Marco Island is a great place to live in sunny Southwest Florida. It is the largest of Florida’s legendary Ten Thousand Islands chain going from Everglades City to Flamingo to the south, the island has an impressive collection of historical landmarks to keep residents enamored with the peaceful community for a lifetime.

Part of the Wilderness Waterway, Marco Island’s varied animal life alone is astounding. There are fifty foot high sand hills, pine forests, fields and pristine sandy beaches, and a swamp of salt-water-friendly mangrove trees. Burrowing owls are one of the main wildlife attracts–in fact, wildlife watchers report that the islet is the only island in the Ten Thousand Islands system of islands to be home to these unique birds.

Marco Island has a full range of city services, with an excellent school system and utilities infrastructure. Residents and tourists can find numerous things to do on Marco Island, including scuba diving, kayaking, jet skiing, fishing, and more. There are even archaeological findings that are thousands of years old from Native American tribes, such as the Calusa Indian Burial Mount and the world famous MarcoCat sculpture.

The unique island was home to 14,879 residents in the 2000 census, but new population data from the 2010 census to be released on December 21, 2010 is expected to show some growth. The boom in real estate in the new millennium led to economic and population growth from the Naples metro area, with many exclusive homes popping up during that time. With the subsequent housing pullback, many exclusive parcels of Marco Island real estate can be found that are priced very attractively. In fact, Marco Island condos and bank owned properties represent some of the best deals on the market.

Prices on Marco Island homes at the time of this writing range from about $70,000 for a 460 s.f. townhouse to $10,500,000 for a 11,000+ s.f. luxurious waterfront estate. There are numerous waterfront properties on the island, many with private boat access to the peaceful Gulf waters.