North Point--Good and Bad? (Sarasota, Port Charlotte: short sales, real estate, foreclosures)

[CindyRoos]

Hello everyone!
My spouse and I are from Wisconsin and we want to move to the Gulf side of Florida in the next couple of years. My spouse will be retired and I will still have to get a job. We are considering the North Port, Port Charlotte area. Just want some feed back on the "Good, Bad, Pretty and Ugly" LOL
Thanks in advance

[mrs.cool]

Originally Posted by CindyRoos

Hello everyone!
My spouse and I are from Wisconsin and we want to move to the Gulf side of Florida in the next couple of years. My spouse will be retired and I will still have to get a job. We are considering the North Port, Port Charlotte area. Just want some feed back on the "Good, Bad, Pretty and Ugly" LOL
Thanks in advance

You sound just like us! Also in Wis, hubby eligible to retire in 771 days (not that I'm counting), but I will still have to get a job.
We've already decided though, we bought a lot in Port Charlotte on a canal a few years ago. We're boaters, so we had already decided where we wanted to be.
Where do you live now? You can PM me if you don't want to say in public.

[SoFLGal]

I was born and raised in SW FL and I lived in North Port for 13 years. I still own a home there that I rent out.

In your post it was difficult for me to figure out if NP would be a good town for you or not. I would need to know more about your situation.

You said your spouse is retired but you will need to look for employment. What is your field of work? What kind of community are you looking for? What is your price range? What kind of things do you like to do-boating, fishing, the beach, etc? Do you have an aversion to well water (some people wont live in a community thats not city water. Most of NP is well).

There are other questions that I'd have but with those questions I can get a feel for what you're looking for and tell you if North Port might be a good fit.

[CindyRoos]

Originally Posted by mrs.cool

You sound just like us! Also in Wis, hubby eligible to retire in 771 days (not that I'm counting), but I will still have to get a job.
We've already decided though, we bought a lot in Port Charlotte on a canal a few years ago. We're boaters, so we had already decided where we wanted to be.
Where do you live now? You can PM me if you don't want to say in public.

Hi mrs.cool
We currently live in the Oconomowoc, WI area. (about 40 miles west of Milwaukee)
We are boaters too! We have a 27 foot inboard motor boat. My spouse bought it brand new in 2000. We met in 2002. It is well taken care of and hopefully when we get to get out of Wisconsin and move to Florida we will bring it with us. We haven't decided yet if we want to live on a canal or not. We worry about storm surges, etc. Our main priority will be a nice house--nothing fancy. What we want in a house is:
1. not to close to neighbors
2. no HOA fees or CDD's (or if it has an HOA--under 100 a month)
3. at least 3 bedrooms
4. at least 2 bathrooms
5. a pool with a nice lanai (did I spell that right? LOL)
6. at least a 3 car garage (we have 4 cars so 4 would be better)
7. would like a lot that is at least 1/2 acre
8. no stairs, want a ranch style with arched windows not a square box
9. no more than $500,000.
10. not to far from a nice beach (not more than a 40 minute drive one way)

I currently work for a ParaMedical Company. Been doing this for 16 years. What we do is send nurses out to do life/d.i insurance exams. These exams are called into us by insurance agents. I work in the office and coordinate a group of nurses/techs.

I will probably have to find a job in Florida when we move just so we can have health insurance. Years ago I also worked at a few grocery stores as a cashier so I can always do that again.
Whether I still have to work by the time we leave here is up in the air yet so we shall see. I really don't want my spouse to have to work much longer---the amount of co-workers that my spouse has seen die already before even reaching retirement age is scary! (I am 54 and spouse is 63 right now)
We really hate the winters here---they are just too damn long. It feels like we hibernate half the year. Yuck! My spouses Mom lives in Beverly Hills FL but that is kind of a sleepy type town. We want to have some privacy but also don't want to be too far away from FUN. LOL

[CindyRoos]

Originally Posted by SoFLGal

I was born and raised in SW FL and I lived in North Port for 13 years. I still own a home there that I rent out.

In your post it was difficult for me to figure out if NP would be a good town for you or not. I would need to know more about your situation.

You said your spouse is retired but you will need to look for employment. What is your field of work? What kind of community are you looking for? What is your price range? What kind of things do you like to do-boating, fishing, the beach, etc? Do you have an aversion to well water (some people wont live in a community thats not city water. Most of NP is well).

There are other questions that I'd have but with those questions I can get a feel for what you're looking for and tell you if North Port might be a good fit.

Hi SoFlGal
My spouse "will be retired" in a few years (hopefully)
I put a message on here about our situation.
Thanks for replying, I appreciate any and all helpful information!

[vacoder]

Inboard motors are not real popular here. There is a lot of shallow water and it is all a sand or mud bottom so they can act like vacuum cleaners. At least that is what I heard.

[CindyRoos]

Originally Posted by vacoder

Inboard motors are not real popular here. There is a lot of shallow water and it is all a sand or mud bottom so they can act like vacuum cleaners. At least that is what I heard.

Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of boats like ours there
It'll all work out

[SoFLGal]

Cindy,

Looking at your list, North Port "checks" all of those boxes. You can get a very nice home in NP for half of your posted budget. You could also look in Punta Gorda, Venice, Osprey or Nokomis with that budget. My opinion is, if you can get something that appeals to you for way under budget, why not go that route? If you can keep your payments down then maybe you wont have to get a job and you can enjoy the beach more

Anyway, I think you need to get "boots on the ground" and check out the various areas. Once you see the various cities then you can narrow it down to the communities or areas that appeal to you.

[CindyRoos]

Originally Posted by SoFLGal

Cindy,

Looking at your list, North Port "checks" all of those boxes. You can get a very nice home in NP for half of your posted budget. You could also look in Punta Gorda, Venice, Osprey or Nokomis with that budget. My opinion is, if you can get something that appeals to you for way under budget, why not go that route? If you can keep your payments down then maybe you wont have to get a job and you can enjoy the beach more

Anyway, I think you need to get "boots on the ground" and check out the various areas. Once you see the various cities then you can narrow it down to the communities or areas that appeal to you.

Thank you so much for the advice!
We are going to Ft Myers Beach this coming May and I am thinking we should take a day and drive up to the North Port, Venice area and see what's what!
(p.s. We would be selling our house here so we could probably pay cash for a house there if it is within reason)

[CindyRoos]

Here is a post from "SunshineRules" regarding North Port.
(I had another thread on here as well)


North Port is in the southern end of Sarasota county, you can find a number of threads over the past few years on North Port in the Sarasota forum as mentioned.

A little general info about North Port The actual city limits of North Port covers over 100 square miles of land, but a large portion of it is not developed. North Port was originally laid out in the 1950's by a company called General Development Corporation. They laid out grids of roads within the huge land area of their city of North Port, then started selling lots to winter visitors. Things didn't go as planned and the company eventually abandoned North Port. So outside of the more established subdivisions you will find miles and miles of roads with few homes and many vacant lots. More of the development is between Biscayne Blvd and Toledo Blade Blvd, where there is more access to utilities (much of North Port is on septic systems and well water). North Port actually has an entire state forest located within the city limits. North Port does not have a downtown area like those in Venice or Sarasota, most of the shopping areas are smaller retail centers or strip retail shopping centers.

Many of the individual, vacant lots are vacant because of the cost of running electricity to those lots is expensive. Developers have bought up a lot of the less expensive plots of land and several are building new construction off of US41 within the North Port city limits (although you'll see the communities advertised as Venice).

Prices in general are lower in North Port compared to Sarasota or Venice, partly because of location being further away from Sarasota but also because North Port was "ground zero" in Sarasota county for foreclosures when the real estate bust hit in the mid 2000s, so lots of foreclosures and short sales over the past 6 years. Investors have bought up a lot of the less expensive homes, some to fix and flip but a lot became rentals. You may wish to have your agent check individual streets around homes you are interested in to see how many are owner occupied and how many are rentals.

You are also further away from public beaches in much of North Port. The NW corner is fairly close to Venice area beaches.

If you're looking for more of a quiet, small town feel, then North Port may be an option. Englewood and Port Charlotte are other areas worth exploring. Perhaps Venice as well. Venice would put you closer to Sarasota, which is the main employment hub in our area. It really depends on what you're searching for.