August
2004
Not to
long ago an article in Key West's Solares Hill
Newspaper by Mark Howell dealt with the subject of
millionaires in the Florida Keys.
Later
Michael Suib, Taxi in Paradise columnist reported on
this phenomenon in the Miami Herald
newspaper.
Michael
Suib writes,
"The
numbers are numbing, especially if you're not
counted among those who have achieved that status."
" . . . the Keys are lousy with millionaires, and
chances are that if you are not careful when you
turn around, you might just knock one over."
Suib
who lives on a houseboat in Key West and drives a pink
taxi rounds off the number of millionaires for his
article to the nearest thousand.
"
. . . Can you imagine the Keys with its population
of about 79,000 people (including children) having
about 12,000 millionaires? That is a shade under
one-sixth of the county's population.
"Take
the kiddies out of the formula, and we are talking
in the area of one out of every five people who you
see in Winne-Dixie is a member of the millionaires'
club."
Suib
continues, " . . . out of the 12,000 millionaires
in the Keys, 1,800 of them are worth at least $20
million. (I wonder if this news will make any of
the mere single-digit millionaires suffer from zero
envy."
REAL ESTATE
VALUES
Could
the escalation of real estate values be creating all
these millionaires? Realtors will tell you yes. Just
look at the prices for houses in the Keys.
Prices
on properties on residential Duck Key and commercial
properties on Indies Island continue to
escalate.
Note
this websites' REAL
ESTATE
AND
HOME SALES
page.
Prices
on real estate and commercial properties in Marathon
also are spiraling upward. Realtors talk about 20 to
30 per cent increases in home values during each of
the last three years.
Coldwell
Banker Schmitt Real Estate reports in their Spring
2004 Newsletter that
"Sale
price has increased 132% since 1997 in the Lower
Keys, the area with the lowest average cost to
purchase in the Keys. Key West +133% and the Middle
Keys +106%. Upper Keys prices rose 74% in the 5
years since 1999. (1997 stats unavailable)"
INCREASED PROPERTY
VALUE BRINGS INCREASED TAX ASSESSMENT
The KeyNoter reports
that
"Residents up
and down the Florida Keys will face the music this
week when they open their mailboxes to find this
year's tax notices waiting." . . . "Monroe County
Property Appraiser Ervin Higgs has indicated
assessed property value throughout the county
increased $2.6 billion over last year, coming close
to $17 billion total."
WIND STORM PREMIUM
INCREASES
An Upperkeys Reporter
News editorial writes that
"This year,
most premiums are increasing by 30 percent. Condo
owners are looking at a 70 percent increase. And
some premiums are doubling. "
"Some homeowners
who are not required to have wind coverage by their
mortgage holders are electing to "go bare" rather
than see their premiums go from $3,000 annually to
$5,000 a year, in some cases, particularly since
there is also a 2 percent deductible."
YET WE ARE STILL
FORTUNATE
News
articles also report that more than 300,000 Floridians
work 40 hours per week, every week, all year long and
make only $892 per month. That's what the current
minimum wage of $5.15 per hour
pays.*
*
added on 11/2004 - Minimum wage per hour changed with
vote on Election Day
