Casey Key property ties for highest-priced area sale

After 40 days on the market, a waterfront home on Casey Key sold recently for $16.5 million, the second property to sell for that figure in less than a year in the Sarasota-Manatee county area.

The property at 1900 North Casey Key Road was marketed for owner Eric T. Small by Joel Schemmel of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty’s Downtown Sarasota office. Jennifer Linehan of Michael Saunders & Company represented the buyer. Public records of the sale were not yet available from the Sarasota County Clerk of Court.

The 9,600 square foot home sits on 3.7 acres with 120 feet of Gulf of Mexico frontage and more than 1,000 feet of bay frontage. A 2,300 square foot guest house is also on the property.

“This amazingly curated property has everything aligned to maximize its stunning Gulf-to-Bay views, offering the ultimate private escape,’’ Schemmel said in a news release. “Homes of this magnitude and price point typically stay on the market for long periods of time —the fact that it sold in just 40 days signals that the Sarasota ultra-luxury market is in high demand.”

The $16.5 million price equals the sale in November 2020 of the Longboat Key home named Serenissima, at 845 Longboat Club Road.

The Casey Key compound entered the market priced at $19.9 million. The home was designed by Naples-based Stofft Cooney Architects and built by award-winning Sarasota homebuilder Michael K. Walker in 2018.

The sale is the seventh in the 2020-21 to place on the list of the 14 all-time highest residential real estate prices.

One year after the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic began, home sales in Southwest Florida continue their rapid pace. According to figures from the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee,  closed sales increased year-over-year by 47.2%  to a total of 3,310 sales across the two-county market in March.

 For single-family homes, sales increased by 37.8% to 907 sales in Manatee County and by 40.2% percent to 1,169 sales in Sarasota County. As for the condo market, Sarasota condo sales increased by 62.6% to 738 sales, and Manatee condo sales increased by 63.7% to 496 sales.

The median price for single-family homes continues to surpass the previous months, with a reported price of $395,000 in March, a 23.6 percent increase from last year.

“The median sale price to original list price ratio was at 100 percent for single-family homes in March 2021, which means that fully half of these sales closed at or over the original list price,” said 2021 RASM President Alex Krumm, Broker Owner of NextHome Excellence.  “This is to be expected in this kind of seller’s market, and we can expect prices to rise sharply for the foreseeable future.”