Boating / real estate opinions Florida

with diesels in a 380, you can easilt make key west from tampa in one tank, and then key west to the bahamas (though most people stop over in miami or thereabouts).

the advantage to a lift is less bottom maintenance. however, me and a million other people keep our boats in the water year round. you deal with it.

the key question here is - what do you want as far as off-water amenities? are you gonna get cable tv, and never leave your house? is a grocery store and 2 restaurants enough? do you want to be part of an urban area? my bet is that you will spend more time off your boat than on it, so you need to think about your shore-side life a little more.

that said - welcome to the West Coast. :)
 
Really! What is he thinking? We didn't go to the boat today, but we went down to another marina in our area and walked the docks in the 75 Degree, calm, almost foggy weather. It was really romantic.
 
I went to a 5 hour softball practice with my daughter, who is desperately trying to make her high school team as a freshman (35 girls going out for 20 spots). There's no JV - you make it or you don't.

I got sunburned sitting there. There are much more creative ways to get a sunburn than just sitting. If I could only think of one........
 
jacksonville could be a hidden gem. I own 2 homes here. One 1500 sq feet on canal just yards from the intracoastal valued at $550k.

Other home is in Floridas only freshwater lagoon with a lock that goes to the intracoastal. Starting at 1 million.
www.qhycc.com
 
My brother lived in Vero Beach for 10 years....not sure what real estate prices are doing there...since he hasn't lived there for about 5 years. It was a beautiful area (as most of Florida is). We spent alot of time visiting there.....
 
Price-wise, you've all missed one area on the east coast that beats everything mentioned so far. Ocean access homes in Port St. Lucie start at $250K at the moment. This puts you in a home that's probably an hour cruise (10-12 nautical miles) from the Stuart inlet. There are two fixed bridges, but there's plenty of clearance. My neighbor has a 48 foot Bayliner and has no trouble. Best of all, most of Port St. Lucie waterways are in or next to preserve land. At the end of our canal, you're in the Florida of two hundred years ago. As for land activities, West Palm is a 40 minute drive. Good restaurants, culture, yada, yada, yada.
 
Port St. Lucie certainly has some very nice homes, for some very reasonable prices. I am checking on Stuart Florida also.
 
I live in Pittsburgh and boat on Lake Erie. I wanted to get a head start on FL living but with a big desire to golf as well.

Went to Ocean Reef and that place was way too expensive and seemed to isolated. Drove up to Stuart and looked at Harbor something golf place that had a marina and i thought that would be a great place to start.

Went down to golf, didnt like it, but liked this place near Jupiter for golf, but there was no marina. Sailfish point in Stuart was very nice, but isolated.

Looked at Vero, and was thinking about there. Guy i know has a home there and just got an 06 44DA and is thrilled with that. He commutes and his Citation XL makes that very unpainful. He can't say enough about how nice VB is. Of course, when you talk to the Ocean Reef people and Miami and FTL realtors, they talk about this latitude being as north as you can go, before you start getting colder winter wx (all relative of course) and that below FTL is where you want to be.

Went to the FLBS and seeing those homes and boats wow------think it would be about 3 lottery wins to get into there.

All the guys i golf with in western PA, 90% are on the west coast--marco, naples, bonita springs and ft meyers. the rest are in hilton head and east coast.

There seems to be this big thing up here about the west coast...laid back, easier going, midwest people and the peace is all around you except the traffic is horrible. and i dont know too many on the east, but i guess it is the opposite.

Talked to a big boat owner and he is a custom home builder who lives in ft meyers but keeps his sonship in ftl because he likes "the action" and the bahamas.

If 2-5-13-19-49 and 51 hit tomorrow, think i would join jupiter hills, live very close to there on the intercoastal and start sweating out the first trip to the islands.
 
I just got back from a long weekend in SW Florida. I landed in Tampa and stayed in Sarasota. I also visited the St. Petersburg, Long Boat Key, Siesta Key and Punta Gorda/Port Charloette areas.

I spent half a day with a realtor in Punta Gorda Isles and I love the area. Now...I just have to get the admiral to buy in!

My observations.....

A nice 2000-2700 sq ft home, less than 10 years old, on a Sailboat lot (no fixed bridge) with 20- 40 minute access to the open Bay will run from $500K-650K. Same homes, with longer low speed access will be less and those with shorter run to open bay will be more. All homes have concrete seawalls that are owned and maintained by the town. All homes I looked at had pools and a caged in lanai. All were 3 bedrooms with 2, 2.5 or 3 baths and 2 car garage. They all had some lenth of dock off the seawall and about half had a lift installed, but generally they were for a smaller boat (I did see some large boats, including sailboats, on lifts in the neighborhood).

If your boat can fit under a fixed bridge (13' minimum clearance at Summertime Hightide) than you can save ~$75K for the same house with similar ride to open water.
 
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Punta Gorda Isles is where my mother in law's house is (and my boat) I love boating down there! Very small quiet town but great for boating. Did you happen to get to boat around any?
 
Miami is the place to be! Property is a bit expensive though. I checked on waterfront homes yesterday and found several in the low seven figures. But the water here is terrific. When it's blowing, you can stay in the bay. When it's calm, your's just hours from the Bahamas! Or, you can be in the Florida Keys drinking maragtitas regardless of the weather...
 
Boating in SW Florida is interesting. Naples is pricy. Nothing on the water for less than $2MM. As you go up the coast it gets slightly better so you can probably find something on the water in the $1.5MM by Bonita and maybe something cheaper in Ft. Myers. If that is out of your price range Cape Coral has lots of canals for access to the river and the coast.

As someone said earlier, Ft Myers is nothing to write home about. It all depends on what you like. Bonita where I live has three malls and about 100 restaurants.

Naples is at the top of the food chain if you like to spend money. But it is kind of a retirement home for millionaires is probably the best description.

Part of the issue is that there is a lack of canals and accessible water front. There are almost no public marinas thus the big prices. The living is great if you can figure out the boating with these limitations. One alternative is to purchase a condo that has a marina. Our tower has homes in the $800,000 range for the first couple of floors and up the higher you get and you can buy a slip for under $200,000. So for a $1MM you're in and living with your boat close and probably a view.

It sounds cheaper to live in the Punta Gorda area but not much in the way of amenities and shopping. St. Pete sounds like the best deal. Nice boating, cheap prices and lots of amenities. But they do have plenty of people.

As for boating I think you will find that there are plenty of islands and restaurants to keep you going along the coast. On the west coast the water is nice in the summer because of the east breeze. And yes the water in Miami is beautiful, as long as you like lots of people.
 
It sounds cheaper to live in the Punta Gorda area but not much in the way of amenities and shopping.

Huh? What is your definition of "amenities and shopping"?

I would argue it's best to buy property where it hasn't inflated so much... sorta that "buy low sell high" thingy...
 
I was trying to be kind. In part, Florida has grown at a rapid pace. Unfortunately a lot of people had the idea to invest in Florida without assessing whether it was an investment that made any sense. That is why Cape Coral (just south of Punta Gorda) has the highest rate of foreclosures in the country right now. A whole lot of people thought that it didn't matter where you bought because everyone was making money.

Guess what. All those homes that sold in the areas with no amenties have lost upwards of 60-70% of their value. No surprise because the areas we are talking about don't have anything to offer in terms of entertainment or things to do.

Everyone knows the old line about buy low sell high. There are no such rules in Florida. There are some awsome places to live in Florida on the one hand and then there are some God forsaken areas I wouldn't touch with a 12 foot pole.
The best advice I could give anyone is to rent a place down here for a couple of years and find out what you like to do and whether the spot you pick meets your expectations. Some people like the people energy of a Ft Lauderdale/Miami and others like it a little more tranquil like Melborne. Some like the quiet gulf waters and others like the pounding surf. Some like the northern part because it is more seasonal in weather and others like the tropical climate of the southern region.

So to answer your question, it sounds to me like Tampa/st. Pete is a pretty good value. Oh, I already said that. :smt024
 
Well... I'll disclose that I own a house on a canal down in Port Charlotte and I still don't know what you mean by "amenities"... Let's see... they have several shopping malls, movie theaters, bowling allies, bars, chain restaurants, a few Home Depots, Wal-Mart, gas stations, auto parts stores, car dealerships, several big hospitals... So I don't get it. They don't have a state college or a sports team (although they do have a nice big ball park with some minor league action)...
 
Nah... It has my mother and her lazy ass piece of shit boyfriend in it.

I'm not bitter.
 
Well, to say the least, there is a HUGE 'adjustment' happening to all FL real estate. My friend just bought a house in Apalachicola for $1.9M beach front. The builder had paid $2M for the lot and spent $2.5M in hard costs building the house in 2006 and then sat on it 15 months before selling for $1.9M. He has 19 more just like it.

Stories like that are everywhere up and down the coast. If you have liquid money and can ride the storm, it is a buyers market there.

And besides, Gary's lazy azzed step boyfriend is there bring property values down.
 
Leo Leo, I agree.I just got home after 2 weeks in Miami Beach. I looked at a condo on the bay(Alton Rd) with marina, pool, and all the amenities. 3 bedroom 1700 sq ft,and such a view. 800k down 240k from last winter. I will retire on the bay. Great boating and more.
 
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