I meant to mention... I've heard to stay away from Bonita Springs and golden gates? why is that? How is north naples? and naples park? and pelican bay? i am confused. I see them in the map but I do not understand. are these communities in naples? how does it work? Thanks!!

It is a very beautiful place, and I think you will find pretty much all the things you are looking for in Naples and more: the "more" includes a wonderful public library system, good parks and recreation, and easy access to the beach and good public schools even if you prefer private schools. It is indeed a "quiet" place, with a substantial older population. There are bars and such if you want to look for them, but they by no means dominate the town, and it is certainly not a party place like Miami Beach or Key West. There is no shortage of churches of all kinds.

"North Naples" covers a lot of ground, inlcuding Naples Park. Some of it is wonderful, some of it not so hot. Same thing with other neighborhoods, inlcuding Bonita Springs, which is a separate town. Pelican Bay is generally expensive and ritzy and mostly older people. Golden Gate is racially and culturally diverse. You really have to go and look. Prices should be good everywhere since FL real estate has crashed, but that doesn't mean it will be easy to find a house in your particular price bracket in a neighborhood you want.

Since you are not particularly interested in public schools, you are not limited legally to a particular location. I think you need to visit if you possibly could. If you decide to move there, you should probably live in an apartment in an area that feels good to you for a year while you learn where you really want to be: an area near your chosen school, your church, where there are lots of young families, etc. The market is not likely to go up so fast that you would get closed out.

I don't know where you are coming from, but South Florida is very hot and humid in the summer, with daily thunderstorms. Naples gets a good breeze, but the farther inland you go, the less breeze. Naples off season (May-November) may seem a little empty; Naples in season will seem pretty crowded. Each gives some relief from the other.

We vacation in Naples every year. My friend lives down there. She does live in North Naples off of Immokalee. There are areas that a better known for their school systems then others. She is a realtor in the Naples so she told me about the different areas. Most of the communities are gated communities. Then, there are major highways. They must have a CVS on every corner in Naples! Probably 100 of them. There are many Targets, Walgreens, etc. Everything is very convenient.

There are many nice areas. It's also so nice to be able to be so close to the Gulf. Naples is very big. It can take a half hour to get from one end to the other. Let me know if you have any specific questions, and I can ask her for you.

Thank you for this information! we are in Bismarck ND, and we really like the community here... We are really debating on the move...
One question, what do you mean by "Since you are not particularly interested in public schools, you are not limited legally to a particular location"?
Pelican Bay sounded good because of the older people... not so much the ritzy part =)
How can we know what is not "so hot" about north naples and naples park? Even when it comes to renting a place, we dont want to live in the "not so hot" section...
We like the heat, so we are not worried about that. That's one of the things like about the idea of the move the most.. Here in North Dakota we get to 40 bellow at times!
Thank you!!

The prospect job is in NCEF I know this is in naples, but can you tell me in what area of naples it is? north naples?... thank you

Mers: What are good gated communities in the best areas? either really family oriented or a lot of older/retired adults is what im interested on. Near private schools.

I am a full time resident of Naples since 1977.
I had no idea what NCEF is, so googled -- Naples Childhood Education Foundation? It appears to be in Lely at the Edison Community College Campus. This is about 15 minutes or more drive from the downtown center of Naples, but you will find out that Naples is very spread out. Lely is actually a nice community of single family homes, condos, and apartments and might make a good start for looking at where to rent.
I honestly wouldn't suggest buying here until you've lived here for a while and checked it out.

The good news is that if you like being with older people you couldn't pick a better place!!! While there are more and more younger people here, it definitely is primarily a retirement community. All those areas include many "gated communities" often centered around one of the seemingly hundreds of golf courses here. It's really hard to categorize areas in Naples. There may be a small community of homes averaging several million dollars, almost right next to an area of cheaper rentals. You really simply have to be here and check it all out to see what appeals.

Golden Gate is a "tricky" area, because it is vast in scale. The area called "Golden Gate City" (realize all of Golden Gate still has a Naples addresss) is pretty low income, lots of duplexes and rentals, and frankly just not very nice. But as you go further west, north, and even south from GG City, there are many, many homes on huge lots called Golden Gate Estates which can be quite lovely but may have "dumps" next to them -- the zoning in Golden Gate has never been under control.

It is true that generally speaking the closer to the Gulf (or Golf) the more expensive it will be, but not always.

Naples Community School is a very fine private school with amazing facilities and tuition to match. There are a couple of other private schools as well.

NeoPatrik: Yes that is NCEF. It is it is located 6260 Shirley Street, Naples, Florida 34109 how do you know that is in Lely? the address says Naples though?

Oh. No. When I googled I saw a Lely address, but now I see that's for something like a children's clinic and it has /NCEF listed with it. I don't know what that means. But I see in the phone book it is listed at Shirley Street. Shirley Street in in the "Pine Ridge Industrial Area" not far from Pelican Bay, part of close in "North Naples".

But in a little more googling I see that NCEF is the foundation established and supported by the Naples Winter Wine Auction, which is now the largest wine auction in the world. It's a mind boggling event in Napes every year.

I emailed my friend and asked her your questions. I will post as soon as she answers.

I do know that Pine Ridge Road (which Shirley Street is off of) leads right up to The The Naples Grand Hotel (Seagate Drive). We have stayed there many times. It is right on Clams Bay Beach or Clams Passing (I forget what its called).

The streets near that beach have very nice houses, and there are some very nice gated communities near there. Nice restaurants. Nice shopping area called the Waterside Shops. There is a catholic church on that street also. Also, Pelican Bay, as NeoPatrick mentioned above, is right there.

As soon as my friend emails me back, I will let you know about the names of the gated communities.

Wow!! thank you so much! this gives us a great start! If we do move, it will be at the beginning of next year, which is just 2 months away! I'll be waiting for the info.!

It's Clam Pass which is the dividing point between Park Shore and Pelican Bay -- two very large residential areas (very high scale). Also near by is the large gated community of Pelican Marsh (actually several gated communities within the much larger one).

And then just a bit further east from the Pine Ridge Road/Airport Road intersection (sometimes said to be the "geographical" center of Naples -- which is just east of Shirley Street -- are several other gated communities.
Dozens in fact.

There are lots of different neighborhoods in Naples (probably 100's - many are gated communities) - not something that's easy to describe in an internet posting. Naples is large and spread out - full time population is something on the order of 20,000 to 30,000 residents, although many are there only seasonally. That means that some neighborhoods/communities are downright dead outside of the Nov-April season.

You say you like older people, and there's certainly no shortage of older people in Naples. How do you think a CVS on every street corner, and a Walgreens across the street stay in business?

A bigger challenge may be finding a neighborhood where there are actually real, live, resident children for your kids to meet. Not just the grandkids who visit in February or March each year.

Pelican Bay is one of the pricier areas in all of Naples. My recommendation is to rent a town home, condo, or house for the 1st 6mo to 1 year you are in Naples so you can better understand what the different areas are like, see what you can afford and want to spend.

There really is no need to be close to the Gulf. From anywhere even a couple of miles inland it's a quick drive to the beach. Past about 5 or so miles inland you start to get into some wide open spaces. You really need to get on the ground and drive around a bit & explore to get a good feel.

I think there are about a dozen separate gated communities just within Pelican Marsh, as NP points out.

Just within Pelican Marsh, as an example, the styles range from large stand alone single family homes that run in the millions, to smaller single family home priced 500k to 1M, to 1-2 story duplex or quadplex condo units - maybe 20 buildings on one street for a total of 80 or so units - that share a common pool.

We have stayed in a community just east of downtown Naples called the Glades. Pools, golf courses, well-kept and plenty of quiet old people. You could google it.

I live in Naples. If the area you are looking at is Shirley st. Plan on staying around that area. Traffic in season can be horrific. Shirley St. is off Pineridge and that area is very congested. What takes 10 minutes off season can take 30 in season.

I would rent for the first year as someone else suggested just to get a feel for that area. Also if you buy prices drop considerably off season and that would be the best time to purchase.

Naples is a great town you will love it, it is beautiful, clean ,no pollution, great beaches & restaurants.

The OP asked: "One question, what do you mean by "Since you are not particularly interested in public schools, you are not limited legally to a particular location"?

If you are sending children to private school, you can live anywhere you want as long as you are willing to deliver them and pick them up.

If you send your children to public school, you need to live in a district with good schools because you can't just send your kids to any old school you want.

You really need to open up Google Maps and look at Naples. It will take you right down to the house level, and if you turn on satellite view, you can see the actual building your husband will be working in or any apartment building you might want to rent in.

Mike's being gentle when he says 'prices have declined in the past 4 years' -- plummeted might be a better word. Many properties are literally going for half of what they sold for 5 years or so ago -- particularly upscale condos.

But there's another good side to that, besides buying. Rentals of nice condos are now "dirt cheap" especially on a lease rather than a month or so in season. It is possible to rent a fabulous three bedroom condo in a fine gated community with all amenities for as little as $1000 a month or even less. That's closer to a third of what similar properties might have been 5 years ago. Renting for a year is really the smartest thing you can do in my book!

My friend emailed me back, and this is her reply:

Their are two really nice communities in that area. One is Tall Pines, off of Airport just North of Pine Ridge and the other is Pinewoods, also off of Airport just South of Pine Ridge. There are many private Christian schools in the area she can "google" to find which ones she's interested in checking out.

Also, if you are interested, I can give you her email, and she can help you out with any questions you have about the area.

I do many "staycations" on Naples...very beautiful, very tranquil, and the complete opposite of the Miami lifestyle. Mostly retired folks there though, like retired doctors, lawyers, ceos...people with money. So they take care of their community. I wouldnt mind living there at all...seems like a great, quiet place to raise children. I agree with the earlier posts- rent for 6 months so you have more time to scope the area and decide on a permanent location. At the end of the day, you know yourself best and once you familiarize yourself with Naples you can get a better feel for what area in Naples suits your lifestyle better.

Good luck with the move- Im sure you'll LOVE the weather change- you cant beat our winters here, it rarely gets colder than 60 degrees here. And if it gets colder than 60 degrees, then it wont last more than 2 days

Mers, interesting comment. Tall Pines and Pinewoods (neither are gated communities by the way, if that matters) are both pretty nice, but essentially two of the least upscale developments in the area and both quite a bit older -- mostly from the 70s or early 80s than many of the other ones. No problem with that -- if that's what one is looking for, but I honestly think there are much more desirable and certainly more upscale developments with even better "bargains" presently.

No one, but no one should ever even seriously consider buying here though until they have stayed a while and the idea of having a good realtor is really a must, I'd say. This is especially true in these days of thousands of foreclosures and other issues which may drastically affect not only property value that you can't assess on your own, but may also have a major impact on things like homeowner fees (if a third of the properties in an association are in default then the listed fees mean nothing -- expect the non-default ones to pay for all the defauted ones). You need a good realtor to assess those types of things.

What I failed to explain about renting a year instead of six months is that a 6 month lease starting in January is likely to be as much or close to as much as a 12 month lease starting at the same time, since the second half of that 12 months is all the slower time of year.

Apparently, they are older, established family oriented neighborhoods, not full of part time residence or snow birds. They are where buyers purchase to establish roots and get to know their neigbors.

Mers, yes, that kind of describes it. Although I'm not sure that I'd say people who buy in many other areas AREN'T purchasing to establish roots or to get to know their neighbors. And I'd be hard pressed to say that the owners in Pinewoods or Tall Pines are any younger overall than most other areas or more family oriented. All the people I did work for in both areas were definitely snow birds and retirees. But both are all single family homes and no condos if that's an important feature.

And I might also add that Palm River, Four Seasons, and Naples Park might be even better examples of North Naples neighborhoods where people buy to establish roots and get to know their neighbors -- the same is true of the even older Lake Park, right down near central Naples, where there is a "rebirth" of buying, tearing down, or upgrading slightly older homes.

One thing that many people like about Naples is the cultural opportunities. I've heard good things about the arts in Naples, including an excellent local performing arts organization.

Does anybody know if that's still accurate info?

Yes, they have the Philharmonic-which they call "The Phil", which shares a very nice, new building with their art museum.

The Phil is hardly "an excellent local performing arts organization".

I'm an active member of The Naples Players, which was recently determined to be "one of the top ten community theatres in the US". We're right downtown on Fifth Avenue South in our wonderful Sugden Community Theatre with two theatres inside presenting a full year round season of sold out productions.

Yes the Phil sometimes brings in package bus and truck versions of Broadway shows. (Note the snarkiness here) They've never been voted Naples Daily News "reader's choice" for performing arts in Naples. The Naples Players have -- pretty much every year.

Oh, the Phil!

NeoPatrick, do you remember when the French conductor, about six years ago, stopped the orchestra performance and berated the audience for talking out loud during the music?

According to legend, several people turned to their partners and said, "What's he talking about, dear?"