The 234 Apartment

Five Broward County cities rank as the priciest rental markets in Florida — and, no, Fort Lauderdale doesn ’t top the list. Miramar leads with a July average rent of $1,800 a month, up 3.2 percent from a year ago, according to RENTCafé, a nationwide apartment search website . Adrian Rosenberg, a representative for the website, noted that Miramar rents have increased steadily in recent years and that more than half of Miramar’s apartment stock is made up of high-end buildings, which includes 1,500 new units delivered since 2013. Despite the recent building boom of luxury apartments in Fort Lauderdale , Broward’s county seat comes in only at No. 2 at $1,751 a month. Davie is third at $1,739. Coral Springs and Pembroke Pines are tied at No. 4 at $1,653 a month. In another upset, Miami came in at only No. 6 ($1,587) because lower- priced neighborhoods drove down the average rent, Rosenberg said. West Palm Beach was No. 7 at $1,344. No other Palm Beach County community made the top 1...

PARK RIDGE — Police are investigating the killing of a Park Ridge woman found dead inside her Florida apartment on Tuesday. The body of Nicole Franco, 19, was found early Tuesday morning in her Oakland Park apartment , the Broward County Sheriff ’s Office said on Thursday. Franco had called 911 at 3:29 a.m. to report that someone was breaking into her home, but only gave dispatchers the apartment complex's address, not her apartment number, investigators said. Officers went door-to-door at Bridgewater Place, looking for signs of a break-in. They found an open sliding glass door to a first-floor apartment, and found Franco's body inside, investigators said. Authorities have not yet released information on how Franco was killed, but said her death is being investigated as a homicide. The day after her death, just two miles away, the body of another teen was found in the yard of an Oakland Park home , NBC reported. Franco reportedly knew the victim, 17-year-old Amaya Cruz, bu...