I moved to Miami three years ago so my partner could attend FIU for his MFA. I work at UM and we live in South Beach. He teaches mostly at FIU's MMC campus and takes classes at BBC. If anyone has specific questions about anything, feel free to PM me or ask away here. We had a scammy experience while apartment hunting and though are happy with where we ended up, it was not a good welcome to the city.
We live in a studio. Yep, two of us in a studio for three years. We started paying $825 (July 2010) and are now paying $925/month. This seems typical for many of the people we know. Our friend lives alone in North Miami, near the BBC campus and pays $900 for a one bedroom in an apartment complex. We have some friends who choose to live in Hollywood and commute to the (FIU) BBC campus. They tend to pay about $800/person for rent. We wouldn't choose to live anywhere else in Miami, but recognize this causes a substantial amount of commuting.
It is possible to get to UM from South Beach via public transport, but it takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on how quickly you can run from the bus to the train and so on. I used to do this everyday, but haven't been as much lately. Miami is a car town, in my opinion.
mormegil - there is a Target and a Publix (a main grocery chain here) very near the BBC campus. The problem is that because the campus is set in away from US 1, it would be quite a walk to get to either. Really, from the campus itself, there are pretty much no places to walk to.