As the story goes, some years ago, a mighty hurricane blew in from the Atlantic, made a direct hit on the Palm Beaches, picked them up and deposited them across the state at the edge of the Gulf of Mexico, stripped of some of their conspicuous gaudiness. And they called the new town Naples.

        Make no mistake about it, Naples does have its gaudy side. As your editor returned from dinner one evening on Naples’ main thoroughfare, the Tamiami Trail (Highway 41), about a half million dollars of automotive machinery whizzed past in tandem –- a brand new white Ferrari followed directly by a new dark blue Bentley. It seemed the Bentley was trying awfully hard to keep up with the Ferrari.

        But those with an eye on Naples need not try too hard to keep up with the Ferraris…or the Joneses. Naples offers real estate to suit every interest and bank account. Out in the area of Interstate 75, only five or six miles

This was a first; a half million dollars of automotive machinery passing me on the road.

east of the heart of Naples, you might think you were in Myrtle Beach or the Lauderdales –- without the traffic. I stayed the week in a condo at Heritage Bay, a sprawling community developed by Lennar, and was matched up there for a round of golf with a former Marine from Minnesota. He spoke enthusiastically about Heritage Bay’s 27 holes of golf, humongous and lavish clubhouse, and the $200,000 he paid for his home, full golf club membership included.

        After spending a week in the Sarasota/Bradenton area, where there seemed to be life in the downtown areas and suburban town centers, Naples seemed a tad quiet, except for Saturday night at a sleek new shopping center called the Mercato, where lively crowds filled a few restaurants, especially one called the Blue Martini, which was standing room only. The Mercato must provide quite the scene when the snowbirds re-migrate in November.

        Inveterate shoppers will find a dizzying selection of shops in the Naples area, with more than 30 shopping centers offering everything from pricey antiques to the ubiquitous Walmart. If you have time for just one area, choose Naples’ Fifth Avenue, a banyan-lined street of galleries, wine stores and clothing shops just steps from the beach.

 

Naples real estate finding its way back

        The fact these stores are open and thriving shows how far the area has come since the devastating housing market crash locally in 2007. Except for Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami, Naples was probably hit the hardest of any metro areas in the U.S. Real estate prices have now rebounded from a more than 60% loss to about the 35% mark, where the market stood in 2002.  Many bargains across all price ranges and lifestyles are still available, but Naples real estate professionals report increased buying activity. One anomaly about Naples: Real estate prices sunk dramatically lower than did membership fees at the local private clubs. Naples-area joining fees and dues are expensive in relation to the real estate prices. You can buy yourself a condo in the $100s in a nicely amenitized development, for example, but in some cases expect to pay $25,000 or more for golf initiation fees. Of course, Florida golf clubs must maintain their premises for use 365 days a year.

        High golf fees combined with low real estate costs is actually a better deal than the opposite. As we’ve preached before, look to the entire cost of living when choosing a place for relocation, not one component like real estate or membership costs. In Florida, the lack of an income tax for many retirees makes the medicine of higher golf fees go down a little easier, and the entire cost of living assessment in Florida is no larger than in the Carolinas and other retirement hot spots. Depending on how you choose to live, Florida can be significantly cheaper.

        In visiting golf communities in Naples, we tried to cover the waterfront –- well, not literally the waterfront, since most of the waterfront is festooned with high rises and other developments. No golf courses in Naples are actually on the Gulf. The closest we got to the Gulf of Mexico on a golf course in Naples was at the Audubon Golf Club, one of the few west of the Tamiami Trail. Club members in our foursome proudly pointed beyond a four-story building a half-mile away to say it was “a few blocks from the beach.” But, in reality, the beaches are within easy reach of any part of Naples, even from the “other side of the tracks” just beyond I-75.

        Here are five well-regarded golf communities in Naples that represent a range of locations and prices. The golf club at Olde Cypress, in one of the communities we planned to visit, was being completely renovated during our visit; we hope to play it at a later date. For a roster of current golf homes for sale in Naples, please visit GolfHomesListed.

Heritage Bay

        After some financial difficulties resulting from the housing crisis, the Lennar development company is back with a vengeance, pushing its successful formula of high-end amenities and low cost homes. At Heritage Bay, a few miles east of Interstate 75, we found the 27 holes of golf a pleasure, if not a great challenge, the kind of golf course one could grow old on. (Although it would take us a little longer to get used to warming up on the “aquatic practice range” with balls that float.) Real estate is a relative bargain at Heritage Bay, with condominiums starting in the $100s. Estate homes range from the low $400s and look out across the “bay” that gives Heritage Bay its name, but it is really more like a big round lake. Lennar “bundles” club membership with the price of the home, making the golfing lifestyle in a new condo well within the reach of “snowbirds” who intend to use their Naples home for half the year. The big clubhouse is large and lavish, and our lunch in the grill was as good as it gets. We found the greetings from the guards at the iron-gated entrance to be charmingly inconsistent. After recognizing us over a couple of days, the day guard engaged in jokes and waved us through. His colleague at night asked for our driver’s license –- even after recognizing us. Residents should be pleased with his diligence, if not his humor. For a few sample listings of golf homes for sale in Heritage Bay, click here.

HeritageBayaquarange

All Wet:  The practice range at Heritage Bay uses floating golf balls.

Imperial Golf Club at Imperial Estates

        In the scramble to one-up their competitors, many golf communities lard on additional amenities that have nothing to do with golf. But fitness centers and pools, for example, are expensive to maintain and staff, and they add to club dues and HOA fees. Imperial is proud of its status as one of Naples’ few golf-only private clubs, and with a $10,000 joining fee and annual dues under $7,500 for a family, it offers an excellent buy in golf club membership for 36 holes of stellar golf (18 by Arthur Hills, 18 by Ward Northrup redesigned by Chip Powell in 2001). Imperial’s impressive clubhouse, which sits at the club’s highest point, was built in 2001, but the cost of the construction has not set back the club financially; the club’s marketing materials show clearly that cash on hand is more than $1 million in excess of debt. Because the surrounding community is a mature 40 years old, real estate prices in Imperial Estates are exceedingly reasonable, with nice condos starting in the mid $100s and single-family homes in the $300s.  Check out a few golf homes for sale in Imperial Estates by clicking here.

ImperialGolf2approach

Some of the greens at Imperial Golf Club have enough elevation to keep the views of nearby homes to a minimum.

Audubon Country Club

        Audubon is proud of its status as “The only gated Gulf Side Country Club in all of Naples.” It is also among the most northern of Naples’ golf communities, putting it as close to Bonita Springs as it is to Naples, and making the trip to the international airport in Ft. Myers a pleasantly short jaunt. The club is member owned and also proud of its debt-free status. The 35,000 square foot clubhouse has a pink flamingo colored exterior that dominates the vistas from many points on the golf course. A variety of membership plans, including equity and non-equity programs, are available and provide access not only to the Joe Lee designed golf course, but to eight lighted Har-Tru tennis courts, casual and fine dining rooms, fitness center and two “tournament rated” croquet courts. The community’s 750 acres comprise both condos and single-family homes, the former starting in the $400s and the latter ranging from the $600s to more than $3 million. And “Audubon” is not just someone’s idea of a good name for a golf community; the golf course is one of 800 worldwide with the designation as an “Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary.” We list homes ranging from $499,000 to $2.3 million at GolfHomesListed.

Audubon18thapproach

Hit the green with your approach on the 18th at Audubon, and you can reward yourself with a cool one in the pink flamingo colored clubhouse.

Mediterra

        You get a sense of the precision (and exclusivity) with which The Club at Mediterra delivers services to its members when you read the fine print on the scorecard for its two Tom Fazio golf courses: “The Club has established the maximum pace of play for the North Course at 4 hours, 10 minutes; for the South Course at 4 hours, 5 minutes.” That sent us to the calculators to compute that the time difference, per hole, between the two layouts is a mere 16 seconds. Mediterra certainly sweats the details in behalf of its members, whether it is scrupulous background checks on those who apply to join the club or the pristine set of bocce courts sitting below the lush Piazza (clubhouse) and sharing space with seven Har-Tru tennis courts, a fitness center, spa, outdoor heated pool, a room for social gatherings. We were especially impressed with the location of the “Bocce Bar,” beside the courts.

        Mediterra’s near-death experience under its former parent, Bonita Bay Group, which continues to be dogged by litigation with its own members, led to Mediterra’s members buying their club and injecting additional capital into its operations. But it also sent the club’s governors on a hunting expedition for someone with experience and big name recognition to run things. They found it in Tom Wallace, who guided the famed Oakmont Country Club through U.S. Opens and course renovations. Wallace is now Mediterra’s CEO and General Manager.

        Everyone who buys a home in Mediterra –- prices start around the $500s -- is required to sign-up for at least a social membership at a charge of $2,900 annually, which provides dining privileges year round at the clubhouse and full beach club privileges from Easter through mid-December –- but no golf. Full golf membership is a non-refundable $100,000, but with 36 holes of impeccably conditioned Tom Fazio golf that you can play every day of the year, that does not seem unreasonable for one of exclusive Naples’ most exclusive golf communities.  For samples of golf homes for sale in Mediterra, click here.

Mediterrabocceballs

Even the barrel that holds the bocce balls at the fastidious Mediterra seems perfect suited.

Vineyards

        You have to admire any community that fully discloses its membership fees publicly, as does Vineyards, one of Naples’ multi-golf-course communities. The club’s four levels of membership span a full range of options, from full-family golf at $35,000 (tennis comes along with it) to a social membership at $3,000 (pools and fitness center available, tennis extra but no golf permitted). Dues for full golf are $8,350 annually. The 38 neighborhoods inside the guarded gates of Vineyards, just east of Interstate 75, comprise just about every type of home option, from condos and coach homes in the $100s to single-family estate homes well into the millions. Former PGA tour player Mark McCumber designed the North Course and Bill Amick, a well-respected golf architect, the South Course. Both are kept in impeccable condition. The 70,000 square foot clubhouse is among the largest we have ever visited, dwarfing the club’s large free-form pool and heated spa. Physicians Regional Medical Center, a 70-bed longstanding hospital, is adjacent to the community.  You will find a sample of golf homes for sale in the Vineyards by clicking here.

Vineyardscondosat12thgreen

Condos at Vineyards are well back of the field of play but afford nice views of the golf course.

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        If you would like more information about Naples golf homes for sale, please take a look at our properties for sale at GolfHomesListed, or contact us and we will be happy to discuss the many options available to you along the Gulf Coast of Florida.

        Many of the best cities for golf don't offer many good options after the round is over.  For example, after a day of golf in Myrtle Beach, if your taste does not run to neon lights and honky tonk bars, you might find yourself spending the evening with the remote button in your condo. And as good as golf in Pinehurst is, that is just how dull the place can be between rounds.

        You’ll find no such problem in the Sarasota and Bradenton area of Florida, a short distance from the Gulf of Mexico. Even during the relentlessly hot and humid summers, when the snowbird-sanctuaries in the state become ghost towns, the strand of beaches just over the three

Dr. Beach designated Siesta Key the best beach in America.

bridges from the mainland are alive with joggers, swimmers and sunbathers (and if you can stand the heat, tee times in Sarasota are plentiful at all the excellent local courses, and dozens of private golf clubs offer reciprocal arrangements to each other). In 2011, “Dr. Beach,” a professor at a Florida university who ranks the nation’s beaches, named Siesta Key Beach, just over a bridge from Sarasota, to his coveted #1 ranking.

StArmandsCafe

The tiny town of St. Armands, just over the bridge from Sarasota, effects a European vibe with its outdoor cafes, shops and convivial atmosphere.

 

        That puts the city in the “hot” category, but Sarasota is also cool, as in hip and vibrant, patrons of its downtown restaurants and cafes spilling out into the streets, the music and sounds of enthusiastic couples and singles filling the warm evening air. For those who take their entertainment in quieter doses, Sarasota serves up one of the top museums in the country, the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art. You can spend a day on site at the Ringling touring the circus magnate’s estate and lush gardens, but you won’t want to miss the couple’s collection of paintings and sculptures that rivals those of the top museums in the world. (And, of course, it provides air-conditioned, for the sake of the paintings as well as the patrons.)

        Because Interstate 75 and other good roads run through the Sarasota/Bradenton area, nothing is too far from anything else, including Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team plays (just a half hour away), and where you can walk up and buy a ticket for virtually any game. The area’s array of golf communities –- there are more than 40 of them -- fits every budget and golf skill. We especially like the following five local communities. Golf homes for sale in Sarasota and Bradenton are featured at our companion web site, GolfHomesListed, and range in price from the $100s to the millions.

Lakewood Ranch

        Someday, this giant golf community that is incorporated as its own town will be home to more than 35,000 people. For now, the relative few can take advantage of not only three excellently conditioned golf courses, but also an infrastructure of shops, restaurants and retail stores so close that you won’t put hardly a dent in your gas budget. Lakewood Ranch, like many of the larger communities in Florida, is divided into neighborhoods, each with its own character, style and price points. The choices are just short of dizzying, with single-family homes in some neighborhoods that begin in the $100s, in others the $600s, with plenty of options in between. But everyone benefits from the vibrant and growing town center, the proximity to Interstate 75 and the optional full-scale of amenities at the country club, which features 54 holes of golf -– 36 by Arnold Palmer Design and 18 by Rick Robbins. We played the Cypress Links at 6,368 yards from the blue tees and found the course beautifully manicured and a pleasure. Big bangers can play the layout at up to 7,141 yards.

LakewoodRanch18approach

The par 5 550 yard 18th at Lakewood Ranch begs you to have a go at the right-front edge of the green, but cooler heads should prevail and aim just short of the bunkers on the right, leaving a short pitch in.

Laurel Oak

        Some golf communities beg for attention, with an aggressive “Hey look me over” attitude that can be off-putting. Laurel Oak’s success is as much the product of word of mouth as it is a marketing program; its residents are proud boosters of the golf courses and community, and anyone who has played either the Gary Player course or Rees Jones course, both immaculately groomed, or driven through the community’s beautifully landscaped streets is likely to do all the talking the 22-year old Laurel Oak needs. At just over 800 acres and with a maximum of about 400 homes planned at completion, Laurel Oak offers room to move and plenty of privacy for its residents, current and future.

LaurelOakSandhillCranes13thtee

A par 3 for the birds:  The sandhill cranes on the teebox at the 13th at Laurel Oak took great exception to three interloper cranes on the green.  By the time we had putted out, a display of wing-flailing and squawking ensued.  The interlopers dispersed...as did we.

 

Prestancia

        The name “Tournament Players Club” means many things to U.S. golfers, all of them positive. TPC clubs are known to be challenging enough to host PGA tour events but also magnets for the vacationing golfer or those lucky enough to live near a TPC club they can join (it is not as expensive as you think, less than $20,000 in most cases). The benefits of a TPC membership go well beyond the local club, with privileges extended to club members by other TPC clubs. You will pay half price for green fees at some of the resort courses, like Sawgrass, but just a cart fee at the other TPC courses. Prestancia played host to some of the earliest PGA Senior Tour events, and the ample clubhouse walls are lined with photos of some of the game’s luminaries. The golf community’s streets are lined with attractive single-family homes and a landscape that shows its maturity, but not its age. Featuring condos from the $100s and single-family homes from the $200s.

Prestancia18approach

The approach on the par 4 final hole at Prestancia could drive you to drink -- or at least into the drink.

River Strand

        River Strand is one of those “bundled” golf communities that is a signal feature of the giant developer, Lennar. For one reasonable price for a home –- condos from $100s and single-family homes that begin in the $300s –- a resident of River Strand automatically becomes a member of the River Strand golf club, with full access to all amenities, including pools, clubhouse, tennis courts and a modern fitness center. The golf course was designed by one of our favorites, Arthur Hills, who understands how to push just a little dirt around to make his flatland layouts more challenging and visually interesting without making them look artificial. We talked to a few local itinerant golfers and all said River Strand was near the top of their lists.

 

Palm-Aire

        Sarasota’s Palm-Aire club holds an important place in the annals of American sports. Formerly known as DeSoto Lakes Country Club, the club hosted some of the earliest televised golf events beginning in the late 1950s; in 1960, Sam Snead won the DeSoto Open (and a check for $5,300) and a guy named Arnold Palmer finished 5th. (Your editor’s favorite all-time golfer, “Champagne” Tony Lema, was also in the field.) The course –- dubbed “The Green Monster” -- was scary long, even for the pros, at 6,981 yards and a par of 71 (it was later shortened). In 1961, the LPGA Championship was played at DeSoto, and the whopping first prize of $5,000 attracted such legends as Mickey Wright and Patty Berg. In 1973, the community’s tennis courts hosted the Virginia Slims Championship and Chris Evert and Evonne Goolagong. Today, two golf courses, nine tennis courts and an expansive clubhouse are available to members of the historic club. Condos beginning under $100K and single-family homes from the $300s are available to those looking for a well-established, quintessential Florida golf community.

 

Sarasota_Bay

The bay that separates Sarasota from the "keys" -- Siesta, Longboat, etc. -- is a short drive from most golf communities in the Sarasota and Bradenton area.  On the other side of the keys is the Gulf of Mexico.