St Pete is nice, however you may want to expand your search south and not box yourself only into only one area. Many nice areas and friendly for boaters on the West coast, spent the last 15+ years cruising these waters. Tampa bay all the way down to Naples. Now after the recent storm, your options may increase and be more than you think.
Good hunting.
That's a good point, and there's lots of choices.
If I were starting over, I'd probably look further south, to get a bit more out of the crowds. St. Pete is still largely working class folks, unlike it was years ago. Not bad but increases the crowds and make rush hour nasty.
Sarasota is a bit better, but still busy, and more expensive... but a WONDERFUL inter coastal area... and huge.
Venice is really neat, but a very small ICW area. A bit more of a quaint tourist area kinda like Tarpon Springs, but would be high on my list.
Ft. Myers is another great area. Also busy but not as bad as St. Pete. And a lot of choices. Not up to speed with house prices, but a bit off the beaten path, like up Charlotte Harbor and Cape Coral offered nice waterfront homes less than St. Pete.
Naples is too expensive for me, but a nice harbor. Marco is awful crowded but not big. Between the two is pretty neat and came close to buying a waterfront home there a few years back, but didn't happen.
I'm staying in St. Pete for a number of reasons. For boating there's a LOT of neat places to go within a few hours.... from Tarpon to Sarasota, Bradenton, Tampa and just up and down the ICW. And "generally" waterfront homes are a bit lower priced than elsewhere along the west coast of FL. And get pretty reasonable going a bit north.
And, yes, we are in an inflationary bubble.. but not significant compared to 2008. But, there could be a correction and a few folks could get hurt.