Stump Pass, Englewood, Florida

Inexpensive but not Cheap

Englewood, Florida, the two county town on the sparkling waters of Lemon Bay, is one of Florida’s best-kept secrets. Approximately 15,000 people live here – and they love it. Englewood is an unincorporated community northwest of Charlotte County and southwest of Sarasota County. It is a quiet community, especially during the summer months, when the snowbirds are gone. You can often read that this community is one of Southwest Florida’s best-kept secrets – a town with that old Florida charm, laid back, with beautiful sandy white beaches, and reasonable real estate prices. So, that must be paradise.

Englewood is still one of the least developed areas with still waterfront and beachfront access lots available. You don’t want to go through the hassle of building a home? Well, there are also existing homes for sale with breathtaking Water, Golf Course or Nature Preserve views.

Oyster Creek Golf and Country Club

One of Englewood’s finest gated communities, Oyster Creek Golf and Country Club, consists of about 460 single family homes and villas built on and around a challenging 18 hole executive golf course. The golf course, designed by Ted McAnlis, is always perfectly maintained, and so is the community as well.  Every fairway is either lined with mature trees or bordered by unique hazards.

The 18-hole “Oyster Creek” course features almost 4,000 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 60. The course rating is 59.3, and it has a slope rating of 100. Several ponds and small lakes sparkle in the midst of all the green. The community is also surrounded by environmentally protected wetlands. They are attracting all kinds of wildlife. The creek itself remained untouched. Therefore, it is home to many animals, including bobcats, turtles, and gators.

It all started in the late 80’s

The groundbreaking for Oyster Creek Golf and Country Club took place in the late 1980’s. There are smaller 2 and 3 bedroom homes in Phase I, the majority without a pool. At the time they were sold in the very low $100,000 range …and the homes sold out quickly. None of the homes is facing the golf course, though.

Phase II was started a couple of years later. The golf course had to be finished first because in Phase II homes are facing either the greenbelt (Oyster Creek) or the golf course. The houses are a little bigger (1,800+sqft), and many of them are Pool Homes. Only 10 years later Phase III, the last section, was sold out and the builders moved on to another place. Beautiful homes with golf course or green belt views are nestled into manicured gardens. In the last Phase, there were also paired villas added.

An extremely robust community

Homes in Oyster Creek have pretty much kept their value, which is not a real surprise. One reason is that they were reasonably priced when being built; the other reason is that Oyster Creek is a very stable community. There have barely any short sales or foreclosures in the past, and most of the homeowners tend to stay in their homes for a long time. Only very few homes are investment properties which have a tendency to go belly up more often than private residences.

Smaller homes are priced in the high $100’s or low $200’s, bigger Pool Homes in prime Golf View locations usually sell for $100k more.

Amenity rich but not expensive

Usually, those two attributes are not a perfect match. The rule is:”the more amenities, the higher the maintenance fee.” Is that so in Oyster Creek?

Let us first see what you get, and then you can complain: 24h manned security gate, community center with a huge heated pool and a clubhouse with exercise room, meeting/party room, kitchen, and library/media room, table tennis and pool table. Two lighted tennis courts are next to the clubhouse. All this + common grounds maintenance + maintenance of individual lots (lawn, bushes, fertilization, bug treatment, maintenance of sprinkler system) is included in a monthly fee of less than $180 (HOA-fee). NO CCD! Now you can complain.

By the way, when we moved to Oyster Creek we paid $132 a month. That was in 1995. Now, 20 years later, it is only $44 a month more.

Brief summary:

If you like the small town feeling check out Englewood in Florida – beautiful Gulf Coast living at a fraction of the price of neighboring towns like Sarasota, Fort Myers or Naples. Oyster Creek G. & C.C. has all the amenities you may be looking for, and you are close to beaches, shopping, airports, and entertainment. Don’t rob a bank – check out Englewood’s Oyster Creek Golf and Country Club first. 

More area information: www.BuyPropertyinParadise.com