Thanks in advance for the help. Here's my situation:

I am working on an online computer science degree which will take a couple of years to complete. I plan on making that my bread and butter but I also would love to instruct on the side. I have my commercial certificate and would like to earn my flight instructor certificate this summer. There are other jobs that I could do where I could make more than that while in school. It is just I love to fly and want to keep active in the profession. Flight instruction could be the fitting job as I could use down time between flights to study for college.

I was born and raised in a part of the Northeast where the weather annihilates flight training for about 3 months a year. I understand that the industry is not doing well across the board but it is especially bad here. This would not be a good place to instruct so I need to move if I am going to entertain the idea of living off flight instructor wages for a few years.

I see there are a lot of flight schools in the Miami and Southern CA areas. Anyone from those areas care to mention how much you fly and what the demand is for instructors (how often you see people hired)? Also, is grossing 20k a year a realistic prospect? Any other areas where flight instruction is relatively "hot"?