Pembroke Pines began in 1960 as a city of less than a square mile near the Florida Turnpike and now reaches west to U.S. 27 at the edge of the Everglades, with more than 171,000 residents at the 2020 census. It grew in layers, and each layer brings its own air conditioning patterns. The oldest neighborhoods date from the 1960s and 1970s, when University Drive was the edge of development. Century Village, a gated community for residents 55 and over, houses thousands of people in condominiums, the kind of building where an air handler typically sits inside the unit and a drain problem can reach the neighbor below. West of I-75, the area known as West Pines filled with subdivisions after Hurricane Andrew drove families north from Miami-Dade in the 1990s, and most of those houses have long since outlived their first systems. Applications are filed through the city's Development Hub portal or in person.
Pembroke Pines incorporated as a city in January 1960, covering less than a square mile between Hollywood Boulevard and SW 72nd Avenue with the Florida Turnpike to the east, on land that had been dairy country. At the time University Drive marked the western edge of habitable land. Annexation changed that: in 1980 the city took in everything from Flamingo Road to U.S. 27, doubling its size. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, thousands of south Miami-Dade residents moved north, and by 1999 Pembroke Pines ranked third on a national list of fastest-growing cities. The part of the city west of I-75, known as West Pines, is mostly subdivisions built since Andrew; Chapel Trail and Silver Lakes are among the western communities.
More about homes in Pembroke Pines
Census estimates place 36 percent of the city's homes in the 1990s alone and about a fifth in the 1980s. Just under half of units are detached houses, about 14 percent are attached, and nearly a quarter sit in buildings of 20 or more units. The city is also home to Century Village, one of four gated 55-and-over Century Village condominium communities in South Florida. So air conditioning work here swings between interior air handlers in condo buildings and 1990s houses that have outlived the systems they were built with.
Pembroke Pines has a tropical monsoon climate with hot, wet summers and warm, dry winters, and big storms are part of its record. Hurricane Irene dropped an estimated 19 inches of rain on the western communities in 1999, and Wilma's winds in 2005 left most of the city without power for days.
When most homes were built
- Before 1970
- 1970s–80s
- 1990s–2000s
- 2010s +
Salt-air exposure
- Inland
- Near tidal water
- Oceanfront
Inland, with no direct salt-air exposure
Typical buildings
- Single-family homes
- Condos
- townhome
- Century Village
- Chapel Trail
- Silver Lakes
- Pembroke Falls
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