For the real Estate buyer or investor, the Lower Keys start at Mile Marker 30 or Big Pine Key (home of the Key Deer, an endangered species, sort of a miniature Virginia White-Tail). Key deer?
You’ll immediately become aware of them because of the radically lowered speed limit the minute you cross from Bahia Honda and Spanish Harbor Keys onto Big Pine Key, imposed to make sure you don’t run one over.
Humor aside, you really have entered a different world once you cross over that huge seven mile gap of ocean from busy Marathon and the rest of the upper and middle Keys on the famous 7-Mile Bridge.
You have arrived in a world that is more laid back, slower-paced, more isolated in most ways, and geographically shaped differently.
Until now you’ve been driving along the mostly northeast-to-southwest spine of each narrow Key, ocean to your left, Florida Bay or the Gulf of Mexico to your right, with neither body of water more than a few hundred feet away (or much less), for almost 100 miles
Now, beginning at Spanish Harbor, you head north and then due west, before resuming (at Cudjoe Key) the trek towards the southwest (direction: Key West) that you’ve been traveling ever since you left Key Largo. (Ever wonder why it’s Key West and not Key South?)
And something else is different! We are now crossing Keys that run more north-south than east-west. The actual ocean and gulf are now miles away, to our south or north, while we cross mangrove forests, wetlands, and pine barrens.
Check out a map: the group of islands we call the Lower Keys are obviously different enough geographically from the Upper and Middle Keys (which run east-west, and end at Marathon) to have been considered by Colonial Spain as a different group of islands altogether. They were administered from Cuba, not from St. Augustine like the rest of Florida.
When Spain sold Florida to the United States it did not intend to include Key West and the Lower Keys; the young (then Lt.) Admiral-to-be Perry was sent in the USS Shark (true story) to enforce the USA’s claim to the contrary. The rest is history.
This geography has implications today mainly in two ways:
First, the fabulous ecosystem of the Lower Keys backcountry provides – some claim, anyway –richer opportunities for boating and fishing, and certainly better kayaking and birding than any other portion of the Florida Keys from the Mainland to Key West. Almost the entire area north of the Overseas Highway (US#1) is protected wild environment as part of either the National Key Deer Refuge or Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge. And that makes this part of the Keys very special, from a homeowner’s or visitor’s perspective.
Second, this north-south orientation of the islands provides dozens of flow-through channels in the event of hurricane storm surges, helping to reduce the extent of water pressure and flood damage. I’ve ridden out one category 3 hurricane in my friend’s house on Cudjoe Key, and while we had to deal with extensive flooding common to these great and rare storms, the damage was much less than it might have been if the storm surge water had been blocked and therefore tumbled whole houses in its path instead.
Big Pine “Metro”
The Lower Keys or what we’ll call “Big Pine metro”, includes the islands of Big Pine, Little Torch and Big Torch Key, Ramrod and Summerland, Cudjoe and Sugarloaf. Each Island is unique in its environment and boating access, which does translate down to home prices. More on that below.
When you enter the Lower Keys, you will see right away that it is much more laid back. Generally, the further you get away from Miami, the more the Bahamian feel. And to some extent, particularly on Big Pine and its attached No Name Key, and a couple of other spots in the Lower Keys, that sensibility is well-preserved despite the rapid development of the very limited remaining land available for new building. Parts of Sugarloaf preserve this same feel, and residents of the Torches and Ramrod would claim that too. It’s less true on Cudjoe and Summerland, but they have other advantages.
A few other general reflections about this area, why it’s different, will help bring it into focus.
Teddy Roosevelt started the national wildlife refuges here about 100 years ago, to save the birds; and the bird life is definitely a terrific part of the Lower Keys special ambience
Looe Key is one of the best places to snorkel and dive in the whole Keys chain. It wasn’t always so tranquil: it got its name when a British ship of that name went down centuries ago, and it was long a principal cause of shipwrecks in this part of the Keys. Today its main problem is the worldwide bleaching of coral reefs, happening here too (30% since the early 1990’s), but so far I don’t notice fish reduction. Come enjoy it while you can!
Fishing is outrageously good: backcountry including fly fishing for tarpon, or offshore in the Gulf stream or along the reef line, near American Shoal lighthouse, or any drifting weed line; or try barracuda from a kaya
Key West in general: you can go to Fantasy Fest, for example, and go home afterwards. Someday you’ll be able to go to Cuba with ease, since you’re only about 90 miles away!
Biggest drawback, but hey, why did you come here in the first place? There’s only one lane each direction, and getting off the rock to Miami can seem like it takes forever. Fortunately the half hour to 45 minute drive to Key West traverses nice scenery, much of it slowly enough (45 mph) to enjoy it; but if you don’t slow down the police will ticket you.
Boating is different here: water pretty shallow, big boats more rare than middle and upper keys, or Key West; forget sailboats in most areas. We’ve tried to differentiate that for you island by island, see below, but as a general rule of thumb, you have to look harder for deep water access here than, say, in Marathon, Key West, or Oceanside Key Largo.
There are exceptions to that rule, and they tend to cost more: Cudjoe Gardens, Summerland Key, one section of Big Pine along Pine Channel. There are few deep natural channels between Gulf and Ocean near the more built-up areas which most bigger pleasure boats can use, but unlike most of Key Largo, at least they exist.
Recreation: Boating, exploring, fishing. Whether you are interested in offshore or backcountry, Big Pine offers quick and easy access to both venues. Or walk along the nature trails that wind through Federal Refuge land of pine barrens and hardwood hammocks, and observe the miniature deer and bird life. Or kayak any of a number of “trails” in the shallow water backcountry. Or ride a bicycle along miles of safe roads and trails. Or snorkel or dive Looe Key, perhaps the best of the best when it comes to Florida’s coral reefs. It’s 3 miles or so offshore, straight out Newfound Harbor Channel.
The Lower Keys are definitely getting away from it all.
Employment: If you live here, and are not retired, most likely you will work in either Key West or Marathon. Both of these towns are about a half hour to one hour drive at max from Big Pine, even at rush hour (an oxymoron for sure).
Remember that “mile markers” in the Keys, which are the standard way of giving an address along the Overseas Highway, start at Key West and number 1. Big Pine is mile marker 30 or 30 miles away---Marathon is mile marker 48. Key Largo is 99.
Local employment is fairly highly concentrated at this time, either tourist-related or construction. The rest of the services sector is still pretty small.
But in conclusion, if you want to be near world-famous Key West but yet have a quiet neighborhood and homes that are more affordable, the Lower Keys could be the answer. And if you really want to get away from even the sight of traffic on the Overseas Highway, Big Pine offers you that too.
The Rest of the Lower Keys
There are five islands or sets of islands, proceeding from Big Pine towards Key West, that account for most of the available real Estate in the Lower Keys. Some of these islands contemplated getting together as a new municipality called Village of the Islands a few years ago.
The referendum failed, partly because there was obviously insufficient commercial activity and commercially taxable property in the miniature downtowns of Summerland and Sugarloaf or anywhere else to support such a venture, and partly because most of the residents of these islands really do like their isolation and privacy, and didn’t like the idea of a another tier of municipal taxation.
In conclusion, this part of the Keys, like every other, is truly unique. We’ve tried to give you the flavor and an honest appraisal of what it’s like to live here.
Properties have become very expensive but they’re still a bargain if you look at comparable waterfront properties across the United States. This part of the Keys is certainly not for everybody, not anymore, but if you’re in that price range, you owe it to yourself to look at the Lower Keys seriously. They offer a different package from the Upper Keys or Middle Keys, and yet again from Key West, with whose prices they are often comparable.
