NAPLES — Robert Feerick knows the value of Naples.
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Eight years ago, the prospect of warm weather year-round and Saturday golfing with friends at the Hideout Golf Club were too good to pass up.
So he picked up life in Milwaukee and moved his home and business to Naples.
Feerick now lives with his wife in Pelican Bay and oversees manufacturing plants located as far away as Vietnam from the Naples headquarters of his private investment holding company, Horizon Partners Ltd.
Housing might have been more expensive in Naples but the city had something Milwaukee didn’t, he said.
“The reason we’re here is, quite frankly, the quality of life,” Feerick said.
And Feerick isn’t alone in his thinking.
Naples housing may be expensive but the city provides a lifestyle that pays off for its residents, according to a working paper by University of Michigan economist David Albouy.
Naples was ranked as the tenth most valuable city in Albouy’s study, which compared the housing prices of more than 200 U.S. cities to their perks like favorable weather and lively downtown areas.
Also in the top 10 were cities like Santa Barbara, Calif., and Honolulu, even metropolitan heavy-hitters like San Francisco, which topped the list, and New York.
What put Naples in such good company?
People gravitate toward favorable weather and that’s one of Naples greatest “natural advantages,” Albouy said.
“People talk about it all the time. It matters,” he said.
Also, residents like Feerick have the option of strolling Fifth Avenue shops, swinging a tennis racket at city courts or spending an afternoon swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, lifestyle amenities that tack value onto a home, he said.
Naples outranks all cities “east of the Mississippi” when it comes to quality of life, Albouy said.
Still, that comes with a bit of a price tag.
For homes priced above $300,000, which was nearly half of the Naples market in May, the median price leveled off at $550,000, far above the national median of $169,000 tracked by the National Association of Realtors.
Though Albouy’s study used housing and rental prices from 2000, several years before the housing bubble burst, he said living where the amenities are is still “like bidding for a great painting.”
People are willing to pay, Albouy said.
As Feerick puts it: “I could I have bought the same house for less in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but I don’t want to live in Tuscaloosa.”
Albouy’s findings echo what many community leaders have been saying for years.
Quality of life is “a term that gets thrown around a lot” but one that truly is a top priority for Naples government and residents, Naples Mayor Bill Barnett said.
Barnett said he thinks Naples’ natural beauty and the friendly people that live here combine to give the city its ambiance.
“It’s really a wonderful, wonderful mix,” he said.
Most feel that ambiance is unique to Naples.
Residents can walk through boutiques and cultural events and dine out on Fifth Avenue in shorts and flip-flops, said Cathy Christopher, who heads the Naples Downtown Association board.
That’s something you can’t find in Los Angeles or New York, she said.
“People like getting away from the formality,” Christopher said.
So why, with all its allure, did Naples just make the top 10?
Albouy’s study of city value also factored in the amount of high-paying jobs and productivity in each area.
Naples, with a population of around 21,000, doesn’t compare to New York or San Francisco, both epicenters of trade that pump out high-paying jobs that, in turn, help feed area businesses.
Naples needs to pull in more businesses if it wants to remain on a list with those cities, said Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce President Michael Reagan.
“In the crowd we’re in, if we don’t keep up they could eat our lunch,” Reagan said.
Still, Naples isn’t a bad place to do business, with wages at the national average and demand for commercial real estate steady, Albouy said.
And there’s access to airports, an important factor for Horizon Partners’ business, Feerick said.
Some even feel reluctant to accommodate the churn of productivity.
John Schmieding, general counsel for Naples-based Arthrex Inc., moved to Naples from Detroit in 2002 and said he’s seen the area grow “from a town without a Starbucks to replicate a real city.”
Schmieding, who lives in The Moorings with his wife and three children, was always drawn to the once “sleepy fishing village” with its flux of sunshine and dramatic thunderstorms.
Now, development seems overwhelming at times, he said.
Still, Schmieding said he thinks the small town quality that gave Naples its edge in Albouy’s study is here to stay.
“The soul of that sleepy fishing village is here,” he said.
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