Yesterday I passed a car carrier parked at the entrance to Tiburon Golf Club and did a full double take. This morning, on my way into the office, there was another one sitting on Goodlette-Frank Road. Two car carriers in two days can only mean one thing here in Naples: Season is starting to stir.
Now in my 28th year as a full-time resident of the Naples area, I've watched this same moment play out every Fall, and it still gets me every time. There's a pattern to it, but the pattern never quite repeats the same way twice.
The Traditional Rhythm
Most years, the wave starts building at the end of September and rolls through mid-October, as our seasonal residents start trickling back into town. Cars show up in driveways that have been empty since spring. Restaurants that were running on a scaled-back crew suddenly need every table. Then, just as things ramp up, a good chunk of that same crowd heads back north to spend Thanksgiving and the holidays with family, leaving Naples to catch its breath for a few weeks.
They're back by the second week of January, and that's when things really shift into gear. High Season takes over from there and doesn't let up until Easter draws the unofficial finish line.
The Part That Still Perplexes Me
Here's what I've never quite figured out: some falls, the early wave is impossible to miss. Traffic picks up, the club gets busier, and you can feel Season arriving weeks ahead of schedule. Other years, it's almost a ghost town clear into November, and the real crowd doesn't show up until they're rolling back in for the holidays.
I've joked for years that there must be some kind of Bat-signal for seasonal residents, some invisible frequency that gets everyone thinking about I-75 or I-95 on the exact same week. Obviously that's not what's happening, but the coordination some years is uncanny.
What's Really Driving It?
My guess, and it is just a guess, is that it comes down to some mix of weather patterns up north, the school calendar for families with grandkids in tow, and plain old habit. But I'd genuinely love to hear what you think and from our seasonal residents.
Do you notice this pattern in your own neighborhood? Do you think it's tied to an early cold snap up north, or is there something else entirely driving when people decide it's time to head south? Drop a comment and let me know; I read every one.
Phillip Rigsby is a Global Real Estate Advisor with Premier Sotheby's International Realty in Naples, Florida.
