I was recently interviewed for the Naples, Florida portion of an article from Yahoo! Finance and Bankrate, Inc. on the 10 Great Places to Retire in the U.S.
Originally, the article was described by the author who interviewed me as, "a piece on median price ranges across the US." After revisions and/or her editor got hold of it, it turned out a bit different.
The median price for Naples homes in this article is very misguiding to consumers looking to move to Florida. Collier County where Naples is located is the largest county in Florida. It encompases most of the everglades and the poor farming town of Immokalee far to the east of Naples where homes can sell for $10,000 or less. A truer depiction of Naples real estate would have been gained from taking the median price of everything west of County Road 951 to the Gulf of Mexico. This would raise the median more than double, perhaps even tripple, the existing $175,000 figure.
Additionally, it was not clear from the author, but the homes pictured are all recently sold homes. The naples sold home pictured for $175,000 in Naples is about 35 to 40 minutes from the beach (longer than is stated in the article). Newer homes closer to the beach can be purchased starting as low as $320,000.
Decent homes built in the last 20 years and within one-half mile of the beach are still in the millions. In Olde Naples a tear-down home or vacant lot within walking distance of the beach will still set you back a million or more and the average median single-family home price is currently $1,429,854. The land in Olde Naples close to the beach is limited and holds it's value because of the world-renown beaches and the charm of the downtown areas of Fifth Ave. South and Third Street South.
Several other cities like Athens, Woodstock and Carlsbad also made the list of real estate reitrement gems. Read the entire article at Yahoo Finance and let me know what you think by commenting below.
Comments(1)