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I was just reading about fort myers, we are moving at the end of this year. We already found a place in Estero. Is this an ok area, what about the middle schools. Cant be worse than here in Georgia. We think the beautiful beaches and ocean will make up for the other things......
The only problem is the red tide here. The beaches smell, dead fish everywhere!
Where are you moving to carnut? I agree with you, this place has gone to h...
Years ago, the 60's, my brother-in-law said then "If Florida were to get an enema, it would be right here in Fort Myers!" He was right.
We have a place in Texas, but we are also looking to build in North Carolina. We will never sell the Texas home. I built it for my wife for giving me our daughter. The farm came when my son was born. Those will always be in the family. We have thought about several places and have even spent months in some places to "try them out".
Florida is not for us at all. Some people love it here, that is great. We can't all like the same thing. Who would eat the squash, YUK! We really like North Carolina and that general area of the country.
BTW:
I forgot to add about Fort Myers. We have a very nice pool in the back yard. It is covered and screened and it is really nice with the lights I put up around the cage at night. We set out and have a glass of wine and the kids play in the water and we watch the sun go down. That part I admit is nice.
The reason I said that is to say there is less CHLORINE in the pool than there is in the water that comes out of the faucet. My Lord you simply cannot drink the city water and when we shower we smell like we just got out of a pool. It is nasty. Of course we drink bottled water, but you cannot shower in bottled water. We have even spent thousands of dollars on a water purifier. I cannot imagine how bad it is without that system.
If you are going to move to Fort Myers, Estero, Naples, Cape Coral etc. Don't plan on drinking the water out of the faucet. Even the Ice maker has a filter we have to change even couple of weeks. The chlorine filter on the kitchen faucet gets worn out about every two weeks. That is ridiculous!
We have a place in Texas, but we are also looking to build in North Carolina. We will never sell the Texas home. I built it for my wife for giving me our daughter. The farm came when my son was born. Those will always be in the family. We have thought about several places and have even spent months in some places to "try them out".
Florida is not for us at all. Some people love it here, that is great. We can't all like the same thing. Who would eat the squash, YUK! We really like North Carolina and that general area of the country.
BTW:
I forgot to add about Fort Myers. We have a very nice pool in the back yard. It is covered and screened and it is really nice with the lights I put up around the cage at night. We set out and have a glass of wine and the kids play in the water and we watch the sun go down. That part I admit is nice.
The reason I said that is to say there is less CHLORINE in the pool than there is in the water that comes out of the faucet. My Lord you simply cannot drink the city water and when we shower we smell like we just got out of a pool. It is nasty. Of course we drink bottled water, but you cannot shower in bottled water. We have even spent thousands of dollars on a water purifier. I cannot imagine how bad it is without that system.
If you are going to move to Fort Myers, Estero, Naples, Cape Coral etc. Don't plan on drinking the water out of the faucet. Even the Ice maker has a filter we have to change even couple of weeks. The chlorine filter on the kitchen faucet gets worn out about every two weeks. That is ridiculous!
I have to laugh at all the responses here. You'll have to indulge me, I'm afraid. My grandparents were some of the first "wave" of seniors to move down to Naples/Ft Myers (from CT) back in the 60s, and my grandfather would always say, "Who in the he*l decided this was a good place to retire?!? Nothin' but swamps, bugs, and old farts!" I guess some things never change.
Their old house is here: http://www.tropicaltexans.com/images/Memories/napleshouse.jpg (broken link) I wonder if it's still there? Bet it's worth a fortune! (Naples near the beach)
A native Floridian's perspective (born in Ft. Lauderdale, lived in various parts of FL, then GA, then MA and now back in FL):
Some people love it, some people hate it. Most of the people leaving could not cut it here (whether it be income, family ties, etc). The biggest complainers are the one's who could not make enough money to live here. They moved here when it required 1/2 of what it takes to live here now. I understand and hope you enjoy your new areas.
We get a lot of complainers down here who like to tell us how they did it up north. Well I lived up north and know how they do it. Of course people will complain when they move into a poor neighborhood and can't adjust. THIS IS AN EXPENSIVE PLACE. If you don't have the money to buy where you want to or can't secure a decent job and plan on just coming down and bumming around for awhile YOU ARE MOST LIKELY GOING TO HATE IT!
I like one of the first comments referring to Bonita Springs as a poor place! Yes, it has poor areas but considering the average house price in 34134 is around 1/2 million dollars I wouldn't quite call that poor.
Another comment made pertained to the fact that one has to be over 40 and married to live here. I find that funny since I am a single 25 year-old who enjoys living in SW FL (especially after living in many different areas around the state and the country). Of course, I personally do not have a family to raise and that would be a big factor to consider when looking at the area.
Lee County schools have a bad reputation. I do not know much about them personally as I went to a public school in MA and the other children in my family have gone to private schools in FL (very $$$). Some people, such as my family, get their family income from being employed by an out-of-state company which requires traveling (brand new terminal at the airport has made things easier). I personally am employed at a local, large health care organization that has great benefits (such as paying 100% of any educational program - such as a MBA) and has average pay.
Being able to jump on a boat on Saturday morning and spend the weekend boating is one of the big reasons why my family lives here. Every area of this place is different. Some parts of Naples (remember - the city limits of Naples are quite small with only 20k residents but the general area of Collier County is referred to as Naples with a Naples mailing address and has somewhere around 200k people) are very uppity while others are working class and others are borderline ghetto. Bonita Springs is a mixed area - affluent beachfront and bay front homes, gated communities, average homes, and working to very poor sections. Estero is growing, a lot like Bonita recently did. They just gained two large shopping areas with brand new movie theatres and a lot of restaurants - including some very, very good ones. Fort Myers is a large region with many different areas consisting of different people and cultures - too many to break down on here. Cape Coral is a huge residential area with lots of waterfront property and homes.
Yes, there is red tide from occasion to occasion. I am out on the water every weekend and it comes and goes. It hasn't ruined my life or killed me. Some people can't physically handle it due to asthma, etc and I understand. Hurricanes have been a big issue and our house sustained some damage in both Charley ('04) and Wilma ('05). Before these two storms, this region had not had a direct, land-falling hurricane since Donna some 40 years before.
My local beach (Bonita Beach) is a white sand beach. The end of my street has an access right to the beach - and is probably why my view of beach access is a bit skewed since I can walk to it and not worry about parking (although they offer park-and-ride service via a trolley daily).
If you are considering the area, you need to take a look, in person and not go by a few individual posters and the usual "I CAN'T WAIT TO LEAVE or I AM LEAVING ON XX-XX-XX DATE" people because they are everywhere. There is not one place on this Earth that everyone living their loves. You need to evaluate if you can afford to live WHERE YOU REALLY WANT TO. At the end of the day you may decide that you hate it or you may fall in love.
We went through four back to back hurricanes, what a nightmare! No electric for a week or longer, it was so hot, a cold shower felt like heaven!
Just want to clarify that SW FL did not go through 4 hurricanes back to back. We were hit by Charley and Wilma. We had fringe effects (rain & wind) from Jeanne & Frances.
Buy a generator (they are right around $500 these days). I know all about the no electricity thing (family is on Bonita Beach - a barrier island). It is not fun. But I will tell you, being in MA during an ice storm with no power for 4 days was a lot, lot worse. All we had was our fireplaces and the inside temp was somewhere in the 40's before we got our power back on (even if you have an electric or gas furnace they are all electrically started and run). That was much, much, much worse. I'd rather sweat it out than literally freeze to death.
Just want to clarify that SW FL did not go through 4 hurricanes back to back. We were hit by Charley and Wilma. We had fringe effects (rain & wind) from Jeanne & Frances.
Buy a generator (they are right around $500 these days). I know all about the no electricity thing (family is on Bonita Beach - a barrier island). It is not fun. But I will tell you, being in MA during an ice storm with no power for 4 days was a lot, lot worse. All we had was our fireplaces and the inside temp was somewhere in the 40's before we got our power back on (even if you have an electric or gas furnace they are all electrically started and run). That was much, much, much worse. I'd rather sweat it out than literally freeze to death.
you forgot the no name storm it hit Bonita Beach hard in the 1980s
[quote=carnut;
BTW:
I forgot to add about Fort Myers. We have a very nice pool in the back yard. It is covered and screened and it is really nice with the lights I put up around the cage at night. We set out and have a glass of wine and the kids play in the water and we watch the sun go down. That part I admit is nice.
The reason I said that is to say there is less CHLORINE in the pool than there is in the water that comes out of the faucet. My Lord you simply cannot drink the city water and when we shower we smell like we just got out of a pool. It is nasty. Of course we drink bottled water, but you cannot shower in bottled water. We have even spent thousands of dollars on a water purifier. I cannot imagine how bad it is without that system.
If you are going to move to Fort Myers, Estero, Naples, Cape Coral etc. Don't plan on drinking the water out of the faucet. Even the Ice maker has a filter we have to change even couple of weeks. The chlorine filter on the kitchen faucet gets worn out about every two weeks. That is ridiculous![/QUOTE]
Carnut, we also have a pool with a cage that looks out on to the lake/large pond. I held out until we found a south facing home with a water location. We do get some really fantastic sunsets while sitting by our pool and drinking our wine. Speaking of drinking, I disconnected the "water system" that came with my house. I have no problems with the city water. it's amazing that way back when the high pressure water conditioning equipment salesmen pressured all of Florida old farts to buy into the bad water belief. Your local authorities are required by law to treat the water to just about the same levels of chemicals throughout the united states. Recently the local news station did a blind taste test of 4 bottled waters and the local tap water. You guess the results!!!!!!! People will believe what there forced to believe! Maybe your area really sucks when it comes to chlorinating the water.
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