Cape Coral, FL. (Tampa, Palm Harbor, Fort Myers: real estate, insurance, for sale)

[hiknapster]

It is GREAT to know that you are okay! Glad to see the fish are biting!

[ekabood]

would like to know input on area NE23rd st? for a property on sale TY
NY Bill I am from NY lookin down on some fun in the waters.

[NYBill]

Full time, part time resident?

Ne will take you for ever to get to the river then out to the Gulf

[designer1]

Dependng on where you are looking, there is a home for sale at 1602 sw 28th street, at 28th and chiquita. It is gulf access, and is a builder furnished model for around 489k.
It takes about 40 min and some bridges to go under to get out.

[NYBill]

There are some of those around. A friend of mine is a commercial contractor but he has been asked to finish some of them off also.

Good deals to be had.

[LEEBLACKM3]

Originally Posted by NYBill

Well there is enough info for you here but no responce? I even sent you an e-mail with these replies

Cape Coral has changed a lot in the last thirty years. In the mid-seventies you could fire a cannon in just about any direction and not hit a thing. The main drag (Del Prado) was 'model row' for local builders and the surrounding area was good for fishing, shooting and dirt bikes, etc. The Cape was a 'bedroom community' for Fort Myers which is just across the river.

Now the Cape is an entity unto itself with all of the growing pains associated with the change in mindset of the newer residents. People initially came to the Cape to enjoy homes in an area where building codes were in place prior to booming growth. No mobile homes next to single family like Fort Myers and at a price that was affordable. Not the case anymore.

There are several problems with the current direction that Cape Coral is taking...but then, there has always been a bit of a skewed view by those in charge in my opinion.

One of the biggest problems has always been the city water. It has been condemned twice simply for quality in the thirty-plus years I have been living in the area, and even more times for 'accidental line breaks' and the like. The city water may pass governmental standards but it is simply not up to par. If you wash a dark car with it you had better dry every spot or be prepared to use rubbing compound to remove them. Yet the price for city water is constantly going up with no discernable improvement in quality.

The 'secondary water supply' used for lawn sprinkling was adopted in response to the city's many years of dumping sewer effluvient into the river...against environmental laws. It was only after the threat of continuing fines that the city decided to pump the effluvient back to residents from which it came. The system was never designed to be able to fulfill the watering needs of the users, consequently 'rationing' of the secondary water is constant.

The 'sewer assessment' costs mentioned elsewhere in this series of comments only came down in price after repeated articles in the Newspress newspaper questioned the necessity for such a high charge. I, personally, still question paying $17,000 for what amounts to 100 feet of plastic pipe...but that's the Cape.

As for hurricanes, we didn't really have one for 44 years in this area, then they started fixing a bead on us. Insurance companies started canceling policies of many years (calling it 'declining to renew' in the 'newspeak' of today)...but the $12,000 mentioned elsewhere is way out of the norm for the average homeowner. A typical policy for an average 2,500 square foot house usually runs between $2,000 to $3,000 but the 'deductible' for hurricanes is pretty high and companies like Alstate have formed 'new' companies to issue the policies. Makes you wonder how stable the new insurance issuers are.

The biggest change in the Cape, in my opinion, is the change in residents and the subsequent seeming change in mindset. The newer group of people moving down seem to be more affluent than in years past and that has fostered a 'no holds barred' outlook on governmental spending. Construction has come to a screeching halt in the private sector which, in turn, has led to considerable unemployment and loss of income, but try to make the city officials understand that. Many of the Cape residents are on fixed incomes or lowered incomes, but the council seems to be intent on building more and more government facilities at the expense of taxpayers and the new 'affluent' residents support it. The not-so-hidden desire seems to be that Cape Coral will be the 'new Naples", but in actuality only resident costs are outstretching Naples.

To sum it up, Cape Coral is still a good place to live despite the influx of the new mindset. The future is largely dependant upon which path our elected officials take. Given the water situation and the number of empy dwellings a responsible leadership would be thinking more in terms of 'temporary moritorium' than further taxation for governmental expansion. When comments like "If they can't afford it let them move out" are tossed around, the foxes are in charge of the henhouse.

[NYBill]

To sum it up, Cape Coral is still a good place to live despite the influx of the new mindset. The future is largely dependant upon which path our elected officials take


Agreed but with the recent election that just past they replaced 5 out of the 7 seats on the city council. Non associated with real estate ventures or sales. All commitied to cutting expences and being held accountable.

As one present council stated it was strictly motivated in getting rid of some of the good old boys/gals...which they did just that. IMHO... ABOUT TIME !!!!

[V20]

I recently had a friend help me move furniture out of a Cape Coral property into a Marco Island property. After seeing the two cities for the first time his comment was "Wow, Cape Coral is the hood compared to Marco." Being someone who really loves Cape Coral I was dismayed by the statement. However, I understand his point. Marco is very, very beautiful. They will not do much to make it better. It is already there. There are currently some great deals on Marco, as there are virtually everywhere in the country, however it is still $600k plus for an acceptable waterfront home. What will cost you $500k (waterfront lot) in Marco can be picked up for less than $100k in Cape Coral.

It has always been my belief that Cape Coral will become a beautiful city that will rival Naples and Marco. If I am correct the investment opportunity is better in Cape Coral than in Naples, Marco or other places that have already reached their potential.

I am either a visionary or a dreamer. I hope I am right about Cape Coral not for my wallet's sake, but for my true wish for good fortune for what I feel is a great place.

[firemed]

Originally Posted by V20

I recently had a friend help me move furniture out of a Cape Coral property into a Marco Island property. After seeing the two cities for the first time his comment was "Wow, Cape Coral is the hood compared to Marco." Being someone who really loves Cape Coral I was dismayed by the statement. However, I understand his point. Marco is very, very beautiful. They will not do much to make it better. It is already there. There are currently some great deals on Marco, as there are virtually everywhere in the country, however it is still $600k plus for an acceptable waterfront home. What will cost you $500k (waterfront lot) in Marco can be picked up for less than $100k in Cape Coral.

It has always been my belief that Cape Coral will become a beautiful city that will rival Naples and Marco. If I am correct the investment opportunity is better in Cape Coral than in Naples, Marco or other places that have already reached their potential.

I am either a visionary or a dreamer. I hope I am right about Cape Coral not for my wallet's sake, but for my true wish for good fortune for what I feel is a great place.

Marco is on the gulf, Cape Coral in on the river, Marco is a Island, Cape Coral in a filled muck swamp. I think Cape Coral was a good area but its changed alot. Cape Coral was great as a retirement area but now its the 30-40s with no jobs. It all comes down to economics and jobs now. We talked about this about a year ago. Today the unemployment is the highest it has ever been in Cape Coral. If the 30-40s can't work bills can't be paid and crime will go up. To fight crime you need money and that has to come from taxes. I don't think Cape Coral is a good investment anymore in the long run. Lets face it the city is too big and most of the taxes will have to come from the nice areas. It can't all come from the small businesses and chain stores or they will move out. Most of the people that ran up the price came from the other coast after cashing out and the well has run dry. Mercantile and small business jobs can't cover the employment needs of the city. Fort Myers has more jobs but then we have to add in the people of Lehigh that are out of work also.
The News-Press, news-press.com, Business, Jobless in Lee at 13-year high

[SideshowPete]

Part of the problem with Cape Coral was the housing boom. It is a nice area - if it wasn't there wouldn't have been a housing boom at all. The SE is especially nice as it's the most populated area : if you buy a house in the SE, there aren't any massive empty spaces so you know that any new construction around you is going to be nice, and there's simply no space for Home Depot to suddenly dump a superstore on your doorstep.

When the housing boom hit alot of people overstretched on their mortgage payments, and many of those who already had a house treated it as an ATM machine. When you pay $140k for a house, find out it's now worth $250k and you can get a 6% mortgage rate, you can get a bit happy with refinancing. That's what alot of people did.

You can also add in to that lot the folks who went and bought empty lots on the basis that they'd never lose money on them, completely ignoring the idea that you shouldn't invest in a business you don't understand. Waterfront lots were changing hands at a ridiculous rate and the prices were astronomical. I know someone who had a 20 year old duplex on a waterfront lot. 2 years ago it was worth close to $800k. Someone bought it, trashed the existing house and built new. Now there's an economic downturn and all those folks with the refi's and 2nd mortgages are up the creek without a paddle. The ones who didn't though are in pretty good shape.

To sum up the housing, you can pick up a very nice, spacious house for around $220k and less than that if you don't mind the waiting involved with short sales. Bear in mind though that if it's not in the SE Cape chances are you'll be picking up an extra $25k (or whatever it came out to in the end) for the city water and sewer assessements. Anything in the SE will most likely have had all that paid by now as the utilities went in a long time ago.

As for the jobs, well that's not so good. There are jobs here, just not as many as a few years ago. The company I work for is finding it incredibly difficult to hire. The local talent pool just isn't there, and where we used to hire mostly out of state, it's now too expensive (still) for people to relocate. At one point a good 80% of people relocated to take the jobs. If you're a nurse though you can still pretty much name your price.

As for the council changing, that can only be for the good. You can't run an expanding town on the good-old-boy network, and there did seem to be some conflicts of interest there. They were completely shameless about that too.

To be fair, Cape Coral are offering incentives for businesses to move here. They'll work with telco companies to get cheap rates on voice and data lines, plus I believe there's a tax break per head for companies with over 100 employees, although I don't know if that's still in place.

If you're a professional you'll most likely find a job. If you're not skilled in any particular area... get used to saying "Welcome to Walmart".