AVOID Moving to the Florida Keys UNLESS You can Handle These 9 FACTS

THAT'S MY OLD HOUSE! THAT'S CONCH KEY ! the white house to the right of the yellow house. I owned that house from 84 to 99 ! I was a commercial lobsterman and a professional scuba diver.

Excellent video. As a resident of Big Coppitt (mm10) I would like to give you my list. 1). Cost of housing down here. A single bedroom tiny apartment will cost $2000 a month. And if you are a service person you can never get ahead financially. People will rent a house and pack 4 or 5 people in it to share the rent. 2). Beaches. Most of the beaches down here consist of coral muck. If you are picturing Daytona beach like beaches they are few and far between. We boat out to sandbars mostly. 3). Homeless people in KW. Tons of them. And young homeless. I think they have the Jimmy Buffet ideal of Paradise and when they get here it aint so great if you are broke. 4). If you buy a home and leverage it through a bank you will most likely be mandated to have Wind, Flood and other coverages which can cost you 5 to 10 grand a year easily. 5). Contractors. Oh lordy IF they respond to a phone call be prepared for the worst. The work ethic down here is horrible in most cases. I'm sure there are exceptions but so far they have eluded me. Ok with that said we love it down here but after 8 months we need to get off the rock and head north. Do your research and have realistic expectations. Jimmy Buffet doesn't live here he just makes a living singing about "Paradise" and lives elsewhere.

I have lived in the keys for the last 50 years of my life, and will die down here.

"Buying that 2nd home in the Keys"🤣😂 Me, living off oatmeal and beans for the last two weeks (and grateful).

Well notice that pretty much all of these type videos are made by those who are in the real estate business. It so happens that i was a realtor/builder myself and had my own business for 40 years prior to retiring to the Keys. But, there are things about the keys your not apt to learn from anyone but yourself from the experience of actually living there. I had about 15 years experience of visiting there before moving there full time in a new home i had built in the late 90s. I lived there full time for a period of 10 years in one of the nicest communities in all the keys, that being Duck Key. #1 shopping is very limited, other than basic need items like food shopping, and even that is limited. So you will find yourself making periodic trips to the Miami area for that. Ask any parent with school age kids about the schools. Check out the quality of the local hospital, and the medical staff there, and especially the number of (good) sober doctors. Miami is a very long trip when theres a serious medical emergency. I know these things from personal experience, but no real estate agent will tell you, even if they know. There is also no place to go once your there. Many of the places you can go to are tourist trap places, and Key West is a perfect example. Fact is that with a few exceptions, the entire keys is a tourist trap. Take a close look, (tacky) might well be the best word to describe it. Back to the fishing, there is world class fishing here in Florida other than that offered in the salt water. But you wont be finding that in the keys either. If you enjoy good quality entertainment be prepared to find it elsewhere. As for the fishing, i happened to be a licensed charter captain myself, and worked at that during the busy seasons at the Hawks Cay Resort. But especially during the winter months, there will often be periods of a week or more where you wont go out at all due to strong winds. And for a period of time after the water conditions can be very poor for fishing. So it isnt always the paradise many think it is in that regard.

Today, the Keys are a retail version of what folks romanticize. Depending on what you're going for, it's from OK to awesome. Been going to the Keys on and off for 30 years, from camping to time-shares, fall and spring. It's not what it was 30 years ago, the reef has been depleted and the water isn't as clear. Most of the iconic places are Corp owned and or have changed hands so many times, they are barely a shadow of what they once were, the Mom and Pop places are pretty much gone. The cost of everything is high and the US-1 is becoming a parking lot. That said, much is being rebuilt and looks good, however, with a notable price tag.

Heat and humidity in Florida is brutal. And it feels like you’re 10 inches from the sun.

Back in the '90s, I lived in Big Pine while working at hospital on Stock Island, in Key West. I loved every minute of it. We had rented a house on a canal, so we had the boat parked out back. We made full use of it nearly every day. I still enjoy the occasional trip down to the Keys.

When I was in the Coast Guard I was stationed at Islamorada back in the 1990's and loved it, went back last year and it has changed so much. Not all for the best.

You left our perhaps the worst "problem" which is the traffic. At times it can be really frustrating.

I owned a home on Cudjoe Key for 17 years. The mosquitoes were my big problem. Even during the day they were all over you. Everything else I was fine with but it is very transient if you find friends they could be gone in a month. Having your family there is a plus.

The "no see-ums" drove me off Sanibel Island, especially when the wind dies down.

You're right about humidity in the south in general. Way of life Baton Rouge, La. Lawd lawd! Nice video.

#1 negative should have been the cost of property insurance :)

Sometimes it gets so humid here you have to jump in the pool to dry off.

Humidity is a deal breaker for me. Love Florida but can't handle more than a week of humidity

Lived there from 1973 to 1985. Loved every minute of our life and all the wonderful friends. My gripes….humidity, mosquitoes, hurricanes.

Great video . I was down in the Keys July 2021 great time totally in love with the Keys .Can’t wait for next December 👍👍👍

It would be silly for me as an Arizonan to say I can't move to the Keys because of the sun! But the humidity is something I would have trouble with. I grew up with humidity in New Jersey summers and I can't even hack that anymore. Not to mention mosquitos! Lastly, I can't handle snakes and alligators.

You forgot to mention the cost. My spouse and I went to Key West for our 25th wedding anniversary and absolutely fell in love with it. We're not big drinkers but we loved the history of the island, we went to all the museums and the Little White House. I can't think of a place with more breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, plus I'm a sucker for beaches and the ocean. Fortunately, I don't get seasick. We stayed at Edan House directly across from The Artists House and I highly recommend it. We would sit at the tiki bar in the back and talk to the bartender about what it's like to live in Key West. He told us it was too expensive for him and his girlfriend to live there--that they live on one of the other keys and commute every day. I flipped through the available real estate listings and unless you're earning a million dollars per year, you can't afford to live there. Most of the people who work there, live on another Key and a few live in Homestead which is the last town before you leave mainland Florida for the Keys. We're at the point of being retired so the only way we could afford to live there would be to live on a houseboat or find a place to park an RV/Tiny Home. Even the rent is outrageous. I could live with all the other negatives but not the enormous price tag.