Which Florida property or not?

[nimblemotors]

I didn't think anywhere had oceanside property cheap anymore! including outside the USA. I lived in Florida for a few years, humidty is horrible, all the south is,
but with the boat I guess you can leave for the summer right?
Doesn't New Orleans have some cheap property these days?
We were looking for a while, St. Croix seemed to have some good deals as far as places we might want to live with great weather.

in st croix shack for $400k:



$600K:

[Privleoplag]

Hello Sy,
Yes, their property looks very good, but google maps shows Singer Island to be 165 miles or so from where most of the family is buying properties now. Love the beach that is so close too! Too bad it's east side instead of west.
thanks.
Maybe we see you cruising in the future!

Originally Posted by sy_gilana

PS, the reason I put you on to my friends who want to sell their house with a dock is, if they sell it they come cruising as our buddy boat!

[Privleoplag]

Scarcity of rules alone could make them worth that from what I'm seeing.
Yes, I'm thinking we would use a new place as a base once in awhile. We're soon 5-6 months out of the northland for the winters, but back to the northland for the summers. The northland has it's good things, but winter is not one of them... and we're still in it! And by the looks of all the snow and what the forcasts are like, will be for awhile yet!

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

I didn't think anywhere had oceanside property cheap anymore! including outside the USA. I lived in Florida for a few years, humidty is horrible, all the south is,
but with the boat I guess you can leave for the summer right?
Doesn't New Orleans have some cheap property these days?
We were looking for a while, St. Croix seemed to have some good deals as far as places we might want to live with great weather.

in st croix shack for $400k:



$600K:

[bobconnie]

Somebody said the magic word ! Louisiana. There are lots and lots of bayou side property with or with out docks, plenty of water and home costs are a lot LESS then anything you will find in Fla. just go on line and take a look ! we like it and have lived in both places ! Just our 2 cents

[SearenitySail]

Another vote for Cape Coral--a little further south than Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte and probably the most affordable right now. Certainly moreso than Naples.

As for canals and sailboat access, there is a PDQ 36 catamaran on the canal where my mother lives and there was a Lagoon 35 catamaran on the same canal.

Marshall

[ebaugh]

We lived in St Petersburg on the water from 1990 to 2011. 8ft at the dock, at least 7 ft and one opening bridge to the gulf. Sold the house to go cruising.... Not able to help much in your stated area, but St Pete is one hour north by car from your window.

A draft of 4 ft helps, but some canals would be a stretch for the beam of some cats. We lived in the Maximo/Broadwater area, which has the canal width and depths for sail, costs were running under 200K for a fixer upper 3/2, to 470K for a remodeled 3/2 pool home on the bigger lots. 1800-2400 sqft.

But...consider carefully. Taxes alone on my house for a new owner are more than slip rent for a 40-50 foot boat. Property Insurance rates are pretty high, especially if you are coming from out of state. So don't forget to look at those making your decision. Taxes, Insurance and maintenance for us would have equaled rental value. There was no way to support a mortgage. Renting begins to look pretty good depending on your long term perception of the market.

Cape Coral and Punta Gorda I think are slightly less expensive markets, but with less "sailboat" property.

Good luck, I hope you find what you want!

[Privleoplag]

Originally Posted by SearenitySail

Another vote for Cape Coral--a little further south than Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte and probably the most affordable right now. Certainly moreso than Naples.

As for canals and sailboat access, there is a PDQ 36 catamaran on the canal where my mother lives and there was a Lagoon 35 catamaran on the same canal.

Marshall

We're a bit bigger boat than either of those but not by much. Would you care to share a location of that canal and would you happen to know of any signs in the yards?

[Privleoplag]

Originally Posted by ebaugh

We lived in St Petersburg on the water from 1990 to 2011. 8ft at the dock, at least 7 ft and one opening bridge to the gulf. Sold the house to go cruising.... Not able to help much in your stated area, but St Pete is one hour north by car from your window.

A draft of 4 ft helps, but some canals would be a stretch for the beam of some cats. We lived in the Maximo/Broadwater area, which has the canal width and depths for sail, costs were running under 200K for a fixer upper 3/2, to 470K for a remodeled 3/2 pool home on the bigger lots. 1800-2400 sqft.

But...consider carefully. Taxes alone on my house for a new owner are more than slip rent for a 40-50 foot boat. Property Insurance rates are pretty high, especially if you are coming from out of state. So don't forget to look at those making your decision. Taxes, Insurance and maintenance for us would have equaled rental value. There was no way to support a mortgage. Renting begins to look pretty good depending on your long term perception of the market.

Cape Coral and Punta Gorda I think are slightly less expensive markets, but with less "sailboat" property.

Good luck, I hope you find what you want!

Ebaugh,
Thanks for that info and advice.. For sure have to consider everything and I'm sure those "extras" will come to light as we keep looking. Good information though for sure. Our boat drafts less than 4' but has near 20' beam and 38' length. we'll google up St. Pete.

[cheoah]

When I bought my boat in Punta Gorda in 2010, I looked at a real estate paper and could not believe the deals. But I wasn't looking at air draft or any other details. I would think there is plenty of good local cruising from what I saw coming home, and good access across the gulf, or across or down the gulf stream for even more good cruising.

Dude you're looking in the wrong place if you don't do well being told what to do. Those people will crucify you for building outbuildings, making too much noise, or any other nuisance that might just be part of your routine. As s/v Illusion said, people in these neighborhoods are paying for their lifestyle - I can understand that. I could never willingly adapt to that kind of density, and already feel encroached on when people build on the edge of the 1200 acres where I live.

There are many better places to live on the gulf or atlantic coasts, less restrictive, but with fishing and farming people living along with retirees or boaters. I'm sure there are lots of reasons for looking there, and if that's what you want, I'd keep looking, but sounds like the really cheap deals are gone. Cash buyers would have been foolish to pass up some of the deals of the last 5 years. It really is beautiful down there, if you can adapt to the population density and culture.

[TacomaSailor]

My folks, brother (use to own a Tartan 42), and sister have lived in Cape Coral, Ft Myers since 1985.

My wife and I have looked at hundreds of sailboat properties in the area during the last 20 years.

Burnt Store Marina just north of Cape Coral (Pine Island Blvd) has some great condos and townhouses with no bridges and docks immediately in front of the residence. Some of those units are currently selling for 1/3 of what they were 10 - 12 years ago.

Be really careful about:

- bridge clearances (our 60' mast will not fit under the Cape Coral Parkway bridge as our sister discovered.)

- coral ridges in canals that make the water beyond them inaccessible to a sailboat. We made an offer on a beautiful place between El Dorado and Cape Coral Pkwy. The water depth at our docks was about 8' but when we sounded the canal from my fathers fishing boat between our dock and the river we found two ridges that brought the canal bottom up to 4' 6" and were the full width of the canal.

- long shallow and tough to find channels in sounds like Pine Sound north of St James City on the east side of Pine Island. We found several beautiful houses with just short canals to the sound but then it was 30 minutes of tedious motoring to get out to sailing water

- locations that do not have secure tie offs for hurricanes. We found several nice houses/docks but it was obvious that in a hurricane it would be impossible to secure the boat to protect it. My brother who used to own a Tartan 42 lived in Cape Coral during Charlie and said he watched many sailboats that seemed to be well secured disappear into the rain.

- lots behind the locks. We tried to buy several condos with docks that required passage thru the locks. We spend months at a time in Cape Coral and visit the locks frequently. It is not un-common for them to be out of service for weeks at a time. And, they are very slow and tedious.

There are a lot of very nice sailboat houses/condos but a 64' mast and the resultant draft will require you to be very careful.

Feel free to e-mail for more info.

[Smokingator]

Originally Posted by cheoah

When I bought my boat in Punta Gorda in 2010, I looked at a real estate paper and could not believe the deals. But I wasn't looking at air draft or any other details. I would think there is plenty of good local cruising from what I saw coming home, and good access across the gulf, or across or down the gulf stream for even more good cruising.

Dude you're looking in the wrong place if you don't do well being told what to do. Those people will crucify you for building outbuildings, making too much noise, or any other nuisance that might just be part of your routine. As s/v Illusion said, people in these neighborhoods are paying for their lifestyle - I can understand that. I could never willingly adapt to that kind of density, and already feel encroached on when people build on the edge of the 1200 acres where I live.

There are many better places to live on the gulf or atlantic coasts, less restrictive, but with fishing and farming people living along with retirees or boaters. I'm sure there are lots of reasons for looking there, and if that's what you want, I'd keep looking, but sounds like the really cheap deals are gone. Cash buyers would have been foolish to pass up some of the deals of the last 5 years. It really is beautiful down there, if you can adapt to the population density and culture.

Yes. You don't need to live in Marco proper. Check out Goodland. Still country, a cracker rural area

[denverd0n]

Well, if you really have that big of a problem with "rules" then you probably aren't going to find what you want for less than a couple of million or so. The neighborhoods with lots of houses on canals are almost all going to have Home Owners Associations, with rules out the wazoo.

I think you have, in essence, created a set of mutually exclusive criteria for yourself.

Good luck, though. Maybe you'll get lucky.

[Boatguy30]

My experience is that most people with cruising sailboats docked in there backyards is that they don't ever go cruising. Certainly there are exceptions, but having lived in FL waterway communities for 15 years that Is what I have found. If you want to go cruising, I would skip the house. I'm only ashore myself at the moment because of the age of my children and being between yachts.

It is really shocking to total the outgoings: taxes, water, garbage, internet, insurance, law care, etc, etc. Also, you've probably missed the boat on the good bargains as it seems waterfront prices are up roughly 20-50% from the lows in the areas you're looking.

[Kettlewell]

The biggest issue I think is that your boat isn't really suited to Florida west coast cruising since the standard bridge height over most of the ICW there is 55 feet. You will be very limited in where you can go and how you can get there. If you are just looking for a cheap way to store your boat you might as well take the mast down and go to one of the storage yards on the Okeechobee and have it hauled out--much cheaper than dockage or owning a home and better hurricane protection for the boat.

[haw1961]

Yea Boatguy, The boat in the backyard syndrome. It is unbelieveable the boats that sit there and never move. If I were looking for a boat deal I think I would cruise the canals down there, and make some offers. Only problem, they all want a fortune for them. They don't see what everybody else see's.