9/5/14 - Moving to the Keys, Monroe County vs. Nassau County

I am not ashamed in stating that I yearn for the opportunity to move from Long Island, NY to the Florida Keys.  Before I make the leap I did some research on moving to the Keys to see what other people have experienced in doing the same.  This brought me to a particular website, “Island Jay, not a worry in the world” by Jason Guarino.  He has a blog entry entitled “Moving to Key West Florida and the cost of living” dated August 12, 2013.  It focuses on how expensive it is to move and live in Key West and does a nice job to try to persuade people from moving there.

In my own virtual social circle from Facebook and LinkedIn, people from the Keys have also told me how expensive it is to live there and that if I really wanted to live in Florida, I should stick with the mainland and not the islands.  I spoke to one person in Key West that insisted that I give up on the idea of moving there or to the Keys for that matter due to the high cost of living and lack of jobs.

That took some wind out of my sails but not for long.  I decided that is was time to do a lot of due diligence and dig deep into living in the Keys as compared to where I currently live.  I will give you a spoiler in saying that Jason is right in some respects.  From where I sit he really did not compare costs at all.  Maybe if he was comparing say Nashville to Key West he might very well be right.  But when it came to my area, well I’ll let you see for yourself.

First, Key West is located in Monroe County in Florida.  For my research I used Monroe as the overall basis for I have no idea which island I will land on.  My home town of Port Washington is located in Nassau County NY and I am going to use that as the comparison.

In Jason’s blog, he mentioned to ‘Get a job lined-up.’  That does make some sense in doing any form of relocating regardless of what part of the country you are moving to unless you are wealthy, retired or both.  Looking for a job in the Keys would be difficult but not impossible and can be accomplished after you relocate.  Talking to my network does echo some of the sentiments about the job market there.  The bulk of the industry so happens to be tourism and hospitality.  But there are other industries there as well and it would take a little effort to root them out.

As of June 2014, the unemployment rate for Monroe County was 3.5% while in Nassau County is a whopping 4.8%⁽¹⁾.  Jobs simply do not exist in Nassau County, I should know for I have been looking for two and a half years with no success.  With some cleaver marketing and networking you should be able to come up with a job in the Keys, even if it is not in your industry quickly enough.

Jason goes on to something that we all need, ‘Find housing.’  How true, for you do need a place to stay.  Jason says that rents average between $1,200-$1,800 a month.  Here in Nassau County rents range from $1,500 for a roach infested dump up to $4,000 plus utilities for a 2 bedroom apartment and higher.  I have seen ads for rents as high as $10,000 a month for an apartment here in Nassau County.

But the best course of action is to try and buy a house.  The money you spend on rent can go to a mortgage and you build equity.  In the long run depending on the down payment, a mortgage might even be cheaper than renting.

The housing market in Monroe is a far cry better than here in Nassau.  The average home values in Monroe are $425,143 while in Nassau they average $646,882⁽²⁾ a whole 52.2% higher.  Of course do not forget that these are averages for home values can range from a minimum average of $273,100 to a maximum average of $2,449,000 in Nassau and a minimum average of $345,600 to a maximum average of $477,100 in Monroe⁽²⁾.

One thing that comes with home ownership is property taxes.  The median property taxes for Monroe County is $2,673 with a tax rate of 0.97%.  While in Nassau County the median property taxes are $8,625 with a tax rate of 1.23%⁽³⁾.  Nassau County so happens to have the second highest property taxes in the nation with Westchester County NY being the highest.

But the costs do not stop there, for you have to pay for utilities and here we begin to see a swing in the opposite direction with one of the utilities.

Fresh drinking water in Monroe can cost $21.80 per month while in Nassau it is $16.44⁽⁴⁾ per month.  For these figures I simply assumed that you would use 1,000 gallons per month plus the added utility fees.

Natural gas which is used for heating and cooking costs less in Monroe.  With just the base charge for service and fees and using only one therm of gas in Monroe you would pay $11.50 while in Nassau County it would run $16.54⁽⁵⁾.

Since I mentioned heating, I tried to ascertain heating oil costs for the Keys and was not successful.  Do they use heating oil there?  By going through our heating oil bills we paid on the average of $4.525 for a gallon of oil in 2013.  Heating season for the most part runs from October through March where I live.  Each drop of oil was around 250 gallons and in some months we had 3 drops per month.  In total we used about 3,000 gallons of heating oil.  With sales tax that ran us $14,745.84.  Even with that we kept the thermostat at 68.

Finally the big thing that home ownership brings is the cost of electricity.  Here we get a wakeup call that will make you scratch your chin.  In Nassau County we pay 19.03 cents per Kw/Hr while in the Keys the rate is only 11.21 cents per Kw/Hr⁽⁶⁾.  In Key West which was the focus of Jason’s blog they pay 13.76 cents per Kw/Hr.  It is also interesting to note that LiPA, now PSE&G who services Nassau County has the 28^th highest electric rates in the country.  The Florida Keys Electric Co-Op ranks as the 921^st highest while in Key West they are slightly higher as the 265^th highest.  Right off you can see electricity in the Keys as a whole is a lot cheaper.

Jason mentions that food costs run higher as well but leans towards eating out being more expensive.  That really is a lot of common sense to begin with.  No matter where you live, eating at restaurants, sub shops, delis and what have you is always more expensive than home cooking.  The Keys has two main supermarkets, Publix and Winn-Dixie and here in Nassau the two big chains is Stop & Shop and King Kullen.  I compared the weekly sales papers between them and found that the prices are pretty much neck and neck.  So food shopping at a supermarket is going to be the same for the most part.  Of course there will be exceptions depending on the product.

Jason stated that regular gasoline runs 10% more in the Keys than in the mainland.  I looked at Gas Buddy which posts gasoline prices for the nation and averaged out the prices between Monroe County and Nassau County.  On the date of my research, I found that regular gasoline in Monroe runs an average of $3.54 while in Nassau it is $3.76 a whole 6.2% higher(⁷).

Regardless of what you buy in the end there is always the Spector of state sales tax.  What is unique Florida has a 6% tax and New York is only 4%⁽⁸⁾, but add on tax for Monroe County of 1.5% and Nassau with 4.625% you wind up with 7.5% for Monroe County and 8.625% for Nassau County.

Speaking of taxes, New York has a state income tax of 8.82% while Florida has none(9).  That alone has a lot of value and is a very good incentive to move to Florida regardless of which county or town.

At the end of the day we find that the cost of living in Key West is 10.3% above the national average with a score of 110.3 while the cost of living in my town of Port Washington is a lot higher at 59.5% above the national average with a score of 159.5⁽¹⁰⁾.  My town is 44.6% higher than Key West.  So as far as the high cost of living in the Key West, well that has been tossed out of the window in comparing it to living in my home town.

Just for the heck of it I checked out the cost of living in Nashville and found that the index is 90.1 which is 9.9% less than the national average⁽¹⁰⁾.  So for here Jason hit the nail square on the head.  And I am sure there are many other areas of the country that are less expensive to live in than the Keys.  After all 10.3% higher is not exactly thrifty but comparing to 59.5% higher, I'll take the Keys any day.

But costs are not the only factor in considering to relocate.  The local environment plays an important part as well.  Jason mentions that the Keys might be a great place to visit, but it is not a good place to raise a family due to drunks and low rated schools.

Researching the schools I found that there was no national standard that the schools can be measured up to.  Each state has their own set of standards and I found no way to correlate them against each other.  Florida as the FCAT and New York has the regents.

The best information I was able to find out is how each school ranks against the others in the state and as such I used that for my comparisons.  Out of 574 schools in Florida, Key West High School ranked 182^nd in 2013.  While in New York in my home town the high school ranked 154^th out of 1079 schools ⁽¹¹⁾.  Without crunching numbers it is apparent that my local school was much better. 

So there might be some truth in what Jason said but at the same time there are far lower ranked schools in Florida as well in NY, a lot in my own backyard.  But again I have not been able to find any national standards which the schools can be measured by.  With the availability of the internet and on-line course, many which are free, all a person needs is a little motivation and they can excel at any subject regardless of the ranking of a school.  Like a professor I know has said, a school or course is only as good as the effort you put into it.

There is some truth as far as crime is concerned.  Looking at the crime statistics for violent and property crime as per the FBI, Monroe County has a much higher crime rate than Nassau County.  Even Key West has a higher crime rate than Nassau County overall.  But that does not mean people are in the streets shooting up the place daily.  After all it is not the wild west.

To put this into perspective, let's say in one year Nassau has 1 robbery.  In the same year Monroe has 4 robberies.  That tells you Monroe has 400% more crime.

Based on the figures from 2012 for violent crime Nassau County has a rate of 122.3 cases per 100,000 while for Key West it is 823.8 cases per 100,000.  In my home town it is only 10.5 cases per 100,000.  Violent crime here has been defined as murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault⁽¹²⁾.  

Property crime is no better for where I live the rate is 606 cases per 100,000 and for Key West it is 6,123 case per 100,000 with the bulk of the crimes being larceny and theft⁽¹²⁾.

The bulk of the violent crime cases involved aggravated assault which in my opinion gives some credence to the drinking issue.  People get drunk and then can wind up in a fight, or worse. Plus were these crimes from tourists who think they can get off the ship, commit a crime, re-board the ship and sail away free?  Or could it be people from the mainland thinking they go to the Keys and commit a crime since they are isolated?  Maybe a combination of all 3?  But that does not mean the Keys is a bad place to live.

On the flip side of the coin if you avoid those areas then you should not have any problems.  As an example in Nassau County there are some real shady areas where you should avoid at all times, like New Cassel, sections of Westbury, Freeport has gone downhill as well as Hempstead, a good section of Roosevelt, Manhasset has a rough section as well as Glen Cove and other areas.  If you avoid trouble you will stay out of trouble,

Should these two factors deter any ideas of relocating? I don’t think so nor should it.  One needs to take some prudence in their safety no matter where they live.  But it does pay to keep a weather eye out.

Cancer is one thing that we are all concerned about and for many reasons.  Reviewing the statistics from the State Cancer Registry and the CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries Cancer Surveillance System, over all Nassau County has more incidents of cancer than Monroe County with the exception of esophagus, lung and bronchus, oral cavity & pharynx and finally liver & bile duct⁽¹³⁾.  The first three can be attributed to smoking and the third to drinking giving more credence to Jason’s statement “An excessive amount of public drunk people.”

So from a cancer standpoint, living in the Monroe County is much healthier.

It has been well documented that one source for cancer and other health issues can arise from toxic waste dumps or superfund sites.  These areas are generally filled with all kinds of toxins that not only can make you ill but can down right kill you.  Superfund sites seem to exist all over in one form or another.  I looked at the amount of superfund sites in Monroe and Nassau Counties.  Based on the EPA, Monroe County has only 3 such sites while Nassau County has 22⁽¹⁴⁾, 633.3% more than Monroe.  And what is very scary to me, there are 8 of them within 5 miles of my house with one superfund site right in my own town.  Not very reassuring that is for sure.

Another factor that needs to be taken into consideration is the air quality.  Now I was unable to drill down the air quality for each of the counties so had to work with a more gross set of statistics that covered much larger areas.  The areas are New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL⁽¹⁴⁾.  All in all the air quality for the Florida areas is much cleaner and healthier.

Health is one thing that I brought up from the previous paragraphs and it is obvious you need a good health care system.  Part of that are hospitals which provide crucial care for the ill and injured.  Looking at the hospitals that service Monroe County I see that there are only 3 with a total of 217 beds.  That is pale in comparison to Nassau County that has 11 hospitals totaling 4,953 beds.  Two of the hospitals are within 15 minutes of my house.  One being a nationally recognized cardiac center with 305 beds and one has a major trauma unit along with oncology, bariatric surgery services and more with 806 beds.  Of these 11 hospitals one specializes in pediatrics with 164 beds.

With this amount of hospitals health care is at the cutting edge.

At the same time Monroe County has a population of 76,351 while Nassau County has 1,352,146⁽¹⁵⁾ so it reasons that Nassau County would have more beds.

So at the end of the day there are some advantages in living in Nassau County but not many.  It is cheaper to live in the Keys than in Nassau over all.  But in all fairness to Jason, Key West could very well be more expensive to live in than say Nashville TN, or Antler OK.  But as compared to Nassau County, NY I honestly cannot wait to move there.

References

(1)    Bureau of labor statistics as of June 2014

(2)    Home averages were obtained by taking the average home values from Zillow.com per zip code in each county.

(3)    Tax-rates.org

(4)    Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority for Monroe County and wawnc.org for Nassau County.

(5)    Florida Public Utilities for Monroe County and National Grid for Nassau County.

(6)    Eia.gov

(7)    Gas-Buddy.com, as of 8/16/14

(8)    Sales-tax.com

(9)    taxfoundation.org

(10) City-data.com comparing zip codes 11050 vs 33040 as of May 2012

(11) Schooldigger.com

(12) Uniform Crime Reporting statistics for 2012

(13)  State Cancer Registry and the CDC's National Program of Cancer Registries Cancer Surveillance System (NPCR-CSS) January 2012 data submission.  State rates include rates from metropolitan areas funded by SEER.

(14) Epa.gov

(15) U.S. Census Bureau, 2013 estimate

11/7/13 - Bike Stolen

One of my sons bought a Specialized 29" mountain bike so he could ride in charity events and for getting back and forth to the local train station where he then commutes off to work. With the add-ons he put on the bike and all said and done the bike ran a little over $900.

To protect his investment he bought a Kryptonite bike lock. The clerk at the bike store removed the lock from the package and tossed the package and paperwork out. Strike one.

He rode the bike back and forth to the train station, locked it up and never had any problems. He took the bike into NYC to do a charity ride as well ans had plans to do many more.

He was able to get a ride into town on November 7, 2013 and was brought to the train station to retrieve his beloved bike only to find that had been stolen. So much for the Krptonite lock. He couldn't find remnants of the lock either for the thief took that as well.

He went to the police station and filed a complaint. In my son's favor he registered the bike with the police and the bike shop has a record of the serial number as well.

The police told my son they know who stole it. But because they did not see the bastard do the crime they cannot touch him unless they find him on the bike. They also told him that this guy uses a small hydraulic cutter he keeps in a bag on his shoulder. The bastard sees a bike he wants, snips the lock in a matter of seconds and is off with the bike.

Since the police know who is doing this why don't they pay him a visit with a search warrant? Of course that takes too much effort and the police here would rather hand out traffic tickets than do any real police work.

And what about the MTA? Where are their security measures?  Webcams are cheap enough today and there is no excuse in why one was never installed to help protect commuters bikes.  If they did and looked at the video's I am sure that they would have the criminal in custody.  It is too much to expect them to put a transit cop at each station like they did right after 9/11.

Then again I doubt they would even look at the tapes.  My daughter's purse was stolen and the crook used her credit card to by train tickets from the machines and those record your images.  The Nassau County Police never once contacted my daughter or reviewed the recordings from the MTA ticket machines.

I spoke to the bike shop the next day and learned that there has been a rash of bike thefts. Two alone on that Friday.

Six months ago there was another rash of thefts, but the police were able to capture the criminal. The criminal came from the town of New Cassle, an area where you do not stop your car for any reason what so ever. But this time the police are not taking any action to stop the thefts or recover the bikes.

Speaking with the bike shop it is very doubtful that the bike will ever be recovered. And with the fact that the clerk in the bike shop threw out the package and paperwork for the lock my son was not able to register the lock with Kryptonite which has an anti-theft guarantee.  So much for that.

Now my son is heart broken over the loss of his beloved bike that he worked so hard to buy and the local police just do not care.  I learned that there is a pissing match going on between the local police and the MTA on who's jurisdiction it is.  But that does not help the fact that some bastard is using the train station as their private bike store.

At the end of the day, my son had to cough over another $900 for a new bike.

Ya gotta love NY...not.

Working on a new entry

Things have been crazy here over the past year and I have not had the chance to update this blog.

I am working on a new entry and hope to post it soon.

In the meantime, remember "I H8 NY"