Would like to live in the Keys (Miami, Kendall: real estate, rentals)

[debravilla]

I am an architectural/interior designer looking to move to Miami or the Keys.

It is a dream of mine to live in the keys somewhere with the lush vegetation and tropical mangroves. Can you get that anywhere near Miami? Key Biscayne?

How far is Key Largo from Miami? How long would it take during rush hour?

Any advice is welcome. I would rather not live in a 'city' but don't mind working in it.

[unquiltom]

The drive from Key Largo to downtown Miami can vary quite a bit depending on the time of day. During off hours, it can be done in about 1 hour 15 min. Rush hour could take 3 hours.
There are lots of places in Miami with lush vegetation and mangroves, but nothing that's like the Keys, in my opinion. The Keys are laid back and slower paced and Miami is a big metropolitan city, with all the problems associated with any big city and traffic that rivals LA for tie ups at all hours of the day.

[doggiebus]

The real question is what is your budget? And where will you be working?

Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove or South Miami will give you that lush vegetation your probably looking for. Key Largo is an hour and 15 minutes from downtown Miami without traffic. With rush hour traffic your looking at least 2 hours most likely. So living in Key Largo and working in downtown Miami isn't an option really for most people. I know people that live in Kendall and Homestead that commute down to the Keys for work. If you want to live in Key Largo, then your work should be located on the south end of the county. I'd probably use Kendall as your furthest northern point of where your work would have to be. Anything north of that you'll be spending a lot of time in your car each day. For interior designers that will probably be limited yourself a lot, I'm guessing.

[StarfishKey]

It is certainly doable, there are many people who live in the Upper Keys and especially Key Largo who commute in to Homestead and Miami. I do it myself. The key however is to either work off hours so you're not in traffic much (you can get to Homestead in 35 minutes, and southern parts of Miami in 50 minutes - less if you live in the absolute Northernmost part of Key Largo), and to only need to go in to work in person a few times a week or a month. So with your background, if you get work in Miami but start transitioning much of it over time to working for the wealthy people in the Keys, or in the many opportunities opening up in the less prestigious development of Homestead/Florida City, then more and more you can stay local and not have to do the long and dangerous drive back and forth.

There is no substitute for Keys life. If you are suited to it (and if you do a search you will see many threads I have made, especially in the Florida forum, about what it is really like to live here) it is the greatest experience. Key Biscayne is awesome but VERY expensive and also no better commute to Miami really. You need money to survive in the Keys, it's not an easily affordable and sustainable place. And we have a serious lack of affordable legal rentals. So you need the kind of money that can handle buying an above-flood house and paying for hazard insurances long term, which is fairly serious cash. 150k is not going to do it for a house here. But, it's doable, and many people here are doing it.

Keep in mind, "lush" is not the thing the Keys specializes in. Believe it or not, while Miami gets some of the most rainfall in all of FL, Monroe County actually gets the LEAST in the entire state. It's not a desert here, but during the dry season it can feel like it, and sometimes even look like it. We have flood half the year, and cracked dried earth half the year. Many dry seasons even come with brush fires. Not that many plants can handle the extremes here, except for the native species. Miami and Homestead, although they are technically subject to freezes while we are not, can handle more tropical plants without supplementing the watering so much - which is an important consideration, because FL has a fresh water shortage and Keys water costs a minimum of $45/month just to have it hooked up, before you even use any. But if you want to see mangroves ever day, there is no better place than the Keys for it.

So yeah, how much money you can spend, and where you will work, are pretty central issues. If you are able to telecommute much of the time, it will help you a great deal. Or you can do as I did, and work in Miami for a number of years while you save up, and THEN move down to the Keys. The Keys are not ideal for MOST people, very few are actually happy here long term. So read up before the move. But if this is what you want, nothing else is going to be an adequate substitute. It doesn't sound like you've been down in extreme SFL much, so I would recommend visiting a lot, and getting a better feel for what all of this is really like, what the commute is like, etc. The highways down here are seriously dangerous, and that is the main problem. I don't care how long I'm on the road, but having to be on guard for a life-threatening accident every minute on the road is very stressful. I am an excellent driver and have never had an accident or ticket in my life, but most people in the area are not like that, so it doesn't help much. You need to be very focused during the entire drive because of the rampant dangerous driving, and the huge number of uninsured and unlicensed drivers on the road. But once you're home in the Keys and off US-1, you can hang out on the water and relax your brain again (if you're not working round the clock just to afford it).

[tallrick]

I lived in Key Largo 20 years, and was almost killed two times on US-1 going back and forth to the mainland. Once on the Jewfish Creek bridge (now gone) and once near Florida Rock and sand where a motorhome collided with a drunk driver. While in 1988 the Keys were still liveable, by 2010 it was over for me. Got tired of the horrible dry summers and lack of local fresh water, the snowbirds driving up prices and the natives moving away. Now I am in Hendry County, which is rural and a lot less expensive than the Keys, with about the same level of crime. The Keys are obsolete until the current real estate driven economy collapses and real industry returns. Working on the mainland and living in the keys is a waste of time. You need to have money or find a way to be sustainable to live there. Commuting is for the foolish.

[MiamiInvestor]

If you're just looking for lush vegetation, mangroves, and some peace and quiet there are some substitutes in Miami. I would recommend Coconut Grove and possibly Key Biscayne. It isn't going to be the Keys, but you'll be in Miami.

In an ideal world, you'd get a place in the keys, a pilot's license, and a seaplane

[Travelassie]

Originally Posted by tallrick

I lived in Key Largo 20 years, and was almost killed two times on US-1 going back and forth to the mainland. Once on the Jewfish Creek bridge (now gone) and once near Florida Rock and sand where a motorhome collided with a drunk driver. While in 1988 the Keys were still liveable, by 2010 it was over for me. Got tired of the horrible dry summers and lack of local fresh water, the snowbirds driving up prices and the natives moving away. Now I am in Hendry County, which is rural and a lot less expensive than the Keys, with about the same level of crime. The Keys are obsolete until the current real estate driven economy collapses and real industry returns. Working on the mainland and living in the keys is a waste of time. You need to have money or find a way to be sustainable to live there. Commuting is for the foolish.

And I see mangroves everyday of my life as I look out our windows across the Peace River.

[Cubanchic]

Originally Posted by MiamiInvestor

If you're just looking for lush vegetation, mangroves, and some peace and quiet there are some substitutes in Miami. I would recommend Coconut Grove and possibly Key Biscayne. It isn't going to be the Keys, but you'll be in Miami.

In an ideal world, you'd get a place in the keys, a pilot's license, and a seaplane

My sister and her partner live in marathon, and yes they work and study in Miami, both are pilots and even with their own plane at marathon airport a few feet from their door step they still have a RV in Larry and Penny Thompson park. It is just too much of a hassle even for them.