It was beginning to show the first signs of gentrification at the end of the bubble but it seems to have slid backwards again. There were plans to tear down a strip mall on Palm and replace it with a new one that (I think) included a Trader Joes. I’m not sure if that is still on the table but I doubt it.
The schools are really bad. I know two families who moved to IB in the last two years. Both stayed less than a year before moving out again.
I think that IB will probably gentrify at some point. It is the cheapest beach community for 300 miles. If young professional couples “discovered” it or it began to attract vacation home buyers, it would start the ball rolling. There are a number of warts that need to be frozen off first, though. There are lots of crappy apartments mixed in with single family (terrible, terrible city planning). If these converted in large numbers to condos, that would be a great thing for the city.
