Best PlacesKey Colony Beach, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Key Colony Beach, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Key Colony Beach ranks 17,031st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Key Colony Beach
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Key Colony Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Key Colony Beach ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute13.0 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 96% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 93% of towns
Where Key Colony Beach ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Key Colony Beach
A household needs to earn about $341,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Key Colony Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $100,518, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Key Colony Beach's effective rate of 0.44%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Key Colony Beach
Key Colony Beach runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Key Colony Beach.
Who works in Key Colony Beach, and how
Work in Key Colony Beach centers on hospitality & food and real estate. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 20%
Life in Key Colony Beach
The coast is about 0 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Key Colony Beach, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Key Colony Beach, month by month
Key Colony Beach sees roughly 81 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 78, with lows near 64. The comfortable stretch runs December through February.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 78° | 70° | 64° |
| April | 86° | 79° | 74° |
| July | 92° | 86° | 80° |
| October | 88° | 81° | 76° |
Flying in and out of Key Colony Beach
The nearest airport, Key West International, is about 48 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Miami International, about 87 miles away.
The best schools in and around Key Colony Beach
Schools across Key Colony Beach average a B, better than 69% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Stanley Switlik Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
Top high schools
- Marathon SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Key Colony Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Key Colony Beach measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Key Colony Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Key Colony Beach
Is Key Colony Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Key Colony Beach ranks 17,031st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, short commutes, and civic engagement, and lowest on an overheated housing market and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Key Colony Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,372,640. The overall cost of living runs about 13% above the national average. Set against a $100,518 median income, cost of living beats 70% of towns.
Is Key Colony Beach safe?
Key Colony Beach is safer than 31% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $241 per resident a year.
Compare Key Colony Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Key Colony Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Key Colony Beach represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Key Colony Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Key Colony Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Key Colony Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Key Colony Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Key Colony Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Key Colony Beach detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.