- December 4, 2025
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Longboat Key is most certainly an island — the causeways at either end give that away.
But, as a record-setting home sale in July indicates, supported by 2025 market trends on the mainland and elsewhere, it’s clear the 12-mile long community surrounded by the Gulf, bay and two watery passes is something of a real estate island as well.
The home at 845 Longboat Club Road — named Serenissima, “the most serene’’ in Italian — closed on July 31 at $30.3 million. It’s the second time the home has broken the Sarasota-Manatee record for residential price points, doing so initially in 2020 when it sold for $16.5 million.
Set along the beach behind the gates of the Longboat Key Club, Serenissima is a unique home not only on Longboat Key but beyond. Built with the skeleton of a commercial structure within its walls and in the Italian style everywhere else, it covers more than 19,000 square feet with six bedrooms, six full and two half baths, a 12-car garage and luxury touches everywhere.
Realtor Rich Polese, who founded Compass Sarasota, was the listing agent and represented the buyers in 2020. Judy Kepecz-Hays of Coldwell Banker affiliate Kepecz-Hays Team represented the buyers, the identities were not immediately disclosed. Furniture was included, though priced separately.
Just steps from the infinity pool deck to the beach, Polese said the home with 145 feet of Gulf-frontage (or 44 meters if you’re sticking with the Italian theme) is built to last.
“If there's a hurricane coming toward Sarasota, I'm driving onto Longboat Key to get into this house,’’ Polese said.
Situated in a ZIP code with one of the highest median sales prices in Sarasota-Manatee, Longboat Key is often insulated but not always immune from general mainland market trends. Only a few neighborhoods of the barrier islands, pockets of mainland Sarasota and segments of Lakewood Ranch have exhibited similar resilience. Particularly east of Interstate 75, new construction and emerging amenities drive a lot of that trend, Realtors say.
Longboat Key, too, has seen some new construction of late, concentrated mostly in condo developments, particularly at the St. Regis Longboat Key Resort. In fact, a condominium in the St. Regis resort last fall sold for $21 million, a still-unbroken high point for condos and, for nine months, the highest price paid for a residential property.
Kepecz-Hays called the sale of Serenissima, about 5,100 feet down the beach from St. Regis, the highest-price paid for a residential property on the west coast of Florida, excluding the Naples area.
“Longboat Key is obviously its own market within the Sarasota market,’’ Polese said “Most of it falls into the luxury category and much of it falls into the ultra-luxury category.’’
Kepecz-Hays said the sale to a buyer already familiar with the Sarasota area and its islands is “good news” for the region in general.
Polese said prices generally are off of late, particularly from the heady days of the early 2020s when Sarasota’s market exploded to new heights, fueled by COVID-19 driven shifts in work/life patterns. Still, appreciation on Longboat has been steady, if possibly at a shallower climb, which drove the decision to list the property at $35 million — also a record — for 845 Longboat Club Road.
“To me, that says that even at this price point, on Longboat Key, buyers are looking for value,’’ Polese said.
Of the nine properties on Longboat listed for more than $5 million and sold in the last six months, one sold at asking price, one slightly above asking price and five for between 86% and 89% of asking price, including Serenissima. The median time to sale for the group was 103 days, higher than Longboat's general market, though a small sample size.
And there's more $5 million-plus properties where those nine came from, too. In all, as of late July, 32 homes or condo units were listed for sale above $5 million, virtually all directly on the water.
A combination of new construction and existing properties make up that total, the highest priced of these is a $25 million property in the 5900 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive, featuring 11 bedrooms, 13½ bathrooms and more than 17,000 square feet of living area.
More conventionally, there’s a home on Juan Anasco Drive listed for $23.95 million with six bedrooms, nine baths and about 9,200 square feet of living space
More broadly, the overall median sales price on Longboat remained nearly flat to 2024 in May, rising 2.4% to around $1.2 million from around $1.04 million. In June, the median was higher still at around $1.8 million against a June 2024 median at around $2.4 million. Time to contract fell from month to month in 2025 and also in 2024.
Contrast that with the overall region, where median sales prices — the point at which half sell for more and half less — have been falling for months. In Manatee County overall, that figure has fallen 15% in the last year. The drop-off has been about half that in Sarasota County. Likewise, on-market times are rising in the region. That means better days for buyers than the days when list prices were simply a floor for negotiation.
“We’re seeing a clear shift in the market dynamics, with median sale prices continuing to decline and homes spending more time on the market,” said Debi Reynolds, 2025 president of the Real Estate Association of Sarasota Manatee and the managing broker at SaraBay Real Estate, of the region. “Buyers now have more leverage, and sellers must adjust accordingly.’’
Even at $35 million, Polese said interest in the property was strong, and rapid. Without specifics, he said several interested parties were people in the public eye. Showings began soon after the listing went active.
“And that told me a lot that said, you know, the luxury market is stabilizing,’’ he said. “We are starting to see more buyers come off the sidelines. I'm not going to say in all market segments, but definitely in the luxury and ultra-luxury and, and definitely in the ultra-luxury on Longboat Key.’’
Buyers in the ultra-luxury market care where they live, for sure, but location, location, location isn’t always as critical a factor.
Polese said most people who fall into this category are mobile enough through private means that access to an airport with a fixed-base operation often does the trick. In years past, some of those same customers might have glimpsed Longboat Key’s distinctive island from out a window of their Gulfstream jets on the way south to Naples, the neighbor of Fort Myers in southwest Florida.
No more.
“I think we're actually becoming even a more desirable alternative to Naples,’’ Polese said. “You have to look at buyers that are coming to purchase a $30 million home, or a $10 million home or a $15 million home, whatever it may be in that range. They can buy anywhere they want. But you compare us to, you know, the Naples market, the West Palm market, the Miami market, Sarasota has really become a value alternative.’’
He said buyers seek value even when planning to spend what would take most Sarasota-Manatee residents more than 500 years of salary to amass.
“I've said the word value before, but in today's market, that's what buyers at all price points are looking for. Combine the value that you get in Sarasota compared to those other markets with the culture and the convenience that Sarasota offers in addition to the lifestyle and the remarkable beaches. You know, it's becoming a smart choice for the buyers that typically were drawn to Naples and those other markets. And, you know, it's on the map now.’'
