Crime, Boredom, Costs, etc. (Cape Coral, Port St. Lucie: renting, mortgage, new home)

[Chuck12020123]

All,
I've been looking for a place to retire at the end of this year & partly due to all the NEGATIVE comments on this site I'm pretty sure I'm going to consentrat on looking at home in Port St. Lucie on the East coast.

I've looked at area sites all over FL and Cape Coral, Ft Myers, etc. are by far the most negative.

Is it the area?

[rikoshaprl]

You need to put some boots on the ground for an important decision like this. I love it here but you may not.

[nhkev]

Originally Posted by Chuck12020123

All,
I've been looking for a place to retire at the end of this year & partly due to all the NEGATIVE comments on this site I'm pretty sure I'm going to consentrat on looking at home in Port St. Lucie on the East coast.

I've looked at area sites all over FL and Cape Coral, Ft Myers, etc. are by far the most negative.

Is it the area?

I don't know how to respond to this. You don't know any of the people personally that like or hate an area but yet would make a buying decision from it?
No one on this board has any idea what it is like to be the other. Even in my own household. I lov ed living in new hampshire my wife on the other hand hated it. She loves living in massachusetts, i don't care for it. I could go on the massachusetts forum and rant and rave why it's so bad. I don't because the things i don't personally like about it is not something massachusetts is likely to change because others live here and like it.
As far as cape coral goes i will give you an example of two households. )

1st house: bought a year ago a newer house that sold for $750k in 2005 a pool home on a nice gulf access canal in a great location but they paid only $250k . recently retired couple. Kept house up north, come down in thw winter months to es ape the cold and snow, they have good pensions and money saved. They spend their days bike riding, gardening, going to the beac, golf, play tennis, go out on their boat on the nice days, go fishing, watch sunsets drinking wine, dine out often and belong to a couple social groups like the new home owners association. Like 71% of the people that are buying paid cash for their house.

House2: couple bought house for $500k mortgaged almost 100% house is only selling for $185k now. Both lost jobs that were pretty good pay. The each found jobs but paying 1/3 of what they previosly made. They couldn't afford their mortgage so they lost the house and are now renting. They had to sell their boat and live check to check so a social life or hobbies is almost out of the question. They have gone through the worst 4 yrs of their lives and someone has to be the villian whether it's the company they worked for, the govt, the banks, the realtors, their spouse, the economy, code enforcement, their neighbors, the city council. Very rarely do you see someone come on and say " i am an adult and i make adult decisions, sometimes i make the wrong ones. People hardley ever hold themselves accountable for decisions they've made ( or didn't make.)

So i guess i do know how to answer it. If you need to depend on employment you will zprobably meet the same fate as all the others thT have ventured down and regretted it. But if you fall closer to house number one you have a much better chance of being a happy poster

[equalrightsforeveryone]

Originally Posted by Chuck12020123

All,
I've been looking for a place to retire at the end of this year & partly due to all the NEGATIVE comments on this site I'm pretty sure I'm going to consentrat on looking at home in Port St. Lucie on the East coast.

I've looked at area sites all over FL and Cape Coral, Ft Myers, etc. are by far the most negative.

Is it the area?

Yes

[Samiamnh]

Chuck...don't be fooled by the very few negative,angry people who post their hatred of the Cape on this forum........if you look back through some of the older posts,you'll see that the Cape is a great place to live.
We, also are approaching retirement....we bought a great house in SE Cape Coral for a really good price.My boat is in the back yard on a beautiful canal.Restaurants and stores are close by.....crime is not an issue......safer around here than back in New Hampshire.
It's true that FT Myers has lots of crime.....but the Cape is great

[equalrightsforeveryone]

Greed is what spoiled this area, unadulterated greed.
That is why the local government allowed to have all these huge areas of so called Retirement communities.
Cape Coral over 100,000 square miles.
Lehigh Acres over 100,000 square miles.
And then there are all the retirement communities else where, Estero, Bonita Beach and so on.

There simply is no call for all this retirement community and never will be.
The local government saw an opportunity to fleece (the second/retirement out of town home owners) for all the money they could.
They never allowed for anything else that would sustain this huge area besides property taxes from home owners, sheer stupidity and greed drove them.
Then the "Defecate hit the rotary oscillator". And now they have an unsustainable mess.
Call people that state the facts "angry and negative and what ever else" (the statement reminds me of what the lefties say about the Tea party) the facts are the facts.
You can stand on your head and wiggle your ears till your head explodes, but tomorrow morning when you wake up this area will still be a mess

[katsinthekitchen]

Good grief Equal Rights, I dunno about Cape Coral, but YOU have a big problem. If there were "no call" for all those retirement communities they would not be there! Is greed a motivating factor in a lot of things, most of them bad? Oh yes! So what! If you are so incensed, stop running your mouth and stop being part of the problem. Get out and do something positive. You might feel better. My friends living in Cape Coral, Bonita Springs, and Sanibel, love it. Just love it. One is still working, the other two couples, so sorry, retired.
If you are having a tough time no matter where you are, you won't like it. If you're having a good time, it's a great place. Sorry your times are so tough.

[rikoshaprl]

There are plenty of young families in Cape Coral. The median age is 42 so I don't see how you can call it only a retirement community. That is just another distortion by Equal.

[mnpedwards]

Originally Posted by equalrightsforeveryone

Cape Coral over 100,000 square miles.
Lehigh Acres over 100,000 square miles.
......
the facts are the facts.

Cape Coral is 120 sq mi, Lehigh Acres is 96 sq mi. Stretching the figures?

[nhkev]

Originally Posted by mnpedwards

Cape Coral is 120 sq mi, Lehigh Acres is 96 sq mi. Stretching the figures?

Equal' s facts are not facts? Shocker!