SARASOTA, FLORIDA, September 8th, 2016 – Wonder not if Bayou Oaks is getting an increased share of home buying interest these days. Its residences may pale in comparison with their more upscale neighbors west at Indian Beach/ Sapphire Shores but, nonetheless, the quality of life in the Bayou Oaks Neighborhood has grown as desirable.
Significant improvements of the Old Bradenton Road running about 1.5 miles across Bayou Oaks bring in much of the newfound vitality of Sarasota homes for sale in this neighborhood north of the downtown district. Now fully complete, this road revitalization project costing nearly $4 million involved not only its reconfiguration into a two-lane roadway divided by a five-foot raised median. The public works implemented also included roundabouts, drip irrigation and landscaping in the road’s stretch north from University Parkway southward to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
Additionally, the project has made the road pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly with the construction of sidewalks and bicycle lanes on both sides of the road. The bicycle lanes’ green color, reputedly a new concept in bicycle safety, is the first of its kind in the county.
Four SCAT bus shelters have also been added along Old Bradenton Road, which is one of the major routes of the county’s bus transit system. Plans are also being completed for a stormwater improvement project in the North Water Tower Park of Bayou Oaks.
This park is one of the major features of the neighborhood and adds flavor to the marketability of Sarasota homes for sale not only in Bayou Oaks but also in nearby communities. North Water Tower Park at 20 acres is one of the largest in the city and features Sarasota’s only disc golf course. It offers other facilities including a playground and a covered pavilion with grills, picnic tables and restrooms.
Living in Bayou Oaks is further enhanced by the neighborhood’s heavily wooded 35th Street Park which too has a playground, grills and picnic tables. This park is also home to one of Sarasota’s community gardens where residents can obtain a fee-based garden plot for horticulture in an urban setting.
One of the city’s oldest and largest neighborhoods, Bayou Oaks took its name from the Whitaker Bayou flowing through its area and the stately old oak trees prominent within the community. Its locality is host to the East West College of Natural Medicine and the Ringling School of Art and Design, which incidentally has been named one of the top film schools in the country.
Consisting of more than 1,200 residences, Bayou Oaks offers a varied selection of housing types, including single family homes, condominiums, apartment complexes, and affordable residential units for seniors. A new development for 18 affordable single family homes priced below the $200s is reportedly being planned by local homebuilder Fortson Homes at a five-acre parcel east of North Water Tower Park.
Existing Bayou Oaks properties listed amongst Sarasota homes for sale are typically priced in the $100s and the $200s. One of the newest listings listing here was put on the market in August 2016 with its price quoted in the high $200s. Featuring three bedrooms and two baths within a floor area of 1,340 square feet, this residence was built in 2004 and shares in the renewed vibrancy of living in Bayou Oaks.
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>>