[JourneyOfLife]

Does anyone have any experience living in the Naples Area, or an extended visit/rent checking it out for a potential home buy?


If so, what did you learn?

[JoelJohnson]

Too expensive!

[Madelaine Amee]

Originally Posted by JourneyOfLife

Does anyone have any experience living in the Naples Area, or an extended visit/rent checking it out for a potential home buy?


If so, what did you learn?

Personally, we love anything on the water: Naples, Venice, Sarasota, St. Petes Beach, Clearwater .......... all beautiful areas, but anywhere within easy reach of the beach is very expensive, very busy year round and more expensive than here. We would have stayed on the beach, but I hated the transient way of living. We were in Reddington Shores, loved it, but hated the fact that the cost of wintering there is so expensive that people rent for just one week at a time, so people are coming and going constantly. Plus the dreaded Spring Break ................ ugh! Our friends rent in Naples, off the beach, on a golf course that is too expensive for them to play, for $5,000 a month!

[Mudder]

Beautiful beaches.....everything beautiful for the beautiful and wealthy. Anything west of 75 is very expensive, east of 75 still kind of a wasteland. A great place to visit if you have friends you can stay with!

[Waverunner]

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[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by Madelaine Amee

Personally, we love anything on the water: Naples, Venice, Sarasota, St. Petes Beach, Clearwater .......... all beautiful areas, but anywhere within easy reach of the beach is very expensive, very busy year round and more expensive than here. We would have stayed on the beach, but I hated the transient way of living. We were in Reddington Shores, loved it, but hated the fact that the cost of wintering there is so expensive that people rent for just one week at a time, so people are coming and going constantly. Plus the dreaded Spring Break ................ ugh! Our friends rent in Naples, off the beach, on a golf course that is too expensive for them to play, for $5,000 a month!

I also felt the traffic was horrible. Traffic in TV is nothing compared to the areas you mentioned.

[Waverunner]

My husband and I lived in Pinellas County (Clearwater, St. Petersburg area) for many years. After the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes, the homeowners insurance market changed drastically for all living in coastal counties. The building codes also changed after 2005.

Our home was built pre-2005. We lived five miles from the water. Our homeowners insurance was $14,000 a year in 2012-13, the year we left. Our homeowners insurance in The Villages, (similar value home but post-2005 built), is around $1,000.

If costs are a factor in your decision, look carefully at all the cost of living items.

[Fraugoofy]

...

[vintageogauge]

We rented down there several times. It is beautiful however way to congested for me and the traffic is a nightmare. Can't get a parking spot near the beaches, long waits at restaurants, and as noted above very expensive, a lot of the retail stores have closed their doors for some reason also, not worth it at all. Go a little north to Bonita Springs, still crowded but less expensive and nearer to the Ft. Myers Airport .

[HimandMe]

We used to go there often but if you think the traffic here is bad...wow, it is way worse there. I love the beach but there was other beaches just as wonderful. We got so that we hated to travel to Naples because of the traffic.
On the good side, it is a beautiful place, landscapes resembling much of what you see in The Villages, nice shops on 3rd Avenue. As with Sarasota and other places anything east of trail (Tamiami Trail hwy 41) is very expensive even for the most rudimentary housing.

[manaboutown]

Naples is nice but congested and expensive. They do have an authorized Rolls Royce motor car dealer if that tells you anything as they of course locate where the big bucks are. If money is no or not much of an object you may enjoy its restaurants, boutiques and its lifestyle in general. A rather successful high school classmate of mine has lived there over 30 years; she fits right in and loves it. Last we spoke she told me her 2400 square foot Gulf of Mexico and Venetian Bay view condo in a high rise buildng was worth about $2M. She paid a little over $800K for it about twenty years ago. Different strokes for different folks.

[doran]

Tried to make the move three years ago. Lot's of traffic and inflated home prices near the water. I tried, could not swing it. If I want to visit, the drive is not bad at all.

[chuckinca]

I always get it confused with Venice.

.

[JourneyOfLife]

Housing is expensive nearer to the coast.

But like many areas in FL, the periphery of the Naples area seems to be growing. A few miles inland, home costs are quite a bit lower.

If you look at an aerial shot of the land from Bonita Springs down to Naples inland a few miles, it looks like the land has been laid out for a lot of homes to be built.

One other thing I noticed; while there are a number of 55+ communities in the area, there are also quite a number of the HOA communities with amenities that are Not Age Restricted.

[Chi-Town]

Checked out Ave Maria early on in its development phase. Timed it to the nearest beach, as that was s big draw to me. Way too long of a drive and that was when it was open road travel.

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