Drive at speeds over the safe posted speed limit.

This street is one of a few streets in a tiny section of Daytona Beach that are in a weird zoning area - despite the "Welcome to Daytona Beach Shores" sign you pass about 3 blocks NORTH of this street, the street itself is actually in Daytona Beach, and not "the shores". The nice part of this is that you will pay less for homes not being part of "the shores" proper, but the street looks and feels like one from "the shores". The (very slightly) bad part is that you are in Daytona Beach, so your police response will come from Daytona, and not the (closer, smaller, and more responsive) Shores Police Dept., although you will have Shores and Beach Patrol police vehicles driving on Sunrise and down Shultze many times a day as they use the street to turn around from thier patrols on A1A. Speeding on A1A in particular is enforced with a vengence by the shores police dept. and since A1A at the END of Park Ave. is considered "the shores", watch your speed with great care anytime you are on A1A as they look for an excuse to pull folks over and will nail you for a couple mph over!

High-speed internet is available with cable, but the other widely advertised option of broadband wireless service is NOT. For some odd reason, this street is in a "nearly-dead zone" for the local wireless broadband and they will sign you up for it only after they come out to your specific home to test signal strength. One neighbor who had it briefly had nothing but service issues with it, so cable is the best bet for broadband internet. Phone lines are notoriously bad in this area as there is constant salt corrosion issues being so close to the beach, so dial-up is often hit with very slow-connection speeds.

Speaking of the beach - it's at the end of the street, but you currently have a few hotels in the other side of A1A, so other than glimpsing it through the parking lot of the Castaways, you'll have to go (only) 2 blocks north to the beach approach which allows access to the beach. This is a driving section of the beach, and usually lower-traffic than areas to the north nearer Speedway Blvd. and Main Street area. During "special events", the beach and A1A are both impacted by heavy traffic, but street residents know to only use Penninsula for North-South travel and Dunlawton for beach-mainland access at those few weeks of the year when traffic is an issue.

There are plans for a LARGE condo complex to be on the other side of A1A at the end of the street, with the few remaining hotels bull-dozed and talk of putting in a parking garage/retail shops across the street actually on Sunrise and between Shultze and A1A with a walkover. These were rumors heard by a reputable beachside concession owner, but this is Daytona, and the over aggressive developers are all starting to change thier plans as the real estate and condo market has begun to cool after years of skyrocketing madness. However, the same company that owns all the big Oceans resorts, Bahama House, and the now-vacant (and reputed demolition-bound) Treasure Island also owns the entire block of land off Sunrise and between Shultze and A1A, and only this past year demolished the lone home that stood on Sunrise in that section, so that may be a sign of things to come at the end of the street.

This is a nice street where most folks know each other and watch out for one another. Crime is low, but it IS a beachside street and has it's share of transients and nearby local petty thieves always looking for crimes of opportunity such as open car doors and things left in plain sight outside, so just use good common sense and lock your doors and be aware of things. It is not an unsafe area at all, it's just going to be slightly more vulnerable to things like petty thefts with the extra pedestrian and bicycle traffic it gets. We have a single, senior relative living on this street currently and her safety from crimes is never a worry - it's a nice, safe street.

House prices are HIGH being on the beachside, although starting to soften with the rest of the state and country, but not as quickly because they are on the beachside where real estate is alway higher priced. Remember that not only is real estate more expensive on the beachside, but insurance is UNREAL for hurricane/flood and homeowers as most homes on this street are 1950-1960 era and insurance companies hate older homes near the ocean! Also remember that the constant salt spray coming from the ocean at the end of the street will EAT things away in short order - expect about 7 years before your outdoor Central A/C unit has to be replaced due to corrosion, and paint jobs on cars usually start to show damage in a few years unless garaged and washed often to counteract the salt damage. Painting has to be done more often (a major US paint company used to test paints for fading just a couple miles south of here for many decades) but it's all part of the price to live in paradise.

One minor note to conside also - if you are really bothered by any airplane noise, find another street. It's not like living right next to and airport, but the currently empty Treasure Island hotel which sits on A1A between Sunrise and Park Ave. is about 2.5 miles due East from the end of the longest main runway at Daytona Beach airport and there is a constant flow of airplanes overhead on most days as the winds usually run east-west and you will have planes taking off or landing depending on which way the winds are going. There are only 4 or 5 airline flights a day from Daytona Airport and they are smaller "regional jets" but you do hear them. One of the largest pilot training schools in the world, Embry-Riddle University is located at the airport as well, and they have a fleet of about 100 planes that is in the air almost constantly most days with training flights. Daytona is one of the heaviest general aviation (small planes) airports in the country due to the training done there, so if the buzz of little planes drives you nuts, look elsewhere. During special events, race weeks in particular, the race teams and corporate sponsors all fly in with impressive private jets and the evening/morning after a big race can get busy with jets headed back up North. There is a LOT of extra airplane traffic during special events - so much that the airport closes one runway and uses it for parking all the visiting planes!