Sarasota, Florida
The Big Choice
Vacationing in Sarasota, you choose the beach vs. downtown. Lido, Longboat, Siesta and Casey Keys have hundreds of hotels and AirBnBs. And there is a hourly trolley on Longboat Key that brings you into town, but otherwise you’ll be driving everywhere. Siesta Key is all about the beach although it has an extremely touristy village, but it’s a 30-minute drive to downtown Sarasota with its 250+ cafés and restaurants.
Decide if you prefer hanging at the beach versus walking around town to theaters, shops, bars, cafés and restaurants. A friend who chose downtown to live, opined “Siesta Key is a ‘one trick’ pony – sure it has the most beautiful beach in the world, but that’s it!” Living long-term by the beach (only found on the Keys) also means mandated evacuation in severe weather for the barrier islands.
If you come for more than two weeks, and don’t do the beach daily being in town is best, since you can drive, park and be on Lido Key’s public beaches in just a few minutes. Or use the free Bay Runner jitney that runs every 20 minutes from downtown Sarasota to Armands Circle, then on to Lido Key beaches and back. We opted for the downtown.
What is Downtown?
Access to Sarasota was by the Bee Line Ferry until the Sunshine Skyway Bridge from St. Petersburg opened in 1954, so the town grew around the city dock which was later developed by Jack Graham to become the superyacht Marina Jack. The dredged material was used to create the amazing Bayfront Park.
Dozens of restaurants and shops developed in the Main Street district shown on the map below in the Downtown Core zone. We originally lived on a boat in the marina, just a 5-minute walk away from 41 restaurants and bars according to Yelp. Read on to learn how to live affordably on a boat, until you find your condo!
We’ll explain in this website why cost, evacuation rules and flood insurance make buying in the Bayfront zone tough. The Downtown Core is ideal, but you’ll spend close to $1 million for a one-bedroom unit. Our condos, in Mentone Court, are in the Downtown Edge zone (see the red dot) just four blocks from the Main Street dining scene with a dozen cafés and a Whole Foods in-between.
About the City:
Sarasota is accessible, from the center of town walk to hundreds of restaurants, performing arts venues, shops, museums/galleries and the marina in minutes. Visit our sister website: AffordableSarasota.com for a detailed look.
We (Jerry and Gail) lived for four years on our boat, a Ranger Tug named Alto, in Marina Jack until we finally found a reasonably priced downtown condo in Mentone Court from which we could walk to everything.
We renovated the condo making it our pied-à-terre from where we live on Cape Cod, Mass. We met the best tradespeople who became friends and when an opportunity came up to buy a second condo in the complex and renovate it for investment, we did it. We’ll share what we learned.
Downtown SRQ is clean, compact and walkable with 240+ restaurants and bars within a 15-minute walk of the city center according to Yelp. We’ve had a houseboat in Key Largo, a trawler on the St. John river in Sanford, and been to dozens of places in Florida but Sarasota is the best place we’ve found. But, being the nicest also means it’s expensive.
Zillow rarely shows more than five 2BR/2BA condos for sale within the downtown walkable region for under $500,000 at any time. Health issues now cause us to sell both condos, which are among the two or three least expensive while also being the closest to the downtown restaurant/bar district in the city! Jump to the webpages here describing #208 & #107, or just keep reading until you get to them.
This website provides details beyond what can be said in a Zillow ad, so study this site if you are interested in buying an “affordable” condo (between $300k and $400k) in Sarasota. Learn about the new Florida Milestone Inspection condo law and how it affects condo reserves and special assessments; i.e, your future carrying costs. Learn about flood plains, evacuation zones, flood insurance and everything you need to know before buying.
Accessibility
If you live in New England and want easy access to a warmer, but not too hot, weather – than Sarasota fits the bill. It is just south enough to be in the tropics, but not as hot at Miami or Naples which are further south. When we want
Photo: Visit Sarasota County on Facebook
Everyone who visits Sarasota wants to return and stay – until they get sticker shock at the prices. Our story may help you also live in this vibrant, European-like city where you walk to everything. Let’s explore Sarasota’s remarkable downtown in the next section of this website.
