Where Does Jimmy Johnson Live in Florida? Inside His Islamorada Compound

Where does Jimmy Johnson live? The two-time Super Bowl coach and longtime Fox analyst lives in Islamorada, in the Florida Keys, on a six-acre oceanside compound he has owned for more than 20 years. Hurricane Irma put 18 inches of water through the first floor in 2017, and he rebuilt rather than leave. Here is what public reporting says about the property, the two boats behind it, and why a Texan who coached in Dallas and Miami ended up 125 miles from Cuba.

Key takeaways

• Johnson lives on a six-acre compound in Islamorada, Monroe County, in the upper Florida Keys. He moved there around 2000.
• The purchase price was not reported. Sports Illustrated described the property as a compound with a pool, a tiki bar, a long driveway and a dock.
• Irma flooded the house and buried the pool under two feet of sand in September 2017. Johnson said he would never leave, and he rebuilt.
• The Keys are outside our market. The closest South Florida match for an oceanside compound with deep-water docks is Sailfish Point in Stuart.

Where does Jimmy Johnson live in Florida?

Johnson lives in Islamorada, a village of islands about 80 miles south of Miami on the Overseas Highway. The village bills itself as the sportfishing capital of the world, and that is the point of it for him. Islamorada is in Monroe County, which is not one of the eight counties Pure Equity serves. We cover it because the search interest is real.

Sports Illustrated's Peter King, who has visited, described the place in 2017 as a six-acre compound on the ocean side. Johnson had owned it for more than 20 years at that point. Soundings, a boating magazine, put the move at roughly 2000 in a 2011 profile. Pure Equity does not publish private addresses, so we leave it at the village and the side of the island.

His first look at the Keys came in the mid-1980s, while he coached the University of Miami. He told Soundings he fell for the area during a dive certification course. He kept coming back through the Cowboys years and the Dolphins years, and after football he made it home.

Islamorada is not one island but several. The village, incorporated in 1997, takes in Plantation Key, Windley Key and Upper and Lower Matecumbe Key, strung along about 20 miles of highway. Its ocean side faces the reef and the Gulf Stream, which is where the fishing is. On the other side, Florida Bay and the flats. Most of the larger estates sit on the ocean side, with docks cut into the shoreline, and that matches the way the compound has been described.

Inside the reported six-acre compound

The reporting describes a compound rather than a single house. There is a main home, a pool with a tiki bar, a long driveway and a dock, according to Sports Illustrated. Behind the dock sit two boats, both named Three Rings for his championships: a 39-foot SeaVee center console and a 34-foot Venture, per Soundings.

The size of the house itself is less clear. A British tabloid has described a three-bedroom, three-bath home of about 3,600 square feet, but we could not confirm that with a source we trust, so treat it as unconfirmed. No sale price has surfaced in any outlet we found.

Johnson has said he spent about 30 years developing property in the area, which suggests the compound grew over time rather than arriving as one purchase. He and his wife Rhonda host football people there. Bill Belichick and Troy Aikman have both visited, per Sports Illustrated.

What Hurricane Irma did to the house

Irma crossed the Keys on September 10, 2017. Johnson spoke to Sports Illustrated the night before, and his words became a headline: 'But it's my home. It's the most beautiful place in the world. I'll never leave.'

Two days later he saw the photos. The storm put two feet of ocean sand in the pool, took out the dock, covered the driveway in seaweed and debris and knocked down a power pole. The first floor of the house took 18 inches of water. His verdict, again to SI: 'Looks like the place has been napalmed.' He added that he felt fortunate he could afford to rebuild.

Then he did. The Sun Sentinel ran a story the following March under the headline 'Jimmy Johnson rebuilds his paradise.' Reports from that period said the docks came back within two months. His Big Chill restaurant up the road in Key Largo came through the storm without damage.

Why Jimmy Johnson chose the Keys

Johnson has given a plain answer. He wanted out of Dallas, which he called landlocked, and away from the attention that came with the Cowboys. 'I wanted to get away from all of the hustle and bustle and autograph seekers, and go to an area where I could just lay back,' he told Soundings.

Fishing is the other half of it. He took up sportfishing in earnest around 2001 and told the magazine he fishes alone most of the time, for fun rather than for meat. His catches include a 235-pound blue marlin he landed by himself. For a man who spent his working life in stadiums, a quiet boat off Islamorada was the opposite of the job.

The Keys also gave him a business. His name is on Jimmy Johnson's Big Chill at Fisherman's Cove in Key Largo, a restaurant and entertainment complex, and on a private residence club nearby. That kept him tied to the upper Keys even during the years he flew to Los Angeles every week.

Where else does Jimmy Johnson live?

No other home has been reported. For 31 seasons Johnson left the Keys each fall week for the Fox NFL Sunday studio in Los Angeles, then flew home. He retired from Fox in 2024, which removed the last regular reason to be anywhere else.

He grew up in Port Arthur, Texas, and coached in Oklahoma, Dallas and Miami, but reporting does not tie him to a current residence in any of those places. Islamorada is the whole answer. He is 83 as of 2026, and every recent interview has him at home in the Keys.

What homes near Jimmy Johnson cost

The Keys are outside our MLS coverage, so we do not have live pricing for Islamorada and we will not quote figures we cannot verify. Our data-driven Monroe County page shows what our feed carries for the area.

The closest South Florida equivalent to an oceanside compound with a serious dock is Sailfish Point in Stuart. It sits at the tip of Hutchinson Island with a deep-water marina, ocean frontage and a Nicklaus golf course, and it is one of the few gated communities in our market where a 39-foot center console fits behind the house.

Stuart has about 650 active listings with a median list price near $429,000 and an average of about 116 days on market, per our MLS feed as of September 2026. Sailfish Point homes sit far above that median. For the nearest true island living to the Keys, Key Biscayne in Miami-Dade has about 180 active listings with a median near $2.48 million. Compare both on our waterfront homes hub and the Martin County page.

Frequently asked questions

Where does Jimmy Johnson live now?

He lives in Islamorada, in the Florida Keys, on the six-acre compound he rebuilt after Hurricane Irma. Since retiring from Fox in 2024 he is there most of the year.

Where in Islamorada does Jimmy Johnson live?

Reporting places the compound on the ocean side of the island, with a dock on the water. Pure Equity does not publish private addresses, so we do not go further than that.

Where does Jimmy Johnson live full time?

Islamorada is his full-time and only reported home. During his Fox years he commuted to Los Angeles each week in the fall but always returned to the Keys.

How much did Jimmy Johnson pay for the Islamorada compound?

The price was not reported. He has said he spent roughly 30 years building up the property, so it likely came together in pieces rather than in one recorded sale.

Is Islamorada part of South Florida?

Geographically, yes. Monroe County is the southernmost county in Florida and the Keys are often grouped with South Florida. But it is not one of the eight counties Pure Equity serves, which run from Miami-Dade north to Indian River and inland to Okeechobee and Highlands.

Does Jimmy Johnson still own the Big Chill?

The restaurant in Key Largo still carries his name. Reporting describes it as his, and it survived Irma without damage, per Sports Illustrated.

Own a waterfront home in Stuart, on Hutchinson Island or anywhere in Martin County? Ask Pure Equity for a free home valuation and find out what it is worth today. Buyers can browse Stuart listings or see luxury homes across South Florida. For two more Florida coaches and players, read where Tiger Woods lives on Jupiter Island and our roundup of celebrities who live in Florida.

Sources

• Sports Illustrated, Former NFL coach Jimmy Johnson's house in Florida Keys damaged by Hurricane Irma
• Soundings, Reel passion
• Sun Sentinel, Jimmy Johnson rebuilds his paradise

Based on publicly reported information; details may change and are not independently verified by Pure Equity. We do not publish private addresses.