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Old 04-05-2016, 12:25 PM
 
1,448 posts, read 2,874,531 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jghorton View Post
Having lived in Florida for over 40-years, I would advise new residents to stay away from the tourist traps, such as Key West, whether beach towns or not. The trick to successful living in Florida is the same as everywhere else. Figure out what one REALLY wants (and will be happy with over the years) in a place to live.
I would agree. I live in the Upper Keys, and I am really happy here. I am in a quiet area, and there is a ton of wildlife where I am, and true wilderness just minutes away offshore. The sea is gorgeous, and I love the sun and the hot weather. There are a lot of drawbacks to living here, including isolation/inconvenience, high cost of living (and low local pay), constant mosquitoes, and hurricanes and sea level rise which are a serious reality that affect us regularly. But generally speaking, it fits me well, and I'd be happy to be able to stay here for the long-term if I am so lucky, even while I will still crave time off "the Rock" from time to time. I really like not living in a touristy part of the Keys, but being close enough to visit those areas, and Miami, anytime I want. Most people I know would hate living here, finding it monotonous, too hot, and too much of a hassle. Plus I know a lot of people who are terrified of the scorpions and cockroaches and snakes and spiders and crocodiles and other things one is likely to encounter on the daily here. It takes a very specific kind of person to do well in the Keys. Most people are best suited only to a 1- or 2-week vacation where they can live the whitewashed resort version of Keys reality.
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Old 04-07-2016, 06:09 PM
 
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I spent the last few days reading the real estate sites, blogs etc....so Startfishkey, is Key West just one big rental hotel now? With few people actually living there in their own homes? It makes sense for people with money to buy a dump cottage for 500k, dump 200k into it, then rent it out for the years to come. Cheaper and easier than building a multi-million dollar hotel. I just saw a dump go for 500k, with 250k plus needed in repairs, so that is about 800k which makes sense. Rental at 4k per month for long term rental or sneak in less than 28 day rentals.

Amazing...but sad in a way.
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Old 04-09-2016, 12:45 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by totsuka View Post
I spent the last few days reading the real estate sites, blogs etc....so Startfishkey, is Key West just one big rental hotel now? With few people actually living there in their own homes? It makes sense for people with money to buy a dump cottage for 500k, dump 200k into it, then rent it out for the years to come. Cheaper and easier than building a multi-million dollar hotel. I just saw a dump go for 500k, with 250k plus needed in repairs, so that is about 800k which makes sense. Rental at 4k per month for long term rental or sneak in less than 28 day rentals.

Amazing...but sad in a way.

You have that a little confused. There are plenty of local residents living in Key West in their own homes. BUT, most nowadays live in their own home WITH the rentals in the same house. So either they live here seasonally and rent it out the rest of the time, or they live with roommates they rent to, or they live on one floor or in one side of a duplex and rent the other floor or side out to vacationers simultaneously. So it's both a residential area, and a "big rental hotel," at the same time. This is the only way that most people can afford to stay in Key West, because the property is so expensive, and the insurance costs are so extremely high, plus pricey utilities, taxes, and rather expensive groceries and other local shopping. So many of them, even with 2 or 3 rooms in their house rented out, are barely getting by - hence the dumpiness of many of the houses despite the high price tag. AND, rentals in a party town are given to getting trashed over time. But then there are the slumlords, who make plenty of money and intentionally buy up residential properties just to rent them out in sub-human conditions, knowing that they often can fly under the radar of regulation that hotels and professional apartments have to live up to. There are a lot of people like that in Key West also, and they take advantage of their illegal commercial business in residential zones to suck desperate tourists and residents dry, while never reinvesting in the property and keeping it maintained.

So Key West is a little of everything right now. A lot of local people DO live there, in the homes that they own. It's just that they rarely live alone there anymore, either because they can't afford it, or because the money random people are throwing at them on the daily just to get the chance to rent a crummy room for the night is too tempting for them to turn away from. People post every single day of the year online looking to pay money to crash on any random couch in Key West, or to pay really big money to rent out a vacation apartment or full house. The standards are not high for what you have to provide - people know Key West is run down, and has a lot of really old moldy buildings, and for some reason will pay the money anyway. These are people who are looking to avoid the law themselves, who don't ensure they have a contract or an official lease, who don't check to see if the place is legally owned or legally can be used as a vacation rental. So it makes it so easy for local property owners to take advantage, because the renters are choosing to operate outside the law and official commercial properties and thus outside of the protection that the law otherwise could afford them regarding building safety codes and livable standards.

I fault both the people who take advantage of this, and the dumb tourists who continue to offer money for illegal fire-trap dwellings just so they can drink themselves into a coma. Realistically, most of them could not tell the difference if they were in Key West, Marathon, Key Largo, Mexico, or Tunisia. They are blackout drunk and won't remember what they see there anyway. So given that, you might as well pay less and get a real hotel or apartment that you have legal protections renting, on a cheaper island that also actually has parking for your vehicle. If you just came to the Keys to drink/smoke pot and spend some time in the water, you could do that on any Key in the 100+ mile chain - on many of them for half the price and significantly better accommodations. For those who come to reside, there aren't many high-paying jobs anyway, so it doesn't make that much difference which Key you choose to work on. Marathon for example is uglier, but has plenty of options for housing and work at a much cheaper price (and generally lower crime) than Key West.

None of the Keys are actually affordable, but nearly all of them are more so than Key West, and are also less crowded, less noisy, and less full of skeevy people. But then again, when you choose to rent our your junky place for less money than the local hotel, you tend to attract a lot of skeevy people to rent. So Key Westers have to deal with the consequences of their own choices, because a lot of these people end up wrecking their place, squatting and refusing to leave, or stealing from them or attempting to assault them. It attracts a rowdy bunch. Maybe it's just as well that the crazy partiers are drawn to Key West, so they throw less of their trash and make fewer of their drug and prostitution transactions over the rest of the Keys. But it destroys a lot of the nature and history that Key West had in such beautiful abundance at one time. The constant party culture leads to a lot of people not taking good care of the things that once made Key West special. They let things get run down. It's still an interesting place, but it's such a tourist trap, that I find it significantly less so compared with what it was 60-100 years ago. The other Keys have changed too, but not as much. If you find Disney World to be an authentic place, then you'll love Key West. It's like an R- (or in some cases X-) rated Disney World. Extremely fake, crowded, and overpriced. Old Town is overrun by tourist t-shirt stands and $30 trolley rides rolling by screaming about ghosts, and New Town is overrun by soulless strip malls. There are still real people and buildings there, but they are outnumbered by the plastic you will find on nearly every corner. Money is the #1 most important thing in Key West, and that reality affects the culture palpably.

It's a lot more like Times Square than a quaint Caribbean island. Some people like Times Square. But most people don't want to live there. Whether the real estate is worth the money depends on how much you can get back on your investment before a hurricane or renter destroys all the work you put in, and your insurance predictably refuses to pay you even 30% of what they owe you on the loss.
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Old 04-09-2016, 05:36 PM
 
Location: OCNJ and or lower Florida keys
814 posts, read 2,032,770 times
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obviously people love key west since on the average people pay the most money for nights hotel stay in key west than any other place in florida.
if ya ask me it sound like somebody has a bone to pick with people consuming alcohol or maybe is jealous of how smart the "dumb" tourist is who doesn't really care about or need luxury accommodations. just a cheap place to sleep and shower. they use their money wisely to go to all the cheap local bars and get all the good deals because they are smart and don't needlessly waste money. unlike the rich tourist paying $400 plus a night at the high class resort on the water that offers a real nice bed and shower. they got to the high dollar bars and spend hundreds on food and alcohol. both have a great time and all in all in the end the hangover is still the same! makes me wonder who is actually the smart one.
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Old 04-10-2016, 09:52 AM
 
4,278 posts, read 5,155,896 times
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I applaud people that take in a renter or two. Why not if you can trust them. It brings in a bit of cash, most likely tax free. A good way to go for people that want to stay in a high cost area such as Key West, NYC, San Diego, LA, San Fran or Hawaii.

I've been lucky to have lived in a variety of nice places like Key West, San Diego, Hawaii, and Japan. I do think people stay in those places for bragging rights rather than sound economic/career decisions. Of course, Japan was not by choice at first, but then I extended for years because I figured out how to make a good buck on the side. San Diego was expensive, on par with Key West these days, except insurance might be cheaper, but a good home is expensive. CA does offer a lot to do but is on a death watch with all the economic decisions to make it more expensive to live there by the government and special interest groups. They are bragging about shutting down four dams up North of CA that sells power to CA. Dumb idea but hey it's another reason to raise the electric bills out there.

Key West does have that lingering threat of hurricanes which will come back eventually. Then it will be fun to watch the demands that the taxpayers fund the rebuilding of various homes like they did in New Orleans.

During my years of living in KW back in the early 1980's I found it a nice place to live but I had a good "out" by being in the Navy and could get food reasonable cheap and my housing was a Navy BEQ on Truman annex. It did get a bit boring after a year but still and enjoyable place to live.
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Old 04-10-2016, 02:12 PM
 
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Great weather and a great place to live
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Old 05-28-2016, 04:39 PM
 
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Default Life in The Keys

Quote:
Originally Posted by takenadvantageof View Post
i have a house close to big pine key but live in ohio full time. alot of problems in key west. i started a business there a year ago but could never live there full time i would go nuts.plus alot of political corruption unless your a local there for a long time nobody and i mean nobody will do anything for you. Moderator cut: link cut
We are from Cincinnati. My sister in law has talked my very ill parents into moving with them to the Keys. My mom has a lung issue and my dad has cancer, CLL, and needs good medical care often. He gets pneumonia often. He can't stand the humidity there and doesn't want to move. How is the medical care there? Is this a place where a very ill person should live?
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Old 05-30-2016, 09:49 AM
 
1,448 posts, read 2,874,531 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ajbarnett View Post
We are from Cincinnati. My sister in law has talked my very ill parents into moving with them to the Keys. My mom has a lung issue and my dad has cancer, CLL, and needs good medical care often. He gets pneumonia often. He can't stand the humidity there and doesn't want to move. How is the medical care there? Is this a place where a very ill person should live?

Definitely not. Question answered in your other thread. However, you didn't mention in the other thread that your mom also has lung issues, and your dad hates humidity. The Keys would be an absolutely terrible choice for them. The humidity is extreme for most of the year, and most houses - especially the more affordable ones, and the older ones (like in Key West) have mold. That would be really bad for both of them, if they can't afford a stilt house that has never flooded, and is on the newer side, that has never been foreclosed/abandoned so A/C was always on and mold never grew in the air ducts, behind walls, etc. The Keys are a great choice for a very specific group of people, who make up a very small percentage of the general population. Your parents are not in that group.
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Old 05-30-2016, 07:28 PM
 
Location: Inland FL
2,504 posts, read 1,822,190 times
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Key West is way too expensive for the average middle class family. Even the high income folks struggle to make a living there. Think about the isolation. One road in. One road out. If a major hurricane destroyed the bridges, the keys would be inaccessible by automobiles for a long period. I remember during the housing boom ten years ago the average house peaked at 1 million dollars. Crazy. Then after Wilma came through, the housing market crashed, which was a good thing. Housing values became much more reasonable by around 2011 but were still much higher than national averages. Wages are not much higher in Key West versus other areas. Many people there work two or three jobs to just make a living and live in thousands of dollars a month apartments they can barely afford. It's ridiculous. Then you have insurance to worry about also. Insurance can easily be in the tens of thousands of dollars every year. Taxes are also in the thousands for the average house.

The city is also extremely liberal. The isolation combined with the live and let live attitudes and limited variety of entertainment promotes a culture that has a high tolerance level for personal risk taking and substance abuse. Walk down duval and most of the shops are t shirt shops with adult humor. Lots of bars and tattoo shops. Little for kids to do there. I remember reading a report that Monroe county had the highest rate of binge drinking by resident counties in the state. The county also has the second highest divorce rate among any counties in the whole country. A lot of people there try to escape from wherever they came from and drink to forget. There's lots of drugs involved also. Homosexuality is prevalent down there which also keeps it from being a good place for children and makes it an anti family place. Key West has lost their way with the Lord and is a foreshadow of the country if things keep going the way they are.
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