Port Charlotte, Florida Real Estate Market

It's no secret that inventory is high and sales prices are low in the Port Charlotte, Florida area, just as they are in most regions around the state and nationwide.  This translates into amazing opportunities for many who are newcomers to this part of southwest Florida and those who are just beginning to discover the dynamic Port Charlotte area.  These real estate market conditions rarely last long, and the prices will soon start to increase.  Now is a perfect time to check out the real estate offerings in Port Charlotte, which is a great place to live, work, play and invest.

The good news is that residents are able to find whatever they’re looking for in the region.  It’s easy to enjoy the laid back coastal lifestyle, which offers everything except the hustle, bustle and traffic of metropolitan living.  In addition, right now there are many indications that it’s a buyers market, where prices are good and inventory is plentiful.

The region of Port Charlotte is geographically defined by the Peace River along the southeast and the Myakka River to the west and south.  These two bodies of water join to form the Charlotte Harbor estuary system.  Englewood, North Port and Punta Gorda are all in close proximity, and the beautiful town of Venice lies just forty minutes to the north.  Port Charlotte is approximately 90 miles to Tampa Bay in the north and Naples to the south.

Location Characteristics: Port Charlotte is a coastal community situated between Sarasota to the north and Ft. Myers to the south. Directly across the Highway 41 bridge from Punta Gorda to the south, it is boundered by the Peace and Myakka rivers which create the Charlotte Harbor area with its direct access to the Gulf of Mexico. Because of its average depth of only ten to twelve feet, Charlotte Harbor is not impeded by commercial shipping traffic and will remain as its always been - a haven for recreational boaters and fishermen.

The business district enjoys a regional mall and movie theatre. It is home to a varied selection of national chain restaurants as well as many fine locally owned eateries. Retail and commercial construction is thriving as is new single family and multifamily construction, all of which underscores a positive economic environment.

In Port Charlotte, there are many diverse neighborhoods comprised of both older, ranch-style homes, as well as newer, larger properties built to take advantage of water views and boating.  In the southwest corner of Charlotte County, you can find the deed restricted communities of South Gulf Cove with its gorgeous views, 55 miles of wide canals and 15,000 buildable lots, all safely tucked behind a user-friendly, self-activated lock.  There is also sprawling Rotunda West which was designed to be the largest subdivision in the U.S.

Top Port Charlotte, Florida Restaurants

There are so many great restaurants in Port Charlotte, Florida that it is impossible to name them all.  However, a few are popular with locals and visitors alike.  Pizza lovers can feast on Italian cuisine and gourmet pies at Luigi’s Pizzaria, located at 3883 Tamiami Trail in Port Charlotte.  The restaurant specializes in all types of pizzas, pastas and other Italian favorites.  Luigi’s offers dine in, carry out, and they do delivery.  Their specialty pizzas have been top ranked in the Port Charlotte area for several years.  Luigi’s has a pizza buffet Monday through Friday at just $7.00 all you can eat, and features six different pizza selections, as well as salad and dessert.  The special on Fridays is an all you can eat, fall off the bone pork spare ribs at a very reasonable price of $10.00.

The atmosphere is a great neighborhood feel and the food is spectacular.  Luigi’s pizzas are hand tossed and prepared in view of diners at a station in the dining room and the other dishes are excellent as well.  Make sure to try their amazingly good olive oil dripping sauces with the fresh dinner rolls..

Another great spot for dining is Whiskey Creek Wood Fire Grill, located at 2746 Tamiami Trail in Port Charlotte.  Service is quick and the servers are attentive and friendly.  One dish extremely popular with diners is the Pan Seared Tilapia with pineapple salsa, which is cooked to perfection and served with a tasty side of veggie kababs.

For an excellent take on Tex-Mex food, try La Esperanza Restaurant, which is at 2150 Tamiami Trail in Port Charlotte.  The food is fantastic and the prices are quite reasonable.  Don’t miss the house specialties, including the extremely tender and flavorful beef tips served with rice.  Other menu items include varieties of tacos, fajitas, enchiladas and other dishes.  While basic as far as Mexican cuisine is concerns, these entrees are truly unique in their wonderful flavor and aromas.  The Chicken Mole is another house specialty that is featured on the regular menu, with some variations when it is on the specials menu.  Bring your appetite as the portions are enormous, and you might end up making a couple of meals out of your leftovers.

Fun Activities and Historic Landmarks of Port Charlotte, Florida

Its location on the Gulf Coast provides Port Charlotte, Florida with plenty of opportunities for fun activites as well as relaxing diversions.  For outdoor lovers, the GAEA Guides features Guided Kayak Nature Tours along all waterways in the southwest Florida region.  Visitors can get up close and personal with different varieties of wildlife and nature, and the flexibility of the kayaks allows guests to go where other watercraft cannot.  Certified Florida Master Naturalist lead these educational tours in quiet, easy to handle kayaks.  Observe herons, egrets, otters, manatee, dolphin, bald eagles, pelicans, osprey, alligators and more – in their natural habitat.  There are literally hundreds of miles of back bays, aquatic preserves, wildlife refuges, creeks, bayous, rivers and mangrove forests in the area.  No motor on the kayaks means no noise or pollution to spoil the adventure.

For other watercraft adventures, check out Island Timer Inc., which is a family owned and operated recreational charter company that provides charters of all varieties for families and small groups up to six people.  With a fleet of well-maintained vessels, Island Timer is sure to make your experience on the beautiful waters of Southwest Florida memorable and worry free.  Renting a boat is a hassle, especially when there are concerns about safely find your way around without running aground.  With a private charter from Island Timer expert and knowledgeable crew, the cost is about the same as renting.

Guides specialize in sightseeing, beach adventures including combing for shells and sharks teeth, waterside dining trips, nature tours, eco tours, and fishing.  Charters depart from Placida, near Port Charlotte, Florida located on the Cape Haze Peninsula.  However, by consulting with the office and prior arrangement, the captain can pick you and your group up at any accessible dock near you.  Visitors can sit back, relax, and enjoy the view, and the experience is ideal for children and adults of all ages.

Climate and Storm History of Port Charlotte, Florida

Port Charlotte. Florida is located along the state’s Gulf Coast.  As such, it experiences a humid subtropical climate, but is also somewhat unusual in its climate classification, bordering also on a tropical wet and dry climate.  For Port Charlotte, this means that summers are long, hot and humid and afternoon thunderstorms are frequent, almost a daily occurrence.  On the other hand, the winters are mild to warm with a distinct drop in precipitation.  Throughout the year, the temperature change only varies about 20 degrees Fahrenheit on a twice daily basis.

The type of climate affecting Port Charlotte has a monthly mean temperature above 70 degrees Fahrenheit every month of the year.  With a typically pronounced dry season, the driest month in Port Charlotte is January with precipitation less than 3 inches and also very low annual precipitation.  In essence, a tropical wet and dry climate tends to either see less rainfall than a tropical monsoon climate or have more pronounced dry seasons than a tropical monsoon climate.  In Port Charlotte, like most places that have tropical wet and dry climates, the dry season occurs during the time of lower sun and shorter days because of rainshadow effects during the 'high-sun' part of the year.  This would be from December through February in Port Charlotte.

Port Charlotte was severely impacted by Hurricane Charley on August 13, 2004.  Charley was predicted to hit the Tampa metropolitan area as a category 2 hurricane, but then took a last-minute right turn to head more directly east.  Charley intensified into a category 4 hurricane as it made landfall near Charlotte Harbor and caused severe damage in the city of Punta Gorda and in the Port Charlotte area.  The storm’s 145 mph maximum sustained winds destroyed almost half of the homes in the county and took a heavy ecological toll with damage to sensitive wetlands in the area.

City of Port Charlotte, Florida: General Information

The city of Port Charlotte, Florida is a census-designated place, or CDP for U.S. Census purposes.  It is located in Charlotte County along Florida‘s Gulf Coast, and is part of the Punta Gorda Metropolitan Statistical Area.  As of the U.S. Census conducted in 2000, there were 46,451 residents dwelling in Port Charlotte’s 20,453 households, and there were 13,601 families residing in the city.  As such, the population density was 2,085 people per square mile, with a average housing density of  23,315 or 1,047 per square mile.

Port Charlotte’s 20,453 households include 20.8% that had children under the age of 18 living in them, while 53.2% were married couples living together.  Female householders were in 10.1% or Port Charlotte homes and 33.5% were non-families.  Individuals living alone were the heads of household in 28.2% of all households, and 18.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.  On average, the household size was 2.25 residents, and the average family size was 2.71 people

In Port Charlotte. the population was widely distribu8ted, with 18.7% of residents being under the age of 18 and 5.4% were aged from 18 to 24.  The age range of 25 to 44 was 21.0% of the population, and 24.2% were from 45 to 64years old.  Finally, 30.7% of Port Charlotte residents were 65 years of age or older with a city-wide median age of 49 years.  For every 100 females calling Port Charlotte home there were 87.7 males, and women age 18 and over, there were 84.2 males.

The median income for a typical Port Charlotte household was $33,193, and the median income for a family was $38,406.  Males out earned females with a median income of $29,019 versus women‘s $21,892, and the per capita income for Port Charlotte was $18,563.  In all, about 7.3% of families and 10.1% of the population were below the poverty line.  Charlotte County, which includes Port Charlotte, had the region’s highest unemployment rate at 5.8 percent in August 2007, higher than both the national and state averages.

History of the City of Port Charlotte, Florida

Port Charlotte, Florida is a census-designated place, or CDP for U.S. Census purposes.  It is located in Charlotte County, and part of the Punta Gorda Metropolitan Statistical Area.  The first tribe to make their home in the Port Charlotte area were the nomadic paleo-Indians.  The name derives from the tribal subsistence, as they survived by chasing big game such as woolly mammoth southward during the last ice age around 10,000 BC.

At the time, Port Charlotte and its surrounding regions were not coastal areas, as the peninsula of Florida was much wider than it is today and much drier.  As the ice caps melted over thousands of years, the sea level rose and Florida assumed the shape it has today.  The paleo-Indians gave way to the Calusa, who thrived on the southwest Florida coast and numbered over 50,000 in population when the first Spaniards reached the peninsula in the 1500s.  Their arrival devastated the Calusa, as Euroean diseases such as small pox and measles decimated the population.  Later, the Seminole tribe would arrive as they were forced from the north and establish themselves on the peninsula.

In 1819, Florida was ceded by the Spanish, becoming a U.S. state in 1845.  For the first 100 years of statehood, Port Charlotte remained mostly undeveloped.  Most of the roads and railroads at the turn of the 20th century show that most which lead into southwest Florida bypassed the Port Charlotte area.  Aside from a few cattle raches and small scale agricultural holdings, the area was mostly uninhabited. This changed after World War II, when people first began to notice the abundant opportunities and pleasant climate for developing land in Florida.  By the 1950s, the now defunct land developer began building on both of Florida's coastlines.  Among the areas they planned and developed was the Port Charlotte area. Ultimately, Port Charlotte would become the most populated center of population in Charlotte County, although like most GDC developments, Port Charlotte remained unincorporated land.