Cape Coral? Bonita Springs? or Lehigh? (Miami, Orlando: relocating, property taxes, insurance)

[WendiG]

Help!
We are relocating to Florida in April. My husband will be working in the Fort Myers area, but i do not know any of these areas. One realtor told me the Ft. Myers was busy, crowed, high crime, and not very safe area. He swore the Cape was the safest, quietest and best place to be.
But i read one posting from here and this member refered to 'Cape Coral' as 'Cape Communist".
Another realtor swore that Lehigh is the best place to be.
Even my husbands new boss claims Cape Coral and Bonita Springs are the best places to live. help please.

How are the schools, my daughter will be in 11th grade next year, and would love any info anyone has about the schools.



Thank you everyone ~
Wendi

[LeavingFlorida05]

Cape Coral is far from safe. It's not a good place to live. There are some nice parts of Fort Myers (east of 75, for example). Bonita Springs isn't too bad, but it's expensive. Well, everything is expensive, here. Florida is a strange place. You'll see a subdivision with $1 million houses, then across the street you'll see income-assisted apartments. I've never seen such stark contrast between the rich and poor (and sometimes middle class) as I've seen in Florida.

Oh, and Lehigh...if you end up moving there, don't tell people in Fort Myers that you live there. They tend to look down on you (because it's cheaper).

[Chelito23]

So far all of what you heard from those people. Yes, I know it sounds weird. I will try to explain SW Florida to you in an over simplified way.
Ft. Myers is pretty much a white trash town. However, this is the subelt, so there are many people (non white trash, monied northerners) who have relocated to Ft. Myers, so you can find numerous "decent" subdivisions around Ft. Myers, but the older areas are like living in a trailer park. Crime is high in Florida in general...and Ft. Myers is no exception (lots of low paying jobs, low educational attainment levels and previously affordable to live here).

Now, Cape Coral used to be the nice adjacent suburb to FM....but from what I hear it is having growing pains. I know there are long term water problems there and crime is growing. On the other hand, it offers life adjacent to canals and rivers and bays and is definantly a step up from Fort Myers.

Lehigh Acres is basically a wasteland. Do NOT move there unless you cannot afford anywhere else. It is like Imokalee but a little bit closer to FM. It was a master planned community on paper back int he 60s(?). It was never developed at that time, it was just swamp land and scams. Many lots were sold to people who never even saw the property or when they did, they decided not to do anything with it. Now, many of the owners have passed away and there are TONS of vacant lots scattered around this huge semi rural area known as Lehigh Acres. When planned, there was not enough commercial areas, so it is mile after mile of residentially zoned neighborhoods. The houses are prototype and all look the same, cheap boring and uninspiring. Not surprisingly, crime is higher in Lehigh than the rest of SW Florida.

Schools are bad all across the board in FL, SW FL is no exception there either.
Bonita Springs can be nice or awful...so if you find reasonable housing, it is most likely in a bad part of town. Please, come to the area and check it out first hand. It is a wasteland of subdivisions, strip malls, multilane throughoufares and trashy people mixed among monied out of towners. It is certainly a bizzare mix, best to see it to beleive it for yourself.

On the positive side, if you must move here...FM is not too far from Miami or Orlando. The beaches are nice as well. The weather is great in winter...and there are plenty of places to shop. If those reasons cancel out the unaffordability, crime and urban sprawl nature of SW Florida, you may just like it.

Please post if you have any more specific questions. Good Luck.

[Chelito23]

PS I forgot to mention the Maleluca nightmare in Lehigh. Maleleuca trees are a highly invasive species that were introduced into South Florida to dry the swamps years ago. They are all over the place in Lehigh. The problem is, they are so prolific that they crowd out all other vegetation and the whole community is enveloped in these unaestheticly pleasing trees which are also one of the most flammable trees known to man. They also are the cause of major allergies. So, after buying the ultra small lot in Lehigh, and clearing it of these invasive trees (which is required by law and a necessity to build), you will still be surrounded by them, since there are so many anonymous owners of assorted lots. So, keep fire danger as another added risk to life in Lehigh. Just wanted to ad this tid bit.

[WendiG]

Chelito -
Thank you very much for your reply. Its very helpful. Since i have pretty much ruled out Cape Coral, what is Bonita Springs like??

Thanks again

[WendiG]

ps - and/or Punta Gorda??

[LeavingFlorida05]

Bonita Springs is just like everything else in SW Florida. There are older areas, which are affordable, but aren't safe. Then there are the new developments, which are expensive and right next door to the older areas. The traffic is bad. There are only 2 routes between Naples and Fort Myers (Bonita Springs is between the two), and those are US 41 and I-75. They are usually heavily congested.

[WendiG]

Leavingflorida05 ~

Thank you :-D You have been a big help. Any area's you can recommend? Husband will be working between the Ft. Myers and Bonita Springs area, and my daughter will be starting 11th grade there in Aug.

:-) Wendi

[LeavingFlorida05]

As has been said in many threads, rent before you buy. Learn the area yourself. Everyone has their own reasons why they like a particular area. I like the Gateway area. It's the only part of Fort Myers I would live in, if I didn't live in Naples, but you have to consider things like drive times. Spending an extra hour each day in traffic is a significant portion of your life wasted. So I guess my recommendation would be Gateway, if I had to make one. It's east of I-75, between SR-82 and Daniels Parkway. However,the drive time might be too much for your husband, depending on where he works.

It takes 30+ minutes to take SR-82 or Colonial Blvd to downtown Fort Myers during morning rush hour. Daniels Parkway isn't as congested, but it heads more towards the southern part of Fort Myers. Would you happen to know roughly where he would be working? I can give you a ballpark estimate on drive time, then.

Btw, I did live in Gateway, but I work in Naples and the drive time was killing me (45-60 minutes, each way, every day). So I moved to Naples, even though it's more expensive, to get an hour of my life back every day.

[FloridaAnn]

Bonita Springs, Estero, Ft. Myers have nice areas, but none are inexpensive. Besides the property taxes, the insurance is really out of control. We lived Bonita but moved 6 yr. ago, due to prices, congestion, etc. The working group is having quite a hard time finding affordable housing in SW FL, finding jobs that will pay enough so that they can stay, etc, etc. If you are working in Ft. Myers I would look in that area. It has really grown, there is plenty to do, I wouldn't knock the education at this point, but would advise renting for 6 mo to a year so you can check it out and see if it is really affordable, etc. Good luck