what area in Southwest Florida (Sarasota, Fort Myers: mortgage, real estate, homeowners association)

[kappersack]

What area is desireable in Southwest Florida?|We are unsure to picky Fort Myers, Estero, Bonita Springs or Naples?| Thanks for the information

[121804]

Do you HAVE to move to SW FL? Fort Myers is not desirable & Bonita Springs & Estero are were people live so they don't have to live in Fort Myers. Naples...just read some recent posts on Naples.

There are nicer areas of FL. I'd avoid SW FL at all costs.

If you are retiring here, then that is a different story. Than any of those areas are great.

[paradiddle]

We live in Venice - 60 miles north of FM.... Very nice.

Sarasota to Punta Gorda are nice places on the SW coast....

[jdber94]

Southern Sarasota, Nokomis, North Port all within Sarasota County. NIce area's within all those area's with attractive home prices and supplies.

[Tarastomsgirl]

Ft. Misery = incredible crime, illegals, ghettos, traffic, out of control housing

Bonita= Naples wanna be

Naples = too many tourists, out of control housing, red tide, snobby rich people, bad schools, no housing, low pay, non english everything!

[imagardener]

[quote=Tarastomsgirl;
Bonita= Naples wanna be

Naples = too many tourists, out of control housing, red tide, snobby rich people, bad schools, no housing, low pay, non english everything![/quote]

Tarastomsgirl made me laugh with her Naples comment which is exactly right and part of why we are leaving. Add "out of control homeowners associations" and I totally agree. And it's not just rich people that are snobby. I live in a medium-priced (for Naples) neighborhood and a neighbor is a retired minister. He drives a Corvette and his wife drives a baby Mercedes. A lot of Naples people are "Naples wannabees". Ha-ha.

We looked at Bonita Springs and liked it but couldn't find anything comparable in our price range, even with the real estate slowdown.
People in this area have NOT lowered their for-sale prices because many of them would rather pay the monthly fees and taxes than admit the price has gone down.

When we find our new town to move to we will list our Naples house at a reasonable price based on the prices in the 2004-2005 range and hope it sells in under 6 months.

The positive thing I will say about Naples (and Bonita) is that there is lower crime compared to other areas like Ft. Myers. That's because there is no inner city area and people live in gated communities. The other negative aspects of living here are rude people (workers, drivers, northerners, you name it). I don't know how the natives stand it.

I want to live in a small town with real people. When we have a signed contract I'll let you all know what that town is. Any suggestions?

[Tarastomsgirl]

Originally Posted by imagardener

Tarastomsgirl made me laugh with her Naples comment which is exactly right and part of why we are leaving. Add "out of control homeowners associations" and I totally agree. And it's not just rich people that are snobby. I live in a medium-priced (for Naples) neighborhood and a neighbor is a retired minister. He drives a Corvette and his wife drives a baby Mercedes. A lot of Naples people are "Naples wannabees". Ha-ha.

We looked at Bonita Springs and liked it but couldn't find anything comparable in our price range, even with the real estate slowdown.
People in this area have NOT lowered their for-sale prices because many of them would rather pay the monthly fees and taxes than admit the price has gone down.

When we find our new town to move to we will list our Naples house at a reasonable price based on the prices in the 2004-2005 range and hope it sells in under 6 months.

The positive thing I will say about Naples (and Bonita) is that there is lower crime compared to other areas like Ft. Myers. That's because there is no inner city area and people live in gated communities. The other negative aspects of living here are rude people (workers, drivers, northerners, you name it). I don't know how the natives stand it.

I want to live in a small town with real people. When we have a signed contract I'll let you all know what that town is. Any suggestions?

however now that prices have come down, naples is not bad at all anymore. I actually moved away from Naples after I posted that and I'm currently moving back.. I take back the things I said...

[novanative75]

Yet we still have bad schools, red tide, snobby rich people too many tourists, low pay and non-english everything!
Sure, the housing is less but most of us are already here paying the same mortgages and if the housing continues like this, we will never be able to sell!
Nothing else has changed besides the cost of housing, same old, same old!

[SoFLGal]

North Port has some of the best housing prices in SW Florida.

I guess it really depends on what kind of town you are looking for. What price house, are schools important, etc? That would give us a better idea of where to suggest

[beanandpumpkin]

I live in Port Charlotte, but I agree that North Port is a very nice town. There are not so many people to make it "cityish," but there is enough stuff so that you don't feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, or endless suburbia.

I do like Port Charlotte... there is a ton of stuff for kids to do, lots of families, etc. It's bigger than what I was used to, but now I'm fairly used to it. There are a lot of restaurants, stores, etc. During the summer/fall, it's slow paced, and during the winter there are TONS of snowbirds... it's weird right now to go to the grocery store and have to look for a parking space! All of them will go home at Eastertime, though.