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

Moore Haven

Moore Haven sits on the banks of Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River, and its downtown along the river is a National Downtown Historic District. The 1926 Glades County Courthouse, a brick Classical Revival building with a three-story portico on US 27, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

A separate residential historic district takes in 40 buildings from Avenue J to Avenue M between 1st and 5th Streets. At Avenue J and the river, the Lone Cypress, also called the Sentinel Cypress, guided Lake Okeechobee boaters for more than 100 years and has its own historic marker.

Lakeport

Lakeport is home to Margret Van de Velde Park at the Harney Pond Canal Recreation Area, where a long boardwalk leads to an observation area over Indian Prairie and the marshes around Fisheating Creek.

Palmdale

Palmdale sits at the US 27 and SR 29 junction. It has the Fisheating Creek Outpost campground with canoe and kayak rentals, and Gatorama, a roadside attraction dating to the 1950s and 60s with hundreds of alligators and six crocodile species along a 1,000-foot walkway.

Ortona

Ortona is home to Ortona Indian Mound Park, where the Caloosahatchee people built mounds and canals more than 3,000 years ago, and to the Ortona Locks on the Caloosahatchee River. The park’s 0.8-mile interpretive trail winds through ranchland and woods.

Muse

Muse won Florida’s Outstanding Rural Community of the Year award in 2002, along with a 10-year Firewise award for reducing wildfire risk. The Muse Community Center has a veterans memorial.

Buckhead Ridge

Buckhead Ridge is a lakeside community, and it hosts the Buckhead Ridge Catfish Festival every January.

Glades County SHIP Purchase Assistance

Glades County’s SHIP plan helps buyers with the down payment and closing costs on a purchase, and a larger award is possible when the home needs rehab. The money comes as a 0% deferred loan that’s forgiven a portion each year across its term, the award depends on household income, the plan sets a price cap on the home, and you’ll need a HUD-certified homebuyer class.

Glades opens SHIP in application periods posted on myglades.com, and the award amounts and price cap are reset with each county plan. Mail goes to the county SHIP Administrator at PO Box 1527, Moore Haven, FL 33471. Call 888-601-8344 before you write an offer and we’ll find out whether a Glades application period is open and what it pays on the house you want.

County housing plan (PDF)

Glades County SHIP repair and disaster help

The same Glades County plan covers owners as well: owner-occupied rehab, emergency repair, disaster assistance and foreclosure prevention, all run through the SHIP Administrator in Moore Haven.

Repair and disaster money comes and goes with the county’s SHIP budget. If a roof or storm repair can’t wait, call us and we’ll ask the Moore Haven office what’s funded before you apply.

County housing plan (PDF)

Florida Hometown Heroes (statewide)

Florida Hometown Heroes is a Florida Housing purchase program that combines a 30-year fixed first mortgage with a 0% second for the down payment and closing costs. The second carries no monthly payment and isn’t forgiven: it’s repaid when you sell, refinance or pay off the home, or stop living in it.

At least one buyer must work full time for an eligible Florida-based employer in health care, K-12 schools, first response, public safety, the courts or licensed child care, so a teacher in the Glades County School District works in an eligible field. Active-duty buyers in Glades qualify regardless of employer. Veterans, plus Reserve and National Guard members, qualify if they work full time for a Florida-based employer. It pairs with FHA, VA, USDA and Conventional first mortgages.

You get to use Florida Housing assistance once in a lifetime, so it belongs on the right home with the right lender behind it. Limits vary by county and household size and funds can run out, so call us first and we’ll tell you what Hometown Heroes does on a Moore Haven or Buckhead Ridge purchase.

Official program page

FL Assist and HFA Preferred / HFA Advantage (statewide)

FL Assist is a 0% deferred Florida Housing second for the down payment and closing costs, with no monthly payment. It sits behind a Florida Housing first mortgage, FHA, VA, USDA or Conventional HFA Preferred or HFA Advantage, and you repay it when you sell, refinance, transfer the home or move out.

HFA Advantage PLUS goes the Conventional route with a Freddie Mac first and a second that’s forgiven over 5 years while you live in the home. FL HLP is the one with a payment, a small fixed amount each month over 30 years.

Florida Housing adjusts what each second pays, so call us with the Glades address and we’ll show you which one leaves you the most cash at closing.

Official program page

Schools

The Glades County School District runs the public schools; start at gladesedu.org for enrollment and school information.

Getting around

US 27 runs through Moore Haven, past the 1926 courthouse, and on to Palmdale, where SR 29 meets it. SR 78 serves Lakeport, and County Road 78 leads to the Fort Center trailhead along Fisheating Creek.

The Big Water Heritage Trail is a scenic driving route that links attractions around Lake Okeechobee across five counties.

Fisheating Creek

Fisheating Creek flows about 40 miles through cypress swamp, oak hammock and marsh. The wildlife management area around it protects habitat for Florida black bears and Florida panthers and is a stop on the Great Florida Birding & Wildlife Trail.

Paddlers need about 1.5 feet of water for kayaks and 2 feet for canoes, and the Memorial Cypress along the creek is a well-known paddling stop with its own local lore.

Fort Center

Fort Center, inside the Fisheating Creek WMA, has mounds, ponds and circular ditches built more than 2,000 years ago. An interpretive history trail starts at the Fort Center trailhead off County Road 78.

Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail

The Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail runs 110 miles around the lake on top of the Herbert Hoover Dike, as part of the Florida National Scenic Trail. The Lakeport to Moore Haven leg is 9.5 miles, and Moore Haven to Clewiston is 11.9 paved miles. The lake itself is known for largemouth bass, crappie and bluegill.

Knobby Knee Trail and dark skies

The Knobby Knee Trail is an easy 1.7-mile walk through cypress and creek floodplain from the Fisheating Creek Outpost campground, and it’s driest from January through May. The Outpost is also known for dark night skies for stargazing.

Festival season

Moore Haven’s Chalo Nitka Festival & Rodeo each March is one of Florida’s oldest recurring festivals. The Buckhead Ridge Catfish Festival comes in January, and February brings the Ortona Cane Grinding Festival, the Sour Orange Festival and the Brighton Reservation Field Day & Rodeo.

Buying a home

Most Glades buyers we work with go FHA: 3.5% down with a 580 or higher credit score, and it pairs with the SHIP and Florida Housing help above. Eligible veterans can buy with a VA loan and nothing down, and we also write Conventional loans, Hometown Heroes and FHA 100% financing.

As a licensed Florida mortgage broker since 1997, AAA Capital Funding closes loans statewide in all 67 Florida counties, Glades included, and shops each one with multiple wholesale lenders. You’ll know what you qualify for before you tour a house in Moore Haven, Lakeport or Buckhead Ridge.

Refinancing the home you have

Glades owners refinance to lower the monthly payment, pull cash for a roof or storm repairs, clear higher-interest debt, or buy a co-owner off the title. The equity in your home can pay for any of those.

Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll put your current payment, the new payment, the cash you’d walk away with and the closing costs on one page, so you can see what the refinance does before you decide.