Moving Ft. Myers - Any Information? (Tampa, Cape Coral: for rent, house, buying)

[Skylla76]

Hello! All, We are moving to Ft Myers from RI. Wife got a job @ Lee Memorial. I read most of the forum and got an idea what to expect (in terms of weather, housing, good/bad areas of Ft Myers, jobs) I have few remaining questions and hope some one one this forum can chime in.

1. Is it possible commute daily to Sarasota / Tampa (2hrs away) for Job? Traffic - Is there a RUSH hour or as google maps say it takes about 2 - 2:30 hrs?
2. Assuming that my kid (9th grade - Aspergers / Special Ed.) gets assigned to worst possible school (school choice), Do I need to worry about things like bullying? Fine, I understood quality of education could be sketchy, but not sure what to expect in terms of bullying / drugs etc.? Are these things taken seriously in general by administration.
3. Is it possible rent a house (We can afford about 2000 - 3000 a month) (at least 5bd rm - We are family of 2 + 3 kids), or we must commit to buy? Having no idea what to expect, We would rather live there for few months to a year before buying.
4. If we live in Cape Coral (seems nice), how long does it take to get to Lee Memorial? Is traffic bad on bridges?

Any other things to consider? I really appreciate any input.

Thank you.

[Billythepokerkid]

Originally Posted by Skylla76

Hello! All, We are moving to Ft Myers from RI. Wife got a job @ Lee Memorial. I read most of the forum and got an idea what to expect (in terms of weather, housing, good/bad areas of Ft Myers, jobs) I have few remaining questions and hope some one one this forum can chime in.

1. Is it possible commute daily to Sarasota / Tampa (2hrs away) for Job? Traffic - Is there a RUSH hour or as google maps say it takes about 2 - 2:30 hrs?
2. Assuming that my kid (9th grade - Aspergers / Special Ed.) gets assigned to worst possible school (school choice), Do I need to worry about things like bullying? Fine, I understood quality of education could be sketchy, but not sure what to expect in terms of bullying / drugs etc.? Are these things taken seriously in general by administration.
3. Is it possible rent a house (We can afford about 2000 - 3000 a month) (at least 5bd rm - We are family of 2 + 3 kids), or we must commit to buy? Having no idea what to expect, We would rather live there for few months to a year before buying.
4. If we live in Cape Coral (seems nice), how long does it take to get to Lee Memorial? Is traffic bad on bridges?

Any other things to consider? I really appreciate any input.

Thank you.

1. Commuting to Sarasota or Tampa is not feasible unless you like spending 5+ hours a day in your car and the job is paying you enough to make spending $200 a week on gas worth while.
2. No kids so I can't even begin to answer this, but bullying, drugs, etc is going to be found at any school.
3. You can rent and everyone on here would recommend renting before buying to make sure you know where you want to live. With a budget that high for rent, you can pretty much pick anywhere you want to live. I will warn you, if you are moving in the next month or so, finding a place to rent may be quite a bit more difficult due to the fact that the season is about to go into full effect very soon.
4. Cape Coral is huge, so it really depends on where you live in the Cape to tell you how long it will take to get to Lee Memorial. There are places it will take you 10-15 minutes to get there and others in might take up to 45 minutes. It all depends. The bridges get bad at rush hours, 8-9 am going to Ft. Myers and 4-5 coming from Ft. Myers. Going is not nearly as bad as coming since there are no tolls leaving Cape Coral.