DeSoto County, Florida: A Local Guide for Home Buyers and Homeowners

Arcadia

Arcadia sits on the Peace River, with U.S. 17 running through the center of town and State Road 70 crossing it downtown. Oak Street is the main street, and the 4th Saturday Antique Fair sets up there every month, adding 60 to 120 dealers to the antique shops already downtown.

About 3,400 acres, downtown included, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Arcadia Historic District, with landmarks like the Johnson-Smith House, the William Oswell Ralls House and the Micajah T. Singleton House. The Old Opera House and the Oak Park Inn are downtown too.

Fort Ogden

Fort Ogden began as Camp Ogden in 1841, during the Second Seminole War. Its post office, founded in 1876, is the oldest in the county.

Carlstrom Field

Carlstrom Field was an Army Air Service airfield from 1917 to 1922 and came back in 1941 as an Embry-Riddle primary flight school, training American and Royal Air Force cadets until 1945. Twenty-three British pilots who died training there are buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Arcadia, and the airfield site later became G. Pierce Wood Memorial Hospital.

The I-75 corner

Interstate 75 crosses only the county’s southwestern tip. The rest of the county is served by U.S. 17 and State Roads 70, 72 and 31.

DeSoto County SHIP Purchase Assistance

The DeSoto County BOCC Social Services Department runs the county’s SHIP purchase assistance for first-time buyers. It comes as a deferred 30-year loan that isn’t forgiven, the amount depends on household income, and there’s a purchase price cap. You take a HUD-approved homebuyer class, put in some money of your own, and use a first mortgage from an approved lender.

The same SHIP plan also pays for repairs, rehab and rebuilding for lower-income owners already in their homes.

SHIP money can be spoken for quickly, and the amounts and price cap change with each plan. Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll ask Social Services in Arcadia what a purchase can get and whether there’s money for yours before you sign a contract.

Official program page

Florida Hometown Heroes (statewide)

Hometown Heroes is Florida Housing’s 30-year fixed first mortgage with a 0% down payment and closing cost second behind it. Nothing is due monthly on that second; you repay it when you sell, refinance or pay off the home, or move out, and it’s never forgiven. At least one buyer needs a full-time job with an eligible Florida-based employer in health care, K-12 schools, first response, public safety, the courts or licensed child care. Anyone on active duty qualifies with any employer, and veterans and Reserve or Guard members qualify with full-time work for a Florida-based employer.

Florida Housing help is once in a lifetime, and you apply through a participating lender or broker. Text us at 954-816-8820 before you pick the house, and we’ll check DeSoto’s income and price limits and whether it can pair with the county’s SHIP money.

Official program page

FL Assist, FL HLP and HFA Preferred (statewide)

FL Assist is Florida Housing’s 0% deferred second, with no monthly payment, repaid on a sale, refinance, transfer or move-out, and it goes with a Florida Housing first mortgage: FHA, VA, USDA, or a Conventional HFA Preferred or HFA Advantage loan. The FL HLP second carries a small fixed monthly payment over 30 years. HFA Advantage PLUS puts a forgivable second, forgiven over 5 years of living in the home, behind a Freddie Mac Conventional first.

Florida Housing changes what each of these pays during the year. Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll tell you which one costs you the least on the DeSoto house you want.

Official program page

Schools

Public schools are run by The School District of DeSoto County, 530 La Solona Ave, Arcadia.

Getting around

U.S. 17 runs north to Bartow and southwest to Punta Gorda, and State Road 70 runs east toward Okeechobee and west toward Bradenton, with State Road 72 splitting off just west of Arcadia. State Road 31 also crosses the county.

Arcadia Municipal Airport, about a mile southeast of downtown, is the county’s only public-use airport, for general aviation with no airline service.

Arcadia All-Florida Championship Rodeo

The All-Florida Championship Rodeo, billed as The Granddaddy of ‘Em All, is held in Arcadia each March at Mosaic Arena. Arcadia puts on rodeos around July 4 and in the fall too, and Aviation Day comes to Arcadia Municipal Airport each March.

Fossils on the Peace River

The Peace River runs 76 miles to Charlotte Harbor near Punta Gorda, and Arcadia is a main put-in for canoe trips and for sifting river gravel for fossil shark teeth and prehistoric mammal bones.

Lakes and high ground

Sour Orange Lake is the county’s largest natural lake, with Lake Operation and Split Lake among the others. The highest point in the county is 96 feet, on the Highlands County line.

Downtown history

On Thanksgiving Day 1905, a fire that started at a midtown livery stable destroyed much of Arcadia’s business district; the town had no working water system or fire department then. Downtown landmarks include the Old Opera House and the Oak Park Inn.

Buying a home

FHA is the loan most of our DeSoto County buyers use: 3.5% down, flexible credit guidelines, and it pairs with SHIP and the statewide programs above. Eligible veterans can buy with a VA loan and no down payment, and we also write Conventional loans, Hometown Heroes and FHA 100% financing on DeSoto homes.

AAA Capital Funding has been a licensed Florida mortgage broker since 1997 and lends in all 67 Florida counties statewide, from Fort Ogden and the I-75 corner to Miami and Pensacola. Your file goes to multiple wholesale lenders, and you’ll know what you qualify for before you start driving around Arcadia.

Refinancing the home you have

A DeSoto refinance can cut your monthly payment, pay for a roof or the repairs Ian left behind, clear higher-interest debt, or buy a co-owner off the title.

Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll put what you pay now next to the new payment, along with the cash out and the closing costs, so you’re deciding on numbers from your own house.