Boat U.S. - May 2008 - (Page 32) SW Florida on Sale Cape Harbour on Florida’s Gulf Coast is billed as a “Yachting Community.” Located in Cape Coral, the development features a 76-slip marina and a boat house providing indoor storage for vessels up to 35 feet. The boater from Albany, NY, got everything he wanted — 130 feet of waterfront in a city of swaying palm trees that offers both bluewater and back-bay fishing as well as waterfront dining and nearby Robinson Crusoe-like beaches. What he really can’t get over, though isn’t his fortune at finding the location; it’s his keen sense of timing. He snagged his Fort Myers, FL, canal-front home for $610,000 rather than the $1.1 million it would have listed for two years ago. The longstanding real estate agent mantra —”location, location, location” — has changed to “timing, timing, timing,” and in the Fort Myers-Cape Coral area on Florida’s Gulf Coast it couldn’t be more true. Continued uncertainty about the housing market nationwide has left places previously untouched by downturns downright affordable these days, even for boaters only seeking waterfront living. “You can get a really nice piece of property at 2003 prices plus 10% right 32 BoatU.S. Magazine May 2008 Photo courtesy of Cape Harbour now,” said Trae Zipperer, a Fort Myers, FL-based agent who only lists residential waterfront real estate and uses his 22-foot Shearwater to show property. He is serious enough about finding homes for boaters that his web address includes the words “waterfront authority.” In the mid-2000s when buying and flipping property was a sure-fire way to make fast cash, Fort Myers quickly outpaced the nation in prices so only the heavy rollers could come to the table. Now the place of tropical drinks and daily sunshine — the average annual low temperature is a mere 64 degrees — is an affordable reality for those who can afford to act. The median home price for a singlefamily home sold by a realtor in Lee County, which includes Fort Myers, Sanibel and Cape Coral, was $322,320 in December 2005 at the height of the boom. By January 2008 it dropped 27% to $234,000, the latest month for which prices are available. The greater Fort Myers area is appealing to boaters, though, not just because of its recent waterfront affordability and weather. It’s a place where you can own a small boat but still enjoy amenities such as waterfront dining, nationally ranked fishing grounds and Discovery Channel-style wildlife viewing. A chain of barrier islands front the Gulf of Mexico with sugar-sand beaches, and those same islands offer protected backwaters. Lots of them. Lee County alone has more than 238 square miles of inland waterways. More than 300 species of birds can be spied here. World-renowned tarpon fishing draws former President George H.W. Bush and his extended family. Yet, it’s not like living in the sticks. “The community is well-balanced with access to good health care, good shopping and cultural events, but you can still have your boat on the water in the backyard,” said Christina Porter, an independent realtor who moved to Cape Coral in 1987 “to have my boat in my backyard.” Her company’s logo transforms the “C” in “Cape” to a palm tree and harbors a boat
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