This video highlights the BEST and WORST parts of living in Fort Myers, Florida. As with anything in life, there are Pros and Cons and my goal with this video is to give you a true sense of what it’s like living in Fort Myers, Florida.

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If you have questions on the area, let me know in the comments below or…for information on finding a home, please fill out the following form. https://forms.gle/a6BbUUdYT3zKaZvX8. If you’re considering a move to Fort Myers, Florida, we need to talk.

In this video, we’re going to talk about the pros and the cons of living in Fort Myers. I’ve lived in Fort Myers since 2006, so I have 15 years of my life invested in this city, I call home, which I absolutely love. This has given me the unique opportunity to have perspective on what’s great and what’s not so great about living here. Let’s talk about pro number one, the beaches in Fort Myers are amazing. Fort Myers beach is the highlight. There are seven miles of beach that makes up Fort Myers beach. You also have very close access to the Island of Sanibel, the Island of Captiva, as well as, if you wanted to go further South, you could go to Bonita beach, Naples, or even Marco Island. There are plenty of beaches to be enjoyed here in Southwest Florida. That brings me to con number one, access to the beaches in Fort Myers is not that easy unless you live on the beach. If you live in other parts of Fort Myers, and you want to go to Fort Myers beach, there is one bridge that goes over the North end of Fort Myers beach from Fort Myers. If you want to get at it from the South, you would have to go up through Bonita beach. That access, especially during season can be very restricted and it takes a long time to get over that bridge. So you can imagine when a lot of people plan on going to the beach on a weekend, and there’s one bridge with one lane each way, what that traffic can be like.

For pro number two, this is the reason why people move to Fort Myers. It’s because of the weather; it is absolutely incredible. Especially during the winter months, the winter months, when it is cold up North and your friends are just buried in snow, you get to laugh at them and send them pictures of Palm trees. It’s just such a glorious thing, but it gives them an excuse to come down and visit as well. So the weather is absolutely a reason to be in Fort Myers. Con number two, I said weather is a reason to be in Fort Myers, but the weather is also a reason to not be in Fort Myers. That is because in the summer months especially, have some hectic weather that comes mainly through hurricanes. We all know hurricanes come through Florida, which can be scary and you want to get out of Fort Myers when that is the case. We also have high humidity in the summer months, which after time, I don’t know the science behind it. They say your blood thins out, but over time it becomes not so unbearable. Generally, the high is only about 93, 94 degrees in the summer months, but the humidity can certainly sneak up on you. That’s really where the discomfort comes from in the summer with the weather. We are now onto pro number three for living in Fort Myers and it has everything to do with lifestyle, with our beautiful weather.

We want to be out there enjoying it and if you like to enjoy the outdoors, Southwest Florida is an amazing place to do that. Whether you like to go boating out in the Gulf of Mexico or intercoastal waterways, fishing. If you like to play golf, we have over 150 golf courses in all of Southwest Florida, tennis, pickleball, you name it, there are so many activities that can be enjoyed outdoors in Southwest Florida. I want to add to the lifestyle side of things; the nature here in Fort Myers is incredible. The other day I had a friend who came into town that was just enjoying the Banyan trees and the Palm trees and all of the wildlife that we have here in Southwest Florida. I have to admit, after living here all of these years, I sort of took that for granted and it helped me really understand how special of a place that we’re in, seeing it from my friend’s perspective.

Con number three, let’s talk about the critters in Southwest Florida. We have lots of critters, lots of different wildlife, like I mentioned with nature, but we also have lots of bugs. We have mosquitoes, which the County does a fairly good job of keeping them at Bay. We also have these tiny little bugs that are called No-See-Ums, because you can’t see them. They’re like a sand flea that after sunset, if you’re anywhere near the Gulf of Mexico, or the beach, they’ll bite you and they hurt worse than any mosquito that I’ve ever been bit by. We also have Palmetto bugs, which is a form of cockroach. Then we have the bigger ones, the alligators, the rats, even bears and those types of things in Southwest Florida. That’s just something to be aware of when you come into town.

Pro number four, Fort Myers is home to a wonderful airport. The Airport code is RSW, Regional Southwest, but it’s actually an international airport. Fort Myers airport actually, services all of Southwest Florida. Naples has its own small airport. Marco Island has a small airport and there’s another small airport in Fort Myers, but RSW is the main international airport. Security is very easy; it’s easy to get in and out of. It’s one of those airports where when you get off the plane, your luggage is basically coming out on the belt as you go downstairs to pick it up. It’s very convenient, very well located in South Fort Myers, which makes it really easy for travel. If you live in Fort Myers just to go to the airport, it’s very simple to get there and is a big asset in Southwest Florida.

Con number four, traffic. Nobody enjoys traffic and here in Southwest Florida, during our winter months, that’s called our season. Our population swells, it basically doubles in size and the roads can have a little bit of a challenge handling that swelling, that burden, that surge in population. We have exactly one highway that travels through Fort Myers and that is I-75, going North and South. We also have us 41, which is the commercial Tamiami trail, the business section. Other than that, you’re using the roads within the city. So you’re not able to jump from highway to highway, to get to where you need to go, so you’re dealing with a lot of stoplights. They’ve widened a lot of these roads, but traffic can be a challenge.

It’s not quite as bad in Fort Myers, as it is further South in Naples. Again, during season, it’s just something to be aware of, to add a little bit extra travel time when planning out your day. Pro number five, this is a big one because this impacts your wallets, your savings account and your wellbeing financially. That is taxes, which is a huge pro in Fort Myers and really the state of Florida is the one to give the majority of that credit to. So we do not have a State income tax in Florida, so we’re seeing a lot of folks from different States around the country like, Illinois, New York, Connecticut, California, are coming to Southwest Florida because they’re tired of paying the amount of taxes that they’re paying at a State level. Not having State income tax is, that’s a very big deal.

We also have something called a homestead exemption in the State of Florida. So if you own property here as your primary residence, you get a tax break off of your real estate taxes. So there are many tremendous benefits of that living and owning property here in Florida. Now here’s where I want to hear from you. I want to know what you’re looking forward to the most about moving to Fort Myers. What you’re looking forward to the least, what are your pros and cons about moving to the area? Or if you already live here, what are the pros and cons that you have experienced? Please comment below, look forward to speaking with you soon, make it a blessed day.
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Brad Dohack | Broker, Team Lead | Gulf Pointe Properties | HomeSearchinSWFlorida.com | 239.839.1168