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Do any of you live on the beach on the gulf?

I live about three miles from the beach. That's is close enough. Even if I was HROT rich I wouldn't live at the beach.

We hang out at the beach a lot March-June and September- early December.

Like someone alluded earlier, every thing built on the beach what's out five times faster then normal.

We rent a beach house in Miramar Beach for a week twice a year. It's a blast and we don't have any travel expense with it.
I live 14 minutes from ocean’s edge and if I see it twice a year it’s all good. Floridians didnt use go to the beach after Labor Day and before Easter weekend.
 
If you could avoid the spring break and summer seasons, it wouldn't be too bad. Traveling down 30A this month has been its usual bitch self. Now expand that to June - September and it's not worth it.
Yes this month but we stay out of the way. Ride bikes everywhere. Definitely stay away. 😎
 
I live 14 minutes from ocean’s edge and if I see it twice a year it’s all good. Floridians didnt use go to the beach after Labor Day and before Easter weekend.
I live 1/2 miles from the gulf. See the water almost every day. It's awesome to set my alarm to see the sunset.
 
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Putting up with the construction of the underpass (what an idiotic waste of money) for a year beyond its original contract completion date is enough to drive anyone crazy.
No one worked on it the past 2 weeks. It's 5 million dollars. The chunnel is not even ready for spring break.
 
What is the area near Miramar with the development on various golf courses.

Maybe I’m thinking of a different area
You're probably thinking about Sandestin.

 
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Do it OP. We did it 6 years ago and wish we would have done it sooner. We live one mile from the sand, half way in between Clearwater Beach and St. Pete Beach. Each town along Gulf Blvd has it's own personality so after you check them out you'll be able to tell which one is more your vibe.

Our friends used to tell us "after you live here a while you'll never go to the beach". B.S.! We go to the beach a lot. Parked our butts on Indian Rocks Beach yesterday for about 6 hours. We try to have our toes in the sand at least once a week.
 
Do it OP. We did it 6 years ago and wish we would have done it sooner. We live one mile from the sand, half way in between Clearwater Beach and St. Pete Beach. Each town along Gulf Blvd has it's own personality so after you check them out you'll be able to tell which one is more your vibe.

Our friends used to tell us "after you live here a while you'll never go to the beach". B.S.! We go to the beach a lot. Parked our butts on Indian Rocks Beach yesterday for about 6 hours. We try to have our toes in the sand at least once a week.
That sounds lovely. I do believe if we were to go down this road, we would want to live close enough to walk to a public access point to a beach, although I understand we would pay for that dearly... I would love something like this:

 
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That sounds lovely. I do believe if we were to go down this road, we would want to live close enough to walk to a public access point to a beach, although I understand we would pay for that dearly... I would love something like this:

I am at Waters Edge Condos, fairly close to the listing you posted.
I will drive by it today. Beach access is "walkable". Good restaurants also are within walking distance.
 
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Well, I don’t think I’ll have the juice to buy an actual beachfront house on the gulf, don’t those start at $5m? I was thinking about a nice condo.
My property is a half block from the water. I’ll be 65 by the time I get there. Surly won’t have 5 million in it. I imagine I’ll be gone before everything wears out. The kids can worry about that.
 
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That sounds lovely. I do believe if we were to go down this road, we would want to live close enough to walk to a public access point to a beach, although I understand we would pay for that dearly... I would love something like this:

Floridians who grew up here just smile, roll our eyes and sigh. Marco Island would probably be as bad or worse than what happened in Ft. Myers in a Cat 2 or more. Insurance will be fun. Lots of dredging to create those artificial waterways.
Going on a car trip? You’ll spend most of the first day just getting to the state line.
I know Midwesterners love that part of the state though, and it’s nice. You’d have nice neighbors.
Most of us locals prefer the Gulf beaches too.
I peeked at a few others in that same area on Zillow. Saw one that was 20 years newer and 400 sq ft larger with a caged pool. Less expensive too. The one car garages are tough for me too in a single family home because garages are so important for not just storage but keeping your car out of the relentless sun and salty air. Keep at least one in a two car garage and the other half is your Florida basement.
 
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My property is a half block from the water. I’ll be 65 by the time I get there. Surly won’t have 5 million in it. I imagine I’ll be gone before everything wears out. The kids can worry about that.
Are you in Marco too?
 
Floridians who grew up here just smile, roll our eyes and sigh. Marco Island would probably be as bad or worse than what happened in Ft. Myers in a Cat 2 or more. Insurance will be fun. Lots of dredging to create those artificial waterways.
Going on a car trip? You’ll spend most of the first day just getting to the state line.
I know Midwesterners love that part of the state though, and it’s nice. You’d have nice neighbors.
Most of us locals prefer the Gulf beaches too.
I peeked at a few others in that same area on Zillow. Saw one that was 20 years newer and 400 sq ft larger with a caged pool. Less expensive too. The one car garages are tough for me too in a single family home because garages are so important for not just storage but keeping your car out of the relentless sun and salty air. Keep at least one in a two car garage and the other half is your Florida basement.
Hard to go wrong with like-minded midwesterners. By the time I would live down there, I wouldn't care about how long it takes to get to the state line...
 
Floridians who grew up here just smile, roll our eyes and sigh. Marco Island would probably be as bad or worse than what happened in Ft. Myers in a Cat 2 or more. Insurance will be fun. Lots of dredging to create those artificial waterways.
Going on a car trip? You’ll spend most of the first day just getting to the state line.
I know Midwesterners love that part of the state though, and it’s nice. You’d have nice neighbors.
Most of us locals prefer the Gulf beaches too.
I peeked at a few others in that same area on Zillow. Saw one that was 20 years newer and 400 sq ft larger with a caged pool. Less expensive too. The one car garages are tough for me too in a single family home because garages are so important for not just storage but keeping your car out of the relentless sun and salty air. Keep at least one in a two car garage and the other half is your Florida basement.
Good grief. It is paradise here.
 
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Got offered a good job in St. Petersburg, went to buy a house and couldn't stomach it - just too many question marks. I'm not moving to Florida to live inland, and I'm not spending money on an HOA.
 
Got offered a good job in St. Petersburg, went to buy a house and couldn't stomach it - just too many question marks. I'm not moving to Florida to live inland, and I'm not spending money on an HOA.
Well…bye.
 
You are not dampening my enthusiasm!

I went for an early lunch and drove by 632 Seagrape. There was a realtor showing it to somebody. I should've walked in and inspected but I didn't.

There is a vacant lot next to it ( west of it ) The vacant lot backs up to La Tavola ( nice restaurant). I couldn't really tell from the backyard of 632 Seagrape how much you could see of the outdoor eating area of the restaurant. There is a pool and lanai though.

Again, it is paradise here. We will be leaving in a couple of days because of Easter and a granddaughter's birthday.
 
I went for an early lunch and drove by 632 Seagrape. There was a realtor showing it to somebody. I should've walked in and inspected but I didn't.

There is a vacant lot next to it ( west of it ) The vacant lot backs up to La Tavola ( nice restaurant). I couldn't really tell from the backyard of 632 Seagrape how much you could see of the outdoor eating area of the restaurant. There is a pool and lanai though.

Again, it is paradise here. We will be leaving in a couple of days because of Easter and a granddaughter's birthday.
Thanks for the update my man. Realistically, we wouldn't be looking for a place for about a decade but the dream is alive!
 
Got offered a good job in St. Petersburg, went to buy a house and couldn't stomach it - just too many question marks. I'm not moving to Florida to live inland, and I'm not spending money on an HOA.
Uh, you can work in St. Pete and live on the beach. Or the Bay.
 
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We were in Texas for spring break visiting my in laws. They have a trailer in a park like 5 miles from the border and 1 hr from South Padre. He bought the trailer for $6K and fixed it up really nice and put an addition on it. He said they pay $250 a month for the park.
Seems like the way to go for me. We lived by a beach for 10 years and after the first few years we only went when guests came and wanted to go. It was more of a chore than anything.
Give me warm weather and a pool any day.
 
We were in Texas for spring break visiting my in laws. They have a trailer in a park like 5 miles from the border and 1 hr from South Padre. He bought the trailer for $6K and fixed it up really nice and put an addition on it. He said they pay $250 a month for the park.
Seems like the way to go for me. We lived by a beach for 10 years and after the first few years we only went when guests came and wanted to go. It was more of a chore than anything.
Give me warm weather and a pool any day.
You’d opt for a trailer in the middle of nowhere? If you’re going to do a trailer park why not live in one by a beach?
 
The older I get, the more I could see doing the snowbird thing. But no way I’m spending summers in Florida, though.
I’m glad we did a Florida vacation last summer because that’s the first time I was there during the summer. It was brutal. I was thinking with our hotel on the gulf beach it would have been cooler but that didn’t happen, and the gulf temp was in the 90s. So I like the idea of having a northern place as well.

And, the beauty/curse of living in Iowa in our house is that it is cheap, relatively speaking. It is nice, but if we sold it, it would give us only a fraction of what a place down there would cost, so we would likely just keep our Iowa residence. So not nice if we wanted to “trade” locations permanently, but nice because living cheaper for decades here allows us to stock a bigger war chest for such things later in life.
 
Being on Gulf beaches has been my favorite place to vacation since I was a wee lad. We typically vacationed from Bonita springs down to Marco. More recently I enjoyed Clearwater beach tremendously. I love the crash of the waves, the birds, the sun, the soft sand, etc. As I stare at 50 and think about playing the back 9 of life, I do think about getting a second place on the beach if the money is there. I don’t want to move into a waiting room to die, but for those you who have done it, did it live up to expectations? Disappoint you? When the time is right we will probably rent a condo for a month just to see how we like it on a test run, but I was curious what the collective experience here has been.
We do Clearwater Beach semi regularly. Try to mix it up a little. Have a condo this week on Beach in Gulf Shores. Hasn't been a good week.
 
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