This in-depth guide features impressive custom homes designed and built by the top architects and builders in the Central Florida area.

More than 300 photographs of the work of leading custom home architects and builders in Miami, Boca Raton, Palm Beach, and Jupiter.

Naples, Florida, is known internationally for its stunning beaches, cosmopolitan ambience, and captivating architecture. Originally settled in the late nineteenth century, the seaside resort town is blessed with abundant historical architecture. One of the Sunshine State’s first "planned communities," the city is consistently recognized as one of the top growth areas in the United States. As a result, the original beach homes, most built between 1895 and 1950, are today threatened by land development and new construction.

The American daughter of Egyptian Jewish immigrants journeys in search of belonging from Brazil to New Orleans and beyond—includes recipes and photos! Born to Egyptian Sephardic Jews who fled to the United States after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, Joyce Zonana spent her childhood in Brooklyn. But her experience of Jewish culture was very different from that of the other children she knew, from the foods they ate to the language they spoke. As she struggled to find a sense of inclusion, never feeling completely American or completely Egyptian, a childhood trip to Brazil became the basis for a lifelong quest to find her place in the world. Meeting members of her extended family who had migrated to Brazil was one step in discovering the kind of life she might have lived in Egypt, and exploring the woman she was becoming. Through travels that ranged from Cairo to Oklahoma and finally New Orleans in the shadow of Katrina, and including an evocative exploration of the way food varies from culture to culture, this is a “frank, spirited memoir of identity from a Brooklyn-raised, Egyptian-born Jewish feminist.” (Kirkus Reviews) “Zonana makes every human encounter lively” —Booklist

Editorial Reviews:"If you're a baby boomer thinking about buying a home in Florida, this is your blueprint." - Barbara Corcoran NBC's Today Show Real Estate Correspondent"Brimming with sound advice, practical suggestions and references, and specific relocation recommendations, Florida for Boomers is a thorough, easy-to-read guide that walks you through the process of purchasing or building a home in the Sunshine State." - Jan Cullinane Author of The New Retirement: The Ultimate Guide to the Rest of Your Life"...teaches you everything from finding a real estate agent to understanding how property taxes work. Check it out. You won't be disappointed." - Mark Zilbert South Beach Real Estate Broker featured on 20/20, The Today Show, The Wall Street Journal, and moreBook Description:Revised and updated in 2011, Florida for Boomers covers everything baby boomers need to know about Florida real estate, including information about:*finding the best type of home and community for you *standard Florida real estate contracts and homebuilder contracts *property taxes and homeowner's insurance *homeowners' associations *new construction process start to finish *and much more.With expert advice and unique insight, Florida for Boomers takes you deep into the process of buying real estate in Florida. You'll learn important things such as:- How to read and understand the most commonly used "standard" FAR/BAR Florida real estate contract. - Florida real estate closing costs explained in detail, to help you avoid any last minute surprises at the closing table. - The 5 steps every baby boomer should take to find a Florida city and community you'll enjoy for years to come.Florida New Construction From the Ground Up...Maybe your dream is to have a new home or condo built in Florida. There are over 60 critical steps in the new home construction process detailed...with over 20 photos of an actual home under construction in Florida. With this information you will know exactly what's going on at each stage of construction... and what's coming next. Florida HOA's Revealed and Questions Answered...Many of the communities you'll look at in Florida have a Homeowners' Association. Florida for Boomers tells you all the ins and outs that are involved. The book will also show you the two most important things to look for when considering a Florida community with a Homeowners' Association.Join thousands of baby boomers since 2007 who have discovered Florida for Boomers and the easy way to learn all you need to know about moving to Florida.

Florida has long been a beacon for retirees, but for many, the American dream of owning a home there was a fantasy. That changed in the 1950s, when the so-called "installment land sales industry" hawked billions of dollars of Florida residential property, sight unseen, to retiring northerners. For only $10 down and $10 a month, working-class pensioners could buy a piece of the Florida dream: a graded home site that would be waiting for them in a planned community when they were ready to build. The result was Cape Coral, Port St. Lucie, Deltona, Port Charlotte, Palm Coast, and Spring Hill, among many others—sprawling communities with no downtowns, little industry, and millions of residential lots. In The Swamp Peddlers, Jason Vuic tells the raucous tale of the sale of residential lots in postwar Florida. Initially selling cheap homes to retirees with disposable income, by the mid-1950s developers realized that they could make more money selling parcels of land on installment to their customers. These "swamp peddlers" completely transformed the landscape and demographics of Florida, devastating the state environmentally by felling forests, draining wetlands, digging canals, and chopping up at least one million acres into grid-like subdivisions crisscrossed by thousands of miles of roads. Generations of northerners moved to Florida cheaply, but at a huge price: high-pressure sales tactics begat fraud; poor urban planning begat sprawl; poorly-regulated development begat environmental destruction, culminating in the perfect storm of the 21st-century subprime mortgage crisis.

This impressive showcase of the top interior designers in Michigan features Greater Detroit, Grand Rapids, and the upscale communities along the Great Lakes' shores.