Hi everyone, it’s Chelsea here, bringing you another segment of Living in Southwest Florida. Florida is a pretty big place. And many places and many different vibes. The panhandle is way different than Miami, Tampa is different than Jacksonville, and Fort Myers is different than them all. I often hear people debating whether they should go to the gulf side or the Atlantic side, so today let’s do a little east/west coast comparison.
Let’s pause real quick before we jump in though - and if you could go hit that like button for me I would appreciate it. This way YouTube algorithms share this info with others. And as a thank you, please enjoy this video of canoeing down White Creek in Oscar Sherer State Park, which is located just north of Fort Myers in the city of Nokomis. And I wouldn’t be doing my job well if I didn’t remind you all that we ALWAYS love helping people from all over the country buy and sell their homes here in Southwest Florida so if you or anyone you know are thinking about moving then feel free to use the contact info below.
Alright let’s jump right in.
I see many people out there will tag “South Florida” or “So Flo” but what they are really referring to is southEAST Florida - or more specifically, they are usually referring to Miami and Fort Lauderdale metro areas. And there’s more to South Florida than just the east coast. The two halves are VERY different from each other. So today I wanted to explore that a bit and compare what the west coast and east coasts of Florida may look like.
Now, if we really want to get technical - northern Florida and southern Florida are also worlds different from each other as well. It’s really a lot to cover so I’m going to be talking very generically speaking on this.
Let’s start with the lifestyle. There’s just a completely different vibe and what people place value on can be completely different. The east coast is known for its cultural diversity and more metropolitan lifestyle. There is a vibrant art and music scenes, especially in the Miami-Dade metro, which would be the largest metropolitan area in the entire state. It also is one of the largest ports in the world, and Miami International Airport is considered THE gateway to Latin America. As such Broward and Miami-Dade counties are the largest melting pots of Florida, and it brings a host of cultures with their own culinary, musical, and artistic experiences. There has been a lot of ‘hustle and grind’ type influences in pop culture coming out of the Miami metro with it there’s been a bigger influence of tech and entrepreneurship that are becoming a part of the southeast Florida lifestyle.
The west coast is Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. The big values that tend to be treasured on the west coast are rest and relaxation. Days are spent more on ‘island time’ than they are rushing around and many people flock to the west side because of its chilled out atmosphere and a chance to be out of the rat race. There is no clubbing til 3AM and there are less opportunities to catch a top 40s concert. In other words, the east coast has a faster pace of life than the west coast, which tends to be a more mellow and sleepier atmosphere.
The Tampa Bay area is the largest of the metropolitan areas on the west coast, and because it is a large metro, it does encapsulate some of the qualities of the east coast. Like it does have a cruise industry, it does have a music and art scene so you can catch a concert or go to a sports game, and it does offer a growing job market. But these things are all mellowed out with the west coast ideology.
One of the things that I personally love about Southwest Florida is that we have the mellow vibese - but - I can go 2 hours north or 2 hours east and hit the bigger cities with all their extra amenities.
West Coast of Florida is less peopley. There are more areas that are being developed whereas the east coast has developed more quickly. So on the plus side, there’s less traffic. That can also mean that there’s less jobs. In areas like Jacksonville and South Florida, there will be more opportunities for employment than the west coast where jobs tend to center around hospitality or supporting local residents needs - like construction, health care, and that sort. Did you know that agriculture and ranching are a major industry in Florida? A lot of the state has a lot of cows. I’m not really sure what coast that falls under since they’re really everywhere… but I find that interesting.
Speaking of jobs, let’s discuss costs of living. The gulf coast of Florida has traditionally been less expensive than the Atlantic coast. In my last video, statistically Miami is 19% more expensive than Fort Myers. Using Fort Myers as an example since we use it often on this channel, the city has a median price of $325,000 according to Realtor.com and as you can see from their site,as a whole you’ll find the east coast more expensive generally speaking than the west side. Northern cities can be less expensive than the southern counterparts as well so that may be worth keeping in mind.
So we’ve talked about lifestyle and jobs and costs to live. Let’s talk about why you’d want to live there. Because I would say the number one factor I hear from people moving to Florida is that they want to live by the beach. The east side of the state has beaches running the whole length and there on the Atlantic coast you’ll find that the Atlantic will bring choppier water. It’s funny if you think about it. The water force is more livelier, just like the lifestyle we talked about. There will be bigger waves so if you like to surf, it’s your better option. But if you like that peaceful lifestyle, then the mellower Gulf might be your better bet. The gulf waters are considered calmer overall.
Also something worth noting: there are parts of the west coast that are marshes and estuaries and so it’s not a full beach up and down the coast like the east coast is. This is great for wildlife lovers. Also, Florida is considered the Sportfishing Capital of the World and of the 10 best spots, majority of those can be found on the gulf side of the state.
Also found on the gulf side: the best shelling beaches in the world. Kind of a silly story but I grew up on one of the west coast barrier islands here in SWFL and shelling was the norm. We always came home with buckets of pretty shells and we’d spend hours digging for coquinas or picking up sand dollars. I was FLOORED when I grew up to find out that it is not like that everywhere. Beaches felt naked without their shells.
Sanibel Island here in SWFL is literally called the Shelling Capital of the World and that’s primarily because most of the barrier islands run parallel along the coast line whereas Sanibel curves, creating a barrier for the shells to wash up on. So for those who like to spend their days beachcombing and looking for pretty treasures, the west coast will be where you will need to be.
Also - if you’re spending your time at the beach, then you may want to decide - do you prefer sunrise or sunset? On the east coast, morning beach sunrises are unparalleled. But if you wantt o catch the sunset it might be more challenging - particularly in the metro areas where there are tall buildings blocking your view. And on the west coast, those sunsets will be like the ones that clog your social media feeds but sunrise is nothing really to write home about.
Lastly, I want to mention the Okeechobee flood plain, which I haven’t really heard anyone discuss before on these channels. Lake Okeechobee is in the middle of the state. It gets fed by the Kissimmee river primarily, and it flows out through to feed the St. Lucie river which dumps into the Atlantic on the east coast, and the Caloosahatchee river that dumps into the Gulf of Mexico on the west coast. The lake is huge. It’s the 2nd largest freshwater lake in the US to have all of its borders within the states, and 87th largest natural freshwater lake in the US at all.
But let’s step into a little history for a moment… in the 1920s two major hurricanes hit Florida and they killed thousands of people when Lake Okeechobee’s storm surges went well over the mud dikes. For those that don’t know, big shocker, but most of Florida is flat. The water would have naturally ran off towards southeast Florida and into the everglades and with years of development in that area, thousands of people now live in the areas that would be impacted by the surges. So, with thousands of lives lost and more damage than I can give stats for, these hurricanes were, understandably, considered state of the emergencies, and after visiting the area Herbert Hoover had the US Army Corps of Engineers build a series of channels, levees, and gates for 160 miles to protect people from the overflow in the future. Now, the engineers release water when the lake levels get too high to make sure that the flooding doesn’t happen again. This has proved to be a difficult thing to maintain though. For starters, the lake fills up 6 times faster than the canals can drain. Also, pollution has impacted the lake severely and when it was dredged in 2008, some areas of the lake had 4 times the amount of fertilizers and arsenic in the mud than was acceptable. So, when releases are determined to be necessary, no one is super thrilled with the gunky water being released… most of all the animals living in the estuaries where the polluted water is being released. But also, in addition to the gunky water that they are trying to figure out how to clean up, since 2013 the Army Corp of Engineers has been pumping out literally a billion gallons of water daily to be sure that the Hoover Dike remains sound and doesn’t flood the now hundreds of thousands of people who have built homes, schools, and businesses all in the flood basin. I don’t really have any actionable advice on this point. I hear a lot from people asking to shop for homes outside of flood zones and so I thought it may be worth mentioning that if this is one of your concerns, you may want to review the flood maps before setting down roots. I’ll link a great Sun-Sentinel article with descriptions and pictures of the problem in the description below for anyone interested. There are also several organizations doing great work for the water quality concerns from the Lake and I’ll link that as well.
As always, I would love to hear from you. Are you being pulled towards the west coast or east coast? Feel free to comment below and tell me your thoughts. You can find my contact info below in the video description if you would like to run questions by me for your specific scenario. Myself and the network of agents I have throughout the United States are here and ready to help you with your move.
Also feel free to use CapeCoralFortMyersRealEstate.com for all the latest listings to hit the market and begin getting comfortable with our marketplace. No obligations.
If you are ready to get the ball rolling on your move to Southwest Florida, then there is a link in the description below to set up a personalized home search that will be tailored to you. Oftentimes when you search on web aggregates it limits your capabilities - but when I build this search, you will have many more options available and we can begin a conversation about what your home in FL will look like.
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Thanks so much for watching and until next time I wish you much health and happiness.