Marco Island is a great place to call home. The largest of Florida’s renowned Ten Thousand Islands chain going from Everglades City to Flamingo, the 6800 acre Marco has an impressive collection of historical landmarks, sights and sounds, and natural attractions to keep homeowners enamored with the quaint community for a lifetime.
Part of the 99-mile Wilderness Waterway, Marco Island’s varied animal life alone is astounding. There are fifty foot high sand hills, pine forests, fields and pristine sandy beaches, and a mangrove swamp. Burrowing owls are one of the main wildlife attracts–wildlife enthusiasts report that Marco Island is the only one in the Ten Thousand Islands system of islands to be home to these unique creatures.
Marco Island has a full range of city services, with an excellent school system and utilities infrastructure. Residents and tourists can find numerous things to do on Marco Island, including scuba diving, canoeing, boating, sport fishing, and more. There are even archaeological digs that are over 2000 years old from indian tribes, such as the Calusa Indian burial mound and the famous “Marco Cat” found at the Frank Cushing Archaeological Site.
The island was home to nearly 15,000 residents in the 2000 census, but new population data from the 2010 census to be released on December 21, 2010 is expected to show significant growth from those figures. The real estate boom led to growth from the Naples, Florida metropolitan area, with many exclusive homes being built during that time. With the subsequent housing sector pullback in prices, bargain hunters have found exclusive Marco Island real estate parcels that are priced very attractively. In fact, Marco Island condos and bank owned properties are some of the best priced listings on the market.
Marco Island homes at the time of this writing range from about $70,000 for a 460 s.f. townhouse to $10.5 million for a 11,000+ s.f. luxurious waterfront estate. There are numerous waterfront properties on the island, many with private access to the beautiful and temperate Gulf of Mexico waters.