My two sisters and I are considering relocating to SW Florida from Southern NH. We are all looking to rent for the time being, and I have been doing some research on apartment prices. There seems to be an immense amount of beautiful places in the Fort Myers area for several hundred dollars a month less than what we would pay in New England. I assumed this was due to the real estate issues in FL right now (which I don't even slightly understand

). But my sister is convinced that these apartments, most of which I have seen on Craigslist, are only cheap because they are in dirty, unsafe areas.
I have been to Fort Myers a couple of times but don't really know the area well enough to determine which areas are "nasty" and which are not. From my research, I've been able to gather that Lehigh is somewhere to avoid, and that South Ft. Myers is nicer. Is my sister right- are these prices too good to be true- or is New England just outrageously expensive?
I have also gotten the impression from reading some of the comments on this forum that many people who live in Fort Myers hate it there because of the crime, traffic, and overcrowding. My sisters and I don't especially feel the need to live in a city. We just want to live somewhere close to the Gulf that doesn't feel like the boondocks. Are there any smaller towns
anywhere along the gulf coast that have decent restaurants, shopping, beaches etc, and where we won't be the youngest people by three generations (like it was when I went to Naples)? Any info I can get would be appreciated. Thanks!