Florida living

I first visited Naples in the late 70’s. It definitely had more beach vibe then. Marco Island had the Marriott Marco Hotel and their were no other high-rises. The rest of the beach front had small sand dunes and sea grass. Just gorgeous! Now it is one high rise condo after another and you almost cannot get to the beach. Lived in Naples for two years in the early eighties. It was fairly crowded in the winter and dead in the summer. Many of the restaurants closed in the off season. I moved because I missed the change of seasons. The weather there just got too monotonous for me. My wife and I have visited several times over the years in the winter. Last time was in 2018. The traffic was horrendous, restaurants were a long wait and it was very hard to find a parking spot to go to the beach. Not nearly as nice as it used to be, unless you like over-crowding.

Started renting in The Villages in 2019. Liked it a lot that first year, but the growth there has been going crazy and it is now too crowded with heavy traffic for my taste. Although not as bad as Naples. Covid and real estate tax law changes have really caused quite an exodus to Florida! We are now trying to find a new place to go in the winter that is not overrun with traffic and people.
 
Scuba said:
We went to Naples today. First time we’ve ever been to downtown Naples or the beach there. Just beautiful. Very clean, upscale and well-manicured. Valencia has a new construction 55+ community there that is very nice. Surprisingly, in the city park downtown, we saw several people who appeared to be homeless sleeping on park benches. We have not seen many homeless in the last month anywhere in FL.

I wonder if Naples is a little too nice? What I mean by that is that I’m a low maintenance gal. I like to run errands in a T shirt and gym shorts. Yesterday I went to Publix after a day on the beach in my beach cover up. I usually don’t wear makeup and my hair is usually up in a ponytail. I like living in a place where bathing suit cover-ups and flip flops are acceptable attire.

We really like the Sarasota area also. The beaches nearby are amazing, similar to Caribbean beaches. It’s a bit less expensive than Naples, but not as uniformly perfect. Naples is warmer in the winter by 3-5 degrees, and we like warmer weather. Sarasota is said to have a leg up on Naples when it comes to cultural activities. Also Sarasota is close to Tampa and St. Pete. Naples is a couple of hours from the Miami airport which has a lot more flights than Tampa does to international destinations. Lots to consider.
Click to expand...
Naples is also a half hour from the Fort Meyers airport. (RSM?) I believe they have been offering direct flights to Europe for a very long time.

There is a fairly large German population in SWFL, and I read it is because they offer direct flights to Dusseldorf Germany.
 
Thanks for the feedback re Naples. After reflecting on it, we think we’d be happier near Sarasota. Much larger city, lots to do, younger median age, less likely to have a major hurricane hit, more centrally located, and less expensive.

We saw a few properties today we are seriously considering. One was absolutely gorgeous, but is at the top of our price range and seems like more house than we need. Two others have potential, although neither was perfect.

Now that we’ve honed in on more specific criteria, we’re getting nervous about whether moving to FL or making an investment in FL property is the best thing to do at this stage of our lives. I’m not sure I want to sell our Palm Springs, CA home, and we travel a lot so having two homes seems very expensive and wasteful as well as complicated.

One idea that may be viable is buying a FL home and renting it out for a couple of years while we consider whether things are really bad enough in CA to justify leaving. The only way this makes sense is if we believe FL real estate will continue to appreciate and therefore getting a foothold in the market now would be smart.

Wish I had a crystal ball!
 
Scuba said:
Thanks for the feedback re Naples. After reflecting on it, we think we’d be happier near Sarasota. Much larger city, lots to do, younger median age, less likely to have a major hurricane hit, more centrally located, and less expensive.

We saw a few properties today we are seriously considering. One was absolutely gorgeous, but is at the top of our price range and seems like more house than we need. Two others have potential, although neither was perfect.
Click to expand...

Scuba --
Thank you for these updates on Florida.

Did you get a feel for the market on these properties? Are prices holding firm, or multiple bids over asking ?? Can you gauge the Days on Market ? What are the local Realtors saying about the general market?

When my Dear Daughter bought last year in Coral Springs.....homes were selling fast and with multiple over-asking price bids.
Does that appear to have cooled off now ??
 
FiveDriver said:
Scuba --

Thank you for these updates on Florida.



Did you get a feel for the market on these properties? Are prices holding firm, or multiple bids over asking ?? Can you gauge the Days on Market ? What are the local Realtors saying about the general market?



When my Dear Daughter bought last year in Coral Springs.....homes were selling fast and with multiple over-asking price bids.

Does that appear to have cooled off now ??
Click to expand...



It has definitely cooled off. Nice properties that are well priced still sell, but days on market have increased and I don’t think many properties are going for over asking price these days. There still isn’t a ton of inventory though, so while it’s a more balanced market than a year or two ago, it’s still in favor of sellers a bit I think. We see many properties taking price reductions.

Despite cooling off a bit, prices are still much higher than they were 2 years ago. Hard to find a 3 BR, 2.5 bath home with a pool in a nice community for less than $800-$900K.
 
FiveDriver said:
Scuba --
Thank you for these updates on Florida.

Did you get a feel for the market on these properties? Are prices holding firm, or multiple bids over asking ?? Can you gauge the Days on Market ? What are the local Realtors saying about the general market?

When my Dear Daughter bought last year in Coral Springs.....homes were selling fast and with multiple over-asking price bids.
Does that appear to have cooled off now ??
Click to expand...

It depends on the town/neighborhood, but I'm 30 mins from your DD, and house that sold last year would get 10-20% more now than it did last year. For example, a sale of $750 in my dev is now $850-950, and homes go in a week.
 
Aerides said:
It depends on the town/neighborhood, but I'm 30 mins from your DD, and house that sold last year would get 10-20% more now than it did last year. For example, a sale of $750 in my dev is now $850-950, and homes go in a week.
Click to expand...


I can't recall the name of the Gated Community the Kids bought in.....but their house is stunning. DW wants to move closer to Coral Springs, so we doing some early research into SE Florida. I appreciate all the local comments, and welcome any input.
 
Some very nice gated communities can be less expensive but will be 45 to 60 minutes from the beach. Not center of the state.
An example can be 2850 sq ft for 600k.
 
FiveDriver said:
I can't recall the name of the Gated Community the Kids bought in.....but their house is stunning. DW wants to move closer to Coral Springs, so we doing some early research into SE Florida. I appreciate all the local comments, and welcome any input.
Click to expand...



We stayed in Parkland for 2 weeks which is right next to Coral Springs. Lots of well kept gated HOA communities. Very nice area. We also liked Coral Springs.
 
Another update - we are narrowing things down. We decided we prefer the Sarasota area for a number of reasons. We also decided to do a 1031 exchange as we are selling our CA beach condo. Therefore, we need to buy an investment property.

We decided to focus on gated resort style country club communities that offer golf, tennis, pickleball, beautiful pools, a gym, and a restaurant/bar. A property management firm said homes in areas such as these are very easy to rent seasonally, and may also be able to be rented occasionally during other parts of the year with a 30-day minimum rental. We think we could also enjoy spending time there and/or living in it as our primary residence if we decide down the road to convert it from an investment property.

We are still open to other options, but the community we are most focused on is Esplanade in Lakewood Ranch. It is beautiful, well located, and has wonderful amenities. It’s a bit further from the beach than we had hoped - 30-45 minute drive, but the benefit of this is that it is not in a hurricane evacuation zone. There is a similar community we like in Venice, but damage from Ian is still quite apparent in nearby areas. It’s not in a flood zone, but it is in “Zone C” for evacuation. I imagine homeowners insurance will also be less expensive in Lakewood Ranch.

We like the beaches in this area alot, but realistically probably would not go to the beach more than a few times per month. We looked at some beachfront condos in FL, but they seem to have very few full time residents. The ones we saw were pretty dead in the summer, while Esplanade and similar communities still had groups of people in the pool, at the bar and restaurant, in the gym, etc. That isn’t that important as an investment property, but if we convert it to personal use someday, we don’t want to be there when it’s a ghost town. We actually enjoy being in FL in summertime - best time of the year to enjoy the beaches!

Now we just have to see if we can find a property we like in the location we want within the 45 day allowed period. Right now there is nothing on the market that meets our criteria.
 
Sounds like you've found a wonderful locale in Lakewood Ranch area.

We live on a Golf Course here in Charleston. The Greenskeeper is up and working.......very early in the morning. And these are not quiet little mowers and rakes. These are Big Units -- their leaf blower sounds like the machine that clears debris from airport runways.

I say this as a caution against buying a home right on the fairway.

The distance from 'The Beach' shouldn't be a major concern either. We live a half hour from the Atlantic......and we go maybe four times a year, just to dip our toes in Mother Ocean. The HOA Pool is just fine.

The No Evac feature is fine too. Your Insurance Premiums will reflect that.

Good Luck and Safe Travels !!
 
Scuba,

If I were you, I would chose Venice area. Lakewood ranch is quite far from the beach and the traffic is horrible and getting worse by the year. The Esplanade in Palmer ranch would be my choice. 10 minutes to the beach. FYI, I live in Nokomis.
 
FiveDriver said:
Sounds like you've found a wonderful locale in Lakewood Ranch area.

We live on a Golf Course here in Charleston. The Greenskeeper is up and working.......very early in the morning. And these are not quiet little mowers and rakes. These are Big Units -- their leaf blower sounds like the machine that clears debris from airport runways.

I say this as a caution against buying a home right on the fairway.

The distance from 'The Beach' shouldn't be a major concern either. We live a half hour from the Atlantic......and we go maybe four times a year, just to dip our toes in Mother Ocean. The HOA Pool is just fine.

The No Evac feature is fine too. Your Insurance Premiums will reflect that.

Good Luck and Safe Travels !!
Click to expand...

Ugh. Leaf blowers. Every neighbor to the left, right front and back of me is on a diff lawn maintenance schedule, so these darn ear splitting machines are blasting 5-6 days a week, always as I'm sitting down to a quiet read or meal.
 
FindingForward said:
And these are not quiet little mowers and rakes. These are Big Units -- their leaf blower sounds like the machine that clears debris from airport runways.


Ugh. Leaf blowers. Every neighbor to the left, right front and back of me is on a diff lawn maintenance schedule, so these darn ear splitting machines are blasting 5-6 days a week, always as I'm sitting down to a quiet read or meal.
Click to expand...


I may have been a little too generic when I used the term 'leaf blower' to describe the Golf Course equipment.

The Greens Keepers use a powerful fan-driven turbine with a 2 foot diameter nozzle that directs a vigorous airstream towards any leaf, pine needle, or stray grass clipping on the Fairway. This turbine is mounted on a trailer, which is towed by a John Deere. Not the lawn mower-sized Deere you can buy at Ace Hardware -- a huge farm implement that probably produce 250 foot-pounds of un-muffled torque.

The Greens Keepers do this work early in the day, as the first Tee Time is 7:30 AM.....this is Dark:30 on most winter mornings.

Good thing we have Double Pane, Impact-rated Windows.
 
LiveBelowMeans said:
Scuba,

If I were you, I would chose Venice area. Lakewood ranch is quite far from the beach and the traffic is horrible and getting worse by the year. The Esplanade in Palmer ranch would be my choice. 10 minutes to the beach. FYI, I live in Nokomis.
Click to expand...



We love the Palmer Ranch area but haven’t found a community there with the amenities and social programs we want. Are you familiar with Sarasota National? It has a Venice address and is pretty close to Venice, Nokomis, and Englewood beaches. A bit further from Siesta Key and Lido Key, our two favorite beaches, but not that different from Lakewood Ranch travel times.
 
FiveDriver said:
I may have been a little too generic when I used the term 'leaf blower' to describe the Golf Course equipment.

The Greens Keepers use a powerful fan-driven turbine with a 2 foot diameter nozzle that directs a vigorous airstream towards any leaf, pine needle, or stray grass clipping on the Fairway. This turbine is mounted on a trailer, which is towed by a John Deere. Not the lawn mower-sized Deere you can buy at Ace Hardware -- a huge farm implement that probably produce 250 foot-pounds of un-muffled torque.

The Greens Keepers do this work early in the day, as the first Tee Time is 7:30 AM.....this is Dark:30 on most winter mornings.

Good thing we have Double Pane, Impact-rated Windows.
Click to expand...



Yikes! Thanks for the warning about this. We live on a golf course in Palm Springs and haven’t experienced this, but it’s a small course so maybe that’s why?
 
Now that the 4th is here, you'll be starting to feel a real florida summer. It might be a bit cooler near the coast and on the west side vs. the SE, but if you can handle July that's usually the worst of it.
 
Aerides said:
Now that the 4th is here, you'll be starting to feel a real florida summer. It might be a bit cooler near the coast and on the west side vs. the SE, but if you can handle July that's usually the worst of it.
Click to expand...


Well, I don't know about that. August and September in much of Florida can be pretty brutal also. Even into October, it can be uncomfortably warm and humid. I love the Florida climate from about November through early April, but I'd rather spend the other half of the year up north somewhere.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
What do we need to know or to buy that is somewhat unique to FL?
2
Replies
43
Views
4K
JoeWras
JoeWras
M
Our First Year of Retirement!
2
Replies
37
Views
2K
NeilDH
N
T
Retired 10 years today!
Replies
20
Views
2K
walkinwood
walkinwood
Aramis
The Day Has Finally Come.....
Replies
22
Views
1K
NeilDH
N
S
Vacation home/cabin use?
2
Replies
39
Views
2K
kgtest
K

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom