Today’s Lee County has five official cities—Cape Coral, Bonita Springs, Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island—and a full-time population of 544,400, more than half of them (292,400) living in the unincorporated areas. By comparison, the first county census in 1890 recorded a population of 1,414 residents just three years after it was formed from Monroe County.

Among the 100 fastest-growing counties in the country, Lee County attracts an average of 11,600 new workers each year, and 48 percent of its population is between 25 and 64 years old. Lee County’s character is a split personality of scenic barrier islands, a burgeoning cosmopolitan River District in downtown Fort Myers, operating citrus groves, sprawling resort-like gated communities and quaint river towns. Water is a major player in the county’s ongoing development. Bays, backwaters and manmade canals provide access to the Gulf and the county’s miles-long stretch of the Caloosahatchee River.

BEACHES
Of Lee County’s nearly 600 miles of shoreline, 50 miles are beaches and 20 of them are named, stretching from border-straddling Gasparilla Island south to Bonita Beach. The majority of the county’s beaches are located on barrier islands, many of which are uninhabited and destined to stay that way. Others are accessible only by boat, creating a way-it-used-to-be kind of feeling. Each of Lee County’s beaches has a unique personality. Here, we present them from north to south.

GASPARILLA ISLAND
Home to Boca Grande and road-accessible only via Charlotte County, Gasparilla Island has evolved from its fishing and phosphate roots to a world-class destination for jet setters and residents. The venue of the World’s Richest Tarpon Tournament, the island is protected by the Gasparilla Act, which limits allowable density and building heights. The island’s size—seven miles long and only half a mile wide—puts the beach and the waters of the Gulf and Charlotte Harbor within walking distance of almost any home. The 142-acre Gasparilla Island State Park offers five beach access points.

Golf carts are the preferred mode of travel, especially in and around the quaint downtown area, where the former railroad depot has been restored and now contains shops, offices and restaurants. Art galleries and antique shops are also found here. The historic 1913 Gasparilla Inn, with its white-washed architecture, columns and porches, recalls another time.

Homes and condos are sprinkled throughout downtown and along the water. Boca Grande Isles, a gated neighborhood of 123 waterfront properties, appeals to the avid boater with its deep water and to nature lovers who enjoy watching the unfolding natural scenery along Hole in the Wall Bay. Homes on Gasparilla Island range from the mid-$300,000s to $10 million. Coral Creek Club, located in nearby Placida, offers a scenic Tom Fazio-designed golf course (limited to 225 members), a clubhouse, limited airport memberships and Old Florida cottages.

SANIBEL AND CAPTIVA ISLANDS
The newly constructed spans of scenic Sanibel Causeway, a series of islands and bridges, begin at the end of McGregor Boulevard in Punta Rassa on the mainland. Decades of careful preservation have helped to retain much of the naturalistic appeal of Sanibel. A majority of the island is under the management of the federal government at the 6,400-acre J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge.

Visitors and residents prefer biking to driving, especially during high season when a left-hand turn is next to impossible in this town without a stoplight. Periwinkle Way, the island’s main drag, offers quaint shopping centers and boutiques, restaurants, art galleries and even live theater. Building laws limit condos and homes to just three stories, says Jane Reader Weaver, a realtor who’s specialized in Sanibel and Captiva property for 20 years.

Multimillion-dollar estates, cottages and condos share the shoreline with several beaches—Lighthouse Beach Park, featuring the island’s 1884 landmark lighthouse; Gulfside City Park; and the most popular, Bowman’s Beach. Mid-island, Tarpon Bay Beach is a good spot for swimming and windsurfing. Blind Pass Beach, the official midway point between the two islands, is considered one of the best shelling spots in the world.

Captiva is separated from Sanibel by a thin swipe of water at Blind Pass. Sanibel-Captiva Road becomes Captiva Drive, along which most of the island’s multimillion-dollar homes are found. Homes are hidden behind thick foliage, but passersby get an occasional glimpse of winding, crushed-shell driveways leading to simple cottages, Spanish-Mediterranean mansions and contemporary South Beach-style getaways. Most homes have names and offer either the Gulf or Pine Island Sound in their back yards. "Captiva is all waterfront," says Weaver. "It’s a narrow slice of heaven."

Venture farther north and you’ll eventually arrive at Captiva’s village, a quaint collection of pastel-hued, beachy shops, galleries and boutiques, as well as steps-from-the-water homes located along sandy lanes. Captiva Beach, ranked among the most romantic in the nation, is never more than two blocks away, and some say it’s the perfect spot to catch the mystical green flash at sunset. The gated South Seas Resort occupies the northern two miles of Captiva.

FORT MYERS BEACH
If you’re looking for a lively party, check out Fort Myers Beach, especially in March and April. Southwest Florida’s slightly tamer version of spring break hotspots Fort Lauderdale and Daytona, Fort Myers Beach has one of the hippest vibes of the region. Restaurants and bars offer toes-in-the-sand dining, dancing and drinking and an eccentric energy that keeps traffic—automobile and pedestrian—flowing 24/7 around Times Square and Estero Boulevard. Gulf-front homes, older and newer, and more than two dozen beach accesses are sprinkled among the many rental cottages and condos. Side streets offer water in the back yards—canals opening to Matanzas Pass and Estero Bay farther south.
 
The beach is the star attraction along Estero Island, and never more than a couple of blocks away. The 17.5-acre Bowditch Point Regional Park, located on the island’s northern tip, serves as a drop-in point along the newly opened Great Calusa Blueway, a 100-mile canoe/kayak trail meandering through Estero Bay and the scenic bays around Sanibel, Captiva and Pine islands.

Estero Island eventually ends around Lovers Key State Park, Florida’s most visited state park. The park spans four islands and is nestled between Fort Myers Beach and Bonita Beach, offering sand paths that wind through mangrove forests and around tidal lagoons to one of two remote beach access points. Canoeing and bicycling are popular here. Dog Beach Park is located along Estero Boulevard and is the only off-leash beach park for dogs in Southwest Florida.

BONITA BEACH
Estero Boulevard becomes Hickory Boulevard as it traverses the Broadway Channel. Intermittent beach access provided by the county appears between condos, homes and restaurants as the boulevard travels south six miles to Bonita Beach Road and the Collier County border. Most homes here back up to water, either the Gulf on the west or the back waters of Estero Bay. Three-story Mediterranean architecture is popular; however, you will find Old Florida stilt homes, rentals and original cottages. Prices vary from the low $200,000s to several million dollars.

The two-and-a-half-acre Bonita Beach Park is found at the point where Hickory Boulevard curves into Bonita Beach Road. The county-run park has beach volleyball, a gazebo, restrooms with showers and picnic shelters.

BONITA SPRINGS
Bonita Springs emerged slowly from its slumber as a sleepy fishing town in the late 1980s—a timetable many credit to the arrival of Bonita Bay, a 2,400-acre master-planned community. Now a bona fide city, its population increased 5.97 percent between July 2004 and July 2005. Bonita Springs has dozens of gated communities, upscale shopping centers, top-rated restaurants and a growing base of commercial activity. Neighborhoods have grown along the city’s main waterway, the Imperial River and its major thoroughfares, the Tamiami Trail and Bonita Beach Road.

Bonita Springs clings to its past along Old 41 Road near the Imperial River, where moss-draped trees create a canopy above a city park, and older homes provide a glimpse back in time. The Everglades Wonder Gardens recalls the popular roadside attractions of the 1950s and gives visitors an up-close-and-personal look at ’gators and other indigenous Florida wildlife. The 1920s Shangri-La Springs Resort, where the hot springs reportedly attracted the likes of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Franklin D. Roosevelt, is also found in this county-designated historic neighborhood. Many restaurants and stores serve the growing Hispanic population, and local developers have set their sights on increasing the housing options in this area.

Recently listed home prices in Bonita Springs range from the $120,000s for a mobile home or single-bedroom condo to more than $4 million in the gated communities of Bonita Bay and Pelican Landing. The city’s growth is also reflected in its annually increasing taxable value, which climbed nearly 31 percent during the last year.


CAPE CORAL
Cape Coral is Southwest Florida’s second-largest city and was named the fourth fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country in July, and its once-vacant lots are beginning to sprout homes in various stages of construction. The 115-square-mile city, created in the 1950s by brothers Jack and Leonard Rosen, who marketed the Cape as a winter retreat to Northerners, boasts 400 miles of canals, large freshwater lakes and frontage along the Caloosahatchee River. Until recently, it lacked the gated communities that defined other Southwest Florida real estate markets; but developments are beginning to sprout up, such as Sandoval, a Bonita Bay Group development offering multi- and single-family homes starting at $200,000.

Most of Cape Coral’s commercial and retail outlets are found along three main roadways—Del Prado Boulevard, Pine Island Road and Cape Coral Parkway, home to the city’s downtown, a blocks-long district of pastel-painted restaurants, boutiques and offices that hosts many of the city’s annual events such as block parties, arts shows and holiday parades. Dead-end side streets feature a number of smaller neighborhoods, often with still undeveloped lots and canal frontage, offering no-bridge or one-bridge access to the river and Gulf. An active city-run parks department oversees a number of regional and neighborhood parks, including Sun Splash Family Waterpark, the Four-Mile Cove Ecological Preserve and the Cape Coral Sports Complex.

Many of Cape Coral’s first homes were built in the 1950s and ’60s along the Caloosahatchee River near Redfish Point, home to the Cape Coral Yacht Club, which offers a boat ramp, a 634-foot riverfront beach, picnic shelters, barbecue grills, a fishing pier, public pool, and tennis and racquetball courts. A handful of the original Rosen-built homes still stand on Flamingo Drive. Newer nearby gated communities—Tarpon Point Marina, built on the site of the Rosens’ Rose Garden, and the Marina at Cape Harbour—have introduced an upscale component to the Cape’s real estate market. Cape Harbour offers a public waterfront with a marina, shops and Rumrunners, an award-winning restaurant. Inland homes access the river via a thread of wide canals.

Realtors identify Cape Coral’s southwest quadrant as the new hot spot. A three-square-mile L-shaped neighborhood west of Chiquita Boulevard, the area offers existing homes, many built within the last 15 years, and vacant lots, some located on the South Spreader Waterway with Gulf access. "It’s one of Southwest Florida’s safest neighborhoods," says Lenora Marshall, an agent with Century 21 Sunbelt. "There’s also a nice mix of families with children, young professionals, retirees and part-time residents," adds her associate Teri Kibbe. Statistics show the average southwest Cape home costs $405,000 for an off-water location and $820,000 for a waterfront home.

ESTERO
New development continues to flourish along or near the Estero River—mainly new-home neighborhoods and commercial development. The scenic river leads eventually to Estero Bay and portions of it remain undisturbed, offering a glimpse back in time. Estero has several gated communities, a major outlet mall (Miromar Outlets), an ice-hockey/entertainment venue (Germain Arena), the new International Design Center, two top-flight hotels (Embassy Suites and the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa) and Florida Gulf Coast University, the state’s newest university.

New shopping centers border the town’s north and south boundaries—Gulf Coast Town Center at Alico and Ben Hill Griffin roads, and Coconut Point at Coconut Road and U.S. 41. New condominium communities are following these two popular retail spots, including residences above the shops at Coconut Point.

Though Estero is still unincorporated, civic-minded and well-organized residents have created self-governed review boards that would make any full-fledged city envious. The boards set standards for Estero’s architectural appearance and its streetscape, among other things. They will help guide the final design plans for the upcoming Estero on the River project, a mixed-use development that will include homes and the 500-seat, $20 million Gulfshore Playhouse Theater.

Traces of Estero’s past are still visible along Sandy Lane and Broadway Avenue, where banyan trees create a canopy overhead, goats run in small fields next to older homes with screened front porches, and the sprawling champion Mysore fig tree stands sentry at the intersection of the two roads.

FORT MYERS RIVER DISTRICT
Downtown Fort Myers, now officially known as the River District to reflect the 40-block area’s relationship to the Caloosahatchee River, continues its meteoric development. Two new high-rise condominiums are now open, and an ongoing flurry of activity will bring a total of 3,800 new homes in the next few years. The impetus for the development was an unused waterfront and a vision by master planner Andrés Duany, the father of new urbanism who’s credited with reviving Fifth Avenue South in Naples and South Beach in Miami.

The design philosophy, says Don Paight, Fort Myers’ director of downtown redevelopment, "brings everything together. People can live, work, shop, play and do everything in one area. With rising gas prices it just makes sense to be able to walk to work or take a water taxi or shuttle. It makes for a better lifestyle. You don’t spend your life on the road driving."

The growing district offers retail stores, restaurants, offices and some residences on second floors. Paight says the surrounding new-home developments, which range from 32-story towers to mixed-use developments and low-rises with resort-style amenities, appeal to the target demographic of urban dwellers.

The River District’s nightlife comes alive on the weekends. Favorite haunts include the charming Brick Bar, which often features jazz and blues magicians, Fat Cat’s Drink Shack, the Cigar Bar and EnVie and Level nightclubs. Fine dining is available at Veranda, Harold’s on the Bay, The Morgan House and the new Patio 33 and H2, a tapas bar.

During the day, rub elbows with government employees and attorneys for lunch at Second Street Deli. To the east of the district is historic Dean Park, a neighborhood of 1920s Victorian and Colonial homes and Florida-cottage bungalows that have been lovingly restored by new owners. To the south are the Fort Myers Skatium and the City of Palms Park, the spring-training home of the 2004 Major League Baseball champion Boston Red Sox.


RIVERFRONT
The Caloosahatchee River divides Fort Myers and Cape Coral, reaching a mile wide at its fullest. Some of the earliest development in Fort Myers took place along the river, mainly on the city’s famous royal-palm-lined McGregor Boulevard and its cul-de-sac side streets. The winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford are found west of downtown, encircled by white picket fences and botanical gardens. The homes and Edison’s laboratory are open to guests and host a number of special events, including a holiday house and activities associated with the Edison Festival of Light, a three-week celebration of the city’s most famous resident.

The neighborhood offers diverse architecture, from older two-story brick estates and mid-1950s ranch homes to Spanish-style haciendas and Mediterranean revival homes mixed with the occasional contemporary or Old Florida (some nearly a century old). Most homes are on large lots and hidden behind decades-old landscaping and tidy hedges, and some include a sweep of river in the back yard.

The area is favored by families with children because of its neighborliness—families tend to know one another, and children walk to school. Many homes have been occupied by the same owners since the 1970s or earlier, and some have a storied past—once home to the first bank president or the first funeral home director in the area. And now the next generation is returning; adults who grew up in Fort Myers want their kids to grow up in the same neighborhood they did. Recent sales have ranged from $155,000 for a small condo to more than $5 million.

Edison Park, found directly across from the Edison homestead, was designed by the inventor’s good friend, the late Jim Newton, and offers 1970s-era homes priced in the high $200,000s, as well as a mix of newer and older residences priced to more than $1 million. The Fort Myers Country Club is within walking or biking distance of most homes.

SOUTH FORT MYERS
Fort Myers’ jagged city boundaries continue south until about Colonial Boulevard. Anything south of the city limits is known as south Fort Myers, an unincorporated area of Lee County that was home to nearly 50,000 people in 2000. It’s a large swath of land between Lehigh Acres, San Carlos Park and the Caloosahatchee that incorporates several distinct neighborhoods, including Cypress Lake, Iona-McGregor, Punta Rassa, Whiskey Creek and The Villas. Proximity to the beaches, the HealthPark Medical Center and a county park attract many residents to the area.

Iona-McGregor follows McGregor Boulevard en route to Fort Myers Beach, and because of its proximity to water, offers some homes along canals leading to the Caloosahatchee River and overlooking Cape Coral on the river’s west bank.

Located off McGregor are the sprawling Gulf Harbour Yacht & Country Club and the ungated Town and River Estates, offering older homes, some on canals. Commercial development includes restaurants, retail stores and the Tanger Outlet Center at the triangular intersection of McGregor and Summerlin. Punta Rassa is home to the Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa and a number of condo buildings. Turn from Summerlin Road onto John Morris Road and you’ll eventually find Fort Myers’ only beach, the 731-acre Bunche Beach, where natural tidal wetlands offer a look at Florida’s more wild side.

Whiskey Creek, a 1,500-home subdivision dating from 1969, borders its namesake creek off McGregor Boulevard and is north of Iona-McGregor. Selling points include an executive golf course, a mix of condos, 55-and-older multifamily housing and single-family homes, and a great location—close to the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall and a number of restaurants and shops.

The Villas, a 1,350-home neighborhood behind the upscale Bell Tower Shops, was platted in the 1950s and boasts mature landscaping, large lots and mostly older homes. The first planned residential neighborhood developed south of Fort Myers, The Villas has a community center, a two-and-a-half-acre park and a voluntary but active homeowners association.

Heading east, several new moderately priced developments have sprouted up in the last few years, including Paseo, a 1,200-unit Stock Development community with a lively town center; Renaissance, with nearly 400 coach and single-family homes on 500 acres; and Botanica Lakes, a development of single-family homes built by GL Homes, all near the I-75-Daniels Parkway interchange.

A number of subdivisions and gated communities are found on each side of the Tamiami Trail as it heads south to San Carlos Park. Nearby Lakes Regional Park on Gladiolus Drive is a 279-acre oasis in the middle of all this development, with more than half the park dedicated to freshwater lakes for fishing, canoeing and swimming. Two of the area’s newest high-rises at Riva Del Lago offer resort-style amenities.

Destinations in the eastern portion of south Fort Myers include the Southwest Florida International Airport, the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve and Hammond Stadium, the spring-training home of the Minnesota Twins.

LEHIGH ACRES
Once a 20,000-acre tax shelter for a Chicago businessman-cum-Florida rancher, today’s Lehigh Acres is experiencing sizzling construction activity, with hundreds of new-home construction permits issued monthly, taxable property values that increased 88 percent during 2006 and a population of 42,400. Lee Ratner saw Lehigh’s potential in 1954 when he subdivided his Lucky Lee Ranch, making the east Lee County community the first post-World War II retirement community in Florida.

Today the 95-square-mile Lehigh has 152,000 lots (some on lakes and canals), a mix of new and old homes and is one of the more affordable real estate markets in Southwest Florida, sought out by young families and first-time homebuyers. The median age has dropped from 38 in 2000 to 36.5.

Proving Lehigh’s affordability: Condos and smaller houses can be found below $100,000. Some newer, larger homes are approaching the $1 million mark.

NORTH FORT MYERS
Development has slowly pushed its way out of downtown Fort Myers and into North Fort Myers, where new gated communities mingle with mini farms. Waterfront (canals, lakes and the Caloosahatchee River) is often found in the mix, where $1 million homes offer deep-water sailboat access. The area has a solid commercial base and a major tourist attraction—the Shell Factory and Nature Park with its Waltzing Waters. The river, Cape Coral and Charlotte County define the area’s 70 square miles.

PINE ISLAND
An island just 17 miles long by two to four miles wide, Pine Island offers several distinct personalities—from the arts and fishing town of Matlacha on Little Pine Island to the peace and quiet of Bokeelia on its northern tip and the more populated St. James City at its southern point. One thing you won’t find on Pine Island: beaches. There aren’t any, and residents are content for it to stay that way.

About two-thirds of Pine Island’s residents live in St. James City, accessed eight-and-a-half miles due south on Stringfellow and past Elks, Moose and fisherman’s clubs and co-ops. St. James City has a thriving commercial base with businesses that take advantage of its ties to the sea. There are several marinas and fishing charters and establishments like the Waterfront Restaurant and Marina, said to attract diners from 50 miles away with its burgers and grouper sandwiches, and the Double Nichol Pub, a tavern and sandwich shop, where the specialty is "the Father," a toasted sandwich with bologna, pepperoni, salami, cappicola, provolone, jalapeños, oil, lettuce, tomato and onion.

MATLACHA
Home of the "fishingest bridge in the world," Matlacha was originally inhabited by squatters, who built fishing camps along Pine Island Road. Today these small cottages are considered historic gems, and some are now used as art galleries and shops. Side streets display Matlacha’s fishing and shrimp fleet and a combination of older and newer homes, most on the canals that reach into Matlacha Pass. Residents like the area’s laid-back ambiance and its walk-to-anywhere location. There’s even a park, bait and tackle shops, a few restaurants and a bar. Pastel buildings and painted light poles reflect Matlacha’s artistic side.

PINELAND/BOKEELIA
Tiny Pineland, found at the three-point convergence of Pine Island and Stringfellow roads, has amenities reserved for much larger places. There’s a post office (albeit one of the country’s smallest), a marina, a bible college, a marine research institute, an Indian archaeological site and even a golf course. Pineland also boasts a working novelist—Randy Wayne White. There’s a restaurant and hotel—the 1926 Tarpon Lodge and Restaurant, overlooking Pine Island Sound. Charters to the surrounding islands—Sanibel, Captiva, Useppa and Cabbage Key (a restaurant there is rumored to be Jimmy Buffet’s inspiration for Cheeseburger in Paradise)—are available at nearby Pineland Marina.

Bokeelia seems virtually undiscovered despite its port, restaurants (the Lazy Flamingo and Captain Cons, which serves fabulous grouper) and art galleries. Homes here embody Florida’s past—some have white picket fences, tin roofs, widow’s walks and wraparound porches for watching the sun set over Black Bay and Charlotte Harbor. Anglers say Bokeelia’s shallow waters are ideal for snook, trout and grouper.

SAN CARLOS PARK, THREE OAKS
Escalating home prices, proximity to the international airport and university, and a new shopping center (the mega Gulf Coast Town Center) have placed this south Lee County community on an upward spiral. Close to the major amenities of its larger neighbors—Fort Myers to the north and Bonita Springs to the south—San Carlos Park and Three Oaks are the ideal midpoint for folks who work in Naples and Fort Myers.

Many residents moved into San Carlos more than five years ago, when homes sold in the low $100,000s and attracted young families and first-time buyers. Two recreational facilities—the 36-acre Three Oaks Park and the Karl Drews Community Center—offer programs for children and adults, youth sports and playgrounds.

Baseball and soccer fields at Three Oaks Park stay busy most weekday and weekend nights. Many of the vacant lots from a few years ago now have homes. Lots in San Carlos tend to lack deed restrictions and city water and sewer service (a majority of homes use wells and septic tanks). Newer areas, like neighboring Three Oaks, have central water and sewer services and deed restrictions.

RURAL LEE COUNTY
Lee County’s rural edge is changing as gated communities along Palm Beach Boulevard/S.R. 80, once considered too far removed from the amenities of Fort Myers, are proliferating. Verandah, located along the Orange River, and River Hall, a 2,000-acre community by new-to-Southwest-Florida developer LandMar Group, take advantage of the slower way of life this area affords. Far-off towns like Alva and Buckingham have also kindled interest from buyers who want a more rural lifestyle and larger lots that can accommodate mini-ranches and horses.

Many of the homes in Fort Myers Shores, found along the south bank of the Caloosahatchee River east of S.R. 31, back into canals leading to the river. Travel farther east along S.R. 80 and signs of civilization and development relax. Land restrictions have kept vacant property in Buckingham, the site of a World War II Army training camp for airplane gunners, fairly large in size. Neighboring Olga is located on the Caloosahatchee. Development has followed with a new Publix-anchored shopping center at routes 80 and 31.

EVERGLADES CITY
Residents love Everglades City for what it doesn’t have—a shopping mall, a traffic light, high-rise condos, golf courses or any of the amenities of its more suburban Collier County siblings. The original county seat and the staging area for Barron Collier’s ambitious road-building undertaking (the Tamiami Trail), Everglades City is rich in history and prized for its natural setting, brushing up to the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve and set along the banks of Lake Placid and Chokoloskee Bay.

Yet with all this water, E.C. has no beaches. Inevitably, residents are lured by the rural, small-town Americana delivered by E.C., all two miles by four blocks of it, and its ample opportunities for outdoor recreation—fishing, boating or kayaking around the Ten Thousand Islands, or hiking and nature photography for landlubbers.

Everglades City becomes the center of the seafood universe each February with the annual Everglades Seafood Festival, featuring live music, rides, attractions and, you guessed it, seafood. Other nearby attractions include the Gulf Coast welcome center to Everglades National Park, the 11-mile Jane’s Memorial Scenic Drive in the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve (home of the elusive ghost orchid) and Ochopee, where Everglades photographer Clyde Butcher hangs his shingle and displays his famous black-and-whites.

Everglades City and its surrounding environs feature a variety of residential offerings—sportsmen’s cabins and condos right on the water, million-dollar estates, Barron Collier-era cottages, mobile homes—and vacant lots. Prices range from nearly $200,000 to more than $1 million.

GOLDEN GATE CITY
Swing sets in the back yard, basketball hoops in the driveway and public facilities that offer an auditorium, gymnasium, aquatics center and fitness center are testament to this unofficial city’s appeal to families. Homes, even those on one of the area’s many canals, are still considered affordable here. As a result, Golden Gate City is becoming a great melting pot, attracting newcomers from Miami and other Southeast Florida venues, as well as first-time Collier County residents.

The conveniences of a full-fledged city are also offered here—mom-and-pop businesses, national chain supermarkets and restaurants, a public library and the tax collector. The Golden Gate Community Center has an auditorium, game and meeting rooms, a woodshop, kitchen and gymnasium. The county-run Golden Gate Community Park hosts children’s sports teams and pick-up games and offers several lighted softball and baseball fields, a lighted soccer/football field, and lighted tennis and racquetball courts.

It is home to the Golden Gate Aquatic Complex, featuring several heated pools, a 110-foot water slide and a fully equipped fitness center. Small condos, nestled along the fairways of the public golf course, start in the mid-$100,000s; single-family homes range from around $200,000 to about $500,000.

GOLDEN GATE ESTATES
A rambling address of roughly 43,000 acres, Golden Gate Estates is Collier County’s largest neighborhood, sweeping south from Immokalee Road to Alligator Alley and east-to-west from DeSoto Boulevard to I-75. Its immense size makes owning a large tract of land possible, which appeals to former suburbanites and young families looking for room to spread out.

Early Estates residents tamed swampland into canal-front lots and carved out the Estates’ original five-acre wooded tracts, many of which have now been subdivided to 1.25-acre lots. Still, buyers find enough property to own horses and build sprawling homesteads. The absence of homeowners associations means no annual fees and no one dictating architectural requirements, says Bruce Farrell, a real estate agent with Century 21 and the self-proclaimed Estates King. "People who move to the Estates want to get away from having a neighbor right in their back yard," he says. The price spread of homes here is across the board—anywhere from $300,000 for older homes with a more eastern address to more than $2 million.

IMMOKALEE
Census statistics cast a revealing picture of Immokalee, a rural farm town where the majority of residents are Hispanic (71 percent), male (56.4 percent) and are of median age of 24.7 years. Settled in 1873 by hunters, trappers, traders and ranchers, Immokalee is the birthplace of Arizona Cardinals running back Edgerrin James. This unincorporated town is facing a renaissance, thanks to the arrival of a university and a new town 10 miles away, and growing attention to the plight and substandard housing faced by migrant field workers.

Much of Immokalee’s retail and commercial base, including restaurants serving authentic Mexican cuisine and groceries, caters to the needs of the migrant workers and local farmers, and is found along Main Street and its side streets. The Seminole Casino is located on First Street, and the 599-acre Immokalee Seminole Reservation, created in the 1980s, is located on the outskirts of town, as is Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

Ave Maria University’s permanent campus and the town of Ave Maria, both the brainchild of Domino’s Pizza founder and former Detroit Tigers owner Thomas Monaghan, made their debut in 2006. The 5,000-acre project marks the first new major Catholic university in the country in the past 40 years, and the town is the first-ever modern municipality developed in conjunction with a university.
 
It will offer 11,000 homes in a variety of styles (including designated affordable-housing units); a European-inspired town center, La Piazza; schools; parks; and other public facilities. The 100-foot tall Oratory serves as the visual heart of the university and given Florida’s flat landscape, will likely be seen from miles away.

ISLES OF CAPRI
This chain of islands becomes stone crab central from mid-October to mid-May, Florida’s season for the succulent crustacean. Many Naples-area restaurants and crab connoisseurs buy the claws right off the boat at Capri Fisheries on Kon Tiki Drive.

Located two miles north of Marco Island, Isles of Capri was developed by Tennessean Leland L. "Doc" Loach, whose vision of an island hideaway came true when he purchased the 600-acre mangrove islands in 1955. Loach dredged canals, built a water plant, linked each island with land bridges, and carved commercial and residential properties into the wilderness. Civilization seems far-flung; other than the Marco skyline seen from the southernmost island, Isles of Capri is surrounded by undeveloped mangrove islands, part of the Ten Thousand Islands chain.

Island homes include new and older condos, Old Florida fishing cottages and newer mansions. Most homes sit on the water, either canals or fingers of Johnson and Tarpon bays and Big Marco Pass. Boating and fishing are popular pastimes, evident by four on-island marinas and several restaurants that offer docks and Tiki huts.

MARCO ISLAND
Top the Jolly Bridge linking Marco Island to the mainland, and you’re likely to marvel at this 14-plus-square-mile island. From this vantage point, homes seem flush with the surrounding water, and the view carries west for miles. At street level, however, Marco welcomes with all of the tropical magic that attracted the first population explosion in the 1960s—well-manicured landscaping and tropical homes set against canals, the Gulf and the city’s various inland waterways.

Water brought the first settlers to the largest of the Ten Thousand Islands in the 1870s and continues to attract today’s new residents—mainly part- and full-time buyers who want a boat in the back yard and a carefree island lifestyle without sacrificing convenience and amenities—top shopping, restaurants and on-island healthcare.

Marco Island has six miles of beaches, six city parks, designated biking trails, upscale shopping and dining at the waterfront Esplanade, and a number of well-regarded spas and restaurants in resorts dotting the Gulf of Mexico, including the four-diamond Marco Beach Ocean Resort. Marco is a city, voter-approved in August 1997, and by best guesses is expected to reach build-out around 2010.

Sixty percent of Marco Island’s homes are on the water—the Marco River, the Gulf, canals and surrounding bays and estuaries. Offerings include multimillion-dollar estate homes, efficiency condos starting in the mid-$100,000s, time-shares and decent single-family homes, priced, on average, at about $500,000. Most are within walking or biking distance of Marco’s beaches.

GOODLAND
Travel east along San Marco Road and you’ll momentarily leave civilization behind. The road’s nothingness eventually arrives at this tiny fishing village, a handful of crisscrossing streets surrounded by Goodland and Gullivan bays and Coon Key Pass and home to just 200 residents. Isolated from the mainland until the completion of a swing bridge and San Marco Road, built using shells from nearby shell mounds in the late 1930s, Goodland only recently attracted interest in its real estate.

Condos are now part of the existing housing mix, mostly Old Florida homes that sell from the low $400,000s to more than $1 million—a contrast to the town’s 1949 inhabitation by squatters, whom developers relocated from Marco’s Caxambas neighborhood.

Goodland’s population swells each Sunday afternoon when in-the-know visitors and residents flock to Stan’s Idle Hour Seafood Restaurant. Nearly 5,000 people converge on Goodland each January for Stan’s three-day Mullet Festival, celebrating the fish, not the 1980s hairstyle. Fried and smoked mullet are on the menu, and Stan’s crowns a Buzzard Lope Queen and Princess. (Owner Stan Gober wrote The Buzzard Lope Song.)

NAPLES
Naples is known internationally as a favorite winter retreat for celebrities and others in the rich-and-famous set. With its world-famous beaches; cosmopolitan shopping and dining along Fifth Avenue South, Third Street South and the newly renovated, designer-studded Waterside Shops; gracious beachfront homes; and venue for the country’s premier wine festival each January, Naples’ star is on the rise.

National media coverage of ritzy real estate seldom fails to mention this city by the sea. Naples has some of the most enviable addresses in the country, and it’s no wonder that those who live on the outskirts (the official boundaries incorporate just 12 square miles) consider themselves Neapolitans.

Its mix of neighborhoods and homes—from gated country club communities to beachfront mansions and historic beach cottages to luxury condo communities—adds to its charm. So does its rating in 2005 as the No. 1 Small Art Town in America, a credit to Naples’ offering of galleries, arts fairs, art centers, theaters and the Philharmonic Center.

Most of Greater Naples’ three-dozen or so gated communities have been developed along the area’s major roads—Immokalee Road, Airport-Pulling Road, Tamiami Trail, Goodlette-Frank Road and Livingston Road. Their arrival along less developed stretches of road often signal the next hot growth spot, with shopping centers, restaurants and office parks popping up soon after. The completion of the Livingston Road extension created a major north-south link between south Naples and Lee County, and now boasts the new North Collier Regional Park, featuring a 6,000-square-foot RecPlex facility with state-of-the-art fitness center, walking trails, a boardwalk spanning a wetland preserve and the Sun-n-Fun Lagoon water park.

Areas of Livingston Road and Vanderbilt Beach Road near I-75 are home to several equestrian estates and riding schools. Five-acre tracts provide ample room for barns and riding arenas in Livingston Woods, offering just under 400 single-family lots, large enough for horses, homes and guest homes. The neighborhood features a nice mix of Old Florida-style homes with front porches and widow’s walks and Mediterranean estates on lots of typically one to two acres. It’s also close to the Community School, Barron Collier High School, shops and restaurants. The northern sweep of Livingston includes several gated communities: Tuscany Reserve, Mediterra, Delasol and Milano.

Small neighborhoods and gated communities intermingle with some of the most exclusive private golf courses—the Royal Poinciana Club and the Hole in the Wall—along Goodlette-Frank Road, whose southern terminus boasts Bayfront, a vividly painted mixed-use development of high-end boutiques, restaurants, art galleries and four floors of luxury condos. Just east of Bayfront is the newly constructed Naples Bay Resort, which combines a luxury hotel, marina, spa and 138 1,300- to 3,300- square-foot residences. Tin City, Old Naples and Fifth Avenue South are close by, and residential amenities include a heated pool, tennis courts, fitness center, on-site boat slips and a clubhouse.

The link to Marco Island, Collier Boulevard, gets increasingly upscale as it heads west, passing the 3,000-acre Lely Resort, Treviso Bay brushing against the 25,000-acre Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the 4,000-acre Fiddler’s Creek.

NAPLES PARK
A 22-by-four-block neighborhood of about 3,000 homes and 10,000 residents, Naples Park is a neighborly sort of place, an amalgamation of new families, retirees and newcomers. Its location to the west of Tamiami Trail places it close to shops, restaurants and Naples’ entertainment venues. Nearby amenities include beach accesses, a library and a public park with racquetball facilities, a jogging path and tennis.

Boaters and nature lovers will love spending time at nearby Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Recreation Area. Buyers will find older homes that are typical of those built in the mid-1900s—two bedrooms, one bath and carports—and newer homes, and prices from the $300,000s to more than $1 million. A new mixed-use development, Mercato, is currently under construction, starting with its first addition: Naples’ first Whole Foods Market.

OLD NAPLES
There’s a certain mystique associated with living in Naples’ original neighborhood. Old Naples packs savvy and sophistication into its two square miles, a sweep that includes new Gulf-front estates and historic cottages, private condominiums and boutique hotels along quiet streets radiating from its two main centers—Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South, offering world-famous shopping at upscale boutiques, galleries, cosmopolitan bars, theaters and parks.

In Old Naples, the beach is at best a few steps away and at worst a short bike ride. Residents can opt out of cooking for the evening and walk to dinner or stock up at Tony’s Off Third, an upscale market that offers supplies and staples, wines and cheese, and gourmet dinners to go. Close to beach clubs and marinas, Old Naples gives even landlocked homeowners the chance to own a boat and offers tree-lined green space at Cambier and Rodgers parks. Old-growth trees create a canopy overhead, and blooms and gardens add punches of color to this anything-but-urban scene.

PINE RIDGE
Sandwiched between some of Naples’ busiest roadways (Tamiami Trail and Goodlette-Frank Road), Pine Ridge’s neighborhood often surprises first-time visitors with the size and number of its homes, seven large lakes and the presence of horse stables and riding arenas.

The neighborhood offers large private lots, often boasting tennis courts, miniature soccer fields, guesthouses and either brand-new or 1970s-era homes. It’s on the east side of Tamiami Trail, just south of Pine Ridge Road, and the sprawl of commercial development and shopping centers eventually gives way to gracious homes fronting Trail Boulevard. Condos, found in Emerald Woods to the north of the neighborhood boundaries, start in the high $200,000s. Single-family homes, even those sold "as is," start just below $1 million and top out around $4.5 million.

PORT ROYAL
Perhaps Naples’ most recognizable address, Port Royal was developed more than 50 years ago by John Glen Sample, who built his personal fortune as an advertising executive in Chicago. So smitten was Sample with Naples, he purchased the city’s southernmost two miles along the Gulf and began taming swamplands, hammocks and beachfront into roughly 560 mostly waterfront lots.

His ambition was simple: He wanted to "make this the finest place to live in the United States." Today, Sample’s prophecy holds true. Large shade trees create a canopy above the neighborhood’s streets; manmade peninsulas, coves and bays bring water into most back yards; and manicured hedges and enviable landscaping provide privacy. Many beachfront property owners have added to their land holdings, acquiring bayfront real estate to dock a boat.

Sprawling mansions five times the size of the original 2,000-square-foot homes have replaced those first homes, and property values reach beyond the million-dollar mark. It’s a secluded neighborhood whose fate was determined by the arrival of the Ritz-Carlton, says long-time Naples builder Gary Carlson. "The Ritz brought in a whole new clientele to Naples," he says. Today prices fluctuate from $2.25 million for a non-waterfront likely teardown to nearly $25 million.