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Old 08-26-2017, 10:19 AM
 
Location: Ormond Beach, FL
1,615 posts, read 2,118,279 times
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It has hazard zone overlays. One overall is flood zones. Very handy! But best to check with the county before making an offer.

Last edited by Yac; 11-27-2020 at 02:51 AM..
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Old 08-26-2017, 12:00 PM
 
Location: SW Florida
14,799 posts, read 11,940,829 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aridon View Post
Down there you're probably looking at Citizens or a Foreign insurer like lloyds, Lexington or USF&G etc.

Expect it to be expensive, likely the most costly insurance in the entire state. Anything built 2002 and newer will automatically get the updated building code credits. I'd try to avoid anything frame or in a mandatory flood zone unless it was elevated significantly. Flood costs are based on the level of the first floor living area so an elevated dwelling would be substantially cheaper than one on a poured slab.
Don't think there is an area in the Keys that would NOT be in a mandatory flood zone.

Monroe County, FL - Official Website - Floodplain Management
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Old 08-28-2017, 12:43 PM
 
Location: Rockton, IL
50 posts, read 56,063 times
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Fredesch:


Very handy information to have, I didn't know that. Thank you.
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Old 09-08-2017, 05:12 PM
 
Location: New York City
19,061 posts, read 12,600,744 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jenjmurray View Post
Hello everyone! My husband and I are moving to the FLA Keys in 2023. We will be "young" retirees. We will both get new jobs, my husband retiring from law enforcement. I have been watching the real estate market for quite some time now and I am starting to get a handle on what you can get for your dollar. However, I am looking for some direction on home, wind & flood insurance. We have friends that have a home in Marathon on a canal and they pay about 12K a year. We are looking for something more inland, hopefully in an X or AE flood zone, in the 450K or less range in Key Largo, Tavernier, Islamorada at the far south end. If anyone can share their insurance costs I would be most grateful.


Also, my husband and I are big walkers and bike riders. Our ideal neighborhood would be somewhere we can ride or walk to dinner and is neighbor friendly. We will only be 50 & 51 when we move so I am not looking for a retirement village. Also, do builders own lots? We would love to custom build, but I do not want to risk buying a lot that I may never be able to build one. Thanks for the help!!
might want to rethink those retirement plans in the new reality
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Old 09-08-2017, 05:25 PM
 
30,143 posts, read 20,857,330 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlakeJones View Post
might want to rethink those retirement plans in the new reality
I am sure prices will be going up to the point no can afford Ins soon.
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Old 09-08-2017, 05:27 PM
 
Location: New York City
19,061 posts, read 12,600,744 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LKJ1988 View Post
I am sure prices will be going up to the point no can afford Ins soon.
That's why coastal communities keep lobbying for Government subsidized insurance so they can live on the beach at the expense of taxpayers. I say no way, private insurance or it's at your own risk. Comes with the territory
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Old 09-08-2017, 05:47 PM
 
30,143 posts, read 20,857,330 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlakeJones View Post
That's why coastal communities keep lobbying for Government subsidized insurance so they can live on the beach at the expense of taxpayers. I say no way, private insurance or it's at your own risk. Comes with the territory
Once homes are destroyed they should not allow rebuilding.
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Old 09-09-2017, 01:24 PM
 
16,979 posts, read 21,620,378 times
Reputation: 29053
Quote:
Originally Posted by jenjmurray View Post
Hello everyone! My husband and I are moving to the FLA Keys in 2023. We will be "young" retirees. We will both get new jobs, my husband retiring from law enforcement. I have been watching the real estate market for quite some time now and I am starting to get a handle on what you can get for your dollar. However, I am looking for some direction on home, wind & flood insurance. We have friends that have a home in Marathon on a canal and they pay about 12K a year. We are looking for something more inland, hopefully in an X or AE flood zone, in the 450K or less range in Key Largo, Tavernier, Islamorada at the far south end. If anyone can share their insurance costs I would be most grateful.


Also, my husband and I are big walkers and bike riders. Our ideal neighborhood would be somewhere we can ride or walk to dinner and is neighbor friendly. We will only be 50 & 51 when we move so I am not looking for a retirement village. Also, do builders own lots? We would love to custom build, but I do not want to risk buying a lot that I may never be able to build one. Thanks for the help!!
Still dreaming of the Florida keys now?
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Old 01-09-2018, 09:44 AM
 
Location: Rockton, IL
50 posts, read 56,063 times
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Yes, actually I am still dreaming of the Keys, however, the market is worse than it has ever been. After our last trip down there we are VERY discouraged at the ever rising market. It really has put a damper on our plans. However, we will keep an eye on the market while we live a little further north on the Gulf coast and see if things calm down.
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Old 01-10-2018, 09:06 AM
 
1,448 posts, read 2,874,531 times
Reputation: 2402
Hey Jen,

I never saw this thread before. A lot of the information you were given was incorrect - from mildly so to wildly so. I could correct it, but to do so would take more hours than I have!

This is the best I can do for now:

*Homesteading is a must for home buyers, caps tax growth at 3% per year. That's a necessity in the Keys, so you need to stay here a majority of the year. It's worth it financially because then you don't pay state income tax because you're in FL, plus the Keys growth is astronomical and exponential at points, so that protects you.

* Yes, there are multiple neighborhoods, and individual homes, in X zones, meaning above flood. However, there are fewer and fewer all the time as flood maps are redrawn. And, those that exist, cost substantially more. You are very wise to consider an inland property - it will be relatively far more affordable. But you're not the only 50+er looking for a ground level for easy access. Do consider that if you have the means, building an elevator is somewhat commonplace in the Keys. Sometimes you can get a cheaper stilt than an X zone house and have $ left for an elevator.

*No one here can tell you insurance rates. They vary wildly from house to house. It is based on the individual house construction, and the inspection your insurance company will put the house through. Here are the basics:
- Flood insurance is run by FEMA. You have no other choice. There are some secondary companies coming in and testing the waters, but given Hurricane Irma, they will likely back out again, or if you have the misfortune to insure with them they will never pay you. They are like sharks circling bloody water right now, putting in low-ball offers, but then the fine print is they may not actually be around when you pay the insurance premium for the year, or the premium may end up way higher than FEMA. Stick with FEMA. We are never going backwards to lower water levels. At some point, there will cease to be an option for mortgages at all here, as the islands become more and more unlivable due to sea level rise. Already neighborhoods throughout the Keys get flooded even when there are no storms due to tides, underground pipes are getting corroded and shifting, there are water piping problems because it has to be piped in from Miami, road degradation, and various other livability issues. It's going to get worse, not better. Plan ahead. We are also likely to get increasingly worse storms, so plan for that if you are planning to retire permanently here. If you live in an X house, you know for sure that your flood insurance cost will be $0. But check the elevation certificate, which is different for each house - if you are too close to water, when they redraw flood maps say 10 years after you bought your house, your mortgage company can all of a sudden require you to buy flood insurance or put you in default. The cost, for a ground floor home, can be astronomical. Flood insurance rates used to be subsidized, but gradually are getting higher and higher all the time. The push is for better homes, on stilts. So buying an older house on ground level can cost easily 20k per year in some cases. Plan for this.

- Wind is going to be your most expensive insurance, and there is no option but Citizen's. It will very widely. Not all 2002 and newers will qualify for the best wind insurance rates. A lot of houses that have disintegrated with Hurricane Irma, or with poor care like in the case of a former foreclosure, may have been built to code but since are no longer in the shape to qualify. Moreover, there likely will be new codes put forth in the next few years, because they usually come after a major hurricane strike. That will mean the 2002 regs are no longer impressive enough for the lowest insurance. Note that one of the rumblings is now about whether to require all new houses to be built with metal or concrete roofs only. Which would mean any house with a different kind of roof, would automatically have much higher insurance. Houses are individual. In my case, my house is older, and a wood frame house at that, in a significantly low elevation lot because I am waterfront (but not V zone, thankfully!). I have to pay roughly $600/yr for flood insurance to cover the pilings the house is on, which I consider to be a pretty good deal! Much cheaper than a ground level house. And, my house was built far better than code required in its year - so my particular house qualifies for top wind credits, even though I don't yet have impact windows (I do have accordion shutters), and even though it's a wood house with a shingle roof. The builders went above and beyond to make this thing sturdy, and in fact it has survived multiple hurricane hits including of course Irma and has no damage. My neighbors however did not fare so well, either in insurance costs, or in damage sustained. But it's also based on size. I have a pretty small home at 1200sqft. Cost is rising every single year, so who knows what they'll charge a few years from now? But currently, it's somewhere around 6k per year. I think it was 4k when I bought just a few years ago. I looked at houses that were brand new concrete, and at the time was quoted about 2.5k per year. So it really does vary. The lowest you would ever pay is let's say 2.5, but each year costs are rising, and each hurricane raises them even more. Highest is... I don't know, maybe 20-30k? So don't know if that range helps you, but it's a range at least. You can budget and require a purchase of a house that is within say 2-6k/yr, and then when you're looking at specific houses you call a local insurance company and give them the multiple addresses you're looking at, and they quote you an estimate of what it would be for each house, pending inspection and the info you know about the house. You can always walk away at inspection. For your own sake, stick to the best house you can afford structurally, and forget concerns like cosmetics and extras. It doesn't matter how pretty and ideal the house, if you get forced out onto the street a few years later due to rising insurance costs.

- Keep in mind that mortgage companies will generally require you to keep homeowner's insurance also, which is very expensive here. Budget another 2-6k per year for a small house. It does not get less expensive as the house ages, or as you pay down the mortgage, so keep that in mind. It will always be a high amount, and if for some reason you need to have a new appraisal, costs can go up for any of these insurances - like say if you need to refinance. Your house is likely to be worth more and more every year, so taxes will continue to climb, and insurance rates can readjust if they realize your house value, and rebuild costs, are higher. Oddly, even after a hurricane, the demand keeps going up here. It is ever more and more expensive here to get work done. Plan ahead. Keep the house in nice shape all the time, so if you need to sell in a hurry due to financial changes, you can easily do so within a few months of the catastrophe happening. Pray the catastrophe is not a hurricane that wipes out your home's value or usability, while still leaving you with the full mortgage to pay every month.

*If you have the cash to buy a house with no mortgage and self-insure, do so. But it sounds like from prior posts that is not the case. Keep a very tight budget and save aggressively if you buy cash, because you are going without a doubt to need it for evacuations, and the extremely high cost of (likely very slow and poorly done) repairs.

* Scrap the dream of building if you aren't wealthy. The permit costs are very high. You will be waiting years for it all to go through, even with ROGO. You will never be in a situation where you buy environmentally sensitive land and unable to build on it and not know it - all of this would be required by a mortgage company to be figured out. The headaches of incompetent work here are severe. Most houses I have watched go up, even though I am in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods, have ended up with major problems halfway through due to incompetence and not understanding the unique requirements of the land. This is one of the hardest places to build on in the US. The cost is extremely high, and the work and permitting extremely slow, even in the best of circumstances. A pre-existing house will always be far more affordable.

*I can't say what things will be like in a few years. But except for individual houses, Islamorada is mostly underwater. They also have a strong history of getting some of the worst damage in storms for some reason. It's very cute, but also more expensive than most of the other Keys. Tavernier has a few neighborhoods that are X zone, but most are not by very many feet. A few are on a slight hill. Flood maps might change that in the future. Key Largo has the highest elevation, and some nice neighborhoods with walkability to the kinds of places you want. For ground level inland homes, consider the Largo Sound neighborhood in Key Largo. But if you can manage it, houses that are X zone on the Bay side might be safer, because in most cases the ocean side gets hit harder and has higher storm surge. X zone is no guarantee of anything when high storm surge comes into play because of a king tide or extra rain with a particular hurricane. With a ground level home, if that happens you will lose everything. Note that for all of these islands, the highest elevation will tend to be the houses closest to the highway. So you will have a better shot at affording an X zone if you're willing to have it right on the highway. Sometimes that will mean great convenience, and even good views because you will be near water or a good bridge to walk over and watch the sunset. But, of course there are downsides to living right next to a very busy highway.

*The lowest you're ever going to spend in the Keys on insurance is for a small, new home in an X zone, at around 4k/yr, with $0 flood insurance. But, that means a far higher mortgage cost. And possibly bidding wars. And, there are very few of those built - most new houses are large. And most new houses are built on stilts, because builders understand that the flood maps will change, and that storm surge can get higher than what flood maps say anyway. The highest you might spend could be around 60k per year currently, in a fairly large poorly built house in an AE flood zone. Aim for something reasonable like 4-8k/yr, which will be relatively easy to find and slightly cheaper to buy, and save money for it to go higher as you keep the house longer. Expect taxes to rise, and be smart and get your Homestead Exemption immediately upon purchase.

The Keys are more popular post-Irma, not less. It's not the kind of place where you look a the price tag much. If you have to ask, you're not likely to be able to afford staying in the long term. Foreclosures are a good option, but only go with REO foreclosures, and even so expect that the cost can be really high for repairs. They have to clear out liens and the worst construction offenses when the bank owns, but still there will be work to do when a place has been abandoned in a tropical climate. Spauling, bees taking over an entire floor, rats, termites... the lower the price, assume the more cash you'll need to fix it. It's often cheaper to buy a more expensive house, if you don't have a huge amount of cash sitting around. Any house that is lower cost than the rest in the Keys, has hidden costs. You don't get anything for free down here. Learn about downstairs enclosures, and know it well - a big beautiful house might look really cheap, but it's because the entire downstairs is illegal and needs to be ripped out entirely. It's a very common circumstance here - although Irma took care of destroying a lot of those houses.
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