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 28th
highest electric rates in the country.
The Florida Keys Electric Co-Op ranks as the 921st highest
while in Key West they are slightly higher as the 265th
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.
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 182nd in 2013. While in New York in my home town the high
school ranked 154th 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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