Miami: Considering a move there.

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I'm thinking about moving to Miami at some point within the next 6 months to year and a half. My best friend will be moving there with her sister this summer and so will my aunt in a few years plus an uncle of mine lives nearby. Right now mom and me are in Northern Alabama (where we moved to from Massachusetts nearly 4 years ago) and know very, very, very few people. Plus the main factor is that the job market here is pretty much dried up unless you're a rocket scientist or an engineer. My experience (and my mom's) is in office management and administrative assistance. Those fields in Miami pay about $10,000 to $20,000+ more annually if you are bilingual which I am, than they do where I'm at (I checked out monster.com) and there are a ton of jobs in that field there. My other major pluses are the weather there, AL is actually getting pretty cold winters now, having more family and friends close by that we can rely on and watching my Godson grow up again finally plus being able to be surrounded by my Latin American culture again. So here's my problem... looking online I can't find any nice apartments for a reasonable price. I was also wondering if anyone knew what the cost of living there was like? Anyone been there, lived there? I've been out of work since last April despite constantly sending in resumes (often times reapetedly) and never getting so much as an interview. In AL being Latin American is like being infected with the plague, someone sees the last name and in goes the resume to the circular file bin! Even the temp agency I worked for did that to other Hispanics and the whole office staff were Hispanics themselves! My mother's job just got terminated as the company owner can't keep his nose clean or out of the company cash so he's pretty much closing up shop this week. I feel like in Miami we'll have a more fair chance. Of course we need to find temp jobs here, probly go into housekeeping or something for now, so we can afford to move. Any Miami experience out there? Advice?