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Hi All!
My husband, 7 year old and I are considering moving to the Keys within the next 6 months to a year. We originally were going to move to St. Croix, USVI, however with aging parents on both sides my husband wants to put that off for a few years to avoid us possibly having to come back stateside for months at a time to deal with estates, etc...
We're planning on a PMV in the upcoming months although with the upgrade our lifestyle will actually get in the Keys compared to the USVI, I'm not overly concerned that we'll hate it. LOL
I mean- you guys have actual utilities, roads, a way off the island and we don't have to sell literally everything to move there...
I've researched moving to the USVI for almost 12 years so there's not a lot about island living that I don't already know except the first hand experience part.
I work from home and also have a successful online business and I homeschool my daughter. My husband is a contractor but he will most likely be looking for something different down there. He's a man of many talents and a hell of a worker so he'll be fine.
With that- I've been looking at places between Sugarloaf up to Marathon. Are these great places for kids? Any area better than another? I know the middle keys are slower tourist wise and more family oriented, so we'd want to stick around an area like that.
We're not made of money but we're not too concerned with the housing costs bc we currently live in an area where the median house price is $500k+. We're going to scale down in size and price when we move bc right now we just have too much house for 3 people.
My question is insurance though. I know several types are needed depending on where you live so I can understand if that's a hard question to answer. But is there a good average per $100k of housing? (like $15k a year, etc...) We ideally will be looking for a CB house on stilts but we'll take a non stilted CB house into consideration depending on how it's zoned.
Any advice for moving to the keys would be much appreciated.
I was 99% prepared for moving to the USVI so I'm having to switch gears a bit and want to make sure there isn't anything glaringly unexpected that I'm missing.
We spent 3 years in Key West (2014-2017) and I grew up spending a bunch of time in Marathon. I love Marathon since I know the waters there better than my native Tampa but it is not an exciting place to live otherwise. Unless your 7 year old is addicted to anything and everything having to do with water they are going to be bored out of their mind down there.
Oddly enough we found Key West to be incredibly family friendly (Duval St being the obvious exception but we rarely went down there). Our daughter was 1 year old when we moved down there and my wife immediately connected with other moms through the preschool co-op. All I did was work but she had a great time down there.
House prices are nuts as I'm sure you know. Insurance is even more nuts and what kept us from buying. You need homeowners, windstorm and flood. Homeowners will probably run a few thousand, windstorm will depend entirely on mitigation measures taken (roofing, impact windows...), flood can be anywhere from $800-ish to lots of thousands depending on the base flood elevation of the lowest living area in the home. A modern modular stilt house can be fairly reasonable cost wise, maybe $4-6k or less if you're lucky. A mid-century rancher at ground level in an AE zone could easily be $15-20k per year for the three insurances. I believe my parents place in Marathon is $20k+, it's been rebuilt three times since they bought it in the early 90's because of hurricanes. Taxes are not cheap either, add another $6-8k+ for those. These prices are based on when we were looking so they may have increased since then. I know the flood maps were being redrawn and I doubt Irma did anything to bring the rates down either.
We loved living down there but at the end of the day we had to prioritize our financial future and me being able to spend time with my daughter instead of working 60 hour weeks to pay rent. It's a fun place to live for a few years though if you can swing it.
You might consider a condo instead where you can have all of those costs such as insurance/property taxes covered by the association within your monthly fees, which are a good bit more tolerable than going it alone. I wouldn't throw the lower Keys completely under the bus in terms of "family-friendliness" given the east side of town (Key West) and Stock Island next to the east are the areas where working families in KW tend to reside with kids. https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...=true&view=map
You might consider a condo instead where you can have all of those costs such as insurance/property taxes covered by the association within your monthly fees, which are a good bit more tolerable than going it alone. I wouldn't throw the lower Keys completely under the bus in terms of "family-friendliness" given the east side of town (Key West) and Stock Island next to the east are the areas where working families in KW tend to reside with kids. https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...=true&view=map
Thanks for the reply! We wouldn't be able to live in a condo because we have two large rescued pit bulls.
Granted, they're both very friendly and constantly socialized, almost never bark, extremely well behaved and going to be evaluated for becoming therapy dogs (so we can volunteer in children's hospitals and senior living facilities), but unfortunately I doubt any condo associations would care.
We're doing all the right things to help break the stigma, but it's still there for a lot of people. And at 60lbs and 80lbs we'd probably be refused just on size alone. Our furry kiddos also need a yard to play in.
I've visited the Keys many times. The longest visit was a month long. Homes used to be more affordable, but that's a long time ago. I think that the average home is around $700K. The homes on nicer lots, around $1M. I used to watch a YouTuber who lived in the keys. They said that the home they rented would have cost about $1,800 a month for insurance, which is roughly $22K per year. From what I understand, electricity is very expensive in the Keys too. I think water would probably be very expensive too.
Many decades ago, they used to have a 12" water line feeding the Keys. During the middle of the day, it would take about ten minutes for the toilet to refill, because the water pressure was very low during the daytime. Maybe you could have had a water tank at your house that could refill during the overnight hours to have more water pressure at your home during the daytime. Maybe the infrastructure has greatly improved from decades ago.
From what I've heard, the main things to do in the Keys are fishing and drinking/drugs. It's a pretty isolated place to live. If you want good medical clinics, and lot of shopping, you have to drive a long way to the north, towards the Miami area. An Internet business may be a way to have a good income in the Keys. I believe that the jobs in the Keys are probably low wage jobs. However, if you're dependent on good Internet speed, you'd need to make sure that you'll have that in the Keys. Perhaps the new StarLink low orbiting satellite system would solve that problem, where the rural areas have poor and slow Internet services.
I believe that the jobs in the Keys are probably low wage jobs.
Low wage is Mainland, here the housekeepers starts at $20..It's expensive, but I'm working here and I'm fine, but don't know anything about remote jobs..
Dave, none of that is true any more...most of what you wrote wasn't even true back then...and hasn't been for a long time.....people live and work here..kids go to school....we have great internet...no water problems...water and elec are a coop and keep our rates low.....and no one pays that for insurance unless they have a $10 million house or something
We're not isolated from anything....
you saw the Keys as a tourist....at places tourists hang....
Quote:
Originally Posted by davephan
I've visited the Keys many times. The longest visit was a month long. Homes used to be more affordable, but that's a long time ago. I think that the average home is around $700K. The homes on nicer lots, around $1M. I used to watch a YouTuber who lived in the keys. They said that the home they rented would have cost about $1,800 a month for insurance, which is roughly $22K per year. From what I understand, electricity is very expensive in the Keys too. I think water would probably be very expensive too.
Many decades ago, they used to have a 12" water line feeding the Keys. During the middle of the day, it would take about ten minutes for the toilet to refill, because the water pressure was very low during the daytime. Maybe you could have had a water tank at your house that could refill during the overnight hours to have more water pressure at your home during the daytime. Maybe the infrastructure has greatly improved from decades ago.
From what I've heard, the main things to do in the Keys are fishing and drinking/drugs. It's a pretty isolated place to live. If you want good medical clinics, and lot of shopping, you have to drive a long way to the north, towards the Miami area. An Internet business may be a way to have a good income in the Keys. I believe that the jobs in the Keys are probably low wage jobs. However, if you're dependent on good Internet speed, you'd need to make sure that you'll have that in the Keys. Perhaps the new StarLink low orbiting satellite system would solve that problem, where the rural areas have poor and slow Internet services.
Insurance is high depending on the age of the home and elevation. last time i paid insurance in 2017 it was about 700 a month for windstorm, flood and homeowners on a 1967 modular home 3 feet off the ground. it was only for 111,000 in max coverage. my neighbors with a 1997 home 10 feet off the ground above the BFE paid about 550 a month for full rebuild value at least 400k. the newer the house the better the rate its all about mediation credits for the building materials and construction. marathon has sombrero beach with great playground and volley ball courts. Big pine key is one area has a nice community park and is more blue collar than other areas. right now housing is very expensive and not much inventory. the unincorporated area vs the actual cities like marathon and key west tend to be much less populated and larger land parcels. you will also not find any big box stores in the unincorporated areas. if you want a home depot or marathon or even a publix you will need to go to key west or marathon. big pine also has a seasonal flea market and a winn dixie but that is the only supermarket between marathon and key west. i can't say much about homeschooling but a few rv'rs homeschool and travel and the kids seem fine. if you like the ocean and water activities you will love it here lots of fishing drinking and beach time. I have seem many move here and move out less than 2 years because you are on a island and your choice of places to go and see are limited on a rock 70 plus miles out in the ocean. as for me i feel its the closest you can get to tropical island and still drive here! its expensive here too add 10 to 25 % to cost of living. electric water and sewer are expensive too. 2 people in a single story 860 sq ft house electric is between 100 and 200 a month depending on 3 wall ac's running. sewer and water has never been less than 90 a month but never more than 180 since the new sewer system was installed. wages are better here tom thumb will start a cashier at $15 an hour i know landscapers starting at $20 hr for cutting and weed whacking grass. i would recommend renting for the first 6 months or year and explore all different areas and wait for RE prices to drop too. if you can get a place with sea wall or dock. To myself nothing is better than getting off work driving home in the truck and 10 minutes later you out back taking off in your boat to watching the sunset or a few hors of fishing or even a picnic island visit.
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