Summerland Key
Imagine flying your own plane to your island paradise home where you step onto your sports fisherman or cabin cruiser for a weekend of sun and fun. It's all possible here. Summerland is a mecca for large boat owners and private pilots. It’s one of the few places in the whole country where you can have it both ways.
The island boasts unusually wide flow-through canals and a private air strip for local residents making it a perfect spot to park a Beechcraft and a 50 foot + boat. The majority of homes on Summerland are located on the Atlantic side of the Overseas Highway.
Although there is some price variation, homes here are generally very expensive; those on what’s called “open water” or the airstrip moreso
Summerland has a small downtown along US#1, with a good boutique grocery store, a couple of restaurants, real Estate offices, a bank, a wholesale fish shop, some healthcare offices, an office building, and some retail.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Cudjoe Key
Cudjoe Key
There are a number of (perhaps apocryphal)stories of how Cudjoe got its unusual name. Many Cudjoe streets are named after either famous or amazingly obscure pirates, which might include a Mr. Cudjoe. Another story has the island described in 19th century Key West scuttlebutt as the location of ”Cousin Joe’s” woodcutting and charcoal-making place, of which there were quite a few in the Lower Keys.
Whatever its history Cudjoe is a quiet and peaceful residential island surrounding its own bay, probably the best bay in the area for water sports. The island’s fishhook appearance and bay are such distinctive features that they can be seen easily in satellite pictures.
Cudjoe Key provides a wide variety of housing ranging from ocean front executive homes to both Keys standard canal homes and some extraordinary ones, to the upscale gated mobile home park, Venture Out, on Cudjoe's eastern shore. All waterfront properties on the island, including Venture Out, have become expensive.
Nearly all the homes are on the Atlantic side of the Overseas Highway. Boating access on Cudjoe is excelent , almost no matter where you reside. Boating drafts generally range from 2-4 feet, but some canals on the fishhook are narrow and have shallow entrances to Cudjoe Bay. Eastside canals are also narrow and open onto shallow water. The more expensive Cudjoe Gardens housing area at the west end of the island has much bigger and deeper canals that will accommodate large boats.
There are a number of (perhaps apocryphal)stories of how Cudjoe got its unusual name. Many Cudjoe streets are named after either famous or amazingly obscure pirates, which might include a Mr. Cudjoe. Another story has the island described in 19th century Key West scuttlebutt as the location of ”Cousin Joe’s” woodcutting and charcoal-making place, of which there were quite a few in the Lower Keys.
Whatever its history Cudjoe is a quiet and peaceful residential island surrounding its own bay, probably the best bay in the area for water sports. The island’s fishhook appearance and bay are such distinctive features that they can be seen easily in satellite pictures.
Cudjoe Key provides a wide variety of housing ranging from ocean front executive homes to both Keys standard canal homes and some extraordinary ones, to the upscale gated mobile home park, Venture Out, on Cudjoe's eastern shore. All waterfront properties on the island, including Venture Out, have become expensive.
Nearly all the homes are on the Atlantic side of the Overseas Highway. Boating access on Cudjoe is excelent , almost no matter where you reside. Boating drafts generally range from 2-4 feet, but some canals on the fishhook are narrow and have shallow entrances to Cudjoe Bay. Eastside canals are also narrow and open onto shallow water. The more expensive Cudjoe Gardens housing area at the west end of the island has much bigger and deeper canals that will accommodate large boats.
Sugarloaf Key
Sugarloaf Key
Former home to the Sugarloaf Pineapple Plantation, Sugarloaf Key offers quite solitude to its residents. If you are looking for larger floorplans, more luxurious landscaping and privacy this is the Key for you. The majority of homes are located south of the Overseas Highway looking out onto the distinctive blue white waters of Upper and lower Sugarloaf Sounds. Large ocean front Estates rim the outside of the island facing out to the Atlantic.
Boating is excelent for shallow draft boats with quick access to the backcountry, but there is no access for large boats or sailboats. The Sugarloaf backcountry is legendary for flats fishing.
If you are a pilot, Sugarloaf has a basic public airstrip you can fly into. There’s a popular sky diving operation, and you’ll definitely see folks falling from the sky. The houses along the airstrip get together at Christmas and the “Ho-Ho-Ho” and lights can be seen for miles.
Sugarloaf has a whimsical downtown, where you can also rent a kayak or a boat, buy essential supplies, and get a bite to eat.
Properties here tend to be expensive, partly because the average lot sizes are roomier than those found on the other Keys.
Former home to the Sugarloaf Pineapple Plantation, Sugarloaf Key offers quite solitude to its residents. If you are looking for larger floorplans, more luxurious landscaping and privacy this is the Key for you. The majority of homes are located south of the Overseas Highway looking out onto the distinctive blue white waters of Upper and lower Sugarloaf Sounds. Large ocean front Estates rim the outside of the island facing out to the Atlantic.
Boating is excelent for shallow draft boats with quick access to the backcountry, but there is no access for large boats or sailboats. The Sugarloaf backcountry is legendary for flats fishing.
If you are a pilot, Sugarloaf has a basic public airstrip you can fly into. There’s a popular sky diving operation, and you’ll definitely see folks falling from the sky. The houses along the airstrip get together at Christmas and the “Ho-Ho-Ho” and lights can be seen for miles.
Sugarloaf has a whimsical downtown, where you can also rent a kayak or a boat, buy essential supplies, and get a bite to eat.
Properties here tend to be expensive, partly because the average lot sizes are roomier than those found on the other Keys.
About Key Largo-Upper Keys
KEY LARGO and the UPPER KEYS MAIN OVERVIEW
Once you leave civilization at Florida City, Key largo is the first town and first island you come to as you travel down US 1 -- across a dozen plus miles of beautiful and still totally pristine Everglades country, then along a narrow strip of mangrove splitting Barnes Sound from Blackwater Sound and Florida Bay, now across the old swing bridge at Jewfish Creek, finally over Lake Surprise. And there it is: Key Largo, the stuff of myth, located some 55 miles and about an hour south of Miami International Airport and just 24 miles south of Homestead. You are now on a different planet.
Since 1948, when it was the setting for the movie, "Key Largo," starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lauren Bacall, the name Key Largo has become world famous. In fact, Key Largo is one of the oldest place names on early maps of the North American continent, dating back to the sixteenth century when the Spanish explored the area looking for riches to take back to Spain. Today it is Miami’s Cape Cod -- and for the rest of us it is the Gateway to the American Caribbean.
The climate is subtropical and foliage is lush. Temperatures have only a few degrees day-night fluctuation, compared with much of the rest of Florida. There’s a steady sea breeze, and rain tends to be passing showers
Key Largo has become synonymous with the laid-back Keys lifestyle. Yet Key Largo is also a particularly vibrant community due to it’s being close to Miami. On the weekends, it is an easy drive for people to visit the Keys and their unique ambience. For investors it means great occupancy rates, for 2nd homeowners a quick and easy getaway. If you want to make this your home, well, Key largo was ranked No. 11 of the 50 Best Places to Live list by Men's Journal Magazine in 2002.
If you’re looking to relocate here, there are homes as of Sept 2005 listed from $269,000. Of course they go up from there: the median price is XXXX to give you some perspective. (To get an idea on how prices work, look under the investment page for the Florida Keys.)
The Key Largo housing market is diverse and eclectic, and includes everything from ultra-modern big new houses and condos to just plain old-Florida funky, and everything in between. It is a complex market, and will take the buyer or investor some time to comprehend.
The market also covers a lot of physical territory: Key Largo itself, the largest and longest of the Florida Keys, stretches for 30 miles from the resort yachting community of Ocean Reef at the island’s north end (which exits to the Mainland by a separate bridge over Card Sound) to the community of Tavernier at its southern tip
Moreover, another part of the diverse Upper Keys real Estate market is Islamorada, the 17-mile long, half-mile wide, often handsomely groomed municipality that picks up where Key Largo leaves off and is comprised of Plantation Key, Windley Key, and Upper and Lower Matecumbe Keys
Some Facts About Key Largo
It has a year-round population (not counting the ebb and flow of tourists and weekenders, and Miami daytrippers) of approximately 15,000 and a median age of 43.
The primary industries here are:
Arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services
Retail trade
Educational, health and social services
Construction
Key Largo is served by a full-service hospital in Tavernier, providing easy health care access to all residents
Key Largo children attend award-winning public and private schools covering grades from pre kindergarten through High School
Recreational Options
You can’t really get bored here, unless you just don’t like the water.
Dive: If you snorkel or dive, Key Largo is a terrific place to live. Long considered the sport diving capital of the world, Key Largo is home to John Pennekamp State Park, the world’s first underwater park. I used to camp and snorkel there on weekends with my kids. And I’ve also had some great times diving wrecks and exploring the surrounding waters of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. There are lots of dive shops for folks at all skill and preference levels.
Fish: If you like to fish, Key Largo is (if that’s possible) an even better place to live. Stretching down to Islamorada, the bonefishing capital of the world, there is a fabulous “backcountry” – Florida Bay – and offshore you’ve got the Gulf Stream and every kind of pelagic sports fish you can imagine. If you’ve got your own boat, great; if you don’t, you’ll find one of the largest fishing fleets per square mile in the world, between Key Largo and Islamorada.
Boats and Toys: See above. There is every possible sea thing to rent and enjoy. In fact, Key Largo and the rest of the Upper Keys, including Islamorada, are much better this way than the Middle Keys or Lower Keys with the exception of Key West.
Kayaking, Canoeing, Photography and Birding: These don’t all necessarily go together. My friend and I did a lot of fishing from our kayaks before it became the latest craze. But if you want to explore shallow-water backcountry to enjoy birds and wildlife, and want to consider paddleboating as opposed to motorboating as the way to do it, then this part of the Keys will likely please you more than areas farther south and west.
If you’re a private pilot, there’s a basic airstrip for small planes on Tavernier, and you can even live next to the runway.
Living Here – Other Options
So what about the rare person who buys a home here but doesn’t want to spend every waking minute on the water? No problem. Here’s just a few things that contribute to the quality of life for the person who relocates to Key Largo.
Eating out: You’ve got tempting choices here, ranging from easy drives to Islamorada – famous throughout the Keys for its eateries – to the Mainland. And right here on Key Largo you’ve got excelent choices of just about every possible cuisine. And not only that: ever noticed how few waterfront restaurants and bars there seem to be in waterfront areas? Well, Key Largo is an exception!
Gallery hopping: Not exactly Key West by any means, but the Upper Keys from Key Largo through the long slender town of Islamorada offer a lively community of artisans, artists in residence, and galleries
Shopping: One of the drawbacks (to some residents) of living farther “down” the Keys (in the direction of Key West) is the “need to get off the Rock” syndrome combined with the reality of limited shopping options. In the Upper Keys (Key Largo, Islamorada) that’s less of a problem. You’re an hour from Miami
Other stuff: There’s local night life in the Upper Keys, unlike the Middle Keys (some, but less) or the Lower Keys (not much). And there’s lots of tennis, if that’s your game. There’s also plenty of local shopping and services; that’s worth mentioning because the farther south and west you go in the Keys, the less true that is.
In conclusion, Key Largo definitely feels like you’re in a different part of the country, due partly to the aquamarine water and the Tiki bars and just the general ambience. So if you want to be away from traffic and a rushed lifestyle, but yet want to be near shopping and everything else that Miami has to offer, this could be just the ticket. It’s hard to imagine a better price-value proposition in the Keys.
For more information on other topics see the Florida Keys general information links.
.©2006. Florida Real Estate Network Inc. All Rights Reserved
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
Once you leave civilization at Florida City, Key largo is the first town and first island you come to as you travel down US 1 -- across a dozen plus miles of beautiful and still totally pristine Everglades country, then along a narrow strip of mangrove splitting Barnes Sound from Blackwater Sound and Florida Bay, now across the old swing bridge at Jewfish Creek, finally over Lake Surprise. And there it is: Key Largo, the stuff of myth, located some 55 miles and about an hour south of Miami International Airport and just 24 miles south of Homestead. You are now on a different planet.
Since 1948, when it was the setting for the movie, "Key Largo," starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lauren Bacall, the name Key Largo has become world famous. In fact, Key Largo is one of the oldest place names on early maps of the North American continent, dating back to the sixteenth century when the Spanish explored the area looking for riches to take back to Spain. Today it is Miami’s Cape Cod -- and for the rest of us it is the Gateway to the American Caribbean.
The climate is subtropical and foliage is lush. Temperatures have only a few degrees day-night fluctuation, compared with much of the rest of Florida. There’s a steady sea breeze, and rain tends to be passing showers
Key Largo has become synonymous with the laid-back Keys lifestyle. Yet Key Largo is also a particularly vibrant community due to it’s being close to Miami. On the weekends, it is an easy drive for people to visit the Keys and their unique ambience. For investors it means great occupancy rates, for 2nd homeowners a quick and easy getaway. If you want to make this your home, well, Key largo was ranked No. 11 of the 50 Best Places to Live list by Men's Journal Magazine in 2002.
If you’re looking to relocate here, there are homes as of Sept 2005 listed from $269,000. Of course they go up from there: the median price is XXXX to give you some perspective. (To get an idea on how prices work, look under the investment page for the Florida Keys.)
The Key Largo housing market is diverse and eclectic, and includes everything from ultra-modern big new houses and condos to just plain old-Florida funky, and everything in between. It is a complex market, and will take the buyer or investor some time to comprehend.
The market also covers a lot of physical territory: Key Largo itself, the largest and longest of the Florida Keys, stretches for 30 miles from the resort yachting community of Ocean Reef at the island’s north end (which exits to the Mainland by a separate bridge over Card Sound) to the community of Tavernier at its southern tip
Moreover, another part of the diverse Upper Keys real Estate market is Islamorada, the 17-mile long, half-mile wide, often handsomely groomed municipality that picks up where Key Largo leaves off and is comprised of Plantation Key, Windley Key, and Upper and Lower Matecumbe Keys
Some Facts About Key Largo
It has a year-round population (not counting the ebb and flow of tourists and weekenders, and Miami daytrippers) of approximately 15,000 and a median age of 43.
The primary industries here are:
Arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services
Retail trade
Educational, health and social services
Construction
Key Largo is served by a full-service hospital in Tavernier, providing easy health care access to all residents
Key Largo children attend award-winning public and private schools covering grades from pre kindergarten through High School
Recreational Options
You can’t really get bored here, unless you just don’t like the water.
Dive: If you snorkel or dive, Key Largo is a terrific place to live. Long considered the sport diving capital of the world, Key Largo is home to John Pennekamp State Park, the world’s first underwater park. I used to camp and snorkel there on weekends with my kids. And I’ve also had some great times diving wrecks and exploring the surrounding waters of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. There are lots of dive shops for folks at all skill and preference levels.
Fish: If you like to fish, Key Largo is (if that’s possible) an even better place to live. Stretching down to Islamorada, the bonefishing capital of the world, there is a fabulous “backcountry” – Florida Bay – and offshore you’ve got the Gulf Stream and every kind of pelagic sports fish you can imagine. If you’ve got your own boat, great; if you don’t, you’ll find one of the largest fishing fleets per square mile in the world, between Key Largo and Islamorada.
Boats and Toys: See above. There is every possible sea thing to rent and enjoy. In fact, Key Largo and the rest of the Upper Keys, including Islamorada, are much better this way than the Middle Keys or Lower Keys with the exception of Key West.
Kayaking, Canoeing, Photography and Birding: These don’t all necessarily go together. My friend and I did a lot of fishing from our kayaks before it became the latest craze. But if you want to explore shallow-water backcountry to enjoy birds and wildlife, and want to consider paddleboating as opposed to motorboating as the way to do it, then this part of the Keys will likely please you more than areas farther south and west.
If you’re a private pilot, there’s a basic airstrip for small planes on Tavernier, and you can even live next to the runway.
Living Here – Other Options
So what about the rare person who buys a home here but doesn’t want to spend every waking minute on the water? No problem. Here’s just a few things that contribute to the quality of life for the person who relocates to Key Largo.
Eating out: You’ve got tempting choices here, ranging from easy drives to Islamorada – famous throughout the Keys for its eateries – to the Mainland. And right here on Key Largo you’ve got excelent choices of just about every possible cuisine. And not only that: ever noticed how few waterfront restaurants and bars there seem to be in waterfront areas? Well, Key Largo is an exception!
Gallery hopping: Not exactly Key West by any means, but the Upper Keys from Key Largo through the long slender town of Islamorada offer a lively community of artisans, artists in residence, and galleries
Shopping: One of the drawbacks (to some residents) of living farther “down” the Keys (in the direction of Key West) is the “need to get off the Rock” syndrome combined with the reality of limited shopping options. In the Upper Keys (Key Largo, Islamorada) that’s less of a problem. You’re an hour from Miami
Other stuff: There’s local night life in the Upper Keys, unlike the Middle Keys (some, but less) or the Lower Keys (not much). And there’s lots of tennis, if that’s your game. There’s also plenty of local shopping and services; that’s worth mentioning because the farther south and west you go in the Keys, the less true that is.
In conclusion, Key Largo definitely feels like you’re in a different part of the country, due partly to the aquamarine water and the Tiki bars and just the general ambience. So if you want to be away from traffic and a rushed lifestyle, but yet want to be near shopping and everything else that Miami has to offer, this could be just the ticket. It’s hard to imagine a better price-value proposition in the Keys.
For more information on other topics see the Florida Keys general information links.
.©2006. Florida Real Estate Network Inc. All Rights Reserved
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
About Marathon
MIDDLE KEYS AND MARATHON MAIN OVERVIEW
Geographically, the Middle Keys stretch from the southern tip of Islamorada at the high-rise Channel 5 bridge – which has, in both directions, perhaps the most beautiful and stunning views in the Keys – to Marathon’s improbable, spectacular Seven Mile Bridge connecting Marathon to the Lower Keys. Most of us have seen this famous 7 mile bridge in movies (True Lies) or television commercials. It neatly divides the Atlantic Ocean on the East from the Gulf of Mexico to the West, a mere thread of concrete across the 75-100 square miles of azure and green seas and “flats” and islands that your eyes encompass simultaneously.
As a practical matter, the Middle Keys basically refer to the “large” incorporated town and bustling commercial center of Marathon and the nearby expensive housing areas of Hawks Key (Duck Key), Key Colony Beach, and Long Key. The other islands in the Marathon region are Boot Key, Knight Key, Hog Key, Vaca Key, Stirrup Key, Crawl and Little Crawl Key, East and West Sister’s Island, Deer Key and Fat Deer Key, Long Pine Key and Grassy Key. Marathon’s metro area sits between mile markers 48 and 55 and has a non-tourist residential population of more than 13,000 (it feels bigger than that), with a median age of 44.
Marathon is centrally located 80 miles south of mainland Florida and more or less just 50 from Key Largo and 48 from Key West. Marathon is served by bus lines to Key West and the Mainland, and by the sleek Marathon airport offering connections to Miami and Ft Lauderdale and from there to anywhere in the world.
Employment
The primary industries here are:
Arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services
Retail trade
Educational,health and social services
Construction
The Marathon area is definitely a destination point and has hundreds of small and medium size business to support it. It is fairly self-contained, too. It’s not necessary to go anywhere else, because everything you really need is right there, including shopping and services, police and fire, healthcare facilities including a modern full service hospital, all the usual municipal functions, and outdoor recreational activities like boating, fishing, and diving.
If you want to work in the Keys in the construction trades or certain kinds of services or consulting, Marathon can be a good location, because it is centrally located – jobs and commissions from Key Largo to Key West are pretty easily reached on a within-day commuting basis.
This sense of Marathon as a sort of “hub” for the whole middle section of the Keys, including the edges of the Upper Keys and Lower Keys, goes back a long ways. In the early 20th century Henry Flagler built a large work camp and supply base at Marathon while constructing his “railroad that went to sea”.
Recreation
The Marathon area is primarily an outdoor community; there’s no reason to relocate here, in my opinion, if you don’t love the water, either for play or for work, whether on weekdays or weekends, since you can’t get away from it even if you wanted to, and if you work you’re going to drive across a lot of it whether headed up or down the Keys.
And Marathon thrives on its central Keys, watery environment. Marathon has excelent swimming beaches (not common in the Keys), and good diving and snorkeling, from novice to experts, at all water depths. Some divers think that some of the best parts of the coral reef along the Keys are right here. The Sombrero Key Lighthouse area is an example.
Fishing can be either oceanside or Backcountry (gulfside), with your own boat, on party boats, or with a personal guide. There’s plenty of flats fishing, as in the rest of the Keys, but oceanside offshore fishing (excelent) prevails, since there’s not quite the same extensive range of backcountry options as elsewhere in the Keys, given there’s fewer islands and the area isn’t quite as wild as having Everglades National Park for your backdoor neighbor (like Key Largo).
Boating in general is a little different here. Most boating is fairly open water or along the Overseas Highway and Keys chain; there aren’t as many protected areas (think multiple islands for kayaking or canoeing) as there are in either the Upper Keys or the Lower Keys or Key West. And waters seem to have more of a chop more of the time here, too. On both sides the water gets deeper faster.
But if you want to be on a canal with a big boat tied up at your back door, this is a good part of the Keys to be in: lots of deep canals, and easy Ocean access. (Most of the deep canals and good big boating access is on the south, or Oceanside, part of the islands.) It’s also one of the few spots in the Keys where you can easily get a big boat or a sailboat back and forth from Bay to Ocean.
In addition to these water-based sporting activities, there’s 9-hole Par 3 golf at Key Colony Beach, plenty of tennis, some nightlife particularly at the resort hotels, and a variety of restaurants where you can eat outside under the sun or indoors in air-conditioned comfort. There’s also Islamorada and Big Pine just short drives away for variety.
Housing
As of Sept 2005, the least expensive available home started at $345.000. Marathon and its surrounding residential islands have a range of homes from Estates to manufactured. Like much of the Keys, a lot of the properties are waterfront, and that means it’s going to cost more. But Marathon has also been a market where traditionally, if you worked in the Keys, you could find reasonably affordable homes.
To get an idea on how prices work look under the investment page for the Florida Keys.
In conclusion, Marathon has a variety of housing stock, and its central location gets you to Miami in 2 hours and Key West in just over an hour. So if you really want to get away from it all, and yet be relatively close to things either direction, this could be the best of the Keys areas for you. You can enjoy outdoors but still have good options of restaurants and shopping nearby.
.©2006. Florida Real Estate Network Inc. All Rights Reserved
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
Geographically, the Middle Keys stretch from the southern tip of Islamorada at the high-rise Channel 5 bridge – which has, in both directions, perhaps the most beautiful and stunning views in the Keys – to Marathon’s improbable, spectacular Seven Mile Bridge connecting Marathon to the Lower Keys. Most of us have seen this famous 7 mile bridge in movies (True Lies) or television commercials. It neatly divides the Atlantic Ocean on the East from the Gulf of Mexico to the West, a mere thread of concrete across the 75-100 square miles of azure and green seas and “flats” and islands that your eyes encompass simultaneously.
As a practical matter, the Middle Keys basically refer to the “large” incorporated town and bustling commercial center of Marathon and the nearby expensive housing areas of Hawks Key (Duck Key), Key Colony Beach, and Long Key. The other islands in the Marathon region are Boot Key, Knight Key, Hog Key, Vaca Key, Stirrup Key, Crawl and Little Crawl Key, East and West Sister’s Island, Deer Key and Fat Deer Key, Long Pine Key and Grassy Key. Marathon’s metro area sits between mile markers 48 and 55 and has a non-tourist residential population of more than 13,000 (it feels bigger than that), with a median age of 44.
Marathon is centrally located 80 miles south of mainland Florida and more or less just 50 from Key Largo and 48 from Key West. Marathon is served by bus lines to Key West and the Mainland, and by the sleek Marathon airport offering connections to Miami and Ft Lauderdale and from there to anywhere in the world.
Employment
The primary industries here are:
Arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services
Retail trade
Educational,health and social services
Construction
The Marathon area is definitely a destination point and has hundreds of small and medium size business to support it. It is fairly self-contained, too. It’s not necessary to go anywhere else, because everything you really need is right there, including shopping and services, police and fire, healthcare facilities including a modern full service hospital, all the usual municipal functions, and outdoor recreational activities like boating, fishing, and diving.
If you want to work in the Keys in the construction trades or certain kinds of services or consulting, Marathon can be a good location, because it is centrally located – jobs and commissions from Key Largo to Key West are pretty easily reached on a within-day commuting basis.
This sense of Marathon as a sort of “hub” for the whole middle section of the Keys, including the edges of the Upper Keys and Lower Keys, goes back a long ways. In the early 20th century Henry Flagler built a large work camp and supply base at Marathon while constructing his “railroad that went to sea”.
Recreation
The Marathon area is primarily an outdoor community; there’s no reason to relocate here, in my opinion, if you don’t love the water, either for play or for work, whether on weekdays or weekends, since you can’t get away from it even if you wanted to, and if you work you’re going to drive across a lot of it whether headed up or down the Keys.
And Marathon thrives on its central Keys, watery environment. Marathon has excelent swimming beaches (not common in the Keys), and good diving and snorkeling, from novice to experts, at all water depths. Some divers think that some of the best parts of the coral reef along the Keys are right here. The Sombrero Key Lighthouse area is an example.
Fishing can be either oceanside or Backcountry (gulfside), with your own boat, on party boats, or with a personal guide. There’s plenty of flats fishing, as in the rest of the Keys, but oceanside offshore fishing (excelent) prevails, since there’s not quite the same extensive range of backcountry options as elsewhere in the Keys, given there’s fewer islands and the area isn’t quite as wild as having Everglades National Park for your backdoor neighbor (like Key Largo).
Boating in general is a little different here. Most boating is fairly open water or along the Overseas Highway and Keys chain; there aren’t as many protected areas (think multiple islands for kayaking or canoeing) as there are in either the Upper Keys or the Lower Keys or Key West. And waters seem to have more of a chop more of the time here, too. On both sides the water gets deeper faster.
But if you want to be on a canal with a big boat tied up at your back door, this is a good part of the Keys to be in: lots of deep canals, and easy Ocean access. (Most of the deep canals and good big boating access is on the south, or Oceanside, part of the islands.) It’s also one of the few spots in the Keys where you can easily get a big boat or a sailboat back and forth from Bay to Ocean.
In addition to these water-based sporting activities, there’s 9-hole Par 3 golf at Key Colony Beach, plenty of tennis, some nightlife particularly at the resort hotels, and a variety of restaurants where you can eat outside under the sun or indoors in air-conditioned comfort. There’s also Islamorada and Big Pine just short drives away for variety.
Housing
As of Sept 2005, the least expensive available home started at $345.000. Marathon and its surrounding residential islands have a range of homes from Estates to manufactured. Like much of the Keys, a lot of the properties are waterfront, and that means it’s going to cost more. But Marathon has also been a market where traditionally, if you worked in the Keys, you could find reasonably affordable homes.
To get an idea on how prices work look under the investment page for the Florida Keys.
In conclusion, Marathon has a variety of housing stock, and its central location gets you to Miami in 2 hours and Key West in just over an hour. So if you really want to get away from it all, and yet be relatively close to things either direction, this could be the best of the Keys areas for you. You can enjoy outdoors but still have good options of restaurants and shopping nearby.
.©2006. Florida Real Estate Network Inc. All Rights Reserved
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
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