SARASOTA, FLORIDA, July 1st, 2016 – The bayfront community of Sapphire Shores gained some media mileage recently as one of its homes hosted a fundraiser of former President Bill Clinton for his wife Hillary in April 2016. But there’s more that has been transpiring in this historic Sarasota neighborhood that merit attention besides having enabled some Sarasotans a rare photo-op with an ex-White House tenant.
Sapphire Shores, for one, reasserted recently too that it has a lineup of Sarasota homes for sale truly of presidential caliber. During the past six months, 11 residences in this neighborhood have been sold, four of which had listed prices above the million-dollar level.
Topping these sales was a $4.5 million deal for a 6,374-square-foot Old World-style waterfront home on South Shore Drive which defines the southern boundary of Sapphire Shores with its equally fascinating neighbor, the Indian Beach community. Closed just this end of May, this sale was preceded just some weeks earlier by a high-end deal on a vintage 1920s residence with a tag price edging towards $1.5 million.
Also only weeks apart in December 2015, ownership changed hands for two Sapphire Shores homes with respective price quotes of about $2.8 million and $3.5 million. These successive deals certainly contributed much in ending 2015 on a high note for luxury Sarasota homes for sale.
Sapphire Shores also holds the bragging rights for the priciest residential sale last year. This involved the $9 million purchase in April 2015 of its nearly 11,000-square-foot Villa Solstice located bayfront also at South Shore Drive.
Recent sales were as brisk in more moderately priced Sarasota homes for sale at Sapphire Shores. Early 2016, a pair of three-bedroom, circa 1950s bungalows located inland in this community were sold at prices around the $400s, with one bought just after five days of its listing.
The turnover of properties at Sapphire Shores in recent years has enriched the composition of its residents. Besides the well-to-do living in bayfront mansions and moving within presidential circles, the community is now also home to art administrators, artists, and faculty members of the nearby New College of Florida and Ringling College. Also included in the recent influx are empty-nesters or folks who chose to commit part of their retirement fund to Sarasota homes for sale and enjoy the many perks of living in the Florida Suncoast.
The new residents which have settled recently have made the Sapphire Shores much livelier with the eclectic homegrown attractions and activities now happening in the community. In March 2016, the fourth annual art festival was held at the neighborhood’s Sun Circle stretch. This bayfront street is also home to the Sapphire Shores Park with a newly built kids’ playground. This facility was funded mostly by the contributions of the Sapphire Shores and their neighbors at Indian Beach, indicating the strong community spirit within this locality.
Indeed, Sapphire Shores has gone a long way since the early 1920s when it was developed by circus magnate John Ringling who built his home north of this community. It was initially developed under deed restrictions mandating Mediterranean, Moroccan or Italianate architectural styles for its residences, most of which were owned by Ringling’s friends. Notably, all of the 13 original homes here remain standing.
With the 1926 real estate crash, there wasn’t much home construction here with only four homes built between that time and the end of the Second World War. By then, the original deed restrictions were no longer in effect, and ranch-style homes began sprouting in Sapphire Shores. Henceforth, its housing stock became more and more eclectic. The community is also sharing the current vibrant construction activity in the Suncoast, with four homes built here in 2015 aside from plenty of renovations taking place.
Prospective buyers of Sarasota homes for sale with an eye for renovating will find a likely candidate in a four-bedroom ranch-type bungalow sales-listed in June 2016. Priced in the low $700s, this residence has a floor area of about 3.000 square feet. Leading amongst currently available homes in this community are a pair of million-dollar listings with features as presidential as Sapphire Shores’ character can be.
SARASOTA, FLORIDA, October 7, 2019 – Property values of communities in the Sarasota-Manatee region now face lesser threat from neighborhood eyesores brought about by abandoned, foreclosed homes. Known in the real estate trade as zombie foreclosures, these properties have shrunk significantly in the region. According to an August report of ATTOM Data Solutions, abandoned […] more>>