Best area (Cape Coral) to find a house but want to find a house on a canal

[Greg6796]

Thoughts-

Echoing the comment about bridge clearance, and confirming for sure the canal has gulf access, not just based on what someone says. Use online mapping resources, etc. May have to eyeball every crossing.

Storm surge appears to be a potential issue in Cape Coral unless you are living in a handful of homes that are built up.
Eventually you'll need to deal with that by way of insurance or being cash rich. Good chance most of the houses in Cape Coral have had or will have at least 2 feet of sea water in the house. It's obvious original developers were not thinking about storm surge, or designing canal system for tidal flush.

Ask around about tax levy, special assessments and other surprises from government. I think there is a reason why many houses in Cape Coral seem so affordable...

Also, you might widen your search, there is industry and a low dam upstream on the river, but otherwise you might find a suitable place on a short canal leading to the river.

[CRC2020]

+1 on the storm surge. A 10 foot storm surge, direct hit cat 4-5 at high tide, will essentially wipe out Cape Coral pretty much from East to West no matter what canal you are on. I'm looking at it this way - New House!

The assessments are getting to be a BIG deal. Especially if you have a double or triple lot property to the north of the advancing utilities.

The new seawall requirements are getting a lot of reviews for increasing pricing by 2x or 3x. One marine builder wanted me to contract now in hopes of being grandfathered in. I don't even have a property yet!

Code enforcement - I thought things were bad on NextDoor - the Facebook equivalent for neighbors to complain about each other - But then I went to the complaint part of the Cape Coral website to see what people are complaining about. Good grief! And then I did go to Youtube to watch actual video complaints. While I think complaining about your neighbor cutting the lawn, leaving the garbage cans out an extra day, parking a large vehicle in the driveway overnight is a bit over much, I can't believe some people are complaning about the rules - like don't park on your neighbors empty lot, don't leave a vehicle up on blocks in your driveway, don't park on your lawn, why can't I trespass across an empty lot to fish, why can't I park my boat/RV/tractor trailer in the driveway and on and on and on...

[Greg6796]

I made an error in my earlier comment. Most of the houses in Cape Coral have not or will not have 2 feet of water in the house in maximum predicted storm surge. But many houses will have water inside. I researched storm surge flooding risk. In areas within Cape Coral at risk of flood, FEMA sets flood level at 7 to 9 feet above sea level. Many houses that are not waterfront are considered at minimal or no flood risk and should have a history and future of being dry. I think most in Cape Coral would experience a rising bathtub type of flood, not the wave driven destruction seen in videos of places next to open water.

FEMA search for present maps:

https://msc.fema.gov/portal/search

FEMA search for preliminary map that could become effective.

https://hazards.fema.gov/femaportal/prelimdownload/

On Google Earth or National Map viewer you can determine elevation of house of interest. Compare this to base flood elevation (BFE) on the FEMA maps and you will have an idea of how high water could be in a major hurricane. Simply elevating some things could prevent damage.