A real estate market that's punctured all hope of ever owning a home in Collier and south Lee counties has chased hundreds of middle-class workers out of Southwest Florida.

Other workers, and retirees alike, are cashing in on record profits on their homes and heading to cheaper climes.

Among the first residents to join the exodus were Gregg and Aida Deason, who sold their North Naples home in IslandWalk two years ago, pocketed the windfall and bought a home in Clermont, west of Orlando.

“We bought a bigger house for a lot less money and I am able to stay home with my daughter,” said Aida Deason, 38, an insurance agent. “Leaving for us was a good thing. I am happy we did it and I'd do it again.”

Gregg, 46, an insurance agent who grew up in Naples and still loves it, said: “The intent was to never really leave Naples, but we didn't have a whole lot of choice when the pay scale is not remotely close to the cost of living.”

Data based on IRS tax forms shows that while 19,307 people moved into Collier County in 2004, the most recent data available, another 13,343 moved out. In Lee County, 36,061 people moved in and 18,926 moved out the same year.

Bonita Springs residents Harry and Michelle Hellings have their eyes on the Ocala-Live Oak area. Their new Bonita Springs home was $440,000, sending their property taxes skyward — their tax bill is now $7,500 a year, up from $2,500 when it was just the lot.

“If we sell the house, we can buy a much larger property up North ... plus I can retire. I don't want to work just so I can pay my taxes,” said Michelle Hellings, 58, a Collier County schoolteacher.

Joanne Barselou is one of the restaurant servers/bartenders that businesses are trying to keep.

“I am going to move to Kentucky where I can buy a house without a mortgage from the profit on my condo,” said Barselou, 45, who has lived in Naples 14 years.

Because restaurants are short-staffed, remaining employees work twice as hard and have to deal with patrons who are impatient about having to wait so long.

“I don't need to be treated like that,” Barselou said.

Hector Gomez, who is in the military, and his wife, Amanda, sold a three-bedroom, two-bath home in Lee County for $255,000, just two years after buying it for $139,000.

They moved to Atlanta, where they bought a 5-bedroom, 2½-bath 3,100-square-foot home for less than what they had paid for their Lee County home.

“We bought all new furniture and made a huge down payment on our home here,” Amanda Gomez said. “We have a bigger house and money to spare.”

Andrea Taylor, one of seven Collier County librarians to quit and move away from another expensive area — Fullerton, Calif.

But as Taylor puts it in an e-mail: “My salary is larger by almost 30 percent.”

Former Collier librarian Harriet Protos, 36, moved to the Tampa area.

“As I saw the value of property escalate ridiculously and the rate of pay raises stay at 2 or 3 percent, I knew I would never afford a home,” she said.

Some young people like Naples native Bill Nelson, 24, a marketing/sales representative for a medical supply company, figure they will have to leave lifelong friends and family behind to buy a home.

“This is my No. 1 choice of where to live. But if I want to buy a house, I will have to move out,” he said.

Dominique, 29, and Jonathan Nash, 30, are also moving to the Live Oak area, like the Hellings, Dominique's parents.

The Nashes purchased their Golden Gate Estates home, now worth $399,000, in 2001 for $131,000. The couple could buy 15 acres for about $80,000 in Ocala — and that's after prices have gone up.

“And I won't have to work anymore. I can stay home and raise my baby,” Dominique Nash said.

As John Laupert, 34, who moved in August from Naples to Jonesborough, Tenn., said:

“You cannot survive down there. The average person making $25,000 a year really struggles. Up here, you can get a nice 2-bedroom apartment for $350. At $7.50 an hour, you can still make it.”