Living in Kendall: a neighborhood guide with official data

Kendall is the Miami of quiet living: residential streets with houses and yards, shopping centers for the Saturday errands, parks for the kids and neighbors who have been here for decades. It's one of the most family-oriented and settled areas in the south of the county, with good schools, major hospitals and prices somewhat more moderate than Coral Gables or Doral. Here is what life in Kendall is like and, with official data, what it costs, how its schools perform, how you get around and what to know about flooding.

What is Kendall like in numbers?

Kendall isn't a city but an unincorporated area that the Census defines as a Census Designated Place. We use that official boundary and compare it with the county. Figures come from the Census Bureau (American Community Survey, 2020-2024 average) unless stated otherwise.

These are five-year medians: current listings usually run higher. We explain each figure in the methodology note.

What is it like to live in Kendall?

Kendall is a place people choose to stay. Almost two in three households own their home, more than in the rest of the county, and much of its housing was built in the 1970s and 1980s, when the south of Miami-Dade grew through communities of houses with yards. Today those houses sit alongside apartment buildings and townhouses, mostly near the main avenues.

Because it isn't a city, Kendall depends directly on Miami-Dade County, which provides municipal services such as public safety, parks and zoning. Day to day that changes little, but it's worth knowing: for anything municipal, you'll deal with the county.

It's a neighborhood of families and long-time residents. One in five residents is under 18 and another one in five is 65 or older: here grandparents who arrived decades ago live alongside grandchildren attending the local school. Spanish is spoken in six in ten homes, and the community of Cuban origin is the largest, as in the county as a whole.

What is there to do in Kendall?

Parks and the outdoors

• Kendall Indian Hammocks Park, a county park of about 116 acres, with tropical forest, trails and sports areas.
• A wide network of neighborhood parks: the county counts 25 parks and green spaces within Kendall, such as Snapper Creek Park, Continental Park, Ron Ehmann Park and the Briar Bay golf course with its trail.

Eating and shopping

Kendall's commercial life revolves around its big shopping centers and the Kendall Drive and Dadeland avenues: Dadeland Mall, one of Miami's best-known malls, next to the Metrorail station; The Falls, an open-air center among waterfalls and greenery; and dozens of shopping plazas with supermarkets, Cuban cafeterias, Latin American restaurants and chains of every kind. It's a practical place, where everything is a short drive away.

Services nearby

• Baptist Hospital, on North Kendall Drive, one of the area's major hospitals, and Jackson South Medical Center, in the south of the neighborhood.
• Miami Dade College, Kendall Campus, for university, technical and English courses.
• Three county public libraries within the neighborhood.

How much does it cost to live in Kendall?

More than half of homes are single-family houses, and the stock dates from the 1970s and 1980s, with a median year built of 1978. That means houses with more land than elsewhere, but also, sometimes, roofs, systems or windows worth checking.

• Renting: the median rent is $1,905 a month, just above the county and well below Coral Gables ($2,373) and Doral ($2,669). If you have no credit history, read renting in Miami without a credit history.
• Buying: the median value is $567,900. For a house of this age, get a thorough inspection and ask for a wind mitigation inspection, which can lower insurance significantly. We explain it in our guide to buying property in Miami.

Current price: According to Zillow, in September 2026 the typical value of a house in Kendall was $835,000 (+4.2% over a year) and of a condo, $257,000 (−5.4%). We compare it with other areas, along with rent and flood insurance, in Miami home prices by area, updated every month. Work out what it would cost you to live here →

How good are the schools in Kendall?

Kendall has 10 public schools graded by the Florida Department of Education. In 2026, 8 earned an A and 2 a B:

According to the county registry, Kendall also has 7 charter schools, of which the 3 we could match to official grades earned an A, and 39 private schools, the most of the neighborhoods we analyzed.

How do you get around Kendall?

• Car: the usual way to get around; only 6% of households don't have one. The average commute is 30 minutes, the longest in our comparison.
• Metrorail: Dadeland North and Dadeland South stations, on the eastern edge of the neighborhood, are the end of the line and take you to Coral Gables, Brickell and downtown in minutes.
• Bus: the county's bus network connects with the Dadeland stations.

Is Kendall safe?

According to the FBI, the Miami-Dade County police recorded 336 violent crimes and 1,810 property crimes per 100,000 residents in 2025. The U.S. averages that year were 330 and 1,552. Violent crime is 2% above the national average, and it fell 16% from 2024.

Kendall has no police department of its own: this is the figure for all of unincorporated Miami-Dade served by the county police, with more than a million residents.

Within each area, risk changes from one street to the next: visit by day and by night before deciding. Compare it with other areas in Miami crime rates by area.

Does Kendall flood?

• Flood zone: according to FEMA's current map, 22% of Kendall's land is in a high-risk zone, almost all of it (21.7%) zone AH: areas of shallow ponding, 1 to 3 feet deep, on flat land. If you have a mortgage and the home is in that zone, the lender will require flood insurance.
• Hurricane evacuation: almost the whole neighborhood (98.5%) is in the county's storm surge zone D, one of the last to evacuate.

Before renting or buying, look up the exact address on the FEMA flood map and ask for the flood disclosure required by Florida law.

What are the pros and cons of Kendall?

Who is Kendall right for?

It's a good fit if: you have a family and want a house with a yard at a more reasonable price, value good schools, want hospitals and services nearby and prefer the calm of a residential area to city life.

It may not be for you if: you want to live without a car, work far away and don't want to spend time in traffic, want the beach or nightlife, or prefer a newer home.

Similar neighborhoods: if you want a family atmosphere with excellent schools and life in Spanish, read our Doral guide; if you prefer a greener, historic and more affluent setting, the Coral Gables guide.

Want to compare them all? Read our guide to Miami neighborhoods: where to live based on what you want.

Frequently asked questions

Methodology note

We use the official boundary of the Kendall Census Designated Place. Population, housing, income, language, origin and commuting figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (2020-2024 five-year estimates); the Cuban origin share is calculated over the Hispanic population. We calculated the shares of land in flood and evacuation zones ourselves by overlaying that boundary on FEMA's current flood map and the storm surge planning zones published by Miami-Dade County, using land area only. Schools, parks, hospitals, libraries, malls and stations are located using county open data, and school grades are the Florida Department of Education's official 2026 grades.