What They Say
About Casey Key
 The Other Keys
(From Esquire Magazine, 1991--By Paul Schneider)


The Place: Casey Key, seven miles long and a quarter-mile wide. Thirty-five minutes from Sarasota airport. Unlike most barrier islands in Florida, it consists almost entirely of single-family houses; unlike even more of coastal Florida, it’s under conservation easement to keep it that way. All in all, it’s a fine place to winter the fax machine.
Who Goes There: There are roughly 400 homes on Casey Key. Many residents live here year round but work elsewhere – one happy doctor commutes to New York for office hours. Some 30-percent are second-home owners – the most expensive sale recently was to a "European family that apparently has some money." The remainder just live here – the retired, the shopkeepers, the Realtors – and by all accounts they consider themselves damn lucky.
The Architecture: In the 1960s, when the very best lots sold for $30,000 or less, even the wealthiest Wall Streeters built humble cement bungalows. Today’s buyers favor larger and louder "statements," but strict height restrictions and a tradition of restrained taste shiuld mitigate off-island excesses.
The Market: Houses on Casey Key are often considered replaceable; prices therefore vary with the amount and type of waterfront a property possesses. Top dollar – say, $850,000 or more – could get you a house on a Gulf-to-bay lot with a sandy beach on the Gulf side and a good dock on the bay side. The same house on a Gulf-to-bay property with rock revement instead of sand on the beach side might be 40-percent less. Buyers and sellers usually talk in terms of waterfront-feet, with the above-mentioned top dollar working out to around $7,500 per waterfront-foot. Not surprisingly, mono-coastal properties are a lot less; Gulf-front only goes for $3,000 to $5,000 per waterfront-foot, depending on the sand, or lack thereof, and bayfront-only properties sell for $2,500 to $3,500 per foot, depending on the dock, or lack thereof. It gets worse. Some lots are bayfront only, but with guaranteed access to the Gulf, while others are the reverse. Some have views, some have guest houses. Nothing is free.
Where’s the Beach?: Some places used to have nice beaches before the last big storm, and they may very well have nice beaches again after the next big storm. So ask questions.
The Outlook: Did someone say recession? After snoozing through the first three-quarters of the 1980s, prices on Casey Key began a swift ascent and have yet to stall, most likely because buyers recognize that the perils of overdevelopment that threaten Longboat Key to the north and Naples to the south have been successfully headed off here. One-and two-acre zoning on the waterfront in a conservation area is a precious thing anywhere. In Florida, it’s more like a miracle.

 
 
 

 Click here for other available Casey Key properties!

(Meet Tom Stone) (Discover Casey Key) (Casey KeyProperties)
(Nearby Waterfront Properties) (Contact Tom Stone)
(Casey Key Newsletter)
(What's New?) (FAQs)(What They Say About Casey Key)
Information provided herein is from sources deemed reliable, but it is not guaranteed. Opinions expressed are those of Thomas E. Stone, Broker-Associate with Michael Saunders & Company, and not necessarily those of the company.