- by Sana Sanchez
  
Englewood - Best Neighborhood to Retire

Town Center is the Top Spot
 
The Town Center neighborhood of Dearborn Street and surrounding historic areas scored the top spot on a list of 20 Best Neighborhoods to Retire, according to the Web site walletpop.com.The consumer Web site described Town Center as beautiful and less well known, qualities it said, "help it retain its incredible retirement value." The accolades included a description of Town Center as "one of the safest in Florida with incredibly low crime rates" and a median house value of just over $200,000.

Three other Florida neighborhoods made the top 20, including Melbourne Beach, ranked 6th; Palm Harbor, 15th; and Jensen Beach, 20th. The No. 2 spot was Brecksville, Ohio. Six of the 20 neighborhoods had lower median home values than Englewood.

When Rotonda resident Cliff Feightner saw the top ranking for Englewood, he was thrilled. A retired information technology guru, Feightner said he peruses walletpop.com and finds it a useful tool for making budget decisions. "I had the option of living anywhere in the world when I retired," Feightner said. "Englewood turned out to be the last vestige of old Florida you could find. We moved to Rotonda. We couldn't be happier. We don't want the secret to get out."

Iverson Moore looks at almost all the quality of life indexes out there in his job as senior public affairs associate with the National Association of Realtors in Washington, D.C. "Whichever the source may be, it's always good news when an objective outsider has made the decision that yours is one of the most desirable places," he said. "It's a pleasant surprise."

Ranking No. 1 has value for the Englewood community in terms of the respect it generates, according to Rex Gavorchin, president of the Englewood Board of Realtors. "People love to look at these kinds of lists," Gavorchin said. "When you want to move out of a hometown where you lived for 20, 30 years, you might look at that list. You gain the respect of people looking for a place to spend the rest of their lives."

With Dearborn Street at its center, the Town Center neighborhood includes a mix of homes and businesses extending down McCall Road, around Palm Grove Avenue, across Wentworth Street, and east of State Road 776 to Selma Road.
The area was given the Town Center designation several years ago "because we wanted it to be a focal point and part of the redevelopment area," said Janet Landis, the retired president of the Olde Englewood Village Association. It is an important part of Englewood, which straddles two counties without actually being a town.

"Even though we're not a town, a lot of people know about Englewood," Landis said. "A lot of Floridians come here to fish and vacation. It's a great place to retire, but also a great place to bring up children. It has everything here but it's not a busy place. Englewood is kind of off the beaten path."