Why is lehigh acres so cheap

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Log In Sign up. Create post. Rotate Log in or sign up to reply. Hi April, I'm a local realtor and investor. Felicia Hernandez-Fortunato Hi! Thanks in Advance!! Hi all, I know this post is a bit older and I was just searching around. Let me know if you have any more questions or if there's anything else I can help out with! Free eBook from BiggerPockets! Download the eBook Now. Log in Sign up.

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View detailed profiles of: Miami, Florida. Tampa, Florida. Cape Coral, Florida. Is it worth buying vacant land in Lehigh Acres? Cape Coral: sale, rentals. User Name. Remember Me. Most were forced onto the rental market, often leasing their houses back from the investors who'd bought them at auction.

Many left entirely, with no jobs to keep them around, returning to whatever state they'd come from up north. Juman and his wife stayed. Their credit ruined, the only place they could afford without taking out a loan was a dingy little house on the river whose owner was willing to finance the mortgage herself.

He sometimes wishes he'd heeded the signs that Fort Myers' former glittering market wasn't all that it seemed. Unlike rust belt towns that saw their already-weakened industrial bases snuffed out in the recession, Florida's drivers are warm winters, the beach and low taxes. Bolstered by the Affordable Care Act and the burgeoning retiree population, the health care industry remained strong.

Florida Gulf Coast University kept growing rapidly, attracting students. Even tourism fared alright, as those who could still afford to take vacations scaled back from more expensive destinations overseas. As the credit markets started to unfreeze in and , the big home builders that survived the crash started buying stalled developments. Opportunists with loose cash — from local entrepreneurs to massive private equity investors, like Blackstone and Colony Starwood — snapped up thousands of properties.

Juman and his wife adapted to the new economy, becoming realtors and managing foreclosed properties that investors had turned into rentals. Those who bought during the bust have easily doubled their money and are now selling off some of that inventory, often to people who lost their homes in the bust and improved their credit enough to buy again. The market really started to pick up in , and people who delayed retirement during the recession finally figured they could sell their houses up north and relocate to Florida as they'd always planned.

And it seems to have worked: Hertz moved its global headquarters there in , bringing more than jobs. The IT consulting firm Gartner arrived in , and has announced plans to expand to 2, people by Related: My road back from the Great Recession. Besides professional services and back-office operations for large companies, Lee County has even attracted some light manufacturing, a comparative rarity for South Florida.

A local glass contractor, MyShowerDoor. Meanwhile, the main roads through Lehigh and Cape Coral are dotted with bright flags advertising new model homes, with sometimes as little as zero dollars down — eerily reminiscent of the pre-crash frenzy.

The endless blocks of still-scattershot development are being filled in again by contractors putting up cookie-cutter houses. And still, it's not enough to keep up with demand. Rents are increasing, which is hard on the home health aides and construction laborers who commute an hour or more to jobs in the wealthier communities of Naples and Bonita Springs. The return of development has been a welcome sight for many Fort Myers residents, but some are starting to worry about where the market could be headed.

Foreclosure numbers, which had sunk from thousands to a few dozen per month, started to tick up again this spring. It's scaring the willies out of Marc Joseph, a Fort Myers-based realtor who during the crash bought a bus, wrapped it in lime green plastic, and led "foreclosure tours" for investors looking to pick up deals.