Punta Gorda (Bal Harbour, Christmas: insurance, houses, tax)

[diddy02]

My husband and I own a home in Asheville, NC but are looking for a home for the colder months to use. I have noticed that there are what seem to be very good deals on waterfront homes here especially in Punta Gorda Isles.
Can someone tell me are all the canals the same? Are there any roads that one should be aware of where the canals may need dredging or are they all much of a muchness? Sounds stupid I know but there seems to be large price differences in homes here and I was wondering why?
My husband and I are in our 40's and work from home.
Any help would be much appreciated..

[SoFLGal]

The way that people "rate" the canals are
1. How quickly you can get out into the harbor. The longer it takes to get out into the harbor the less valuable the property is. Some if the homes in "the bird section" where all the streets are named for birds, take over an hour to get out into open water.

2.Another criteria is if there are any bridges along the way and what their height is. The taller the bridge the more valuable the property is. Also the fewer bridges to under the better.

3. And last but not least is the depth of the water. Most of the canals in PGI have pretty good depth to them.

Occasionally you see in a listing that something that says "sailboat water". This means there are probably no bridges and if there are they are tall enough for sailboats to go under and the water depth is good. Sailboats usually have deeper hulls and draw more water.

I would say if you are boaters to stay away from the bird section because it just takes too long to get out into open water. If you just want something pretty to look at that's one thing but not to use on a regular basis.

The Bass Point Inlet is a pretty good canal in PGI. I think that's the canal the BigHouse lives off of. He's about 5-10 minutes from open water. The homes with gulf access start at around 250K in PGI.

I hope this helps to better explain how things work

Originally Posted by diddy02

My husband and I own a home in Asheville, NC but are looking for a home for the colder months to use. I have noticed that there are what seem to be very good deals on waterfront homes here especially in Punta Gorda Isles.
Can someone tell me are all the canals the same? Are there any roads that one should be aware of where the canals may need dredging or are they all much of a muchness? Sounds stupid I know but there seems to be large price differences in homes here and I was wondering why?
My husband and I are in our 40's and work from home.
Any help would be much appreciated..

[Big House]

Originally Posted by diddy02

My husband and I own a home in Asheville, NC but are looking for a home for the colder months to use. I have noticed that there are what seem to be very good deals on waterfront homes here especially in Punta Gorda Isles.
Can someone tell me are all the canals the same? Are there any roads that one should be aware of where the canals may need dredging or are they all much of a muchness? Sounds stupid I know but there seems to be large price differences in homes here and I was wondering why?
My husband and I are in our 40's and work from home.
Any help would be much appreciated..

Hey diddy02,
You're looking at a great place, Punta Gorda Isles (PGI) is a really nice well manicured and well maintained quaint South Florida town! You ought to schedule a nice getaway so you can come down and check this place and the houses out!

The canals all have concrete sea walls, but do vary quite a bit. They are not all the same. At Christmas time (and a couple weeks before) the residents all decorate the canals with Christmas lights and scenery. they do a nice job, and at the Yatch Club they have a light showing on the boats and a boat parade - its cool.

The canals are generally 6 -12 feet deep, and are also dredged/maintained by the town, as are the concrete sea walls, so you don't have to worry about that expense. In other areas if you have a problem then it's your cost, and that can be huge. I have a 21 foot Deep 'V' hull, Sea Hunt and it draws about 2' when loaded up. It has a Tee Top, and I have no problem with the depth, tides, or the bridge. I can get out anytime. If you are 30 foot or larger you may need to watch the tides more.

It is a great fishing area! Some of the best fishing in the world is here, either that or some of the best fishing stories / tales have been created here! LOL I haven't had much chance to fish yet, since I just brought my boat down in December, and just got back here. So, I can't Brag yet!

PGI is divided by two main streets Bal Harbour and Equi Esta and they disect the area into quadrants. The two quadrants near the harbor have the best access, the area (where the streets are named with bird names) on the South side will take longer to get to the gulf, sometimes more than an hour. It takes about 7 minutes from my house, which is nice.

It's beautiful here, and I can tell you that SoFLGal was my agent, and she did a fabulous job for me! I wrote a journal of sorts called "Punta Gorda Anyone". It is a couple pages back. You should look it up. I asked a ton of questions, and got a lot of help. You will no doubt learn a lot and save a lot of time and money if you read it. There is kinda a recap near the end of the thread. It took a long time before we got the right place.

Good Luck - DM me with any questions you may have. I'll be happy to help anyway I can.

[FLBob]

One of the niceties of PGI is that the seawall and the canal dredging are included in your tax bill. A failed seawall can cost upwards of $150 per linear foot to repair. So the $400 a year is nice insurance.

While the time out of the bird section (streets named after birds) can be lengthy (30-40 minutes depending on how far back), there is a cut through to Alligator creek that can cut about 15 minutes off of your trip to open water. Boats under 23' use this way in and out, during extreme low tides it is only navigable by skinny water boats (like mine). The bird section was the last section to be developed so on the whole the homes are newer so a lot of people that like newer homes and want sailboat water gravitate to the bird section

Most of the canals are at least 90' wide, there are a number of turning basins where the distance is much wider. End of canal property tends to be less expensive, while tip lots, which provide intersecting canal views tend to more desired.