Planning on buying in Cape Coral (Tampa, Fort Myers: real estate, property taxes, insurance)

[jett30]

I've been looking at the prices of homes in Cape Coral and can't wait to get down there to buy one. With the Canadian dollar never looking better this is a wonderful opportunity for me to get my little piece of sunshine down in Florida. I do have a few questions though, how far is Cape Coral roughly from the Fort Myers airport, and even the Tampa airport? Also how far are the beautiful beaches of the Gulf. By reading many of the threads on this site I would probably be looking at the southern areas of Cape for safety issues as I have 2 small kids. It's all about the beach for them so I don't want to be too far. I also cannot be too far from the airport as I we will be flying in and out a few times a year. Thanks so much for all your help, any information would be greatly appreciated.

[SideshowPete]

Cape Coral to Ft Myers airport is about 30 minutes. To Tampa it's a bit over 2 hours.

As for the beaches, Ft Myers beach is about 40 minutes, a little longer to Sanibel. However, with Sanibel, you don't have to sit in one lane of traffic for 15 minutes to get over the bridge.

[Angelala]

We just bought a house a couple months ago in SE Cape Coral and it took us 20 min. to get to the beach. We live in Northern Indiana and will be doing the same thing. We thought if we were ever going to afford to buy a house there now would be the time to do it and we have not once regretted it.

[SKB]

Originally Posted by jett30

I've been looking at the prices of homes in Cape Coral and can't wait to get down there to buy one. With the Canadian dollar never looking better this is a wonderful opportunity for me to get my little piece of sunshine down in Florida. I do have a few questions though, how far is Cape Coral roughly from the Fort Myers airport, and even the Tampa airport? Also how far are the beautiful beaches of the Gulf. By reading many of the threads on this site I would probably be looking at the southern areas of Cape for safety issues as I have 2 small kids. It's all about the beach for them so I don't want to be too far. I also cannot be too far from the airport as I we will be flying in and out a few times a year. Thanks so much for all your help, any information would be greatly appreciated.

Are you thinking of moving here or simply having a place to come a couple of times a year?

If you are not taking up residence here, make sure you understand how the property taxes are set up in Florida for "snowbirds". Also check out the property insurance, you may be in for some surprises .

[Catchsnook]

If you plan on moving to Cape Coral for good....the time could not be better.
The housing market is down and you can get a house 35% less than you could just 2 years ago.

But that is good. There was a bubble.

If you live here you get a Homestead....which basically means...when you purchase a home and the taxes are sorted out the first year.....your taxes stay relatively the same....for the rest of your life. Even if your house goes
up in value...your taxes stay the same. This is huge.

Now if you are a Snowbird....this rules does not apply. Your taxes will stay the same....if the value of your house stays the same.

I laugh at people that say they are paying to much in taxes here in SWFLA.
People live in a $1,000,000 house and are paying $10,000 in taxes. Try and
move up to the North East.....New York and New Jersey. The taxes are
really out of this world.

You can buy a snowbird house....on the water......and still pay much less than many of the houses elsewhere in the county.

The reason the taxes went up on snowbirds so much is because their
value of their house doubled and tripled between 2001 - 2004. Tell me
where that happened up in the North East?

[NY62]

I am buying in sandoval community, check it out nice place. sw area not far from pine island. does anybody have any info on this community ? bonita bay is building it.

[Favre4311]

I close on my home in Cape Coral in April - bought a beautiful house in the SW Area. But am quite concerned about the schools. My son is in gifted up here, and I was unable to get a pick last week down there because I didn't have proof of address yet (he will be entering 6th grade, and we are moving right by Challenger). Hopefully someone can calm my nerves on this one! Thanks, and looking forward to moving down there.

[Hugo J. Striedinger]

You're looking at he right place. Southwest Florida property prices are on the floor. If you really want to buy this is the time, besides low prices, interest rates are also low. That added to the awesome wheater, this is paradise.

[AVOCA1]

Be Careful!!! Prices have a lot more to fall. Please do your Research on prices and wait for the REAL bargins come next year.
Dan

[justNancy]

Originally Posted by AVOCA1

Be Careful!!! Prices have a lot more to fall. Please do your Research on prices and wait for the REAL bargins come next year.
Dan

That might be good advice, but how does anyone really know? There will always be a better or worse time to buy real estate. However, if someone plans to live in a home for a long time (at least 5 to 10 years) then I can't imagine this is a bad time in SW Florida, since prices have plummetted, especially in Cape Coral and Lehigh. I mean, let's just say that a home does drop another $10,000 in a year...you would have been paying rent all that time, right?

Still, I agree that if someone can wait until summer, prices might be better. Business in general slows down in SW Florida in May, even during good economic times. To people up north who are reading this, after you live here for a while, you discover that there are 2 seasons - off & on. Nobody even says "winter" or "the." The expression is "it's season" which is a period that usually runs between Christmas and Easter. This year Easter was early, so Season will probably last another month. Starting in May even locals begin to worry about hurricanes and don't want to buy a new house when a summer storm might blow off the roof or damage the lanai, so many wait until the threats have passed.

Oh, there are a couple of other seasons..Hurricane Season runs May - Nov. Right now we're in the Fire Season. Honestly, since I moved from New England, the words Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter have disappeared from my vocabulary. So I'm guessing that sellers will be hungrier when the snowbirds leave.

Just another note: a lanai is that screened area outide of the house that we called a porch.