Lived here almost 3 years now UPDATE (about)

[lynnc99]

Babs,

Are you working with a realtor you LOVE?

Because a great realtor (I am NOT a realtor by the way so this isn't advertising of any kind) - can give insight on pricing trends in each area. . I do watch the local market carefully, though, and single family home pricing is only headed upward. Of the neighborhoods you mentioned, I like the "feel" of Island Walk but Longshore Lake is very nice too. The new housing is not leaving established neighborhoods begging, but the population continues to grow. Naples will always be Naples....and will attract baby boomers ready to retire or invest in a 2nd home...so property values will, I believe, hold more steady here. Even at the "low" of 2010, Naples never dipped as low as, say, central Florida.

We live here year round and find that the summer has its own pleasures for the locals, even though it's hot. Most years, we've seen hotter weather spells across the midwest and east.

We are not yet retired and do a lot of volunteer work in the community, so we have no time to be bored. When our kids visit, they tend to be content with beaches, golf, food, and activities for their kids. They live in northern cities so have plenty of access to entertainment venues, but keep in mind we have Spring Training baseball games, Everblades hockey, etc.

Best wishes as you keep looking!

[bbtondo]

Originally Posted by lynnc99

Babs,

Are you working with a realtor you LOVE?

Because a great realtor (I am NOT a realtor by the way so this isn't advertising of any kind) - can give insight on pricing trends in each area. . I do watch the local market carefully, though, and single family home pricing is only headed upward. Of the neighborhoods you mentioned, I like the "feel" of Island Walk but Longshore Lake is very nice too. The new housing is not leaving established neighborhoods begging, but the population continues to grow. Naples will always be Naples....and will attract baby boomers ready to retire or invest in a 2nd home...so property values will, I believe, hold more steady here. Even at the "low" of 2010, Naples never dipped as low as, say, central Florida.

We live here year round and find that the summer has its own pleasures for the locals, even though it's hot. Most years, we've seen hotter weather spells across the midwest and east.

We are not yet retired and do a lot of volunteer work in the community, so we have no time to be bored. When our kids visit, they tend to be content with beaches, golf, food, and activities for their kids. They live in northern cities so have plenty of access to entertainment venues, but keep in mind we have Spring Training baseball games, Everblades hockey, etc.

Best wishes as you keep looking!

Lynn,

Right now we are looking at open houses and models in new communities when we visit along with searching realtor.com, etc. I have been watching home prices in Naples like a hawk over the last 6 years. lol We have a great realtor that we used when we bought our Naples condo in 2009 that we will be using when we're ready to buy. He was excellent.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience living in Naples.

Babs

[Tripower455]

Originally Posted by markjames68

You make an incredibly subjective point. If that 18-35 year old grew up in New York then Naples would appear to be dead. However, if that same person grew up in the Midwest or in a small town then I don't see how Naples would be necessarily considered boring, unless you are only looking at Old Naples and the club scene and not including everything from Fort Myers to Marco.

The question is - what would you consider not boring by comparison? Tampa/St. Pete? Miami?

I was an "18-35 year old that grew up in NY" and loved Naples when I moved here at 22! I missed some stuff, but overall, liked it better than NY.

[gymdogdad]

I wanted to address the health care in Naples. I had a brain anuerysm rupture in April of this year. Astonishingly, I lived through it because Downtown NCH had just recruited an interventional radiologist who is one of the best in the country. I was told that because of the deep pockets in Naples, those same deep pockets demand good health care and are pouring money into the system here to make the health care system here the top of the line. Us middle class will benefit from it. In my case, it worked. I'm 59 years old and had a clean bill of health 2 months prior to the anuerysm. Had I not moved here 2 years ago, I probably would not be alive to write this.

So far this year I've had experience with an interventional radiologist, neurosurgeons, a neurologist, urologists, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, opthomologists, a neuro opthomologist, my primary care physicians, etc. and three trips to the ER. Of those, there is only one I would not recommend. My primary physician is the best I've ever had...very caring and concerned. There are good doctors here, but there are also the ones who are in it for the paycheck, sadly. If you need recommendations, please let me know.

[Harry Binswanger]

I read this blog before deciding to move, which I did on November 4, 2014, and it scared me a little. Some of the comments were very sour.

So I'm writing to re-assure others like me. Naples has been terrific. I love it.

My situation: Moved from midtown Manhattan, where I had lived for 49 years. I grew up outside Richmond, VA, so I like warm weather. I crave it. I am upper middle-income, and many years ago I was pretty wealthy (then investment losses hit). But I can still afford a 3,000 sq. ft. house in a very nice gated community (Banyan Woods). Oh, and I moved at age 70.

Coming from Manhattan, I was concerned about restaurants and shopping. Both are excellent here. Waterside Shops is a small-scale Rodeo Drive (Beverly Hills). Countless great Italian restaurants. But zero good delis, and not much Indian or Chinese.

Weather: I love the summers here. I don't happen to go out in the hottest period of the day (noon to 3pm), but even when I do, I feel like I'm at the beach, not like I'm sweltering in a city. I can't wait for this damn period of highs in the 60s to end (partly due to this year's El Nino, I think) and for summer to return. But I'm unusual that way. Still, I don't hear any complaints about the weather from the year-rounders. It rains (for an hour or two) every single summer afternoon. But it's so warm that it doesn't seem to matter. And, unaccountably, things dry off very quickly once the rain ends. I rate the rain as no problem. If I get caught in a shower, I just get wet--it's a warm rain, and afterwards I dry off. It's not windy here, which I greatly appreciate, but there are balmy summer breezes, which are appreciated. I'm told that the further inland you get, the less the breezes and the more uncomfortable in summer; we live 3 miles inland and it's still lovely.

Feeling out of touch: for decades, I wouldn't leave NYC because I felt that I would be stuck in Nowheresville. I love the pace and excitement and throb of Manhattan. But now, with computer technology, I'm still connected to whoever and whatever I want to be connected to. (While typing this, I was also exchanging text messages on Skype with a friend who lives in the backwoods of Sweden.)

Population: during the winter, it does seem like there's a huge population of old fogies. But nice old fogies (like me). Off-season (late April through Thanksgiving), it seems like the usual distribution of ages. In my development, there are lots of children. There's a huge "industry" here of service people (lawn people, pest control people, roofers, etc.) and they are about 80% Hispanic, and they are very industrious, honest, and friendly. In the nice to luxurious neighborhoods, it seems very safe.

Cost of living: pretty high. I was expecting to save a lot of money, but I can't. One data point is cleaning girls: same hourly rate as in Manhattan: $20/hour. Restaurant food is maybe 20% cheaper than in Manhattan (I'm talking about good restaurants). And if you're coming from apartment living, as I was, you'll be shocked at all the maintenance people you have to hire. But if you're used to having a house, you understand. The upside is: no state income tax!

So the main reason I'm writing is to re-assure people who, like me, might have been worried reading the negative posts.

[movin1]

Try Passage to India for Indian food. Also, 21 Spices, a new restaurant.

For Chinese, we like AZN, Charlie Changs, Zen Asian Bistro and O'mei.

I'm surprised you aren't saving money over living in Manhattan. We're saving a lot compared to living in Central Illinois where the property taxes, power and water bills were killing us.

Our property taxes are 1/2 what they were. In Illinois, we had power bills that were $500 several months in the heat of summer and cold of winter. Here, it $130 a moth year-round. We also had water bills that hit $500 some months in summer in Illinois because we had a big yard, lots of grass and landscaping and had to water it all to keep it from dying.

I figure we're saving $500-$600 a month here on just those 3 expenses. We do have an HOA here, but it's not bad and pays for landscaping maintenance and water.

[markjames68]

Time to grab some Indian food. One thing I do miss about the NY area. Any good Thai here as well?

I am surprised though that Naples restaurants are only 20% cheaper than good NYC restaurants. I've eaten at some of the best (Per Se, Nobu, Gramercy Tavern, Picholine, etc. - all Zagat 26 or higher for food) and it seemed to have been considerably more expensive than in Naples. Perhaps Best NYC > Best Naples, certainly the overhead, taxes and expected tip is higher there.

[movin1]

For Thai, we have tried Em-On's and Araya. Both are pretty good.

Araya has a good happy hour deal on beers and appetizers. Great pot stickers and wings.

Pad Thai was pretty good. Some of the dishes were a little light in flavor, but good healthy cooking, not heavy and oily.

[dcfas]

Resurrecting this great thread because, frankly, folks do not seem to be contributing much to this board anymore.

I happened to be occupying myself with one of my favorite Saturday pastimes in the the great Northeast winter: perusing for sale websites in paradise. I’m currently looking at the Wiggins Bay area.

Wondering how the folks from this old thread are fairing these days. Obviously the real estate market seems to have doubled or tripled your property values since 2015. Not sure I can realistically afford to own there anymore. May have to be relegated to renting only.

[blueskies2023]

it is odd and why is this site now so quiet???