If buying in the Spring Lake area of Port Charlotte- be aware (University: home, university)

[Macgregorsailor]

Hi Travelassie : ) I lived 45 miles due west of Chicago.. hence the less sprinkler time.. say adding to the pool a few times a summer and sprinkel maybe 2 days a week for a month or so and really only flower gardens, almost never the yard.. with winter being our sprinkel season down here, and it being a good 5 months long we sprinkel a lot more down here.
Ahhhhhh : ) but I save on snow removal for my driveway down here : ) I am not paying to heat a home here .. so IMHO over all the cost of living is less here. Like so many others who retire here, in the fun and the sun, we downsized in a major way, so our taxes are about $6000 less but home owners Insurance it over double what it was back there. Its still a HUGE savings living here. Cost of water and electric here and there is about the same.

[Travelassie]

Originally Posted by Macgregorsailor

Hi Travelassie : ) I lived 45 miles due west of Chicago.. hence the less sprinkler time.. say adding to the pool a few times a summer and sprinkel maybe 2 days a week for a month or so and really only flower gardens, almost never the yard.. with winter being our sprinkel season down here, and it being a good 5 months long we sprinkel a lot more down here.
Ahhhhhh : ) but I save on snow removal for my driveway down here : ) I am not paying to heat a home here .. so IMHO over all the cost of living is less here. Like so many others who retire here, in the fun and the sun, we downsized in a major way, so our taxes are about $6000 less but home owners Insurance it over double what it was back there. Its still a HUGE savings living here. Cost of water and electric here and there is about the same.

I guess comparing irrigation needs between Chicago and Charlotte County is really comparing apples and oranges, LOL. You mentioned Lakeland in your post so I thought you were comparing that with Charlotte County. I don't guess Lakeland and Charlotte County would be that much different in their watering needs, though, when I think about it..

Looking at my last post, I realize I mixed up the letters in the acronym for the South Florida Water Management District. It's SFWMD, not SFMWD.

I can imagine the overall cost of living here in Charlotte County, despite the insurance costs, costs of water and maybe even utilities being high, is significantly less than in Chicago, as you say. We moved here after living for about 38 years in Miami, and I can tell you that it costs us lots less to live here compared to there, too. We paid close to $8000 annually just for insurance ( separate policies for windstorm, homeowners with no windstorm, and flood) in Miami, and the homeowner's insurance here, which covers windstorm as well as other coverage for homes, was about $1400 for the policy we renewed in September. Of course the insurance here is for a house built in 2008, with about every mitigation item there is to decrease the cost, so that's part of the difference compared to the house in Miami.

[Macgregorsailor]

Yes Travelassie I agree .. its really rather difficult to make comparisons..there are so many trade offs. I will say Food seems more exspensive here than in the NW Burbs of IL... I mentioned Lakeland Fl. earlier because my mom who now lives here , lived there for almost 30 years with my dad. I visited her and my dad often.
Tourist ( often my scuba students ) would ask me to compare owning and living on Cozumel to living in the US and that was even harder ...

[JERSEY MAN]

But you have to run the AC 8 or 9 months. Don't know the cost of the tradeoff. I live on the bay in NJ, and rarely need the ac on maybe 5-10 times a summer. Still haven't put the heat on but will in a few days as it will drop into the 40's.

[Macgregorsailor]

Originally Posted by JERSEY MAN

But you have to run the AC 8 or 9 months. Don't know the cost of the tradeoff. I live on the bay in NJ, and rarely need the ac on maybe 5-10 times a summer. Still haven't put the heat on but will in a few days as it will drop into the 40's.

Do people here run really run their A/C more than a couple months a year? Really?
2 years ago , our first summer we ran the A/C none stop for all of 2 ,maybe it was 3 weeks... had the heat on that winter maybe half a dozen days for a few hours.. This summer was warmer and we had it on pretty steady for double that amount of time. Our house is on a canal in PC 3 3 large sets of slider open to the Lania and we face North and South .. we have 11 ceiling fans and as stated... we have GREAT cross breezes.. But Hot is Hot but we seldom are fo99und sitting in the house in the daytime... On The other hand you will soon be 40 or colder 24/7 for 5 months or more.. If you heat your home to just 72 your looking at raising the temp 32 degrees, and when its Zero Outside ( does it get that cold there ? ) you are looking at raising the temps 72 degrees. With 2 Proper running and properly installed units ( A/C here Heat Up North) its cheaper to cool 10 to 15 even 20 degrees than heat 50 degrees . Once you turn on the heat, north of say the Mason Dixon line you dont turn it off again for 4 to 6 months or longer. My best freind lives in 2 Harbors MN. His heat has been on for close to a month. Last winter between Nov 1 and Feb 15th IIRC it was Never above ZERO ....

[JERSEY MAN]

Originally Posted by Macgregorsailor

Do people here run really run their A/C more than a couple months a year? Really?
2 years ago , our first summer we ran the A/C none stop for all of 2 ,maybe it was 3 weeks... had the heat on that winter maybe half a dozen days for a few hours.. This summer was warmer and we had it on pretty steady for double that amount of time. Our house is on a canal in PC 3 3 large sets of slider open to the Lania and we face North and South .. we have 11 ceiling fans and as stated... we have GREAT cross breezes.. But Hot is Hot but we seldom are fo99und sitting in the house in the daytime... On The other hand you will soon be 40 or colder 24/7 for 5 months or more.. If you heat your home to just 72 your looking at raising the temp 32 degrees, and when its Zero Outside ( does it get that cold there ? ) you are looking at raising the temps 72 degrees. With 2 Proper running and properly installed units ( A/C here Heat Up North) its cheaper to cool 10 to 15 even 20 degrees than heat 50 degrees . Once you turn on the heat, north of say the Mason Dixon line you dont turn it off again for 4 to 6 months or longer. My best freind lives in 2 Harbors MN. His heat has been on for close to a month. Last winter between Nov 1 and Feb 15th IIRC it was Never above ZERO ....

I guess each state is different. We may hit zero once every 5 years for a day. Winters are usually 20s/30s. Each person is different also.I can betcha that the majority of south Floridians have their air on for more than 2 or 3 weeks in the summer. I have a condo on the treasure coast on the east coast of florida and it's damn hot in the summer. My air is on most of the year except for a few months in the winter and even then we have to turn it on on hot days. The humidity will turn things into a wet moldy, damp mess.

[Harbor Hopper]

Originally Posted by JERSEY MAN

But you have to run the AC 8 or 9 months. Don't know the cost of the tradeoff. I live on the bay in NJ, and rarely need the ac on maybe 5-10 times a summer. Still haven't put the heat on but will in a few days as it will drop into the 40's.

Approx 6 months for us... May-Oct for most. We've had the windows open half of October already. Just closed them and turned the A/C back on two days ago when the humidity went back up. Tomorrow a cold front comes through and the A/C will likely be off until May.

[JERSEY MAN]

Originally Posted by Harbor Hopper

Approx 6 months for us... May-Oct for most. We've had the windows open half of October already. Just closed them and turned the A/C back on two days ago when the humidity went back up. Tomorrow a cold front comes through and the A/C will likely be off until May.

That's about the norm for most Floridians HH. In many condo complexes management tells the residents to leave the ACs on at 80 degrees when no one is there to prevent mold. Like I said not many put it on for ONLY 2 or 3 weeks in the summer. It's almost 90/95 everyday from mid may to the beginning of Oct. If it's 95 and hot and humid the house has to be at least 85 and humid. The AC gets that damn humidity out of the air.

[sasha555]

How wonderful that the County is committed to cleaning up our waterways and eliminate the sewage from the septic tanks leaching into the river. Maybe we will be able to swim in the Peace River again someday, especially at Port Charlotte Beach!

[Harbor Hopper]

Originally Posted by sasha555

How wonderful that the County is committed to cleaning up our waterways and eliminate the sewage from the septic tanks leaching into the river. Maybe we will be able to swim in the Peace River again someday, especially at Port Charlotte Beach!

You've been listening to the local media too long. The county's reason for forcing this is $$$$$. Poop is BIG business, and CCU wants EVERY house in the county eventually on their ridiculously expensive sewer system. It doubles monthly income for CCU!
For years the county has produced NO scientific research that ANY pollution is coming from the septic systems! While the opposition group has produced DOZENS of reports from the DEP, DEQ, University of Florida, ATLAS, etc... stating the not only is the harbor completely healthy, but that the pollution that does trickle down, like EVERY river, is likely coming from farming & phosphate runoff during the rainy season.
Regarding the Port Charlotte Beach, people swim there every day, and so can you! Are you referring to the stained water appearance??? If so, you need to educate yourself what brackish water means (google: tannin) The brown in the summer has NOTHING to do with pollution. It's a natural effect of the tannins from mangrove roots & leaves that stain the water. It's also caused from the salt water of the Gulf mixing with the fresh water from the Peace & Myakka Rivers as they mix in the harbor. It's not pollution dear.