Cape Coral

[freddyCF]

Originally Posted by BakinMama

Is it family friendly?
I have an 18 month old and a 3.5 year old. There is a lot of stuff for us to do and - in fact - our moms calendar is packed with tons of various activities. Seriously, there is something different to do on a nearly daily basis. Open gyms, tons of great city parks, Mike Greenwells, art classes at the City Art Studio, swimming at the Yacht Club. There are lots of great things to do just over the bridge - Sun Harvest, Imaginarium, Little Dippers, Bounce & Glow, the beach, Pump It Up, not to mention Ding Darling on Sanibel and all of the neat little museums. There are lots of great eco tours and wading.

I've heard the school districts aren't "great"?
Almost every Cape school is an A-rated school. I can't say much for their curriculum as my daughter will only be starting VPK this fall at a charter school. My understanding is that the BIGGEST problem is school choice.

Stay in the "south" side vs the "north" side?
We've lived in the SW and currently own in the NW and prefer the NW. Not very much through traffic - it takes me five minutes to get to Publix, Walgreens, my gym, Kohl's, Michael's, Neighborhood Walmart, gas stations, tons of restaurants along Pine Island Rd.and my daughters preschool. It takes me approx. ten minutes to get to Lowe's, Target, Staples, Bed Bath and Beyond, Petsmart, etc.

We live in a good neighborhood - we are close to a city softball field and a brand new city library. All of our neighbors own their homes and there is only one foreclosure on our block. That being said - our inlaws live in SW and there are at least four foreclosures on their block and probably the same number of homes are either vacation rentals or annual rentals. Very transient neighborhood. We feel safe in our home and like our neighbors

As someone else mentioned, the NW Cape has yet to be hooked up to city water. It is an expense for sure, but that is just something you have to understand if you buy in this area. Not ALL of SW is on city water and certainly not all of SW has paid their hook-up bill. When we were house searching, every single house we looked at in SW Cape still had 3/4 of their hookup that hadn't been paid. I mean, these people weren't paying their mortgage - they certainly weren't paying the city for water hookup.

Property taxes and homeowners insurance are outrageous?
Not ours. Our home insurance is around $1K a year. Our taxes this year were about $2200 but after homestead, they will fall to closer to $800.

Very useful info, thanks. I am recently retired and and wanted to relocate from NY down to Cape Coral. I was limiting my housing search to the SW areas and was advised to not even look at the NW (because of water/sewer assessments, crime, etc.) Just looking for some peace and quiet.

[nhkev]

Originally Posted by freddyCF

Very useful info, thanks. I am recently retired and and wanted to relocate from NY down to Cape Coral. I was limiting my housing search to the SW areas and was advised to not even look at the NW (because of water/sewer assessments, crime, etc.) Just looking for some peace and quiet.

the nw has the least amount of crime and the house prices on avg are less expensive because of future assessments and probably afford the most peace and quiet

[rikoshaprl]

Originally Posted by freddyCF

Very useful info, thanks. I am recently retired and and wanted to relocate from NY down to Cape Coral. I was limiting my housing search to the SW areas and was advised to not even look at the NW (because of water/sewer assessments, crime, etc.) Just looking for some peace and quiet.

Fred, I just bought a home in SE Cape. It is considered urban. It might not be as quiet as you like unless you keep away from the main drags. I like it because I like to be real close to restaurants and shopping. It's just about as urban as Nassau county where I came from, only wamer.

[Samiamnh]

I bought a place last year in SE,one block off Del Prado and the property is surrounded by all kinds of adult trees and vegetation......it's great.Like living in the everglades with total privacy.Even the dock is surrounded by sea grape trees.

[BakinMama]

Originally Posted by freddyCF

Very useful info, thanks. I am recently retired and and wanted to relocate from NY down to Cape Coral. I was limiting my housing search to the SW areas and was advised to not even look at the NW (because of water/sewer assessments, crime, etc.) Just looking for some peace and quiet.

When we were looking to buy, we weren't too keen on living in the NW - we rented out here for over a year and didn't like it. However, we rented a house pretty much as far north in the Cape as you can get.

Where we live now, we have great neighbors. Only one foreclosure at the end of the block (at our rental, we were the only occupied house on the block... totally scary). The softball complex, the new library, and a high school are right around the corner. It's quiet and everyone is friendly. I wouldn't say that there is more crime here than other areas of the Cape.

We knew assessments hadn't come through and that is something we planned for - it is expensive but... like I said, almost all of the houses we looked at in the SW still had a large balance or hadn't even begun to pay the assessment. In fact, some of them hadn't even technically hooked up yet so we were also looking at that fee. If you are looking to avoid the assessments, you should be looking in SE Cape... they are generally older homes (which isn't necessarily a bad thing here) and don't have assessments attached to them.

[scott26]

Currently I live in NW Cape and like it here. There has been very little talk of crime from the neighbors and my kids play outside everyday. There are lots of things for kids to do in the cape as has been mentioned above. Libraries, parks and rec, ball fields, parks, scouts, bmx, fishing, sunsplash,beach, and thats just in cape coral.

One thing I dont understand is the talk of expensive assessments in the NW. I was told by the city there are no plans to run sewer to my area (diplomat and nelson area). City water IF it comes through is still a few years away and will cost 6000$ with a significant discount if I pay early. When your looking to spend 100-150k on a house 4500$ should not be the deciding factor.

Good luck to the OP a lot of folks are very happy here.

Scott

[BakinMama]

I'm not sure who gave you those numbers because we were told - by the city - that the assessments for our area would be close to $14K (water and sewer).

You are right about it being years away - before we bought our house we looked at the plans for city sewer and water expansion and were told that we are at the very least six years away from dealing with it. You never know though and it is something that could come sooner or later depending on council.

[sushilover86]

I was just bought house in SE (assessments paid off!!)However the first few houses I looked at and liked were in the Northern area and assessments were not paid off, and I was also told it would be about 15k, so that turned me away!

[scott26]

Originally Posted by BakinMama

I'm not sure who gave you those numbers because we were told - by the city - that the assessments for our area would be close to $14K (water and sewer).

You are right about it being years away - before we bought our house we looked at the plans for city sewer and water expansion and were told that we are at the very least six years away from dealing with it. You never know though and it is something that could come sooner or later depending on council.

6000$ for just city water maybe?? Again I was told sewer was not planned for my area at all.

[Donna-501]

I am in the area that keeps going as we are going to get it and then it is off the table until next week. Originally we were suppose to get water and sewer in 1995 for $8,000 for both but still waiting. When we got the papers of the cost last year it was $24,000. Hopefully it will be much cheaper.