south of fort myers, bonita springs and naples (Miami, Cape Coral: fit in, apartment)

[ketanco]

can you write some comments about south of fort myers, bonita springs and naples? which one do you like most and why? pros and cons?

[Florida Paradise]

Can only comment on South Ft. Myers.

My opinion, from being there these past 7 years approximately 6 weeks out of the year, is that it is a pretty quiet albeit busy area. Lots and lots of snowbirds or part time vacationers in the cold months. Mostly in their cars though. I hate it in the winter when it takes 3 lights to get through an intersection and 1 hour to go 7 miles to the beach. I love it in the summer months when there is only traffic during rush work hours and the restaurants are barely half full.

[chiluvr1228]

Ditto to the above. Will you be buying or renting? I have heard on the news a lot lately that it is very hard to find reasonable rents in both Lee and Collier Counties.

[ketanco]

i will rent
can you extend comments to fort myers, punta gorda, port charlotte and north port? (as far as good bad areas)

[chiluvr1228]

I only know Fort Myers. You want to avoid anything north of Colonial Boulevard. You want to avoid anything in Dunbar, Harlem Heights and Pine Manor. Don't even think about Lehigh Acres although you could find a cheaper place there, they are on the news every day for all types of crime including some violent ones. Also there is nothing to do there; no movie theatres, no mall, nothing except a Wal-Mart and a lot of Dollar Stores. That should give you an indication of that area.


There are nice places off the Daniel's Parkway corridor with the exception of Audubon Cove. They have had numerous problems with mold, fires, crime in that particular complex for some reason. If you are planning on renting a home in Fort Myers, keep in mind that most of the nicer places are in HOA communities. There are a lot of apartment communities in this area. Some to avoid: Salamanca Pointe (over 40 years old, cosmetically pretty but wiring and plumbing is old), Forestwood, West Chase and many others. Google apartment reviews but remember more people will complain that those that will take the time to write a positive review.


I live in a rented condo in a beautiful part of Fort Myers. Good luck and let us know how it's going.

[NoSnow4me]

Generally speaking, the farther south you go, the more expensive housing will be.

Each town has its own good and bad. Naples has very nice landscape and beaches, and lots of upscale restaurants and shopping. It's a rich folks haven, so that just is what it is. I'm a middle class working type, and wouldn't fit in there even if I could afford it. There is an area out East of there called Golden Gate Estates where you can still get a nice sized plot of land fairly inexpensively. No HOA's and lots of privacy if country living is your thing. We would have bought a house we really loved out there, but had to decline when we found out there was no option for high speed internet that far out in the boonies. Satellite was out of the question due to interruptions in the summer storms. We work from home, so that wouldn't work.

Bonita is a nice little town with good beaches, but beach access is a problem. There isn't much parking, so getting to the water in-season is difficult unless you have a boat. It has much more of a mix of shabby and good areas. Unfortunately, most of the good areas are gated communities, so the town has kind of an unfriendly feel to it, where much of it is walled off and inaccessible.

Fort Myers, not for me. Some of the outlying areas are nice, but the city itself has one of the highest violent crime per captita rates in the state. As high as Miami! If you're a gang banger that enjoys hanging out with thugs and getting into gun fights, you might like it. Plus, the nearby beaches are too close to the mouth of the Caloosahatchee, so the water is disgusting when they're releasing from Lake Okeechobee. Bonita gets that too, to a lesser extent.

[chiluvr1228]

It really annoys me when people talk about the high crime rate in Fort Myers, including the "city of Fort Myers". Most of the crime occurs in a very small area of downtown Fort Myers called Dunbar. It is perhaps a 5 mile radius. Any city has its high crime area, usually in the poorer sections of town. That's where the "gangbangers" hang out. They aren't wandering the entire town causing havoc. Whenever we hear about a shooting including the Zombicon & Club Blu shootings, 95% of the time it happened in this same area or Lehigh Acres. That leaves a whole lot of Fort Myers that are in the "safe" areas.


If I recall from living on Long Island there were certain areas that were high crime: Wyandanch and one of the Islips. Just call the Fort Myers police department and they will tell you which areas have the highest crime.


Yes there are car break-ins and thefts but most of the time the idiot owners have left their doors unlocked. There have been quite a store burglaries but I think that is happening everywhere these days.


My family and I have lived here since 1960 and not one of us has been a victim of any type of crime: no burglaries, purse snatchings, assaults, carjacking. Nothing for any of us and I don't even personally know anybody who has been the victim of a crime.


I live off Daniel's Parkway and feel completely safe here. Also, like I mentioned most of the newer homes are in HOA's, many of them gated, some manned 24/7 so you're not going to have hordes of gangbangers wandering around breaking into homes. The thugs pretty much stay in their own area.


My 80 year old mother and my aunt live in neighboring Cape Coral; both widows, both live alone. Never had a problem. They have friendly neighbors who keep an eye out for them.


So don't freak out because of the "high crime" because it just isn't happening. You are more likely to get into a fender bender with your car than be a crime victim.

[NoSnow4me]

As I said, some outlying areas are nice. Daniels isn't even in the city limits. I guess I should have been more clear that most areas south of the city and outside of Fort Myers are nice. The city itself, not so much.

[wjj]

Originally Posted by NoSnow4me

As I said, some outlying areas are nice. Daniels isn't even in the city limits. I guess I should have been more clear that most areas south of the city and outside of Fort Myers are nice. The city itself, not so much.

True to a point. But the city has been expanding its borders into some very nice areas south of Colonial. Pelican Preserve is entirely within the city limits now. So is all of the new and mostly high end development along Treeline, north of Daniels like Marina Bay and Plantation. The crime stats are misleading in a way because the actual city of Fort Myers has a small population (about the size of a decent sized suburb in most large metro areas), but contains most of the bad neighborhoods. Those places are pretty small geographically and are easy to avoid. That is why the "rate" is so high. Most of the bad areas concentrated in a city with a small population base.

Like anywhere, there are scattered bad areas that need to be avoided. Most (but not all) of those are north of Colonial or in Lehigh.

I agree that most, but not all, of the area south of the city limits is nice, especially along the Daniels Corridor. Some people get confused because those areas have Fort Myers mailing addresses but are not within the city limits. But I would not discount everything within the city limits since there are some very nice places within the city limits, especially along Treeline, as the City of Fort Myers expands its borders.

[Brucifer]

We were just down there reconning for 5 years from now (have to go once to scope it out). Nothing set in stone, just wanting to put building faces to Google Maps and such.

I kinda liked Cape Coral. If we were to move there, I guess we would be more on the outside edges of it or at least close to a road that led to the bridges or the interstate. Wifey is retired military, so ease of access to the V.A. is also something to think about.

OP needs to list what their needs are for housing. Ft. Myers is GREAT if you want "X", but CRAP if you want "Y". Rent in Naples is going to be vastly different than in North Ft. Myers. Beach goer? Commuter? Sit in the backyard drunk out of your mind by 10:30am?