Two key residences sell for '09 records

Despite a slowdown, there is life in the real-estate market of Longboat and its outer keys. That’s what local Realtors are saying after two major sales — one on Longboat Key and another on Bird Key — along with a recent spike in the number of pending sales listed on the Multiple Listing Service.

In the first sale, a 7,551-square-foot home with four bedrooms, four-and-a-half bathrooms and a swimming pool at 552 S. Spoonbill Drive, Bird Key, sold for $4.75 million — approximately the same price for which sellers Richard and Deborah Cameron bought the home in June 2005. The sale is the largest home sale in Sarasota County so far this year.

Judy Kepecz-Hays, sales associate for Coldwell Banker Previews International, represented the buyers, who, according to Kepecz-Hays, have owned a vacation home at The Sanctuary on Longboat Key for years. They looked at approximately 15 homes on Longboat and Bird keys and mainland Sarasota before settling on the Bird Key home.

“They loved the fact that it was newer, and they loved the expansive openness,” Kepecz-Hays said.
The buyers’ names were not immediately available in Sarasota County property records.

Deborah Beacham, sales associate with Michael Saunders & Co., who was the listing agent for the property, said that the home went on the market in early November 2008 and was under contract by March of this year. The home was originally listed for $6.4 million and was later reduced to $5.5 million.

“Buyers seem to be pretty focused on value,” Beacham said.

Beacham said that sales were slower than usual in January and February but have steadily picked up in recent weeks.

“I really feel like we’re having an extended season,” Beacham said. “People are still here looking and buying.”

Kepecz-Hays handled a second transaction in which Nelcy and Jeffery Valcourt, of McLean, Va., paid $3 million for Unit 902 in Water Club II, 1281 Gulf of Mexico Drive, to sellers Carol and Edward Goldberg, of Livingston, N.J., who bought the condominium new for $1,862,600 in October 1999.

The transaction represents the highest condominium sale on Longboat Key in 2009.

Both sales closed in late April.