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Old 03-04-2007, 05:03 PM
 
11 posts, read 75,904 times
Reputation: 18

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I am 19 years old and I am moving to the florida keys with my family because my parents are retiring and moving there.

Whats life like in the keys? How expensive is it?

I might be living with the family for a little while then buy a condo/mobile home OR rent something in the keys.. I want to be where my family is.

Whats the cheapest island? Where can I find people my age? Are there alot of old people? BTW- I have a culinary career -- are there alot of hospitality jobs?
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Old 03-04-2007, 06:14 PM
 
1,775 posts, read 8,097,263 times
Reputation: 799
The FL keys is the most expensive place to live. I was down there on my honeymoon and we were talking to officers on patrol. they were saying how it's so expensive to live there that they along with hospital staff, government workers and teachers needs grants from the state just to afford to live there. Some people live in Miami and drive to work in the Keys he said. A mobile home?? forget about it in the keys. he said a mobile home goes for over $200,000 with no property. You wouldn't want to be caught in a hurricane down there either especially in a mobile home. Only one road in and one road out of the keys. It's a 2 hour drive from one end of the keys to the other on a normal day so forget when a storm is coming. It's a great place to vacation and maybe retire in if you have plenty of money but to live there, it wouldn't be for me and i'm 32. It's mostly a tourist area. But when your down there, be sure to go to the boardwalk in Key West and watch a sunset. it's amazing.
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Old 03-04-2007, 08:32 PM
 
Location: Heartland Florida
9,324 posts, read 26,741,743 times
Reputation: 5038
Don't do it. You can never earn enough here to live here, thanks to snowbirds and idiot investors.
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Old 03-04-2007, 09:46 PM
 
389 posts, read 3,538,502 times
Reputation: 346
I did a 5 month internship in the keys (Marathon) last year, and though I absolutely loved it...I don't know if I could ever afford to live there. Now that the housing market is not doing so great, it seems you can rent cheaper so people can just keep tenants and get that income, but owning is still really expensive, and homeowners insurance is literally thousands of dollars a year! I have a couple of friends that have nice, modest homes and their insurance is something like $8,000/yr!

There's really not a lot to do for young,single people there. One girl actually left her job while I was there to move to Miami because it was so hard to be young and single there. You really have no good places to meet people other than tourists. Don't get me wrong, there are some young singles there, but not alot from what I saw. The girls that I knew there were almost all married or seriously dating and the guys were constantly scamming on the interns or hooking up with tourists

I really did love my time there and given a chance, I think I would love to live there at least for a while, but it would not be easy. All but 2 of the people I know there work second jobs just to make ends meet (and most of them have spouses, but you just can't seem to make enough to live).

Good luck.
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Old 03-04-2007, 09:47 PM
 
Location: WPB, FL. Dreaming of Oil city, PA
2,909 posts, read 14,082,740 times
Reputation: 1033
Quote:
Originally Posted by tallrick View Post
Don't do it. You can never earn enough here to live here, thanks to snowbirds and idiot investors.

I second this. I dont even live near the keys and prices are insane, nothing is affordable. My parents live in south FL but I dont want to live there so im moving out to a better, cheaper location.
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Old 03-04-2007, 10:35 PM
 
Location: PA
669 posts, read 3,193,009 times
Reputation: 288
Quote:
Originally Posted by Need_affordable_home View Post
I second this. I dont even live near the keys and prices are insane, nothing is affordable. My parents live in south FL but I dont want to live there so im moving out to a better, cheaper location.
I'm not saying the Keys aren't expensive - they are. However, when your definition of affordable is $50k housing, don't you think you're a bit biased? About 80-90% of the country is unaffordable to you with your price range. I'm just saying.

I think the Keys would be nice, and if someone has the money, they should live there. Seems to be a nice place.
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Old 03-04-2007, 11:17 PM
 
2,313 posts, read 3,190,166 times
Reputation: 471
Quote:
Originally Posted by rastaman View Post
I am 19 years old and I am moving to the florida keys with my family because my parents are retiring and moving there.

Whats life like in the keys? How expensive is it?

I might be living with the family for a little while then buy a condo/mobile home OR rent something in the keys.. I want to be where my family is.

Whats the cheapest island? Where can I find people my age? Are there alot of old people? BTW- I have a culinary career -- are there alot of hospitality jobs?
Just from my personal experience I don't care for the Keys. It takes a special person to live there full time. My sister-in-law lives in Key West part of the time as well as Washington DC and San Francisco. She is a retired attorney and can afford it and really loves the Keys. But as much as she likes it, a few months at a time is all she can take before she heads out. My wife's niece also lives in one of the upper keys. She is a bartender and does real well but the same thing as her aunt. She is always making the drive up to Fort Lauderdale to get out of the keys for a while. I think you can get nuts down there after a while.
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Old 03-05-2007, 05:08 AM
 
1,775 posts, read 8,097,263 times
Reputation: 799
Quote:
Originally Posted by bmurphy View Post
I'm not saying the Keys aren't expensive - they are. However, when your definition of affordable is $50k housing, don't you think you're a bit biased? About 80-90% of the country is unaffordable to you with your price range. I'm just saying.

I think the Keys would be nice, and if someone has the money, they should live there. Seems to be a nice place.
You got a point there BMURPHY. Not eveybody wants to live as cheap like NAH and if NAH keeps saying he wants to move to a cheaper place then the newcomers reading these posts don't know what his meaning of cheap housing means like the rest of us do. Cheap to FL i would say is $100,000 home which for some is comfortably affordable compared to his $50,000 2 story home, low crime area he keeps dreaming of finding.
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Old 03-05-2007, 06:35 AM
 
Location: Miami
6,853 posts, read 22,452,069 times
Reputation: 2962
My parents have property in Key Largo, one is on a canal bay side, it is a double wide, it is worth $400,000 For a doublewide trailer. it is crazy.
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Old 03-05-2007, 07:04 AM
 
Location: South Carolina
5,297 posts, read 6,290,377 times
Reputation: 8185
The keys are nice but are extremely expensive and for good reason,warm temps,gorgeous views and their is only so much land to go around. Key West wouldn't be my choice to live though way too wild especially Duval St.
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