Updated September 2026
Optional club membership, 19 neighborhoods behind one gate and a market that leans toward buyers. McGreevy and Comisar map the fees, flood file and documents before you tour. Start your buyer consultation or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.
Updated September 2026 · By Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar, Domain Realty
Buying a home in The Forest, the gated golf community of 789 residences between US 41 and Island Park Road in south Fort Myers, unincorporated Lee County, Florida 33908, is a decision in three parts: which of its neighborhoods fits your budget and your plans, whether you want the club at all, and what the home will really cost to own once every association layer, the flood policy and the tax bill are counted. Club membership is optional here, so the house and the golf are two separate purchases. This page is the purchase path, neighborhood by neighborhood and layer by layer. For the community itself, its history, its two courses, its governance and its storm record, read our complete guide to The Forest.
If you are still choosing an agent, our guide to the best real estate agents in Fort Myers sets the city's teams side by side on the public record. If you already own inside the gates and are selling to buy again, start with how we sell homes in The Forest and a data-backed valuation of your home in The Forest. Weighing a Naples purchase as well? Our Audubon Country Club buyer guide applies the same record-first method to a North Naples club community, and our Fort Myers guide covers the wider city The Forest belongs to by mailing address.
Call Marc Comisar at (239) 287-5873 or Jesse McGreevy at (239) 898-6072. We have been Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008, and before you tour a single home in The Forest we will show you which association layers, documents and flood facts come with it.
You should buy a home in The Forest if you want a gated, staffed golf community in south Fort Myers without a mandatory club membership, and you are prepared to read a flood file on a 1980s building. The Forest does not suit a buyer who needs a boat slip, a club pool or association fees published before an offer.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026; Lee County parcel roll, queried Sep 2026; FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, queried 23 Sep 2026).
Everything on this page comes from the record: the Southwest Florida MLS pulled September 23, 2026, the Lee County parcel roll and its flood, utility and zoning layers, the master association's own published plan and portal, The Forest Country Club's website, scorecard and federal tax filings, FEMA, the U.S. Geological Survey and Florida statute. Where the public record stops, this page says so and names the document that holds the answer, because at The Forest several of the numbers a buyer most wants are not published anywhere.
Most buyers who call us about The Forest are really asking four questions, in this order.
The master association counts 789 residences in The Forest: 302 single-family homes and 487 condominiums and villas, a figure it published in 2022 and again in 2026. Lee County's community record reaches the same 789 total but classes 350 as single-family and 439 as condominium, because it codes three fee-simple villa neighborhoods (Pheasant Court Villas, Eagle's Landing and Falcon Crest One, 48 homes in all) as single-family.
For a buyer the useful split is by ownership. The four platted single-family phases, The Forest Units One, Two and Three and The Oaks, answer to the master association only. Every condominium or villa neighborhood adds its own association beneath the master, and the Heron adds a third tier. The house you choose decides how many estoppel certificates you will order, how many budgets you should read and who insures the roof over your head.
The Forest rewards a buyer who wants choice inside one set of gates: a 1,161-square-foot walk-up condominium at Partridge Place and a 7,533-square-foot home in The Oaks share the same staffed Main Gate, the same private streets and the same optional club. It rewards a golfer who wants to try the club before committing, and a non-golfer who wants a gated address without paying for a course they will not play. It asks more of a buyer than a newer community does, because about three quarters of its homes were finished in the 1980s and every one of them sits in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area.
Five absences decide purchases here. There is no mandatory club membership, no community development district and no county street-lighting or other MSTU on a Forest tax bill, per Lee County's official roster of special districts and the county's MSTBU layer. There is no marina and no boat access from inside the gates, and no club pool: pools at The Forest belong to individual neighborhood associations. Add that no association layer publishes its fee, and The Forest suits a buyer who wants optional golf and a gated address at a lower price per square foot than its peers, not one who needs a dock or a fixed number before touring.
The Forest sits in unincorporated Lee County in south Fort Myers, between US 41 and Island Park Road, in the Hendry Creek watershed; Estero Marsh Preserve is about a mile away. Every home carries a Fort Myers mailing address and ZIP 33908, but none of it is inside the City of Fort Myers: county government handles zoning, permits and flood-plain rules, and the county's Class 5 flood-insurance discount applies rather than the city's. The land beyond the south and west edges is a 609.9-acre state-owned mangrove parcel, per the Lee County parcel roll, so nothing will be built behind the community on that side.
Buyers in The Forest work with McGreevy and Comisar because we read the community from the record outward: the master association's plan, the club's pages and tax filings, Lee County's parcel and flood layers, FEMA and the Southwest Florida MLS. We have been Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008 and the #1 Team in Southwest Florida since 2012.
Those are career numbers across Lee and Collier County, not a claim about any one community. McGreevy and Comisar lead Domain Realty Group, a full-service Southwest Florida real estate team with more than 4,000 transactions behind it. Learn more about our team at DomainRealtyGroup.com.
In the last 12 months we tracked every closing in The Forest in the Southwest Florida MLS: 45 closings dated September 24, 2025 to September 23, 2026, 15 single-family homes and 30 condominiums or villas, $20,135,000 in closed volume, plus 29 active listings and 2 pending on September 23, 2026. We tracked the full four-year record as well, 221 closings, and checked every one of the 252 records against the Lee County parcel roll by address. That is the market's record, not ours, and every figure below carries its source and window.
You will not find a McGreevy and Comisar sales count for The Forest on this page, or a story about a buyer we represented inside these gates. We have none on record to publish, and we will not invent one. What we give you instead is the whole market, sale by sale and neighborhood by neighborhood, from the MLS and the county's own records, with the date beside every figure.
Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar are top-reviewed on Google. The quotes below are genuine, verified Google reviews in each client's own words; none describes a purchase in The Forest, and every review is on our Google Business Profile. We publish no aggregate score and no star-rating widget.
★★★★★ "Marc's knowledge of the Southwest Florida real estate market is unmatched. He took the time to understand exactly what I was looking for in a home and quickly identified properties that checked all my boxes." Verified Google review
★★★★★ "Marc is extremely knowledgeable, professional and a true pleasure to work with. He kept us informed throughout the process and went over and beyond our expectations to ensure an extremely smooth process." Verified Google review
★★★★★ "Marc knows the market, works for his buyer and is attentive to his goals." Verified Google review
★★★★★ "He knew the area and therefore knew exactly where to take us to find the exact kind of neighborhood we were looking for and he was right on the money." Verified Google review
★★★★★ "Marc and Jesse are truly great people and they care about the people that they work with. Marc made our house purchase seamless and we closed within 30 days. If you want someone that's gonna treat you like family, well you found them." Verified Google review
At The Forest the master assessment, every neighborhood association's fee, the club's dues and the sewer utility's rates are unpublished. What a buyer's agent owes you here is specific: the estoppel certificate from every association layer requested the day the contract is signed, the neighborhood association's budget, reserves, insurance and minutes requested by name, the building's elevation certificate and roof permit date, at Sparrowood the milestone inspection report and reserve study, and if you want to golf, the club's membership terms in writing before you are bound.
This page on buying a home in The Forest runs in the order a purchase actually happens: the market, the neighborhoods and what each costs, the yearly cost of ownership, the club decision, the documents, flood, insurance and the storm record, and then how we find, negotiate and close. Jump to any section below.
The Forest market leans toward buyers. The Southwest Florida MLS recorded 45 closings in the 12 months to September 23, 2026, a median 76 days on market and 94.59% of list, against 29 active listings, about 7.7 months of supply. Single-family homes sold at a median of $685,000; condominiums and villas at $286,500.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026, closings dated 24 Sep 2025 to 23 Sep 2026).
Every sale, listing, days-on-market figure and sold-to-list ratio in this section comes from the Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026, searched by the MLS development name for The Forest. That search returned 252 records: 221 closings dated September 24, 2022 to September 23, 2026, 29 active listings, 1 pending and 1 pending with contingencies. Every address was checked against the Lee County parcel roll, and a second search by every interior street name returned the same 252 records and no others. Forest Villas and Timberwood Village, which sit outside The Forest's gates across Island Park Road, carry their own MLS development names and are excluded.
Segments follow the county's ownership coding. Single-family means The Forest Units One, Two and Three, The Oaks, and the three fee-simple villa neighborhoods the county codes single-family: Pheasant Court Villas, Eagle's Landing and Falcon Crest One. Condominium or villa means every condominium and land condominium: Partridge Place, Partridge Court, Dove Hollow, Dove's Nest, Quail Cove, Waters Edge, Sparrowood, Fairway Woods, the Heron Coach Houses and the Heron Coach House Villas.
Measure | All homes (n=45) | Single-family (n=15) | Condo or villa (n=30) |
|---|---|---|---|
Median sold price | $375,000 | $685,000 | $286,500 (middle pair $265,000 and $308,000) |
Median list price | $399,000 | $729,000 | $312,000 |
Median living area | 2,120 sq ft | 2,728 sq ft | 1,782 sq ft |
Median sold price per sq ft of living area | $175.63 | $232.39 | $148.88 |
Median sold-to-list ratio | 94.59% | 94.59% | 94.61% |
Median days on market | 76 | 71 | 81 |
Closed at or above list | 4 of 45 | 2 of 15 | 2 of 30 |
Closed volume | $20,135,000 | $10,778,500 | $9,356,500 |
Sold price range | $145,000 to $1,250,000 | $375,000 to $1,250,000 | $145,000 to $570,000 |
Source: Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026, closings dated 09/24/2025 to 09/23/2026. When n is even the median is the mean of the middle pair. Per-square-foot figures are medians of each sale's own ratio on MLS living area.
Both segments closed at nearly the same share of asking, about 94.6 percent, and only 4 of 45 homes reached their asking price. Read literally, the median buyer in The Forest paid about $5.41 less for every $100 of list price. That is a median, not a rule: a Waters Edge condominium closed at full price with 0 days on market in May 2026, while a Quail Cove condominium closed at 84.44 percent of list after 405 days in January 2026. The discount a seller accepts depends on how the home was priced and how long it has waited, which is why we pull each listing's own history before you write a number.
Segment | Active listings | Closings, last 12 months | Months of supply |
|---|---|---|---|
All homes | 29 | 45 | 7.7 |
Single-family | 11 | 15 | 8.8 |
Condo or villa | 18 | 30 | 7.2 |
Source: Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026. Months of supply is active listings divided by the average monthly closings of the past 12 months.
Both segments sit above six months of supply, which by the usual rule of thumb leans toward buyers. For you that is room to negotiate, particularly on the six of the 29 active listings that had been on the market more than 200 days on September 23, 2026.
Neighborhood | Segment | Active listings | Asking range | Longest days on market |
|---|---|---|---|---|
The Forest Unit One | Single-family | 3 | $500,000 to $1,620,000 | 110 |
The Forest Unit Two | Single-family | 1 | $1,200,000 | 317 |
The Forest Unit Three | Single-family | 3 | $589,900 to $1,399,000 | 140 |
The Oaks | Single-family | 4 | $850,000 to $1,299,000 | 153 |
Fairway Woods I and II | Condo or villa | 5 | $310,000 to $339,000 | 237 |
Waters Edge | Condo or villa | 1 | $325,000 | 194 |
Heron Coach Houses | Condo or villa | 2 | $199,000 to $318,000 | 202 |
Quail Cove | Condo or villa | 2 | $247,500 to $299,900 | 282 |
Dove Hollow | Condo or villa | 2 | $225,000 to $289,000 | 116 |
Sparrowood | Condo or villa | 2 | $199,900 to $285,000 | 24 |
Dove's Nest | Condo or villa | 2 | $240,000 to $279,900 | 307 |
Partridge Place | Condo or villa | 2 | $174,000 to $179,000 | 63 |
Source: Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026. One home in The Oaks ($900,000) was pending and one in Unit One ($420,000) was pending with contingencies. Listings change daily; the current list is a phone call away.
Two things stand out for a buyer. First, there was a gap: no active listing on September 23, 2026 was priced between $339,000 and $500,000, so a buyer with a budget in that range was choosing between the largest condominiums and waiting for a smaller single-family home. Second, the median single-family asking price was $1,150,000 against a median single-family sale of $685,000 over the last 12 months. The active set is weighted toward large Unit One, Unit Three and Oaks homes, but it also means the upper end is being tested by asking prices the last 12 months of closings have not yet confirmed: only one closing in the past year, in The Oaks, reached $1,250,000.
The most recent closing in the MLS pull was a Sparrowood condominium in September 2026: two bedrooms, two baths, 1,773 square feet of living area, listed at $265,000 and sold at $230,000 after 337 days on market, 86.79 percent of list. We did not represent either side; it is the public record, and it shows two things a buyer at Sparrowood should know. The discount was deep, and the wait was long, in the one building group in The Forest that Florida's milestone-inspection and structural integrity reserve study laws reach.
Period | All closings | All median | Single-family (n, median, per sq ft) | Condo or villa (n, median, per sq ft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
09/24/2024 to 09/23/2025 | 42 | $375,000 | 18, $585,000, $222.69 | 24, $294,500, $165.81 |
09/24/2025 to 09/23/2026 | 45 | $375,000 | 15, $685,000, $232.39 | 30, $286,500, $148.88 |
Source: Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026. Per-square-foot figures are on MLS living area.
The single-family median rose about 17%, from $585,000 to $685,000, but the median price per square foot of living area rose only about 4%, from $222.69 to $232.39, so most of the higher median reflects larger homes selling in a 15-sale sample, not homes gaining value. The condominium and villa median per square foot fell from $165.81 to $148.88, partly because larger units sold this year. Days on market shortened in both segments, from 90.5 to 71 for single-family homes and from 130 to 81 for condominiums and villas. For a buyer, per square foot is the steadier yardstick: $232.39 for single-family homes over the full 48 months and again in the last 12.
February 2026 alone carried 13 of the 45 closings, the seasonal peak you would expect in a community where the master association's 2022 plan estimates a year-round population of about 1,000 and a peak-season population of about 2,000. For a buyer the practical reading is that more homes come to market and more buyers compete between January and April, while summer and early fall bring fewer listings and fewer competing offers.
The Forest produced 45 MLS closings in 12 months at a median 94.59 percent of list, with 7.7 months of supply, so the buyer who wins the right home here is not the fastest one but the best prepared: financed, holding the association layers and the flood facts for the neighborhood, and clear on the club before the first tour.
Buying? Read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida, then call Marc Comisar at (239) 287-5873 or Jesse McGreevy at (239) 898-6072. Selling a home inside the gates to buy another? Start with a valuation of your current home in The Forest and call Jesse direct. We have been Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008.
The Forest holds 19 recorded neighborhoods inside its gates: four platted single-family phases, three fee-simple villa and small-lot pockets, and twelve condominium neighborhoods. Choosing among them sets your price band, your association layers, your ground elevation and whether Florida's three-story condominium rules apply, so a buyer in The Forest should choose the neighborhood before the house.
Data updated: September 2026 (Lee County parcel roll and recorded subdivisions layer, as of 2 Sep 2026; Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026; Lee County 2018 LiDAR spot elevations, queried Sep 2026).
Neighborhood | Ownership and association layers | Homes | Built, stories | Heated size, county roll | 48-month MLS median (closings) | Median ground, ft NAVD88 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Forest Unit One | Platted single-family; master only | 95 + 1 vacant lot | 1980 to 2010; 1 to 2 | median 2,582 sq ft (1,494 to 5,939) | $535,000 (32) | 6.8 |
The Forest Unit Two | Platted single-family; master only | 50 | 1982 to 2010; 1 to 2 | median 3,082 sq ft | $750,000 (13) | 7.0 |
The Forest Unit Three | Platted single-family; master only | 84 | 1983 to 2012; 1 to 2 | median 2,786 sq ft | $740,000 (25) | 7.2 |
The Oaks | Platted single-family; master only | 72 + 2 vacant lots | 1987 to 2022; 1 to 2 | median 3,286 sq ft (up to 7,533) | $902,500 (10) | 7.4 |
Falcon Crest One | Small-lot single-family; HOA + master | 11 | 1998 to 2004; 1 to 2 | median 2,663 sq ft | two sales, $510,000 and $435,000 | 7.4 |
Pheasant Court Villas | Fee-simple villas; HOA + master | 17 | 1981; 1 | median 1,387 sq ft | $219,000 (3) | 5.9 |
Eagle's Landing | Fee-simple attached villas; HOA + master | 20 | 1984; 1 to 2 | 1,586 to 2,704 sq ft | $347,500 (4) | 6.4 |
Partridge Place | Condominium; association + master | 56 | 1981; 2 | 1,161 sq ft, every unit | $157,500 (28) | 6.3 |
Partridge Court | Condominium; association + master | 16 | 1981; 2 | 1,161 sq ft, every unit | $180,000 (9) | 6.2 |
Dove Hollow | Condominium; association + master | 48 | 1981 to 1982; 1 and 2 | 1,418 to 1,964 sq ft | $297,500 (10) | 6.5 |
Quail Cove | Condominium; association + master | 24 | 1982; 2 | 1,372 to 1,538 sq ft | $325,000 (9) | 6.3 |
Dove's Nest | Condominium; association + master | 48 | 1983 to 1984; 1 and 2 | 1,418 to 1,964 sq ft | $279,500 (10) | 6.3 |
Waters Edge | Condominium, two products; association + master | 36 | 1984 to 1991; 1 and 2 | median 1,989 sq ft | $425,000 (11) | 6.6 |
Sparrowood | Condominium, three-story; association + master | 30 | 1984 to 1985; 3 | about 1,773 sq ft | $282,500 (8) | 7.5 |
Fairway Woods I, II and III | Condominium; two associations + master | 118 | 1986 to 1991; 1 and 2 | 1,782 to 2,962 sq ft | $309,500 (8), $360,000 (9), $352,500 (14) | 9.1, 8.7, 8.5 |
Heron Coach Houses | Condominium; unit association + Heron Master + master | 48 | 1990 to 1992; 1 and 2 | 1,499 to 1,859 sq ft | $336,250 (8) | 6.2 |
Heron Coach House Villas | Land condominium; unit association + Heron Master + master | 15 | 1994 to 1996; 1 | 1,993 to 2,718 sq ft | $400,000 (8) | 6.6 |
Sources: Lee County parcel roll and recorded subdivisions and condominiums layer, as of September 2, 2026; MLS medians from the Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026, closings dated 09/24/2022 to 09/23/2026 (rows under 10 sales are small samples); ground from the county's 2018 spot elevations layer, ground and not finished floor. Every row is in FEMA Zone AE with a base flood elevation of 11 feet NAVD88 and in Lee County Evacuation Zone A.
The four platted phases are the only part of The Forest where a buyer answers to the master association alone: no neighborhood association, no second estoppel and no shared roof. Unit One, the founding plat recorded May 23, 1980 on Deer Run, Bobcat Drive and Fox Den, is the most active single-family market, 32 closings in 48 months at a median of $535,000 and five in the last 12 at a median of $525,000. Unit Two, on Bear Cub Court, Bobcat Court and three lots on Timberlakes Drive, has the largest lots in The Forest, a median of about 0.44 acres. Unit Three, along Timberlakes Drive, produced a median of $900,000 on five sales in the last 12 months, including two above $1 million in June 2026.
The Oaks is one of The Forest's single-family neighborhoods: the master association seats its lot owners as Phase IV on its board roster, although The Oaks was approved by Lee County as a separate planned development in 1982. It is the newest phase, built from 1987 to 2022, the largest by house, and the top of the market: a 48-month median of $902,500 and the community's highest sale of the last 12 months, $1,250,000 in October 2025. Searches for "The Oaks" in Fort Myers often mean other communities, so confirm a Forest Oaks Drive, Panther Paw Court, Spotted Fawn Court or Cottontail Court address.
For a single-family buyer the variables are lot, age and ground. The median home in the phases dates from the mid-1980s, homes built after 2002 are scattered rebuilds and infill, and median ground runs from 6.8 feet in Unit One to 7.4 feet in The Oaks, with individual lots from 4.1 to 9.9 feet. A rebuild or substantial improvement must put its lowest floor at 12 feet NAVD88 under Lee County's rules, so the lot's ground elevation is part of the price.
Falcon Crest One is the last subdivision platted inside The Forest: 11 single-family homes on lots of about 0.11 acres along Falcon Crest Court, built from 1998 to 2004, the only neighborhood built entirely after 1997. It has its own homeowners' association, trades rarely (two MLS sales in 48 months, $510,000 in June 2024 and $435,000 in August 2026), and the MLS spells it "Falcons Crest." Pheasant Court Villas is 17 one-story fee-simple villas, all built in 1981, with its own homeowners' association; it had three MLS sales in 48 months at a median of $219,000 and none in the last 12. Pheasant Court Villas also has the lowest ground in The Forest, a median of 5.9 feet, more than five feet below the base flood elevation, which is the first thing its flood quote will reflect.
Eagle's Landing is 20 fee-simple attached villas on Timberlakes Drive, all built in 1984, governed by a homeowners' association rather than a condominium association, under Florida's Chapter 720. The county roll records every parcel as land on the golf course, flags a garage on all 20 and a pool on 17, and puts the median county just value at $358,033, the highest of any attached neighborhood in The Forest. It trades rarely: four MLS closings in 48 months, most recently $505,000 for a 2,410-square-foot home in May 2026. In an attached-villa association the buyer's first question is who insures, paints and re-roofs the buildings, the association or each owner for their half, and the answer is in the declaration provided at resale.
Partridge Place is the entry point on price: 56 condominium units in seven two-story walk-up buildings of eight, all finished in 1981, every unit 1,161 heated square feet with two bedrooms and two baths. Over 24 months it recorded 11 closings at a median of $165,000, per the Southwest Florida MLS, and two units were listed on September 23, 2026 at $174,000 and $179,000. Two facts matter before an offer. Lee County lists 2023 re-roof, truss reframing and overhang repair permits on Buildings 2, 4, 6 and 7 still in Permit Issued status in September 2026, per the county's permitting record, after closed re-roof permits on six of the seven buildings between 2021 and 2023. And the 48-month median includes eight sales in November and December 2022, weeks after Hurricane Ian, at $75,000 to $145,000, which should not be used to price a unit today.
Partridge Court is Partridge Place's smaller neighbor: 16 units in two two-story walk-up buildings of eight, built in 1981, every unit 1,161 heated square feet. It is a separate condominium with its own association and board, so the same building design across the lot line comes with a different budget and a different manager. It had nine MLS closings from September 2022 to September 2025, at $132,000 to $280,000, and none in the last 12 months, so there is no current median. Its 2023 Ian-damage re-roof permit is closed on the county record. With 16 units, it sits below the 25-unit line at which Florida requires a condominium association to post its records online, so its numbers arrive in the resale package.
Dove Hollow is 48 condominium units in six buildings of eight on Timberlakes Drive, built in 1981 and 1982, with three floor plans in every building: one-story units of 1,420 square feet, two-story units of 1,418, and two-story units of 1,964 with three baths. The state's condominium registry lists a project named Dove Hollow Condo with 48 units, licensed May 28, 1981 and recorded December 28, 1981, whose managing entity is Dove Hollow Condo Assn, Inc. Dove Hollow recorded 10 MLS closings in 48 months at a median of $297,500 and three in the last 12 at a median of $230,000; two units were listed at $225,000 and $289,000. The 1,964-square-foot plan has not closed through the MLS in four years.
Dove's Nest is 48 condominium units in six buildings of eight, built in 1983 and 1984, with the same three plan sizes as Dove Hollow but a separate declaration, association and budget; the MLS spells it "Dove Nest." It recorded 10 MLS closings in 48 months at a median of $279,500 and two in the last 12, $260,000 in May 2026 and $200,000 in June 2026, with two units listed at $240,000 and $279,900. The association resealed and restriped its parking under a county development order closed in December 2023.
Quail Cove is 24 condominium units in three two-story buildings of eight at 16675, 16679 and 16683 Forest Boulevard, all finished in 1982, the one neighborhood addressed on Forest Boulevard itself. The county records units of 1,372, 1,381 and 1,538 heated square feet, while MLS listings for the same units have described up to 1,776 square feet of living area, so measure before you compare. It had nine MLS closings in 48 months, two in the last 12 ($257,500 and $190,000), and two listings at $247,500 and $299,900, about 12 months of supply. The association milled and repaved its parking in 2025.
Waters Edge is one condominium with two products: four two-story buildings of four units and two one-story duplexes from 1984 and 1985, and one-story attached villas added in 1991, 36 units in all. It is the top-priced condominium neighborhood inside the gates, a 48-month median of $425,000 on 11 closings, and it sold closest to asking in the last 12 months, a median 99.05 percent of list on three sales. For a buyer the storm record and the roofs belong together: U.S. Geological Survey crews surveyed a Hurricane Ian high-water mark about 2.9 feet above ground at a Waters Edge building, and Lee County's permit index lists a 2023 re-roof for every residential building and the pool house, each of the 11 permits we opened recorded as Hurricane Ian damage.
Sparrowood is 30 condominium units in three buildings at 6216, 6258 and 6300 Cougar Run, built in 1984 and 1985, essentially one floor plan of about 1,773 heated square feet. Sparrowood's three buildings are the only three-story residential buildings in The Forest, according to Lee County property records, which places Sparrowood alone under Florida's milestone-inspection and structural integrity reserve study requirements for condominiums of three or more stories. Buyers there should ask the association for its milestone inspection report and reserve study. Whether Sparrowood's milestone inspection and reserve study have been completed is not in public records we could reach. The market reflects the extra diligence: three closings in the last 12 months at 86.79 to 92.63 percent of list, and eight in 48 months.
Fairway Woods is the largest condominium cluster in The Forest and the value case for space: 118 units in three sections, Section I (1986 to 1987), Section II (1988 to 1990) and Section III (1989 to 1991), with three plans of 1,782, 1,937 and 2,962 heated square feet and a garage flagged on every unit. Section III's association merged into Section II's in 1991, so owners belong to either Fairway Woods I or Fairway Woods II, plus the master. Over 24 months it recorded 12 closings at a median of $365,000 and $135.08 per square foot of living area, and over 48 months four-bedroom units sold at a median $135.89 per square foot, the lowest per-foot price of its three plans. It also sits on the highest ground in The Forest, 8.5 to 9.1 feet by section, and Sections II and III share a pool parcel.
The Heron is two condominiums under one sub-master: the Heron Coach Houses, 48 coach homes of 1,499 and 1,859 square feet built 1990 to 1992, and the Heron Coach House Villas, 15 one-story villas of 1,993 and 2,718 square feet held as a land condominium, built 1994 to 1996. A Heron owner belongs to a unit association, The Heron Master Association and The Forest's master association, the only three-tier structure in the community, so a resale needs an estoppel certificate from each. Over 36 months the Heron recorded 13 closings at a median of $375,000 and 95.27 percent of list, per the Southwest Florida MLS, and the Villas were among the fastest sellers of the last 12 months, a median 33 days. The Heron Coach House Villas are also the only condominium in The Forest built after 1993.
At The Forest the first digit of a unit number identifies the building, not the floor. Heron Coach Houses units run 101 to 108 through 701 to 708, in buildings the county records at one and two stories, and Fairway Woods I units 301 to 306 sit in a building of the same heights. Never read a floor or a building height from a unit number anywhere in The Forest; the county's recorded story count is the reliable source, and it shows one three-story building group, Sparrowood.
A home in The Forest cost $145,000 to $1,250,000 in the 12 months to September 23, 2026, per the Southwest Florida MLS. Partridge Place condominiums anchor the bottom at $145,000 to $170,000, most condominium and villa neighborhoods trade between $200,000 and $425,000, and single-family homes run from about $375,000 in Unit One to $1,250,000 in The Oaks.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026; Lee County 2026 preliminary roll, queried Sep 2026).
Neighborhood | Closings | Median sold | Median per sq ft of living area | Median days on market | Median sold-to-list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Forest Unit One | 5 | $525,000 | $254.84 | 76 | 94.59% |
The Forest Unit Three | 5 | $900,000 | $242.91 | 67 | 93.18% |
Fairway Woods III | 4 | $360,000 | $131.71 | 58.5 | 93.83% |
Heron Coach House Villas | 4 | $397,000 | $193.69 | 33 | 96.37% |
Dove Hollow | 3 | $230,000 | $161.97 | 105 | 95.04% |
Fairway Woods I | 3 | $262,000 | $137.49 | 17 | 97.76% |
Sparrowood | 3 | $245,000 | $139.36 | 337 | 88.63% |
Waters Edge | 3 | $425,000 | $191.27 | 79 | 99.05% |
Source: Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026, closings dated 09/24/2025 to 09/23/2026. Every row is a small sample of fewer than 10 sales.
Neighborhoods with one or two closings in the last 12 months are listed rather than given a median: The Forest Unit Two, $825,000 and $392,000; Fairway Woods II, $395,000 and $325,000; Heron Coach Houses, $385,000 and $308,000; Dove's Nest, $260,000 and $200,000; Partridge Place, $170,000 and $145,000; Quail Cove, $257,500 and $190,000; The Oaks, $1,250,000; Eagle's Landing, $505,000; Falcon Crest One, $435,000. Pheasant Court Villas and Partridge Court had no closing in the last 12 months.
Budget | What it bought in the last 12 months | What was listed on September 23, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
Under $250,000 | Partridge Place, Quail Cove, Dove Hollow, Dove's Nest, Sparrowood and Fairway Woods I condominiums; 9 of 30 condominium and villa sales | 7 condominium listings from $174,000 to $247,500 |
$250,000 to $349,999 | Fairway Woods, Dove Hollow, Dove's Nest, Quail Cove, Sparrowood, Waters Edge and Heron Coach Houses condominiums; 9 of 30 condominium and villa sales | 11 condominium listings from $279,900 to $339,000 |
$350,000 to $499,999 | The largest Fairway Woods units, Heron Coach House Villas, a Heron Coach House and a Waters Edge unit (10 condominium and villa sales); four single-family homes in Unit One, Unit Two and Falcon Crest One | none |
$500,000 to $999,999 | A Waters Edge unit and a Heron Coach House Villa; single-family homes in Unit One, Unit Two, Unit Three and Eagle's Landing | 5 single-family listings from $500,000 to $975,000 |
$1,000,000 and above | Three sales: The Oaks at $1,250,000 and two Unit Three homes at $1,025,000 and $1,162,500 | 6 single-family listings from $1,150,000 to $1,620,000 |
Source: Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026; bands are our grouping of the recorded sales and listings.
Every per-square-foot figure on this page is sold price divided by MLS living area, a median of each sale's own ratio. The Lee County roll measures heated area and on some records total area under roof, which are different denominators, so never set a per-foot figure from this page against a square footage from a tax bill. Over 48 months the single-family phases ran $213.10 per square foot in Unit One to $256.15 in The Oaks, and the condominiums from $135.66 at Partridge Place and $138.42 to $151.37 in Fairway Woods to $202.91 at Waters Edge and $209.80 at Dove Hollow.
Eight Partridge Place condominiums closed between November 10 and December 2, 2022, about six weeks after Hurricane Ian, at $75,000 to $145,000, most within 0 to 5 days on market. They read as as-is or investor transactions in a disrupted market rather than normal resales. They remain in the 48-month record because they are recorded MLS closings, but a buyer pricing a Partridge Place unit today should use the 2023 and later sales.
Median 2026 just values on the county parcel roll run from $715,746 in The Oaks and $533,505 in Unit Three through $334,217 at the Heron Coach House Villas and $300,820 at Waters Edge, to $225,330 at Sparrowood and $119,694 at Partridge Place and Partridge Court. These are mass-appraisal values set for taxation, not prices; use them to compare homes with each other, and the MLS record to price one.
Owning a home in The Forest costs more than the mortgage, in layers: the master association, a neighborhood association for most homes and a third at the Heron, a tax bill carrying the San Carlos Park fire levy and a solid waste charge, insurance, private sewer, and club dues only if you join. No association publishes its fee.
Data updated: September 2026 (San Carlos Park Fire District FY2025/26 final budget, adopted 15 Sep 2025; Lee County adopted solid waste rates, FY2026; Lee County special districts roster, as of 1 Sep 2026).
That last point is the one to plan around. No association layer at The Forest publishes its budget, so the real number for a specific home arrives only when it is requested, which is why we request it before you are bound rather than after. Below is every layer a buyer will actually be billed, which homes carry it, and where the amount is and is not published.
Cost layer | Single-family phases | Villa HOAs (Eagle's Landing, Pheasant Court, Falcon Crest One) | Condominiums | The Heron | Amount | Where it is published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Master association (The Forest Property Owners' Association) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not published | Budget and estoppel certificate at resale |
Neighborhood or condominium association | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not published | That association's budget and estoppel |
Heron Master Association | No | No | No | Yes | Not published | Heron Master budget and estoppel |
Community development district | No | No | No | No | $0: none exists | |
County MSTBU (street lighting or similar) | No | No | No | No | $0: none exists | |
San Carlos Park fire district levy | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 2.3590 mills (FY2025/26) | |
Lee County solid waste, Service Area 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | $348.75 per single-family unit plus a $2.55 administrative charge, less 4% for early payment (FY2026) | |
Ad valorem property tax | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Set by each home's taxable value after exemptions | |
Sewer (Forest Utilities, Inc., private) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not published | Seller's bills |
Water (Lee County Utilities) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Metered | Seller's bills |
Bulk fiber (Hotwire) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not published; billing route not published | Association or Hotwire bill |
Flood and wind insurance | Owner policy | Owner policy or shared, per declaration | Association master policy plus unit-owner policy | Association master policy plus unit-owner policy | Home-specific | Elevation certificate, wind report, association declarations |
Club dues, initiation, capital, food and beverage | Only if you join | Only if you join | Only if you join | Only if you join | Not published | Club, on inquiry |
Sources as linked; "not published" means no public source states it and we do not estimate it.
The master association does not publish its assessment. The amount appears in the association's annual budget and on the estoppel certificate issued with every resale, and its billing frequency is not published either. What it covers is not in doubt: the association owns the 54.81-acre private street network and canal easement tracts outright, runs a Main Gate staffed 24 hours a day and an Island Park Gate staffed from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM with a nightly patrol, per its 2022 Emergency Preparedness Plan, and, because The Forest sits in no county MSTU, pays for street lighting, landscaping and drainage inside the gates. Gate staffing hours are from the association's 2022 emergency plan.
Each neighborhood association sets its own fee, which is not published; it appears in that association's budget and resale estoppel certificate. In a condominium that fee is usually the largest line in the stack, because the association insures and repairs the building, funds reserves and, in some neighborhoods, keeps a pool. Neighborhood associations' special assessments are not published; buyers can find them in the association's estoppel certificate and meeting minutes. For a 1980s condominium in Florida after 2022, the reserve schedule and the insurance summary are the first two pages to read.
Two lines on a Forest tax bill are specific to where The Forest sits. The San Carlos Park Fire Protection and Rescue Service District levies 2.3590 mills for fiscal year 2025/26; as an illustration only, $500,000 of taxable value owes $1,179.50 to the fire district, and the real figure scales with each home's taxable value. Lee County bills solid waste as a non-ad-valorem assessment in Service Area 2, $348.75 per single-family unit for fiscal year 2026 plus a $2.55 administrative charge, with a 4 percent discount for early payment. There is no CDD line, no MSTU line and no separate county stormwater line identified for The Forest.
The rest of the bill is ordinary ad valorem tax, and it is where buyers are surprised. Florida's homestead exemption and its Save Our Homes cap follow the owner, not the house: the cap limits annual increases in a homesteaded home's assessed value to 3 percent or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower, and after a sale the home is reassessed at just value, under section 193.155. So the seller's tax bill is not a forecast of yours. Budget from your price, and if the home will be your permanent residence, apply for the homestead exemption with the Lee County Property Appraiser by March 1 of the tax year.
Lee County's utility franchise maps place The Forest in Lee County Utilities' water service area. Sewer service is provided by Forest Utilities, Inc., a private utility; The Forest lies outside the county's wastewater service area, per the county's wastewater service area layer. Forest Utilities' rates are not published online, so ask the seller for twelve months of water and sewer bills, which are two separate bills from two separate providers. The community has a Hotwire fiber arrangement; whether it is billed through the association is not published, so ask whether the service appears on the association bill or on a separate Hotwire bill.
Because the association figures are unpublished, we build every Forest buyer's carrying cost from documents, line by line, before an offer goes firm:
Nothing on that list can be filled in honestly from a website. Every line can be filled in from the resale file, which is why we order it on day one.
For a buyer in The Forest, the non-bundled club means the home and the golf are two separate decisions and two separate costs. Buying a home does not make you a member of The Forest Country Club, you pay no club dues or member assessments unless you join, and a seller's membership should not be assumed to transfer.
Data updated: September 2026 (The Forest Country Club membership page, retrieved 23 Sep 2026; club Form 990 filings for 2022 to 2024).
The Forest is a non-bundled community: buying a home does not require joining the club. Both The Forest Country Club and the master association describe The Forest as non-bundled on their own websites, and the club sells memberships to residents and non-residents alike. The club's membership page calls it "a non bundled gated community offering resident and non resident memberships," and the master association's resident portal says "The Forest is a non-bundled gated community." When two separately governed bodies say the same thing on their own sites, a buyer can rely on it as the community-wide rule. Marketing language that describes a membership as covering everything describes what a membership includes once you buy one, not an obligation to buy one.
A homeowner who never joins still gets the staffed gates and nightly patrol, the private streets and sidewalks, the association's playground, Ruthie's Park, and any pool or recreation parcel that belongs to their own neighborhood association. The master association's portal states the line itself: the golf courses, a tennis court, the pro shop and the clubhouse "are available with a membership at the Forest Country Club." A non-member does not play either course, use the club's courts or fitness center, or dine at the clubhouse as a matter of right. The club, not the association, owns the golf parcel, so the view across a fairway comes with the home and the right to play it comes with a membership.
Category | What the club says it includes |
|---|---|
Full Family Membership (golf, unlimited) | Unlimited golf on all 36 holes for the household, plus dining, social events, tennis, pickleball, fitness, bocce and lifestyle events |
Individual Membership (golf, unlimited) | Unlimited golf for one designated golfer, with the household using every non-golf amenity |
Executive Membership (golf, unlimited) | Unlimited 36-hole golf and full club privileges, under the club's own eligibility terms |
Limited Golf Membership | Limited golf in the six-month peak season, unlimited golf May through October, and year-round practice, dining, tennis, pickleball, fitness, bocce and events |
Lifestyle Membership (no golf) | Year-round dining, tennis and pickleball, the fitness and aerobics center, bocce, social gatherings and signature events |
Racquets Membership | The tennis and pickleball center, advance court reservations, instruction, clinics, leagues and tournaments, plus club dining before 5 pm only |
Preview Membership | A 2, 3 or 4 month seasonal trial in the Family, Individual or Executive category, available once per household |
Source: The Forest Country Club membership page, as of September 23, 2026; the club publishes no price for any category.
The Forest Country Club, Inc. is organized as a tax-exempt social club under section 501(c)(7). The club describes itself in its federal tax filings as a private, member-owned club, and members vote on special capital purchases, debt over $200,000 and by-law changes, per its 2023 Form 990. Which of the club's marketed membership categories carry an equity interest is not published.
Assessment category, as filed | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
Capital assessments | $624,595 | $741,593 | $682,885 |
Golf course renovation assessments | $841,397 | $1,402,616 | $1,552,573 |
Hurricane capital assessment | $2,732,400 | $503,500 | not listed |
Source: The Forest Country Club Form 990 filings for 2022, 2023 and 2024, Schedule O, filed under the club's former name, Forest Country Club Membership Association Inc. Club-wide totals, not amounts per member.
For a buyer deciding whether to join, two points matter. These assessments fall on members only; a homeowner who does not join pays none of them. And the Bear's renovation was funded through member assessments, about $3.8 million across 2022 to 2024, and the course reopened on December 1, 2025, so a new member joins after that bill has largely been paid.
The club does not publish its dues or initiation schedule; figures are provided to prospective members on inquiry. Every category on the club's membership page routes to an inquiry form rather than a price, and figures for the club that circulate on third-party sites are not from the club, so we do not repeat them. When you ask, ask for four things in writing: the category's initiation and annual dues, any food and beverage minimum, any capital or special assessment currently levied or pending, and what happens to the membership if you sell.
Because membership is separate from home ownership, a club membership should not be assumed to transfer with a home. At a bundled club the membership rides with the deed; at The Forest a seller's membership and a buyer's membership are two separate transactions with the club. The club's Amended and Restated By-Laws are public, but the document is undated, so we link it rather than quote it. Treat the club's written answer, not the listing, as the authority on transfer.
As of September 23, 2026, the club's membership page advertises limited-time opportunities for new homeowners and for members of neighboring clubs, including "a second club incentive if you are a member of a Club within 50 miles with a few spaces remaining." The club does not publish the terms, so ask the membership office for them in writing before you rely on them in your budget.
A buyer in The Forest should request one estoppel certificate for a single-family home in the four platted phases, two for a condominium or villa, and three for a Heron home, plus each association's budget, governing documents and insurance summary, the building's elevation certificate, and at Sparrowood the milestone inspection report and structural integrity reserve study.
Data updated: September 2026 (Florida Statutes 718.116, 720.30851 and 718.503; FirstService Residential resale documents page, retrieved Sep 2026).
Type of home | Estoppel certificates | Also request |
|---|---|---|
Single-family, Units One to Three and The Oaks | 1: master association | Master budget and governing documents; elevation certificate; roof permit date; wind-mitigation report; four-point inspection where the insurer asks |
Fee-simple villa (Eagle's Landing, Pheasant Court Villas) or Falcon Crest One | 2: villa HOA and master | Both budgets and declarations; who insures and re-roofs the building; elevation certificate; roof date; wind report |
Condominium | 2: condominium association and master | Declaration, by-laws, rules, budget, reserve schedule, master policy declarations and deductible, last year of board minutes |
The Heron | 3: unit association, Heron Master and master | Everything a condominium buyer requests, for each assessing layer |
Sparrowood | 2: condominium association and master | Everything above, plus the milestone inspection report and the structural integrity reserve study |
Partridge Place | 2: condominium association and master | Everything above, plus the association's answer on the open 2023 re-roof and truss permits |
The master association is managed by FirstService Residential, and its estoppel certificate is ordered through the manager's resale and lender documents page; that certificate is the only document that states the current master assessment. Every neighborhood association issues its own. At the Heron, The Heron Master Association sits between the unit association and the master, so a Heron resale needs all three. We order every one on the day the contract is signed, because the answers change what you are buying.
Florida law caps what an association may charge for an estoppel certificate: $250 when nothing is delinquent, plus $100 for delivery within three business days, and up to $150 more if an account is delinquent, under section 720.30851 for homeowners' associations and section 718.116 for condominiums. Who pays for each certificate is a term of the purchase contract.
For a condominium resale, section 718.503 requires the seller to provide the declaration, by-laws and rules and the association's most recent financial information. At The Forest that package is where the leasing minimum, the pet rule and the reserve position for a specific building actually live, so read it before your inspection period ends, not after.
The master association's recorded declaration is not available in the county's online records; rules described here come from the association's and the club's own published materials. Leasing, pet and architectural rules are set by the master and neighborhood associations and are not published publicly; they are in each association's governing documents, provided at resale. If you plan to rent the home, keep a particular pet or change the exterior, make that a condition of your review period.
Florida's residential flood disclosure, section 689.302, is part of every Forest sale, and the elevation certificate is the document an insurer prices. Flood insurance cost depends on each building's elevation certificate, which is specific to the home, so ask for it with the first set of disclosures; a seller who already has one removes a week from your insurance shopping.
A condominium buyer in The Forest should check four things in the association's own records before closing: whether the building is Sparrowood, the only three-story group under Florida's milestone and reserve-study rules; the roof's permit history; what the master policy covers and its deductible; and the reserve schedule with any special assessment levied or pending.
Data updated: September 2026 (Lee County parcel roll and permitting record, queried Sep 2026; Florida Statutes 553.899 and 718.112).
The two statutes turn on height. Section 553.899 requires milestone structural inspections of condominium buildings three habitable stories or more in height, and section 718.112(2)(g) requires a structural integrity reserve study for the same class of building and does not apply to buildings less than three stories in height. Sparrowood's three buildings are the only three-story residential buildings in The Forest, so Sparrowood alone is under both requirements; every other condominium building is recorded at one or two stories. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation publishes its SIRS reporting pages for anyone who wants to check the state's side, and the ordinary reserve rules still apply to every condominium in The Forest.
Lee County publishes no bulk layer of re-roof permits, so a roof date comes from the association or from a permit search on the specific address in the county's Accela permitting system. What the county record does show, neighborhood by neighborhood:
In a condominium the roof belongs to the association, so the roof question becomes the association's re-roof history and how it was paid for, which the budget, the reserve schedule and the minutes answer.
In the condominium neighborhoods the association insures the building under its master policy, as section 718.111(11) provides, and the unit owner insures the interior and contents under a unit-owners policy. Ask for the master policy declarations, the deductible and whether the association carries flood coverage on the building. The master premium sits inside the association's budget, which is not published; it appears in the budget and estoppel package provided at resale.
Neighborhood associations' special assessments are not published; buyers can find them in the association's estoppel certificate and meeting minutes. Read the reserve schedule against the building's age: every condominium building in The Forest except the Heron Coach House Villas predates 1993, and no condominium here was built under the Florida Building Code, so a roof, windows or shutters replaced since 2002 were permitted under the code in force when the work was done, and the paperwork matters more than the year.
Florida requires a condominium association of 25 or more units to post its official records online, under section 718.111. Partridge Court, with 16 units, and Quail Cove, with 24, sit below that line, so their numbers arrive only in the resale package; plan your review period around that.
The club does not list a pool among its amenities; pools at The Forest belong to individual neighborhood associations. The county roll shows a pool on the Fairway Woods recreation parcel serving Sections II and III, a Heron pool parcel owned by the Heron Master, and a Partridge Court common-element parcel the county describes as "POOL + ALL COMMON ELEMENTS." We have not counted every neighborhood pool, so confirm in the association's governing documents whether the home you are considering comes with one.
Every home in The Forest is in FEMA flood Zone AE, a Special Flood Hazard Area, with a base flood elevation of 11 feet NAVD88 on panels effective November 17, 2022, and in Lee County Evacuation Zone A. For a buyer that means flood insurance with any federally backed mortgage and an elevation certificate on every file.
Data updated: September 2026 (FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer and Lee County FIRM layer, queried 23 Sep 2026; Lee County 2018 LiDAR spot elevations).
Every home and the club property in The Forest are in FEMA flood Zone AE with a base flood elevation of 11 feet (NAVD88), on FIRM panels 12071C0438H and 12071C0576H, effective November 17, 2022. Every residential parcel was tested against FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer and Lee County's own FIRM layer, and the two agree to the foot. No home in The Forest sits in Zone X or a VE zone. The November 2022 map revision raised the base flood elevation across The Forest by one foot, from 10 to 11 feet NAVD88; the zone did not change, the elevation did.
Median ground runs from 5.9 feet NAVD88 at Pheasant Court Villas to 9.1 feet at Fairway Woods I, below the 11-foot base flood elevation in every neighborhood, per Lee County's 2018 spot elevations layer. The three Fairway Woods sections, at 8.5 to 9.1 feet, and Sparrowood at 7.5 are the highest attached neighborhoods; Pheasant Court Villas, the Heron Coach Houses at 6.2 and Partridge Court at 6.2 are the lowest. By our arithmetic the gap between ground and the base flood elevation runs from about 1.9 feet at Fairway Woods I to about 5.1 feet at Pheasant Court Villas. Those are ground figures, not finished floors, so they are a starting point for an insurance quote, never a substitute for the elevation certificate.
Lee County applies FEMA's substantial improvement and substantial damage rule in unincorporated Lee County: work whose cost equals or exceeds 50 percent of the building's market value, or damage that would cost that much to restore, requires the whole structure to be brought into compliance with current flood rules, per the county's substantial improvement page. The county uses the Property Appraiser's building value, not land, as market value, and new or substantially improved buildings must be built one foot above the base flood elevation. By our arithmetic, at The Forest that puts a rebuilt home's lowest floor at 12 feet NAVD88, about 3 to 6 feet above today's median ground. For a buyer planning a major renovation of a 1980s home, that line is the budget question to answer first.
FEMA's index of Letters of Map Change shows one Letter of Map Amendment request inside The Forest, for a Partridge Place building, and it was denied, per FEMA's LOMA layer. No Letter of Map Revision touches any Forest parcel. So a buyer should not assume a map amendment will take a building out of the flood zone.
For any address, pull the current panel from FEMA's Map Service Center and Lee County's flood information pages, and ask the seller for the elevation certificate with the first disclosures. We put the neighborhood's panel and median ground in front of every buyer before the first showing, so the flood question is answered before the house is loved.
Insuring a home in The Forest means flood coverage for any federally backed mortgage, because every home is in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, and wind or homeowner coverage priced on the roof and the wind-mitigation features. Unincorporated Lee County's Class 5 Community Rating System status cuts NFIP flood premiums 25 percent inside the flood zone.
Data updated: September 2026 (FEMA CRS eligible communities list, April 2025; FEMA Risk Rating 2.0 page; Florida Statutes 627.351, 627.7011, 627.0629 and 215.5586).
We do not publish premiums for The Forest, because there is no public source for one that we would stand behind, and a premium quoted without the home's elevation certificate, roof age and wind-mitigation report is a guess. What we can publish is every rule that moves the number, and the documents that lower it.
FEMA's flood maps drive the mandatory purchase requirement, per FEMA's Risk Rating 2.0 page, and every home in The Forest is inside the Special Flood Hazard Area. A mortgage from a federally regulated or insured lender on any home here will require flood insurance; a cash buyer is not required to carry it, but would be self-insuring against the kind of water that reached a Waters Edge building in 2022.
Since Risk Rating 2.0, NFIP prices each building rather than each zone, using flood frequency, storm surge and heavy rainfall, distance to water, and property characteristics such as elevation and the cost to rebuild, and most rates may not increase more than 18 percent a year, per FEMA's Risk Rating 2.0 page. That is why two homes on the same street in The Forest can carry very different flood premiums.
Unincorporated Lee County is a Class 5 community in FEMA's Community Rating System, worth a 25 percent discount on NFIP premiums inside the Special Flood Hazard Area, as of FEMA's April 2025 CRS eligible communities list, and Lee County states owners there "will automatically receive a 25% discount" on its CRS discount page. The discount survived FEMA's post-Ian review in November 2024, per WGCU. The Forest has a Fort Myers mailing address but is not in the City of Fort Myers, which the same FEMA list rates Class 9, so make sure any quote uses the county's class.
Florida law makes flood coverage mandatory for Citizens Property Insurance personal-lines policies on property inside the Special Flood Hazard Area, under section 627.351(6), so the rule reaches every Citizens homeowner policy on a Forest house or villa; the statute exempts policies without wind coverage and policies written on a condominium unit-owners form. The same statute makes a dwelling with a replacement cost of $700,000 or more ineligible for Citizens, which matters for the larger homes in Units Two and Three and The Oaks.
Under section 627.7011(5), an insurer may not refuse to issue or renew a homeowner's policy solely because a roof is less than 15 years old, and for an older roof it may not refuse solely on age if an inspection shows at least 5 years of useful life remaining. Under section 627.0629(1), residential rate filings must include discounts for wind-resistive features such as roof strength, roof-to-wall connections and opening protection. A current wind-mitigation inspection is the document that turns those features into credits.
The state's My Safe Florida Home program offers matching hardening grants under section 215.5586 to homesteaded, owner-occupied, site-built homes insured for $700,000 or less and built before January 1, 2008, subject to an income test, at $2 for every $1 up to a $10,000 state contribution. By our count of the county roll, about 99 percent of homes in The Forest pass the pre-2008 test; the other tests depend on the owner. Check the program's current funding status before applying.
For a house or villa: the elevation certificate, the roof permit date, a current wind-mitigation report and a four-point inspection. For a condominium: the association's master policy declarations and deductible, the unit's wind report where one exists, and at Sparrowood the milestone inspection report and structural integrity reserve study. Flood insurance cost depends on each building's elevation certificate, which is specific to the home.
Hurricane Ian's surge reached inside The Forest in September 2022: U.S. Geological Survey crews surveyed a high-water mark about 2.9 feet above ground at a Waters Edge building. The golf courses took seawater and reopened within weeks, Waters Edge re-roofed every building in 2023, and no public record we reached says whether water entered any specific home.
Data updated: September 2026 (USGS Short-Term Network, Hurricane Ian high-water marks, Lee County; Golf Course Management, 2022; club Form 990 filings).
U.S. Geological Survey crews surveyed Hurricane Ian high-water marks of about 2.9 feet above ground at a Waters Edge condominium building inside The Forest (and at a garage in adjacent Forest Villas, which sits outside the gates). On the golf property, the club's superintendent later described 5 feet of seawater crossing the courses (Golf Course Management, 2022). The Waters Edge mark reads 9.5 feet NAVD88, 2.89 feet above the ground at the wall, per the USGS record. It measures the water surface outside a building; it does not say whether water entered any home, which depends on each building's finished-floor elevation. By our arithmetic, Ian's measured crest inside The Forest sat about 1.3 to 1.5 feet below today's 11-foot base flood elevation.
The club's 2022 Form 990 reports $1,635,567 of hurricane expenses that year, and its filings show a hurricane capital assessment on members of $2,732,400 in 2022 and $503,500 in 2023; the filings say "hurricane" and do not name the storm. Lee County's development order record inside The Forest names Ian once, for four new canopies replacing four damaged wooden pergolas, closed and finaled February 17, 2025. For a buyer the more useful post-storm records are the building ones: the 2023 re-roofs at Waters Edge and Partridge Court and the open re-roof permits at Partridge Place described above.
The 2024 storms left a much lighter record here. The USGS holds no surveyed high-water mark within about 6 kilometers of The Forest for either Helene or Milton, and no county development order inside The Forest names either storm.
Year built | Homes inside the county boundary | Code era |
|---|---|---|
1992 or earlier | 713 | Local codes, before the statewide Florida Building Code |
1993 to 2001 | 48 | Local codes, before the statewide Florida Building Code |
2002 | 4 | The year the statewide code took effect |
2003 or later | 22 | Florida Building Code |
Source: Lee County parcel roll, first year built on each residential parcel, September 2026, grouped against the Florida Building Commission's effective dates (first statewide code March 1, 2002).
None of that means a 1980s building is unsound. A roof, windows or shutters replaced after 2002 were permitted under the code in force when the work was done, and the county roll does not record re-roof dates. It does mean the paperwork matters more than the year: ask for the roof permit date, the wind-mitigation report and, for a condominium, the association's insurance and reserve documents.
The whole community is in Lee County Evacuation Zone A, Storm Surge Zone 1, so there is no part of The Forest told to stay while another is told to go. The master association keeps an Emergency Preparedness Plan, updated May 2022, whose re-entry rules admit contractors on a prior pass or barcode and challenge any contractor without one, a rule written to protect residents from post-storm fraud. A seasonal owner should register a key holder with the neighborhood association before the summer.
Buying a home in The Forest takes nine steps: choose the neighborhood, budget the cost stack, check the flood file, write the offer with the right calendar, order every estoppel on day one, read the association package, clear inspections and insurance, confirm the tax reset, and close. The club decision runs alongside, separately.
Data updated: September 2026 (Florida Statutes 718.503, 718.116 and 720.30851; FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, queried 23 Sep 2026).
Start with the decision table above. The neighborhood fixes your price band, your association layers, your ground elevation and, at Sparrowood, the milestone and reserve-study laws. A buyer who tours across all 19 neighborhoods without choosing first tends to compare a condominium's price with a house's and a two-layer fee stack with a three-layer one.
List every layer for that neighborhood from the cost-stack table: master, neighborhood, Heron Master where it applies, tax with the fire levy and solid waste, insurance, sewer and water, and club only if you join. The unpublished lines get a placeholder until the estoppels arrive, and your offer calendar should give them time to arrive.
Pull the panel and the neighborhood's median ground, and ask for the elevation certificate before you write the offer if the seller has one. If you are financing, your lender will require flood insurance, so an early quote protects your budget.
Build the inspection period around the documents, not the other way round. At The Forest the estoppels, the condominium resale package and, at Sparrowood, the milestone and reserve-study documents all have to arrive and be read inside that window.
One for a single-family phase home, two for a condominium or villa, three at the Heron. We order them the day the contract is signed, through FirstService Residential for the master and through each neighborhood association's manager.
Declaration, by-laws, rules, budget, reserve schedule, insurance summary and the last year of minutes. This is where the leasing minimum, the pet rule, any special assessment and the roof history live.
A general inspection, a wind-mitigation inspection and a four-point inspection where the insurer asks for one, then bind flood and wind coverage on the documents you now hold. On a financed purchase the appraisal follows.
Budget the tax bill from your price, not the seller's bill, and if the home will be your permanent residence, plan the homestead application for March 1 of the next tax year.
At closing the estoppel figures are paid or prorated, and afterward you request vehicle barcodes through the association's online barcode request form and set up guest access through the association's DwellingLive visitor system. If you are joining the club, the membership is its own transaction with the club.
We find the right home in The Forest by matching you to a neighborhood first, watching its listings and likely sellers, clearing gate access before every showing, and touring with the questions a listing does not answer: the building's story count, the ground elevation, the roof date, the association layers and what lies behind the home.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026; master association 2022 Emergency Preparedness Plan).
With 19 neighborhoods and three association structures behind one gate, the first hour we spend with a Forest buyer is on the decision table, not on listings. We narrow to one or two neighborhoods on budget, space, the number of association layers you will accept, ground elevation and, if golf matters, how close the home sits to the course.
The master association's 2022 plan estimates about 1,000 year-round residents and about 2,000 in peak season, and 13 of the last 12 months' 45 closings came in February 2026 alone. Seasonal owners often decide while they are here in winter, so the buyer who is financed and known to the listing side before January hears about the right Fairway Woods or Heron home first. Partridge Place is mostly second homes and investment units: only 2 of its 56 units carry a homestead exemption on the 2026 roll.
Every visitor enters through a staffed gate, and guests are pre-registered by residents through the association's DwellingLive visitor system, administered by the association's manager, FirstService Residential. We arrange access before we schedule, so no showing stalls at the Main Gate on Forest Boulevard at Tamiami Trail or at the Island Park Gate.
On every tour we check what a listing does not say: the building's recorded story count, never inferred from a unit number; the neighborhood's median ground against the 11-foot base flood elevation; the roof permit date and, in a condominium, the association's re-roof history; how many association layers the home carries; and whether a lake or canal easement, the course or the state mangrove lies behind it.
A community with about 45 sales a year is best watched with a saved search tuned to your neighborhood, size and budget. Set one up through our site, browse current homes for sale in The Forest on DomainRealtyGroup.com, or call Marc Comisar at (239) 287-5873 and we will tune it for you from our buyer resources for Southwest Florida.
We negotiate for you in The Forest from the record: the neighborhood's own closed sales, the listing's days on market and price history, the 94.59 percent median sold-to-list ratio of the last 12 months, and what the documents reveal about roofs, reserves, insurance and flood. At 7.7 months of supply, time is usually on the buyer's side.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026).
We price from the neighborhood, never from the community median. A Fairway Woods four-bedroom unit and a Unit Three house are not comparable, and neither is a Partridge Place unit priced off the post-Ian sales of late 2022. Days on market matter here: six of the 29 active listings on September 23, 2026 had been listed more than 200 days, and in the last 12 months some of the longest waits ended well below list, a Sparrowood condominium at 88.63 percent after 633 days and a Quail Cove condominium at 84.44 percent after 405.
A roof without a recent permit, a missing wind-mitigation report, a low elevation, an open permit or an association facing a large project are all facts that move a price. We put them in writing, tie them to a quote or a document, and use them to negotiate a price, a credit or a repair rather than a vague discount.
At The Forest the calendar has to carry the estoppels from every layer, the condominium resale package and, at Sparrowood, the milestone and reserve-study documents. We set the inspection period to fit them, so you are never asked to waive a document you have not yet seen.
Your deposit is protected by the contract's deadlines. We track every one, deliver every notice in writing and on time, and make sure the document-review and inspection contingencies you rely on are written into the contract, not assumed.
A buyer in The Forest pays ordinary Florida closing costs, plus community items: the estoppel certificate fees the contract assigns to the buyer, prorated association assessments at each layer, prorated taxes including the San Carlos Park fire levy, and on a financed purchase the documentary stamp tax on the note and the intangible tax on the mortgage.
Data updated: September 2026 (Florida Statutes 201.08, 199.133 and 201.02; Florida Administrative Code Rule 69O-186.003).
Florida sets the title insurance premium by state rule, Rule 69O-186.003, at $5.75 per $1,000 of coverage up to $100,000 and $5.00 per $1,000 from $100,000 to $1,000,000, so what varies between title companies is the settlement services around the premium. Who pays for the owner's policy, and who chooses the title agent, is written into the purchase contract, and Florida's standard contract forms let the parties decide; the lender's policy on a financed purchase is a buyer's loan cost.
Documentary stamp tax on the note runs at $0.35 per $100 under section 201.08, and the nonrecurring intangible tax on a new mortgage at 2 mills under section 199.133; neither applies to a cash purchase. The documentary stamp tax on the deed, 70 cents per $100 under section 201.02, is customarily paid by the seller. As an illustration at the 12-month single-family median of $685,000 with an 80 percent loan of $548,000, the note stamps come to $1,918 and the intangible tax to $1,096, by our arithmetic; at the condominium median of $286,500 with the same 80 percent loan of $229,200, $802.20 and $458.40.
Property taxes are prorated against the seller's current bill, which is not a forecast of yours. The master assessment, the neighborhood fee and at the Heron the Heron Master's are prorated to the closing date from the figures on each estoppel certificate, and any special assessment the estoppel shows as due appears as its own line.
Budget for a general inspection, a wind-mitigation inspection and a four-point inspection where the insurer asks for one. On a single-family lot a survey is worth ordering, and if the seller has no elevation certificate, a new one is often the best money a buyer spends before binding flood coverage.
Since the National Association of REALTORS practice changes took effect on August 17, 2024, a buyer touring a home in The Forest with an MLS agent must first sign a written buyer agreement that states the agent's compensation in an objectively ascertainable way, and offers of compensation no longer appear on the MLS.
Data updated: September 2026 (National Association of REALTORS settlement FAQs and written buyer agreements guidance; Florida Statutes 475.278).
The agreement must be signed before the tour, in person or by live virtual tour, per the NAR settlement FAQs and its guide to written buyer agreements. It must state the amount or rate of compensation, prohibit the agent from receiving more than that from any source, and state conspicuously that broker fees are not set by law and are fully negotiable. You need no agreement to talk to an agent, interview several or ask us which flood panel a street sits on; the line is the tour.
A seller can still cover a buyer's broker or offer concessions, but that now happens in the transaction rather than in an MLS field, and your agreement caps what your agent may receive. Florida's brokerage relationship law, section 475.278, sets out the duties owed to you under each form of representation.
Here, representation earns its keep in the diligence: an unpublished master assessment, unpublished neighborhood fees, a three-tier structure at the Heron, a three-story building group under the newest condominium laws, open roof permits at Partridge Place, a flood file on every home and a separate club decision. Read any buyer agreement against that list, and read more about our team and our credentials.
An address in The Forest comes with Lee County school choice Zones O, MM and South Zone 2, the nearest elementary choice 1.4 miles away with an A three years running, Lee County's state-designated Level II trauma center 4.5 miles away at Gulf Coast Medical Center, and Southwest Florida International Airport about 16 minutes away.
Data updated: September 2026 (Florida Department of Education 2026 school grades; Florida Department of Health trauma center list, updated 23 Jul 2026; drive times computed 23 Sep 2026).
Lee County assigns students through a zone of school choices, not a single school per address. The Forest sits in Elementary Zone O, Middle School Zone MM and High School South Zone 2, per the district-linked 2026-27 zone map, and families choose through the district's Choice Application, per its student enrollment page. Two parcel points in every neighborhood inside the gates returned the same zones, so there is no split anywhere inside The Forest.
School | Zone | 2026 grade | 2025 | 2024 | Drive from The Forest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rayma C. Page Elementary, 17000 S Tamiami Trail | Elementary O | A | A | A | 1.4 mi, 3 min |
Heights Elementary, 15200 Alexandria Court | Elementary O | A | B | B | 5.8 mi, 11 min |
Villas Elementary, 8385 Beacon Boulevard | Elementary O | B | B | C | 5.3 mi, 12 min |
Tanglewood Elementary, 1620 Manchester Boulevard | Elementary O | B | A | B | 7.4 mi, 17 min |
Cypress Lake Middle, 8901 Cypress Lake Drive | Middle MM | A | A | A | 5.6 mi, 12 min |
Lexington Middle, 16351 Summerlin Road | Middle MM | B | C | B | 5.9 mi, 14 min |
South Fort Myers High, 14020 Plantation Road | South Zone 2 | C | C | C | 4.4 mi, 9 min |
Cypress Lake High, 6750 Panther Lane | South Zone 2 | A | B | B | 5.6 mi, 12 min |
Estero High, 21900 River Ranch Road | South Zone 2 | B | B | B | 7.8 mi, 14 min |
Fort Myers High, 2635 Cortez Boulevard | South Zone 2 | A | B | B | 9.7 mi, 20 min |
Bonita Springs High, 25592 Imperial Parkway | South Zone 2 | B | B | C | 12.2 mi, 21 min |
Dunbar High, 3800 E Edison Avenue | South Zone 2 (no district bus to subzone S2) | C | C | C | 11.5 mi, 22 min |
Source: 2026 school grades (Florida Department of Education), from the state's 2026 school grades file; drive times from the clubhouse address.
Dunbar High School is among the South Zone 2 high school choices, but the district's 2026-27 transportation plan does not provide Dunbar bus service to The Forest's subzone (S2), per the district's transportation optimization page. Florida SouthWestern Collegiate High School, a charter high school on the FSW Lee campus, earned an A in 2026, 2025 and 2024 and is 5.4 miles away. A K-12 charter school is under construction about two miles north; its opening date is not yet set.
Gulf Coast Medical Center is Lee County's state-designated Level II trauma center (Florida Department of Health), per the department's trauma center list, 4.5 miles and about 9 minutes from the clubhouse. HealthPark Medical Center and Golisano Children's Hospital share a campus 5.8 miles away, per Lee Health's HealthPark page, and Lee Memorial Hospital is 9.2 miles north. Lee Health's nearest urgent care clinics, on Metro Parkway and at Page Field, are 4.8 and 6.6 miles away, per its urgent care roster.
Destination | Road miles | Minutes (free-flow) |
|---|---|---|
Publix, Alico Mission Way | 1.4 | 4 |
Lakes Regional Park | 2.3 | 5 |
Bell Tower Shops | 3.9 | 8 |
Gulf Coast Medical Center | 4.5 | 9 |
Hammond Stadium (Minnesota Twins spring training) | 4.5 | 10 |
Southwest Florida International Airport terminal | 8.6 | 16 |
Bunche Beach Preserve | 10.0 | 19 |
Downtown Fort Myers River District | 10.3 | 21 |
Fort Myers Beach, Times Square and pier | 10.7 | 21 |
Sanibel Causeway, mainland end | 12.2 | 21 |
Naples, City Hall in Old Naples | 26.5 | 44 |
Drive times are typical free-flow times measured from The Forest Country Club's address at 6100 Club Boulevard, near the center of the community; in-season traffic is longer. Each route was computed on the OpenStreetMap road network with the OSRM routing engine from the US Census Bureau geocode of the club's address on September 23, 2026. For everything else in the city, see our Fort Myers guide.
Daily life inside The Forest runs through the master association and the club: residents enter by vehicle barcode, guests are pre-registered, the Main Gate is staffed around the clock, water comes from Lee County Utilities and sewer from a private utility, Hotwire provides fiber, and golf, tennis, fitness and dining are there for members who choose to join.
Data updated: September 2026 (master association website and 2022 plan; The Forest Country Club lifestyle and dining pages, retrieved Sep 2026; Lee County Clerk recorded easements).
The Main Gate on Forest Boulevard at Tamiami Trail is staffed 24 hours a day and the Island Park Gate seven days a week from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM, with a nightly patrol, per the master association's 2022 plan. Entry is by "vehicle bar codes, authorized pass, or resident/guest look up." Residents request barcodes through the association's online form, and guests are pre-registered through the DwellingLive visitor system. The association office is at 5990 Forest Boulevard.
The community has a Hotwire fiber arrangement; whether it is billed through the association is not published. Three associations granted recorded communication easements to Hotwire Communications, Ltd.: Waters Edge, granted July 5, 2022 and recorded July 14, 2022, before Hurricane Ian; Eagle's Landing, granted in September 2022 and recorded October 28, 2022; and Dove Hollow, granted December 19, 2023 and recorded January 3, 2024, per the instruments in the Lee County Clerk's official records and the county's easements layer. Water is Lee County Utilities, sewer is Forest Utilities, Inc., and trash is a county Service Area 2 assessment on the tax bill.
For members, the club has two par-72 courses, the Bear and the Bobcat, which the club markets as walkable, plus a practice facility with an expanded practice tee and a short-game area. Both courses trace to an original design by Gordon Lewis, with the Bear opening in 1980, according to Golf Digest's course database for the Bear. The Bear was fully renovated and reopened on December 1, 2025; the club's own scorecard credits Kipp Schulties as the Bear's architect. The club's lifestyle page describes six Har-Tru Hydro clay tennis courts with three lighted for night play, pickleball with weekly open play (the club does not publish a court count), and two lighted bocce courts beside the Gumbo Limbo outdoor bar.
The club runs a fitness center inside the clubhouse, overlooking the preserve, with group classes including yoga, pilates, barre, and strength and balance, and a clubhouse restaurant the club's dining page describes as "casual, elegant dining" known for "famous brick-oven pizzas." The Gumbo Limbo Outdoor Tiki Bar overlooks the Bear's 18th hole. Dining is a membership privilege, so a non-member resident dines outside the gates, where a Publix, Bell Tower Shops and Gulf Coast Town Center are within about 6 miles.
The Forest has no marina, and neither the club nor the master association lists boat slips or dry storage. The community backs onto state-owned mangrove along Hendry Creek, so there is no road or dock connection to open water from inside the gates, and we make no claim that any lot has boat access. The nearest Gulf beach by road is Bunche Beach Preserve, about 10 miles and 19 minutes away, and the drive does not require crossing the Caloosahatchee.
Lakes Regional Park, a 279-acre county park, is about 2.3 miles away, and Estero Marsh Preserve about a mile from the center of the community. Inside the gates, the master association's portal describes Ruthie's Park and "miles of sidewalks for the avid morning walker."
Inside The Forest almost nothing new is being built. The live case is a proposed 149-foot wireless monopole on the golf property, In Review as of September 23, 2026 with no hearing and no decision. Outside the gates, a proposed 61-acre mixed-use rezoning to the east is the largest nearby change a buyer should follow.
Data updated: September 2026 (Lee County Accela and zoning case records, checked 23 Sep 2026; Lee County capital projects layer).
A special exception and variance for a 149-foot wireless monopole on the golf course property (Lee County cases SEZ2026-00001 and VAR2026-00001) were In Review as of September 23, 2026. No hearing has been scheduled and no decision has been made. A buyer whose home looks onto the golf property should follow the case file.
Lee County's zoning cases layer shows DCI2023-00020, Dia Crossing, a proposed rezoning of about 61 acres about a mile east to a mixed-use planned development of up to 350 dwelling units, a hotel of up to 150 rooms and up to 200,000 square feet of commercial space. We describe those figures as proposed maximums until the county's zoning resolution for the case is read.
Lee County's capital projects layer carries a $37,000,000 Ten Mile Canal South flood-mitigation project about a mile from The Forest, in Design and planned through December 31, 2027, "to provide additional flood relief in the event of an extreme storm event."
Lee County's five-year major road program programs no project on US 41, Island Park Road or the other roads around The Forest. FDOT District One's US 41 at Six Mile Cypress Parkway study is evaluating options for that intersection about 2.2 miles north.
The Forest and Fiddlesticks Country Club are both south Fort Myers communities with two 18-hole courses on club-owned land, but a Fiddlesticks buyer must join the club and a buyer in The Forest need not. Choose The Forest for optional membership and a lower price per square foot; choose Fiddlesticks for a bundled club and lower housing density.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026, closings dated 24 Sep 2025 to 23 Sep 2026; each club's own website, retrieved 23 Sep 2026).
Fiddlesticks is The Forest's closest structural match and its clearest contrast, which is why buyers so often shop the two together. Every club fact below comes from each club's own published record and every market figure from the same Southwest Florida MLS pull, same 12 months, same method.
Question | The Forest | Fiddlesticks Country Club |
|---|---|---|
Must a home buyer join the club? | No. "A non bundled gated community offering resident and non resident memberships" (club); the master association says the same (portal) | Yes. "Membership is required upon home purchase" (club); every lot or unit buyer purchases and maintains one Vested Equity membership (governing rules) |
Courses | Two 18-hole courses, the Bear and the Bobcat, par 72 each; the Bear fully renovated and reopened December 1, 2025 (scorecard) | Two 18-hole courses, the Long Mean and the Wee Friendly (club) |
Homes | 789 residences (master association) | 585 homes (club) |
Homes per 18 holes (our arithmetic, housing density) | 394.5 | 292.5 |
Club ownership | Private, member-owned 501(c)(7) club (Form 990); which categories carry equity is not published | Equity: Vested Equity membership (governing rules) |
Club dues and initiation | Not published; provided on inquiry | Not in our published records |
Tennis | Six Har-Tru Hydro clay courts, three lighted (club) | Seven Har-Tru clay courts, three lighted (club) |
Pickleball | Offered; court count not published | Eight courts (club) |
Fitness and pool | Clubhouse fitness center; no club pool, pools belong to neighborhood associations | 5,000-square-foot fitness facility and a pool and cabana (club) |
Closings, trailing 12 months | 45 | 44 |
Median sold, all homes | $375,000 | $576,075 |
Single-family median, MLS building design | $730,000 (14 sales) | $850,000 (26 sales) |
Median per sq ft of living area | $175.63 | $211.11 |
Median days on market | 76 | 59 |
Median sold-to-list | 94.59% | 92.75% |
Source: club rows from each club's own site as linked, as of September 23, 2026; market rows from the Southwest Florida MLS, closed sales dated 09/24/2025 to 09/23/2026, pulled September 23, 2026, each community searched by its own MLS development name with the same method. The single-family row uses the MLS building-design field on both sides, which is why The Forest's figure differs from its $685,000 county-coded single-family median elsewhere on this page. Fiddlesticks' figures include five Highlands condominium closings at $30,000 to $80,000, which lower its attached medians.
The table decides the structure. At Fiddlesticks the club is part of every purchase, so its cost and its governance come with the deed, and fewer homes share the same 36 holes. At The Forest the club is a separate choice, so a buyer pays only for the house unless they decide to join, and the lower price per square foot, $175.63 against $211.11, reflects in part that no membership is bundled into the sale. Fiddlesticks sold faster, a median 59 days against 76, while The Forest sold nearer to list, 94.59 percent against 92.75.
Choose The Forest if you want a gated golf community without a mandatory membership, want to try the club before you commit or never use it at all, and want more home per dollar, from about $145,000 condominiums to $1.25 million homes in the last 12 months. Plan on reading every association's documents, because none publishes its fee.
Choose Fiddlesticks Country Club if you want the club guaranteed with the home, a bundled Vested Equity membership, fewer homes per course and a published pool and larger fitness facility, and you accept that the membership is a required part of the purchase. Read our breakdown of Fiddlesticks Country Club, its membership and its market.
The table decides the structure; the address decides the rest. Marc Comisar at (239) 287-5873 will run the same comparison on the two specific homes you are weighing.
The Forest is the right purchase for a buyer who wants a staffed, gated golf community in south Fort Myers with optional club membership, no CDD and the lowest price per square foot among the golf communities we benchmarked. It is the wrong purchase for a buyer who needs a boat slip, a club pool or published fees.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026; FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, queried 23 Sep 2026).
A personalized buyer consultation for The Forest with McGreevy and Comisar is a working session, not a sales pitch. We match your budget and plans to one or two neighborhoods, lay out their association layers and documents, pull the flood panel and ground elevation, walk through the club decision and tell you honestly whether The Forest fits.
The consultation form sits near the top of this page. You can also call Jesse McGreevy direct at (239) 898-6072 or Marc Comisar at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida first. We have been Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008.
Jesse McGreevy started in Southwest Florida real estate in October 2004, and the team launched in October 2008. He runs the data, marketing and systems side of the partnership, which is why this page is built on the MLS, the county roll, FEMA's maps and the club's own filings rather than a portal feed. Reach him at (239) 898-6072 or [email protected].
Marc Comisar runs the field side: in the homes, at the inspections and at the closing table. For a buyer in The Forest that means the story count and the roof date on each building, the gate access for every showing, and a contract calendar that lines up every estoppel with your closing. Reach him at (239) 287-5873.
A specialist matters when you buy in The Forest because the facts that decide a purchase here, the non-bundled club, the one, two or three association layers, the unpublished fees, Sparrowood's three stories, the unit-number trap, the open Partridge Place permits and the flood file on every home, live in documents a general Fort Myers search never surfaces.
Data updated: September 2026 (Southwest Florida MLS Matrix, retrieved 23 Sep 2026; Lee County parcel roll).
This page is the purchase path. For the courses hole by hole, the club's finances, the governance, the storm record and every sale since 2022, read our complete guide to The Forest in south Fort Myers.
If you are selling to buy in The Forest, including a move between neighborhoods inside the gates, see how we sell homes in The Forest and request a valuation of your home in The Forest, or call Jesse McGreevy at (239) 898-6072.
Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar are the local real estate experts behind this buyer page for The Forest. They co-founded Domain Realty, lead a team of agent partners across Lee and Collier County, and run the business from the Bonita Springs office on Tamiami Trail. Reach Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.
Jesse McGreevy (Sales Associate) and Marc Comisar (Broker Associate) are licensed Florida REALTORS® with Domain Realty; Florida real estate licensure is regulated by the Florida Real Estate Commission (FREC).
McGreevy and Comisar lead Domain Realty Group, a full-service Southwest Florida real estate team. Learn more about our team at DomainRealtyGroup.com.
These are the questions buyers ask most about purchasing in The Forest, Fort Myers, Florida 33908, answered from the club's and the master association's own publications, Lee County's records, the Southwest Florida MLS and FEMA. To talk any of them through, call Marc Comisar at (239) 287-5873 or Jesse McGreevy at (239) 898-6072.
No. The Forest is a non-bundled community: buying a home does not require joining the club. Both The Forest Country Club and the master association describe The Forest as non-bundled on their own websites, and the club sells memberships to residents and non-residents alike.
The club does not publish its dues or initiation schedule; figures are provided to prospective members on inquiry. Ask the membership office, in writing, for the category's initiation and dues, any food and beverage minimum, any current or pending assessment, and what happens to the membership if you sell.
They are not published at any layer. The master association does not publish its assessment, and each neighborhood association sets its own fee, which is not published; both appear in the association's budget and on the estoppel certificate issued with every resale. We request them before your offer goes firm.
No. The Forest does not appear on Lee County's official roster of special districts, and the county's MSTBU layer returns no taxing unit inside the community. The location-specific lines on the tax bill are the San Carlos Park fire levy and the county solid waste assessment.
The master association counts 789 residences: 302 single-family homes and 487 condominiums and villas, a figure it published in 2022 and again in 2026. Lee County's community record reaches the same 789 total, classed 350 single-family and 439 condominium, because it codes three fee-simple villa neighborhoods as single-family.
Partridge Place, the oldest condominium, is the entry point: every unit is 1,161 square feet, it recorded 11 MLS closings in 24 months at a median of $165,000, and two units were listed at $174,000 and $179,000 on September 23, 2026. Partridge Court, next door, is the same design under a separate association.
Single-family homes sold at a median of $685,000 on 15 closings in the 12 months to September 23, 2026, from $375,000 to $1,250,000, per the Southwest Florida MLS. Over 48 months the phase medians ran from $535,000 in Unit One to $902,500 in The Oaks.
Condominiums and villas sold at a median of $286,500 on 30 closings in the 12 months to September 23, 2026, from $145,000 to $570,000, per the Southwest Florida MLS. Waters Edge is the top-priced condominium neighborhood over 48 months, a median of $425,000.
On September 23, 2026 the Southwest Florida MLS showed 29 active listings, 11 single-family and 18 condominium or villa, plus 2 pending, about 7.7 months of supply. Asking prices ran from $174,000 at Partridge Place to $1,620,000 in Unit One. Listings change daily.
The median time on market was 76 days over the 12 months to September 23, 2026: 71 days for single-family homes and 81 for condominiums and villas, per the Southwest Florida MLS. Individual sales ran from 0 days to 633.
The median home sold at 94.59 percent of its final list price over the last 12 months, and only 4 of 45 closed at or above asking, per the Southwest Florida MLS. Long-listed homes closed deepest, down to 84.44 percent of list after 405 days.
It leans toward buyers. Both segments sat above six months of supply on September 23, 2026, 8.8 months for single-family homes and 7.2 for condominiums and villas, and the median sale closed at 94.59 percent of list.
The median was $175.63 per square foot of MLS living area over the last 12 months: $232.39 for single-family homes and $148.88 for condominiums and villas. Compare it only with other figures on MLS living area, never with a county-roll square footage.
Every home and the club property are in FEMA flood Zone AE with a base flood elevation of 11 feet (NAVD88), on FIRM panels effective November 17, 2022. No home in The Forest sits in Zone X, and the whole community is in Lee County Evacuation Zone A.
If you finance with a federally regulated or insured lender, yes, because every home is in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area. A cash buyer is not required to carry it. Unincorporated Lee County's Class 5 CRS rating cuts NFIP premiums 25 percent inside the flood zone.
U.S. Geological Survey crews surveyed a Hurricane Ian high-water mark about 2.9 feet above ground at a Waters Edge condominium building inside The Forest, and the club's superintendent described 5 feet of seawater crossing the golf courses. No public record we reached says whether water entered any specific home.
Sparrowood's three buildings are the only three-story residential buildings in The Forest, according to Lee County property records, which places Sparrowood alone under Florida's milestone-inspection and structural integrity reserve study requirements. Buyers there should ask the association for its milestone inspection report and reserve study.
One for a single-family home in Units One to Three or The Oaks, two for a condominium or villa, and three for a Heron home, because The Heron Master Association sits between the unit association and the master. Florida caps each certificate's fee at $250 when nothing is delinquent, plus $100 for rush delivery.
Leasing, pet and architectural rules are set by the master and neighborhood associations and are not published publicly; they are in each association's governing documents, provided at resale. If renting or a pet is essential, make the governing-document review a condition of your contract.
Yes. The Oaks is one of The Forest's single-family neighborhoods: the master association seats its lot owners as Phase IV on its board roster, although The Oaks was approved by Lee County as a separate planned development in 1982.
No. Forest Villas and Timberwood Village sit outside The Forest's gates, across Island Park Road, with their own associations. They carry their own MLS development names, so none of their sales is in any figure on this page.
No. Every home carries a Fort Myers mailing address and ZIP 33908, but The Forest is in unincorporated Lee County, so county government handles zoning, permits and flood rules, and the county's Class 5 flood-insurance rating applies rather than the city's Class 9.
The Forest sits in Elementary Zone O, Middle School Zone MM and High School South Zone 2. Rayma C. Page Elementary, the nearest Zone O choice at 1.4 miles, earned an A in 2024, 2025 and 2026, per the Florida Department of Education.
Gulf Coast Medical Center, about 4.5 miles and 9 minutes away, is Lee County's state-designated Level II trauma center, per the Florida Department of Health. HealthPark Medical Center and Golisano Children's Hospital share a campus about 5.8 miles away.
Southwest Florida International Airport's terminal is about 8.6 miles and 16 minutes away, and Bunche Beach Preserve, the nearest Gulf beach by road, about 10 miles and 19 minutes, both typical free-flow drives from the clubhouse address. In-season traffic is longer.
The club does not list a pool among its amenities; pools at The Forest belong to individual neighborhood associations. Fairway Woods Sections II and III share one, the Heron Master owns one, and Partridge Court's common elements include one; confirm with the association for any other home.
No. Neither the club nor the master association lists a marina, slips or dry storage, and the community backs onto state-owned mangrove along Hendry Creek. The nearest county boat ramp in the county's project records is Mullock Creek, a little over 2 miles south in a straight line.
Lee County's utility franchise maps place The Forest in Lee County Utilities' water service area. Sewer service is provided by Forest Utilities, Inc., a private utility, whose rates are not published online, so ask the seller for a year of both bills.
The community has a Hotwire fiber arrangement; whether it is billed through the association is not published. Waters Edge, Eagle's Landing and Dove Hollow each granted a recorded communication easement to Hotwire Communications, Ltd., in 2022 and 2023.
No. At The Forest the first digit identifies the building, not the floor: Heron Coach Houses units 701 to 708 and Fairway Woods I units 301 to 306 sit in buildings the county records at one and two stories. Sparrowood is the only three-story building group.
Because membership is separate from home ownership, a club membership should not be assumed to transfer with a home. The seller's membership and yours are separate transactions with the club, so get the club's written answer before you rely on any listing statement.
The club sells a Preview Membership, a 2, 3 or 4 month seasonal trial in the Family, Individual or Executive category, available once per household, per its membership page. It is the lowest-commitment way to test the club before paying an initiation.
A special exception and variance for a 149-foot wireless monopole on the golf course property (Lee County cases SEZ2026-00001 and VAR2026-00001) were In Review as of September 23, 2026. No hearing has been scheduled and no decision has been made.
About three quarters were finished in the 1980s and about 95 percent by 1999, per the Lee County parcel roll. The Heron Coach House Villas (1994 to 1996) are the newest condominium, Falcon Crest One (1998 to 2004) the newest neighborhood, and 22 homes date from 2003 or later.
Visitors are pre-registered by residents through the association's DwellingLive system, and the Main Gate is staffed 24 hours a day. We arrange access before we schedule, so no showing stalls at the gate.
If the home is your permanent residence on January 1, the exemption removes up to $50,000 of assessed value, and it starts the Save Our Homes cap on annual increases. Apply with the Lee County Property Appraiser by March 1 of the tax year; the seller's exemption does not carry over to you.
The purchase contract decides who pays for the owner's policy and who chooses the title agent, and Florida's standard contract forms let the parties set it. The premium itself is set by the state's promulgated rates, and the lender's policy on a financed purchase is a buyer's loan cost.
Choose The Forest for optional club membership and a lower price per square foot, $175.63 against $211.11 over the same 12 months. Choose Fiddlesticks if you want membership bundled with the home and fewer homes per course. The decision table above sets the two side by side.
Yes, if the agent showing you the home participates in a multiple listing service. Since August 17, 2024, a written buyer agreement stating the agent's compensation must be in place before a tour. You do not need one to talk to an agent or ask questions.
Start with how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida, then call Marc Comisar at (239) 287-5873 or Jesse McGreevy at (239) 898-6072. Choosing the neighborhood, holding its association layers and its flood facts, and being financed before the right home lists is worth more than any tactic afterward.
These questions come from buyers who also have a home to sell, elsewhere in Florida, out of state or inside The Forest itself. Each answer is a single paragraph, and our seller page for The Forest covers the selling side in full.
It depends on your financing and your tolerance for carrying two homes. With 7.7 months of supply and a median 76 days on market, buyers in The Forest usually have time to line up both transactions, but some small neighborhoods, Pheasant Court Villas and Partridge Court among them, had no closing at all in the last 12 months, so the right home may not wait. We model both sequences with you.
You can, and in a market leaning toward buyers a seller may accept one, but a sale contingency still weakens an offer against a buyer without one. Pair it with a firm timeline and strong proof of funds, and expect a seller to ask for a kick-out clause.
Membership is separate from home ownership, so nothing moves automatically, and the club does not publish its transfer rules. If you are a member selling one Forest home and buying another, ask the club office in writing how your membership is treated before you contract on either home.
Florida portability can move some or all of an existing Florida homestead's Save Our Homes benefit to a new homestead, up to $500,000, if you establish the new homestead within the statutory window, under section 193.155. Apply with the Lee County Property Appraiser and confirm your numbers before you rely on them.
Start with a valuation of your home in The Forest built from your own neighborhood's sales, then call Jesse McGreevy at (239) 898-6072. Neighborhood medians here run from about $157,500 to $902,500 over 48 months, so a community-wide figure says little about your home.
Yes. Every resale needs its own estoppel certificate from each association layer on the home being sold, so a move from a single-family phase to a condominium adds a second certificate, and a move to the Heron adds a third.
Every figure on this buyer page for The Forest traces to a primary source below, each with its retrieval date. The Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026, is cited in plain text because it sits behind a member login. No portal, brokerage or competing agent site is used as a source.
The club and the master association, first-party
Federal tax filings of The Forest Country Club
Lee County geographic and property records
Lee County government, Property Appraiser and Clerk
Florida corporate and condominium records
Florida statutes, rules and state agencies
Federal sources
Schools, healthcare and transportation
Golf publications, news and buyer representation
The comparison club, first-party
Our own pages and profiles
These are the primary documents behind this buyer page for The Forest, each linked to the authority that publishes it. Several documents that matter most to a buyer are not public: the master association's recorded declaration, every association budget and reserve study, and the club's dues schedule. Request them as the sections above describe.
Document | Date | What it settles | Authority link |
|---|---|---|---|
The Forest Property Owners' Association Emergency Preparedness Plan | updated May 2022 | 789 residences (302 + 487), gate staffing, sub-association roster, re-entry rules | |
The Forest Country Club scorecard | printed December 2025 | Both courses' tees, yardage, rating and slope; the Bear's architect credit | |
Amended and Restated By-Laws of The Forest Country Club, Inc. | undated | The club's public by-laws (linked, not quoted) | |
The Forest Country Club Form 990, tax year 2024 | filed 2025 | 501(c)(7) status, member assessments, rounds played | |
FEMA FIRM panel 12071C0438H | effective 11/17/2022 | Flood map for the northern and western part of The Forest | |
FEMA FIRM panel 12071C0576H | effective 11/17/2022 | Flood map for the southern and eastern part of The Forest | |
Lee County Evacuation Zone A map | current | The evacuation zone covering all of The Forest | |
FEMA Community Rating System eligible communities | 04/01/2025 | Lee County unincorporated Class 5, a 25 percent NFIP discount | |
San Carlos Park Fire District FY2025/2026 Final Budget | adopted 09/15/2025 | The 2.3590-mill fire levy | |
Lee County FY25 Solid Waste Rate Resolution | executed 2024 | The resolution behind the solid waste service-area rates | |
Florida Department of Health trauma center list | updated 07/23/2026 | Gulf Coast Medical Center's Level II designation | |
Florida Building Code effective dates | current | The code-era reference, first statewide code March 1, 2002 | |
Florida Department of Education 2026 school grades | 2026 | The official school grades workbook | |
Fiddlesticks Country Club governing rules and regulations | file dated 9.2020 | The comparison club's mandatory Vested Equity membership |
Market data from Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 23, 2026. McGreevy and Comisar, 24031 S Tamiami Trl #101, Bonita Springs, FL 34134, (239) 898-6072. Brokered by Domain Realty.