What is Homested, Florida City like? (Miami, Largo: real estate, foreclosures, how much)

[Milwaukee City]

Just how expensive is the keys?

[crisp444]

Housing prices in the Keys are expensive. Even after the burst of the real estate "bubble," my parents' 1070 square foot home could be sold for around $500,000 (down from about $700,000 at the height of the real estate market about two years ago). However, even with the lower prices, it is substantially cheaper to rent than to buy in the Keys. I'll give you an example: there is a house down the street from where my parents live (around 1000 square feet) that is renting for only $1500 per month. This is a detached house in a nice neighborhood that would sell for $400,000! The mortgage payment on that would be far more than the its rental value. I have observed this in several other neighborhoods down in the Keys. Let me know if you have any more questions about the area; though I live in NYC now I go down to visit Miami and the Keys about three times per year to see family and friends. I just got back about a week ago from a visit - beautiful weather this time of year!

[cuba libre]

Originally Posted by crisp444

Housing prices in the Keys are expensive. Even after the burst of the real estate "bubble," my parents' 1070 square foot home could be sold for around $500,000 (down from about $700,000 at the height of the real estate market about two years ago). However, even with the lower prices, it is substantially cheaper to rent than to buy in the Keys. I'll give you an example: there is a house down the street from where my parents live (around 1000 square feet) that is renting for only $1500 per month. This is a detached house in a nice neighborhood that would sell for $400,000! The mortgage payment on that would be far more than the its rental value. I have observed this in several other neighborhoods down in the Keys. Let me know if you have any more questions about the area; though I live in NYC now I go down to visit Miami and the Keys about three times per year to see family and friends. I just got back about a week ago from a visit - beautiful weather this time of year!

Re: OP Extention - Florida City to the Keys Real Estate

The Keys are a mess right now. No one knows what anything is worth. There is a house with 2,200 s.f., 80' x 110' lot, deep water dockage w/ direct ocean access, on a street in my parent's neighborhood in Marathon. 2 years ago it was listed for $1,695,000. A year ago they reduced it to $1,395,000. Now, they are asking $895,000.

Asking prices are now much lower than independent appraisals. The county is losing money because they spent like drunken sailors during the 2003-2007 "BOOM". Now, they aren't building fancy parks, schools, and fire stations anymore, they can't even find money to pay their "work force" teachers and policemen. There isn't enough housing for new teachers making $40,000/ year to live in. As a result, school quality is very poor by most standards (except for when they compare one Keys school to another) and half the police force lives in Homestead/Florida City and commutes to work every day.

Basically, if you bought a house on the water in the 80's or 90's, you have a great place to celebrate retirement. Nowhere in Florida (or the U.S.) has the excellent weather and turquoise waters of the Keys, especially the Middle and Southern Keys.

[Milwaukee City]

Where can you be the closest to the keys(Key largo-Key West) while still being safe? Maybe south of Homestead or Florida City? in the country so to speak?

[crisp444]

There is nothing south of Florida City except 18 miles of protected swampland and wildlife reserve. After that is Key Largo and the rest of the Keys. If you want to live very close to the Keys but not in the Keys themselves, I would recommend Keys Gate (Homestead) and eastern Cutler Bay.

[reversal]

whys the bay in cutler ridge blocked off.

[Woody7]

Originally Posted by crisp444

There is nothing south of Florida City except 18 miles of protected swampland and wildlife reserve. After that is Key Largo and the rest of the Keys. If you want to live very close to the Keys but not in the Keys themselves, I would recommend Keys Gate (Homestead) and eastern Cutler Bay.

+2 on that!

[Migsly]

Homestead use to be a nice community but I don't recognize it now. After Hurricane Andrew, it went down hill in every department.

[tallrick]

The Keys are somewhere between 2-10 times overpriced. There are few if any good paying jobs here, The weather is extremely bad from May-November. There is the twice a year hurricane evecuation fun. There are no beaches and few places to launch a boat. It is about as dry as a desert most of the year despite the high humidity. Until the 90's it was worth it to live here because it was relatively inexpensive and it had a relaxed atmosphere. Today most of the fun people have left, to be replaced with snowbirds. Now they are hurting financially. When this mess is all over, I expect the keys to be the a lot less expensive and probably more fun again.

[cuba libre]

Originally Posted by tallrick

The Keys are somewhere between 2-10 times overpriced. There are few if any good paying jobs here, The weather is extremely bad from May-November. There is the twice a year hurricane evecuation fun. There are no beaches and few places to launch a boat. It is about as dry as a desert most of the year despite the high humidity. Until the 90's it was worth it to live here because it was relatively inexpensive and it had a relaxed atmosphere. Today most of the fun people have left, to be replaced with snowbirds. Now they are hurting financially. When this mess is all over, I expect the keys to be the a lot less expensive and probably more fun again.

Well paying jobs were never plentiful in the keys. However, average life was attainable via small range of modest paying jobs until around 2000, when real estate prices started to blossom. No place is perfect, but the keys could be within reach for more average people once real estate values drop back within reason. The turnover rate at many keys businesses is astounding, especially in restaurants and the marine industry. A lot of people are alcoholics or drug addicts in the keys as well, which leads to a lot of dysfunctional households.