Punta Gorda Life -- Aqui Esta!

by Theresa
(Punta Gorda, Florida, USA)

About eight years ago I discovered a small town resting on a fat point that juts out into Charlotte Harbor on the Southwest coast of Florida. Magically the town has miles of canals similar to Venice, Italy, where homes were built for the kind of waterfront living my husband and I dreamed about. Once we crossed the bridge that spilled us into Punta Gorda Isles and saw the canals and the sailboats, we knew like the name of a major street in Punta Gorda -- Aqui Esta... Here it is!

The town was still sleepy when we built our first house here. In fact, much of the downtown wasn't much to look at, but even then it was being touted as one of the best places to retire to by Money Magazine. Then a hurricane came through in the summer of 2004, and improvements that some of the newer residents of Punta Gorda were looking for were accelerated. Older homes were updated to new standards - new roofs, new kitchens, new tile or wood floors and more. The downtown went under a complete renovation. New restaurants and shops moved in. Without extracting the small town charm of the original, Punta Gorda was updated to fit the needs of newer, younger retirees. The Florida real estate boom came to the small town with prices escalating. More and more new homes were built and more older homes were renovated. And then came the bust.

Now this unique waterfront village is a great value. In fact, in was just written up by US News and World Report and the 6th best value for retirement homes in the US. If you'd like to know more about this wonderful place, read my blog www.youbelonginpuntagordablog.com.