Well, I live in Golden Gate Estates -- waaaaay deep inside too.
There's a number of foreclosed homes out here, mostly due to
people who came from Hilaeh (sp?) and couldn't afford the 3 or 5
year ARM bubble loans -- their mortgages jumped from $500 /month
to $2000+ / month and they couldn't keep up. Making those loans
available was probably one of the few mistakes that Alan
Greenspan made. Then again, if he didn't do it, we would have
been in this recession four years ago. I guess it was a stop-gap
measure. Back to Golden Gate Estates, we picked up a piece of
property via auction for under $10,000 (even after all fees,
etc) - dry land, nearby. We had wanted that property for a long
time, too. What happened is that the prior owner overpaid and
couldn't "flip" like he thought he could. Bank took it over.
That bank sold it to another bank, who didn't want to deal with
it. It went to auction and boom, we were right there, and we got
lucky. The properties got overpriced out here. Is there to be
future growth in Naples, Collier County and in SWFLA in general?
ABSOLUTELY! But it's a 20-30 year plan, not a 2-5 year plan.
People got discouraged, realized that easy money ain't so easy
and ended up screwing themselves by wanting to make a quick buck
during the height of the property values. We're now in the
underside of the property valuations. Whereas two and a half
years ago, this area was "overvalued" by 70% (over what was
considered the national average of upped prices). Now it's
fallen BELOW what it's intrinsically worth. Living here, I can
say that it's virtually crime free - at least that I've seen in
seven years time. Not everybody wants 1 1/4 or 2 1/2 acres to
call their own. Most people want to WALK to places (heck, we'd
like that too). But we can have chickens in our backyard, a goat
- and if we wanted more animals, we could do that. We have it
quiet out here. No police sirens. It's not the life for
everybody. But it's the life for some. The smart buyers are
coming in from Germany and England and France and snapping up
properties left and right. People in the US are still scared
rabbits. I'm no real estate agent -- just a business owner
(animal trapping / nuisance animal pest control and webmaster)
who pays attention to things going on around here. If you don't
mind driving to town, or buying in bulk so that you DON'T have
to go to town every day, if you work from home (as I do) and you
like the quiet and wildlife - this is the place to be. (and grow
houses? Yeah, they're out here. But you wouldn't know it. People
leave each other alone here, that I've seen). Kenneth Udut,
Golden Gate Estates, Naples, Florida Webmaster of [1]Naples FL
News, Jobs, For Sale, Business Directory -
http://free.naplesplus.us Owner of NeighborHelp Referrals'
Affordable Trapping 239-465-9291
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