Thinking about moving to Fort Myers, Florida area

[Kerouactivist]

I'm thinking about relocating to the Fort Myers, Fl area...
I live in rural MO. right now but am needed to be closer to civilization do to the type of work I do....
I need to be close to an airport with cheap domestic flights, within easy driving distance to multiple Urban areas, Hispeed internet access, and live in a place with a relatively low cost of living....

Apparently, the housing and job market in that part of Florida is in the dumps...
I've looked at some prices online for the lehigh acres area and seen nice homes with pools selling for under 75k...
I'm not dependent on the local area for my job so where I live so that isn't important as long as the other things I talked above are.

Anybody, know much about the area or have any advice on other locations to consider????

I've been to the area several times and really enjoyed Sanibel and Ft. Myers Beach....But I've read that crime is getting bad down there.

 

[Freshgeardude]

fort lauderdale florida area.

including sunrise, plantation, davie

 

[TruePaige]

12.8% unemployment there right now.

 

[compuwiz1]

DON"T DO IT! You will die there. Read the statistics....more people move to Florida than move out. The cemetary business is booming there. :shocked:

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: compuwiz1
DON"T DO IT! You will die there. Read the statistics....more people move to Florida than move out. The cemetary business is booming there. :shocked:

And by cemetery business he means soylent green business.

 

[melchoir]

I live in the area. Don't bother with Lehigh, it's garbage. Try Fort Myers, South Fort Myers, or Cape Coral, The majority of the crime is probably in the East Fort Myers and Lehigh areas.
The job market isn't the greatest IMO, but it depends on what your industry is. Houses can definitely be found.. Yesterday I looked at a 3 car garage home with a pool on 3 lots with a 5 foot fence in place, they were asking $141,900.

 

[TruePaige]

Originally posted by: Newbian

Originally posted by: compuwiz1
DON"T DO IT! You will die there. Read the statistics....more people move to Florida than move out. The cemetary business is booming there. :shocked:

And by cemetery business he means soylent green business.

And by soylent green business he means the Chinese have a baby formula factory there.

 

[Tremulant]

Originally posted by: TruePaige

Originally posted by: Newbian

Originally posted by: compuwiz1
DON"T DO IT! You will die there. Read the statistics....more people move to Florida than move out. The cemetary business is booming there. :shocked:

And by cemetery business he means soylent green business.

And by soylent green business he means the Chinese have a baby formula factory there.

Using the old to feed the young. :music:The Circle of Life:music:

 

[bobdole369]

I'm thinking about relocating to the Fort Myers, Fl area...

It's a trap.

Seriously. The area only exploded due to the housing bubble, now only old people are left and the housing and job markets are ridiculous. In 5 years it'll be like cherynobyl or something. There is nothing there for you. Crime is preparing to ramp up as literally tens of thousands of foreclosed houses are a squatters paradise. I imagine crackhouses and meth labs and grow houses will spring up everywhere around there.

Move to broward - fort lauderdale instead. At least there is "some" industry, a marine market, and a huge service industry, and a somewhat inflated but still quasi-reasonable cost of living/housing.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: compuwiz1
DON"T DO IT! You will die there. Read the statistics....more people move to Florida than move out. The cemetary business is booming there. :shocked:

I don't put them in cemetaries though.

 

[Kerouactivist]

Seems like alot of negative opinons on that area.

 

[JDub02]

my grandparents live in north ft. myers. i was there about 3 years ago. was pretty nice then. lots of old folks, though. i'd probably recommend the tampa area over ft. myers.

 

[Kroze]

Have you looked at port saint lucie area? They are very cheap too.

 

[sindows]

I live in Fl but IMO if you want to be near civilization, FL is not the place to go.

 

[Ksyder]

My brother is in Cape Coral and he thinks its "ok" there.... they drive to Miami when they want to go somewhere they enjoy. He seems to think Cape Coral is somewhat of a hick town and its not his cup of tea exactly... He prefers to live in big city and clearly Cape Coral is not it. However, I know he flies back to Cleveland for work for cheap so you are covered on the cheap airline travel part of it. I have not been there personally so I can't comment much more about it.

 

[Glitchny]

UGH florida. So glad i left

 

[xanis]

Old people, lots of them. Stay away.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: Xanis
Old people, lots of them. Stay away.

yeh, my grandparents wintered there. terrible driving around with all the old and shouldn't be driving any more people, around.

 

[fbrdphreak]

I just moved to Fort Lauderdale from Raleigh, NC for a job. Unemployment sucks...but it's not much worse than being down here (kidding...sorta).

The place is a bit of a culture shock. A lot of people are downright rude or entirely fake. The drivers are fucking insane. If you don't live within 2 blocks of where you want to go, it takes 30 minutes+ to get there due to traffic and the shitty timing of traffic lights. Most stuff is more expensive here. It rained nearly every day for the entire month of May, usually on my 30-45 minute commute home. It isn't much hotter here than NC, but the sun will cook you.

There is a lot of cultural stuff here and within a few hours drive to places like Tampa or Orlando. It looks like you can find decently priced houses, we'll be probably be buying later this year. Walking in public, you'll hear more conversations in foreign languages than English. Lots of Spanish, but not migrant illegal Mexicans like in NC. Lots of gang activity and crime in Miami & Oakland Park - don't live near I-95.

I'd say the further north in FL you are, the better. Boca Raton, Palm Beach, etc seem to be nicer than Ft Laud & further south.

If I were you and had a choice of where I wanted to live, I'd live somewhere else. Raleigh is nice...

 

[Kerouactivist]

I may have to open the search to a larger area...

 

[El Guaraguao]

buy a truck and get a free AK47 and you dont have to worry about crime.

 

[Qacer]

Try looking into Tampa... Aside from the stuff that you see in the news, there are generally good people here. Plus, you can get a nice house with a pool for less than $160k.

 

[Kerouactivist]

Originally posted by: Qacer
Try looking into Tampa... Aside from the stuff that you see in the news, there are generally good people here. Plus, you can get a nice house with a pool for less than $160k.

I'm still thinking further south than that....I just wanna get a nice house for cheap, be close to a cheap airport...and not have to worry about crime very much.

 

[Kerouactivist]

hmm I'm still mulling this over any other opinions or ideas?

 

[lxskllr]

Florida's hot. Move to Washington.