There are no waves in Miromar Lakes, but it draws raves

February 1st, 2012

Sunlight sparkles like vibrant glitter off the clear, blue water.

Powdery, soft white sand stretches for three miles around curves, tucked into coves and in long flat stretches. Sailboats glide by, water skiers enjoy the always-calm surface, fishing poles dip in with a gentle plop and pull out with a little struggle and a wiggly fish on the end.

This is waterfront living, but it’s more than a dozen miles from the Gulf.

Miromar Lakes Beach & Golf Club, located next to FGCU and Gulf Coast Town Center in the San Carlos Park-Estero area, is the only community in Lee County that offers a true lake lifestyle. The community has won more than 100 awards and is the only development in Florida in 30 years to win the nation’s highest building honor: the National Association of Home Builders Gold Award for Community of the Year.

The 700-acre lake is the centerpiece of the community. Homeowners dock their boats in front of their homes or clustered in little dock areas. Some homeowners have their own little stretch of private beach, while others enjoy the main beach areas where they can stretch out in the shade under white canopy shelters.

Room after room, facility after facility feature lake views. Diners at the beach club sit just beyond the sand, munching on everything from shrimp and lobster dishes to quesadillas and burgers. The fitness rooms and spa feature large windows facing the water. There’s a private dining room with an Asian hardwood tree trunk table that stretches from door to floor to ceiling windows. Then there’s the swimming pool that seems to overflow past the pink and purple bougainvillea and into the lake.

“It’s a very unique feature to the community,” said Jeff Garard, sales associate. “A lot of people from up North … Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois … are used to lakes and they are not used to salt water. We have no salt water and no red tide. This is different from everything else you will see in this marketplace.”

The lake is what attracted Dick Rademaker to move there in 2004. He had lived on Sanibel Island since 1976, but chose lakeside living over the Gulf.

“I love to fish,” said Rademaker, who has a boat and dock right in his backyard. “It’s better here because it’s right out the back door.”

Rademaker, who’s originally from Kentucky and grew up with lakes, loves the bass fishing at Miromar. “It’s catch and release,” he said. “I think I caught the same one three or four times.”

Lake Maggiore is 450 acres and Lake Como is 250 acres. The two lakes are connected, making a huge, watery playground for residents. The lakes were formed years ago when the area was used for mining lime rock, which is what gives the lake its deep, rich color.

Residents zip around the lake in everything from sailboats and powerboats to kayaks and paddle boats. No personal watercraft are allowed. For those who don’t own a boat, there are rentals, or people can take a charter boat trip or fishing tour.

Golf, tennis, more

While the lake is the centerpiece, there’s a lot more to Miromar. The community features golf and tennis, spa and fitness, dining, meeting rooms and both a beach clubhouse and a golf clubhouse. There’s a 50-seat theater that residents use for Super Bowl and Academy Awards parties, or for classes with professors from FGCU next door.

There are about 300 social events held for residents at Miromar along with dozens of regular clubs and activities ranging from Margarita Mondays to Ladies Game Nights, to children’s programs to poolside crafts. The lake is also featured in many events from kayak tours and paddle boarding lessons to a winter picnic on the water. Holidays feature everything from a Sweethearts Sunset Cruise to Get Green on the Water on St. Patrick’s Day.

Miromar will host the National Open Water Swimming Championships in April, when swimmers from around the United States will compete in the women’s and men’s 10K and 5K open water championships – a qualifier for the Summer Olympics. And today from noon to 3 p.m., Miromar will open its gates to the public for its annual Art on the Lake festival. There the public can get a glimpse of the community as they walk along the waterfront promenade browsing a variety of art and listening to live music.

“There is something going on here all the time,” Garard said. “It’s really, really active here.”

All those activities attracted Dina Cecere and Joanie Brent to Miromar.

“We saw the lake and said, ‘What can we afford?’” Cecere said about her first impression of Miromar. “I love it here. I’ve seen a ton of communities and there is nothing that compares.”

“My husband and I looked at every community, but we liked this one because it’s younger than most of the other communities,” Brent added.

Cecere and Brent note that their children enjoy bringing friends to hang out there. Brent’s youngest child, an FGCU student, brings pals to relax by the lake and enjoy the amenities. Cecere’s three teenagers like fishing, kayaking and playing basketball there.

“There is so much for the kids,” Cecere said. “And I learned to water-ski on that lake. It’s like Pleasureland here.”

“It’s close to the airport,” Brent added. “It has a Publix and a movie theater right nearby.”

The community is a mixture of young families, working couples and retirees. Residents come from a wide variety of places, from the lakes of the Midwest to the Northeast. About 25 percent of the owners at Miromar Lakes are from other countries.

Garard said Miromar Lakes is attracting lots of new homeowners even in a poor economy.

“We had a great 2010 with 100 homes sold and a great 2011 with more than 100 homes sold,” he said. “We saw inventory levels coming down, so we have bulldozers putting shovels in the ground.”

The community is building a new section of condominium buildings that should be ready in the next few months. They are also building several new single-family homes.

“There’s nowhere else like this,” Garard said.

Contact realtors Melinda or Paul Sullivan to view property in Miromar Lakes.

Courtesy of News Press

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Fort Myers River District prepares for makeover

January 30th, 2012

Fort Myers city officials have spent years planning a downtown utopia, complete with extended waterfront, a bubbling fountain, hand railings modeled after mangrove roots and quaint trolleys that shuttle visitors to and from bars and restaurants.  If you would like to see all waterfront property in downtown Ft Myers click here.

What began as an idea in 2003 is expected to be reality by the end of this summer, says Don Paight, executive director of the Fort Myers Redevelopment Agency. Construction should begin in March to avoid interference with downtown events such the Edison Festival of Light. That’s assuming the contractors’ bids are in accordance with the city’s approved budget of $5.4 million for the initial phase of the project. The contractors involved submitted their bids more than a week ago and the city is calculating the expected cost, Paight said.

“I think it’s one of the most significant things that’s happened in the history of the city and I think it’s going to change the city for the better,” Mayor Randy Henderson said.

A new water detention basin will bring the Caloosahatchee River up to Bay Street and give downtown an additional 1,500 feet of riverfront property, expected to provide the area with 195 construction jobs and 120 permanent jobs. The water will cut through the Harborside Event Center parking lot and flow under Edwards Drive, which will be converted into a brick-paved bridge. The area around the basin will resemble a park with decorative railings and lights.

“We’ve got this beautiful river and we park our cars on it,” Paight said.

The project will bring the river back to its historic front. Water used to reach as far as Bay and First streets, but the water was so shallow residents had to build long piers to dock and unload ships coming in. In the early 1900s the city began filling in the riverfront to get to the deeper water farther out, Paight said.

The budgeted $5.4 million for the water basin will mostly come from city capital improvement funds and money left over from the street-scape project.

City officials hope the rest of the Harborside parking lot not used by the water basin will eventually be taken up by a 200-room hotel connected to the convention center. City officials have been talking to several chains, including Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton.

Between the Harborside Event Center parking lot and the Edwards Drive lot, the project will do away with between 150 and 160 parking spaces. Many people who live, work and visit downtown expressed concern that the construction would make parking more difficult, but the city is planning two new parking garages that will have a total of 800 spaces, Paight said.

Meanwhile, a small parking lot will likely be set up off Hendry Street near the Art of the Olympians museum and another larger lot will be near the corner of Bay and Hendry streets. There would likely be a charge for the new lots and garages, but the amount has yet to be determined.

Greg Courtot, a bartender at Hideaway Sports Bar on Dean Street, said he is worried about where customers will park once the lots are replaced with water.

“As long as parking’s available and not too far away then I’m happy,” he said. “I just can’t see it all going according to plan.”

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‘Minimal’ disruption

The city plans minimal disturbance to downtown businesses during construction, Paight said. Edwards Drive will be closed, but other traffic should be unaffected. If a truck affiliated with the project is caught going through the center of downtown, it will be charged with fines of up to $5,000.

Courtot also expressed concern about the aesthetic value of the water basin.

“It just attracts garbage,” Courtot said, noting he saw that effect firsthand in a similar detention basin where he used to live in St. Petersburg. “You get your high tide and your low tide, so that’s going to generate a smell.”

Paight said regularly-cleaned filters will prevent garbage from accumulating. The water level will be controlled so it never fluctuates more than about a foot, he said.

The water basin also will eventually be bordered by 3-4 restaurant fronts along Hendry. A block away, at the corner of Bay and Jackson streets, the city plans to build a parking garage and 5-6 storefronts and residential units. As an extra incentive to open stores and restaurants in those areas, the city has gotten federal income tax breaks approved for private developers, Paight said. All that development, including the water basin, is expected to bring more traffic downtown that will result in an extra $76 million per year spent at downtown businesses. The city’s total expense will be about $150 million.

The detention basin also will provide environmental benefits by filtering storm runoff of nearby streets and businesses before it enters the Caloosahatchee River. Plants along the basin’s edge will strain out chemicals from fertilizer runoff, filters and a sediment pool will collect trash, rocks and dirt and a fountain will aerate the water.

Trollies arrive

In a separate project, the city is hoping to see new trollies on the streets of downtown within the next few months. Initially, operating mostly on weekend nights, the trollies will give free rides between downtown and the nearby high-rise condominiums so visitors don’t have to worry about parking or driving drunk. The $300,000 project has been funded by LeeTran and local high-rise developers, Paight said.

Bonnie Willer, who opened a jewelry store called Cat’s Meow five months ago on First Street, said she expects the riverfront project to bring her new business. Right now no one even knows downtown Fort Myers exists, she said, but hopefully that will change soon.

“Everybody wants to see something new,” she said. “So they’ll come take a look.”

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Project to renovate Fort Myers river district expected to be completed by July

December 1st, 2011

A $5.4 million project to renovate the downtown Fort Myers waterfront will provide the infrastructure and ambience to attract more events and a hotel — with the ultimate goal for the city to regain its once-thriving convention business.

That’s what city and event officials say about the project, which is in the engineering phase now and scheduled to be completed by July. It will feature water retention ponds with fountains, landscaping that matches the streetscaping in other parts of downtown, and also pumps up the availability of water, electricity and wireless access to the Internet.

“The purpose of the basin is to attract events and retail shops, and we’re in discussion with three or four companies for a hotel” to be be built on what’s now the Harborside Event Center parking lot, said Don Paight, executive director of the Fort Myers Redevelopment Agency.

But those are only steps on the path to bringing the convention business back to life, he said.

“Up until the mid-’90s, when the Sheraton was downtown, we were hosting a lot of conventions, 22 or 23 a year by 1996,” Paight said.

But the Sheraton fell into disrepair, lost its brand by that hotel chain and has been closed for years.

Without the hotel, Fort Myers lost its ability to attract conventions of up to 500 or 600 people, Paight said.

Sharon McAllister, director of ArtFest Fort Myers, said some of the most important changes coming are things the average festival-goer never sees.

For example, she said, “There are electrical pedestals with enough amperage that we don’t have to bring in a generator and have cables everywhere.”

The changes will make it easier to compete for events now being held elsewhere, she said. As an event planner, “You look at their infrastructure, equipment, all those things. Is there power? Are there drains? How do I access this place?”

Jim Powell, senior estimator and project manager for Wright Construction, the project’s construction manager, said it will enhance the waterfront for more casual users as well.

Two water features will double as pollution abatement as they filter runoff before it flows into the Caloosahatchee, he said, and they’re designed to make it a more inviting place to simply walk around.

“It’s going to be quite a lovely place,” Powell said. “I love to walk around downtown anyway and this is just going to enhance it for me and my family. Those people who go down there will enjoy this thing.”

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Fort Myers condo towers stuck in wait-and-see mode

November 13th, 2011

Where developers once dreamed of towering riverfront condominiums, six parcels in downtown Fort Myers sit quietly now — waiting for their time to come.

They’re still the subject of calculations if not acquisitions by potential investors, wary of carrying costs that could go on for years.

But now The Vue, one of the best known of the projects appears headed for new ownership — U.S. Bank National Association won a foreclosure judgment on its mortgage to borrower Throgmartin Riverfront Corp. for $18.2 million.

The two-acre site next to Centennial Park on the Caloosahatchee River was to be sold in a public auction Oct. 31, but at the bank’s request Lee County Circuit Judge J. Frank Porter stopped the

auction at the last minute so the bank could continue its marketing efforts.

If that doesn’t work out, “The process of marketing the final judgment is also likely to stimulate interest in bidders at a subsequent foreclosure sale” now scheduled for Jan. 30, the bank said in its motion to delay the sale.

But not just any investor is likely to step up to buy the property, assessed by the county Property Appraiser’s Office at $1,415,778, said commercial real estate broker Steve Luta.

That’s because the market for high-rise condos is dead because of the collapse in residential real estate price that followed the boom that ended at the end of 2005, he said.

Investors have to judge how long it will take for The Vue to become viable for the 27-story tower it’s been approved for by the city council, Luta said, and that’s hard to calculate. “Is it a three-year hold? Five years? Ten years?”

In addition, even in its heyday the downtown waterfront condo market wasn’t at the top of the heap, he said. “It’s still not Naples.”

For now, the owners of the sites are taking the long view.

“We’re sitting and waiting,” said David Nassif of Naples-based NM Development Group, which had intended to develop its 22-story Prima Luce condo on two acres just west of the existing St. Tropez condo.

“We’ve got a sign with our phone number on the property and we’ll get a call every other week or so” from someone interested in Prima Luce as a future residence, he said, but no prospective buyers of the whole project have come forward.

Don Paight, executive director of the Fort Myers Redevelopment Agency, said all the undeveloped condo sites still have their entitlements to build what the city originally agreed to. They’re allowed to extend for two years for a nominal cost.

There’s nothing imminent on any of the condo sites, he said, but “I have seen some increased interest in people interested in downtown property.”

Meanwhile, Nassif said, he’s content to wait out the downturn.

How long will that be?

“I have no idea, to be honest with you,” Nassif said. “I can’t even guess. We’re in a position now that we’re happy, we can wait. It’ll turn around. I just don’t know when.”

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Courtesy of News Press

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Clogged Collier Creek inlet on Marco to get dredged, sand to Hideaway shore area

October 31st, 2011

Marco Island resident Randy Moity knows better than to take his boat through Collier Creek unless the tide is just right.

The way to get to the Gulf of Mexico for an estimated one-third of the island’s boaters, the inlet has narrowed as sand has filled it in, making an already tricky navigation spot downright dangerous, boaters say.

The Marco Island City Council adopted an emergency resolution calling for a fix, and Collier County commissioners voted last week to hire a dredging company to do the job.

“It’s a hazard, it really is,” Moity said. “It’s a problem we need to focus our attention on and get it done.”

Commissioners voted to pay Energy Resources Inc. some $260,000 to do the work, which could get started in early 2012 and take some two months to finish.

The Hideaway Beach Improvement District, through the city of Marco Island, paid for the engineering and permitting for the project.

Crews are expected to dredge 10,000 cubic yards of sand from the entrance to Collier Bay and put it in the near-shore tidal zone along a stretch of Hideaway Beach.

That beach has been a focal point for debates over whether it should qualify for public money for beach projects because of its inaccessibility to the public.

The Collier Bay dredging project has avoided that debate; Florida law requires that sand dredged from an inlet be put on the downstream beach, which in this case is Hideaway.

“This is not to renourish Hideaway Beach and provide them with any real benefit with this sand,” Collier County Coastal Zone Management Director Gary McAlpin said.

Sand was put in the same place when Collier dredged the inlet in 2001 using tourist tax dollars and again in 2005, when a rock jetty was built in the area to reduce erosion.

The county’s Coastal Advisory Committee voted 4-3 in September to recommend approval of the dredging contract.

Naples Councilman John Sorey, chairman of the CAC, wanted to delay the project for nine months to save an estimated $60,000 by combining it with another beach renourishment project planned for next year on Marco Island.

“I understand the concern (about getting the work done),” Sorey said. “At the same time, $60,000 is $60,000.”

Marco Island police Capt. Dave Baer, a former city marine patrol officer, didn’t immediately have statistics about crashes or groundings at Collier Creek.

He said the speed of the water at the narrow inlet, made worse by the shoaling on its west side, makes it one of the most challenging places on Marco to navigate a boat.

Boats get caught in the currents and sucked into dock pilings on the east side of the inlet, boaters say.

“The currents are tricky there,” Baer said.

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Courtesy of Naples News

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Marco housing market continues upward climb

October 22nd, 2011

Statistics for Marco Island-only properties from the Marco Island Area Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service continue to show high sales activity since the beginning of the year compared with the same time last year.

Statistics from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, all property types, show an increase of activity and price compared to the same period in 2010.

Sold listings are up 24.86 percent during this comparable time, and pending listings are up 26.57 percent.

The volume of sold listings is up 27.26 percent.

At the same time, the median sale price remained steady and the average sale price is up 1.92 percent.

New listings coming onto the market in the 2010 and 2011 year-to-date comparison have decreased by 12.29 percent and the average days on market have decreased by 6.81 percent.

Pending listings, all property types, are up in the September 2010 and September 2011 comparison by 5.88 percent.

Total all property types closed (Marco Island only) was up by 32.65 percent in the same comparison.

The total sold dollar volume was up 10.96 percent in the September 2010 and September 2011 comparison.

Research studies have shown that home ownership provides social and societal benefits and fosters an immeasurable sense of community and stability.

According to the National Association of Realtors Housing Affordability Index, housing is at its most affordable in a generation.

More specifically, the index shows there hasn’t been a better home-buying opportunity in 40 years.

Enjoy the lifestyle of Marco Island!

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This article is courtesy of the News Press.

 

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Safe boating is knowing your waters

October 9th, 2011

The major part of safe boating is knowing how to operate your vessel in a responsible manner.  The other part of safe boating is anticipating what could happen when you are out on the water.  It’s your duty to anticipate potential problems and plan on what to do about it if they occur.

If your planning a boating trip, one of the things you should anticipate is knowledge of the local waters you’ll be visiting.  You should familiarize yourself with the traffic routes, the aids to navigation such as buoys, water depths, and underwater hazards, and any significant coastal landmarks you could use in navigating.  One of the best ways to do this is studying a Marine Chart of the area.

Another thing to anticipate is the weather.  Storms can come up quickly and they can have high winds and waves.  Always check the weather forecast before going out but remember that they’re not always accurate.

To protect your boat and your passengers, always look around.  Constantly check the sky in all directions.  If you see some nasty weather developing, head for safety.

If you can’t outrun the storm and get to your home port, try a quick tie-up at a nearby marina or even a stranger’s dock until the storm passes.  If this isn’t possible, consider heading for a windward shore, anchoring, and riding out the storm.  A windward shore is in the direction from which the wind is blowing.  It’s upwind.  The land mass and shoreline prevents the winds from building up and provides some protection.

The opposite of this is the leeward shore.  This is the direction where the wind is blowing.  It’s downwind and should be avoided at all costs because this is where you’ll find the roughest waters and you stand the risk of having the wind blow you aground.

If you decide to hunker down and ride it out, make sure that you have plenty of anchor line.  In storm conditions, you should have a minimum of ten feet of anchor line out for every foot of water depth.  So if you’re in 12 feet of water, you should have a minimum of 120 feet of anchor line out.

If you have one anchor, drop it from your bow.  Never use one anchor from the stern or anchor with the stern into the wind.  This increases your wind resistance and leaves you susceptible to swamping over your  transom.  Also, be wary of lightning and don’t touch any metal parts if you’re in a lightning storm.  This applies whether you are topside or down below in your cabin.

If you do a lot of boating sooner or later you’ll get caught in a storm.  Hopefully these hints will be useful to you in anticipating what to do.  As the captain of your boat you want to ensure a safe and pleasurable boating experience for your passengers.  So plan ahead, leave a float plan with a friend, be alert to weather changes around you, put on life jackets at the first signs of trouble, and err on the side of caution by heading home early if you suspect a change in the weather.

This information was gleaned from the US Power Squadrons.

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Bonita Bay Marina to be ready for season

October 2nd, 2011

bonita-bay-marinaBonita Bay Marina, the full-service marina adjacent to the Bonita Bay community in Bonita Springs, is undergoing a series of renovations and upgrades scheduled for completion in late fall prior to the return of seasonal boaters, according to Tibe Larson, marina manager.

Larson said the improvements now under way include repairs and reinforcements to the marina’s three storage barns, including roofing, beams and support columns; forklift upgrades; dock enhancements; and various other general improvements.

“We’ve seen a great deal of new boating activity this summer, so we want to stay ahead of the curve as high season approaches,” Larson said.Bonita Bay Marina is located on the Imperial River a short distance from Estero Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

The marina – with wet slips for vessels up to 16,000 pounds and dry storage up to 32 feet – also offers slip rentals from $264 per month, as well as boat maintenance, on-site fueling, detailing, charters and shopping at the Ships Store.

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Courtesy of News Press

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Lee home sales rise in August, while median price falls

September 24th, 2011

Database: Search Lee median prices & home sales

The median price of existing homes sold in Lee County in August fell 3.5 percent to $103,200 from July while the number of homes sold rose 2 percent to 1,122, according to statistics released today by Florida Realtors.  Statewide, the median price increased less than 1 percent to $137,500 and the number of sales increased 4.4 percent to 16,206.

The Naples Area Board of Realtors submits its numbers to Florida Realtors but doesn’t allow them to be published, although the Collier County total is included in the statewide statistics.

Florida Realtors figures include only houses sold with the assistance of a Realtor.

In a separate report also released today, the National Association of Realtors reported that the number of Americans who bought previously occupied homes rose in August. But sales were driven by an increase in foreclosures, a sign that home prices could fall further next year and slow a housing recovery.

Home sales rose 7.7 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.03 million homes, according to the association. That’s below the 6 million that economists say is consistent with a healthy housing market.

Last month’s pace was slightly ahead of the 4.91 million sold in 2010, the worst sales level in 13 years.

Homes at risk of foreclosure made up 31 percent of sales. That’s up from 29 percent in July. Many are being bought by investors.

At the same time, activity among first-time buyers, who are critical to reviving the housing market, didn’t budge. First-time buyers made up only 32 percent of sales, matching the July level. They normally make up 50 percent of home sales in healthy markets.

The median sales price dropped roughly to $168,300 in August from July. A key reason was the rise in foreclosures and short sales — when a lender accepts less than what is owed on the mortgage. Those homes sell at an average discount of 20 percent.

Courtesy of News Press

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Cape ranked in top five inexpensive places to retire by Money Magazine

September 24th, 2011

Cape Coral’s top-five ranking on Money magazine’s 2012 list of low-cost places to retire is as good as gold for the city, business leaders said today.

Well-off baby boomers preparing for retirement will see that and think about buying or building a home here, said business consultant and former Mayor Joe Mazurkiewicz.

“It’s on coffee tables at lawyers’ offices, doctors’ offices and dentists’. It leads to rooftops,” Mazurkiewicz said. “Until we get rooftops going, commercial is going to lag. Jobs are going to lag.”

“Being listed in the top five, that’s gold to us,” Mazurkiewicz said.

Money’s October edition also lists Cape Coral in the second position, behind Marquette, Mich., among 25 places it recommends for retirement. The magazine’s researchers used various databases to compile the list.

Those retirees also will want amenities such as cultural activities that will improve the quality of life, added Wayne Kirkwood, chairman of the Horizon Council, an economic development advisory board for the Lee County Commission.

They’ll also inject more money into the local economy as they move their bank accounts and other assets, said Kirkwood, a longtime Cape Coral businessman.

“In this particular moment in time, it would be a shot in the arm for the construction industry. It can get people working again,” Kirkwood said.

Cape Coral’s 400 miles of canals, many with river access, set it apart from other places, according to the article, which also cites low real estate prices. The mean price of a home has dropped to $95,000 from a high of $322,000 in 2005.

While the article notes there isn’t much nightlife, it points out the public golf course, a farmers market with live music and nearby spring training camps for the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox as things to do.

Real estate agent Susan Milner said Money has prompted several phone calls in the past few days from people looking for property. Milner left an “I love Cape Coral” comment with the story on Money’s Internet version of the story.

“I feel like every day I’m on vacation here,” Milner said today during an interview. “It’s the weather, the water. I love looking at the water.”

The article puts Cape Coral on the map and draws it to the attention of people who never heard of the city, Milner said.

The comments section drew other critiques.

One anonymous post called attention to the city’s political scene and a proposal to shut down the police and fire departments.

Former resident Sharon Tolles commented on how traffic and taxes increased over the 45 years she lived in the city.

“I would never move back for those two reasons,” Tolles said Tuesday from her North Carolina home.

“It’s a good place to retire if you can afford to retire there,” said Tolles.

1:34 p.m.

Money Magazine has ranked Cape Coral as one of the top five low cost cities to retire in its October publication.

The magazine said the low home prices, opportunities for boaters on the city’s 400 miles of salt and freshwater canals were big selling points.

Cape Coral residents Laura and Roy Tackett, said they moved here because of the lower taxes and cheap housing. They told the magazine they sold their Illinois home for $255,000 and bought an 1,800-square-foot home in the Cape for $145,000.

The median home price for the city, with a population of 154,000, is $95,000 and the median property taxes are $2,000.

Cape Coral also made the list for the top 25 places in the country to retire.

The magazine said:

“For retirees who are looking for lower taxes, cheap housing and a gentle climate, Cape Coral scores on all fronts. Home prices here, for example, have fallen more than 60 percent since the 2006 peak. For homebuyers, that means a lot of bang for the buck.

Courtesy of News Press

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