Venice Florida

[Milton]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich_in_Tampa Venice is very appealing. I recall a discussion a while back - might try a search. It has a small town feel still, the beach is more accessible than lots of other cities. Close but not too close to Sarasota and Tampa, whose airport is big and well-behaved. I used to ride by motorcycle down there on a Sunday just to park on the main street, get an ice cream at a place that hasn't changed since the 1950s. Less "snob appeal" than some other places on the Gulf Coast to my eye.

I agree. Nice municipal airport, too, with Sharky's On The Pier near the end of the runway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razor After researching many places to retire my wife and I have narrowed it down to Florida and Venice, on paper, looks like the right spot. I have been to Fla only as far south as Daytona.

Razor, you really need to spend a couple of weeks on a Florida road trip before narrowing your search down to one or two places. The internet is great, but there's nothing like firsthand personal knowledge.

[Razor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milton Razor, you really need to spend a couple of weeks on a Florida road trip before narrowing your search down to one or two places. The internet is great, but there's nothing like firsthand personal knowledge.

After doing some research and getting opinions, Venice looked like it could be the right place for us. Florida is a big place so we had to narrow it down a bit.
Heres the plan. After we sell my house we will rent a furnished apartment for a few months in Venice. We will look at homes and figure out if the Venice area is where we want to retire. If we don't like Venice we will check out other parts of Florida.
Taking a road trip would probably just make our decision more difficult. I am sure there are hundreds of pretty little cities that we would fall in love with. How does one decide?
Do you have any suggestions of other cities to check out?

[Razor]

I just read that this year there is a 45 percent chance that a major hurricane will make landfall on the East Coast, including the Florida Peninsula (the long-term average is 31 percent).
When a hurricane hits Florida do the gulf coast cities fair better than the atlantic coast cities? Anyone here ever been in a hurricane?

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razor I just read that this year there is a 45 percent chance that a major hurricane will make landfall on the East Coast, including the Florida Peninsula (the long-term average is 31 percent). When a hurricane hits Florida do the gulf coast cities fair better than the atlantic coast cities? Anyone here ever been in a hurricane?

It depends on where the hurricane hits, and what direction it is coming from, and other characteristics of that hurricane. Long term hurricane predictions comparing future seasons with past, are still in their infancy and some consider their value to be mainly as a curiousity.

I think the ER forum in general has forgiven me for crossing Florida off my list of potential ER locations. That will just leave more great Florida real estate for the rest of you. You might want to consider areas of Florida that are higher or further inland, though there will always be some risk in Florida.

[Razor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Want2retire It depends on where the hurricane hits, and what direction it is coming from, and other characteristics of that hurricane. Long term hurricane predictions are still in their infancy and some consider their value to be mainly as a curiousity. I think the ER forum in general has forgiven me for crossing Florida off my list of potential ER locations. That will just leave more great Florida real estate for the rest of you. You might want to consider areas of Florida that are higher or further inland, though there will always be some risk in Florida.

Why did you cross Florida off your list?

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razor Why did you cross Florida off your list?

I prefer some other type of catastrophe next time, for variety's sake.

Real estate is really cheap there right now, though, from what I have been reading.

[Milton]

I think you meant: "Real estate is really cheap there right now, though, less expensive there than at the height of the bubble, from what I have been reading."

I don't have a crystal ball but I strongly suspect that prices will likely continue to fall. Razor, don't be in any rush.

[Razor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milton I think you meant: "Real estate is really cheap there right now, though, less expensive there than at the height of the bubble, from what I have been reading." I don't have a crystal ball but I strongly suspect that prices will likely continue to fall. Razor, don't be in any rush.

I'm in no rush at all. We plan on renting for awhile to see if we like it enough to retire there.

[Moemg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milton I I don't have a crystal ball but I strongly suspect that prices will likely continue to fall. Razor, don't be in any rush.

I 'm not sure I'm beginning to see more activity . My neighbors have their house on the market priced competitively and there is a lot of action . Maybe we've hit the bottom ?

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg I 'm not sure I'm beginning to see more activity . My neighbors have their house on the market priced competitively and there is a lot of action . Maybe we've hit the bottom ?

Maybe so!! I know that if I was in the market for a nice vacation condo in Florida, I'd sure be looking right now.

If a person is too greedy, they might miss the bottom, and the prices in some places are pretty attractive these days. But then what do I know about Florida real estate? Very little, except that in some places it has moved from "out of reach" into "affordable to me" categories.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

according to a recent study by global insight/national city, the only place left highly overvalued in florida is miami. as for places in florida still ranked moderately overvalued, well, it still is desirable coastal property.

so i don't know that the prices are the problem now. i think most of the bubble value has already been wiped off the books. (certainly i wiped them off mine.) i think it is more credit crunch and the fact that people can't sell in other parts of the country which would allow them to buy here more than it is the price of real estate here. given the amenities & the quality of life, florida is still a lot cheaper than a lot of other locations.

https://www.nationalcity.com:443/mai...HouseValuation

[Orchidflower]

I pulled some info. off the net yesterday on when housing prices will bottom out in Sarasota-Bradenton and Naples, and what came back was to expect it to bottom around 2nd quarter 2009--not this summer but next. Then there is that loooooong climb out of the hole, so you have some time for it to bottom out.

[calmloki]

Wandering around down in the Venice/Englewood area right now looking at places. Lots of variety. Condo on the beach in Venice? 1.6Million. Corner lot 900 sqft with a pool close to Venice in Englewood - foreclosure - $150k (nice place, decent neighborhood). Normal tract homes in the Rotunda around $180k. Foreclosures in Englewood workingclass neighborhoods maybe $120k+. Really nice place maybe 3 blocks from the beach, with beach access easement, pool, killer landscaping, recent tile roof $500k - that's probably the best deal of the lot, but way out of range for a snowbird house - for us anyway. Very green and very flat here, nice folks, lots of country to shop houses from. Haven't seen much trash on the roads or beaches at all - good show Florida! The coastline looks much like any resort town - big $$$ condos and hotels - we got lucky with an old 2 story on the beach with a dozen or so units - borrowed a screwdriver and have been doing a little fixing - it's not work if you don't have too. Venice is full of raisins - plenty of well tanned wrinkly people busily spending their savings. Old town Englewood actually felt more like home to me - till i found that the old 2/2 frame house with a big lot was going for $699k ... something about the huge waterway frontage. There are trailerparks around....

BTW - Sharkys is way less expensive inside than out, the Marlin steak at the Crow's Nest is fantastic, Lidos has super NewYork style pizza (betcha it's pretty true to NY with the local NY contingent), and Myakka State park is outstanding and worth more than the $5/carload charge. Also my honey is a huge geek - the town is chock full of wireless connections from Linksys systems - so last night we were standing in the Crow's Nest parking lot with the laptop on a hijacked connection, linking into the controllable webcam on their roof, and waving to ourselves.

[Moemg]

Sounds like you are having a great time . Carney's on Venice Ave . Is not great food but they play trivia and it is fun . Also Althea's one block over used to be very good ( not sure how it is now ). The weather has been iffy ! Cloudy then okay ! Have you ventured into the gulf ?

[calmloki]

We're having fun. The weather has been fine by me - humidity is manageable and 80+ feels great compared to the 48 high reported in Portland today. Could be cooler at night, but not bad at all. We're doing the Duck tour on a great honking landing craft tomorrow for our water craft experience. have been in the gulf - it was real clear today, could see my feet though more than 4' of water. warm enough to be comfortable if you stay submerged. We had a drink at Snook's hideaway at your suggestion, but missed the boat tour by 15 minutes - a conversation with some people there sent us up to Mayaka park to see gators. Fun stuff.

Oh - saw porposis porpoisis porposisi dolphins off the pier at Sharkys!

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by calmloki Haven't seen much trash on the roads or beaches at all - good show Florida!

good eye calmloki. in fact, forty percent of forbes' top 10 cleanest american cities are in florida...

America's Cleanest Cities - Forbes.com

[Ronstar]

I heard from a Sarasota realtor that sales are increasing, but the prices are flat.

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar I heard from a Sarasota realtor that sales are increasing, but the prices are flat.

Ditto for Tampa, less of a "resort" city.

[calmloki]

Another info bit: we considered buying and renting out a house for a while before moving into it - have been quoted 10 and 12% for management fees - haven't dug, those are the only 2 prices quoted. Also, there is a 7% long term rental tax (1 year+) and an 11% short term tax. On top of property tax, which is based on your purchase price. Lots and lots of people wanting to sell and trying to rent out in the interim, making for a whole bunch of vacancies. I wouldn't expect rent to be cheap though - if you want to sell and have to eat the risk and hassle of renters you want to make some money doing so. Upshot is it looks like a tough market to make money in as an offsite landlord - 20-25% local room tax and management load? Yikes! Also read that the circuit court has said Venice can't ban short term rentals in neighborhoods, so the town is scheming on how to do so legally (hmm - maybe a heavier tax would work?).

[Razor]

Anyone know anything about the Panama City area?