After a whirlwind few years, local real estate prices were somewhat reined in in 2023. As a result, this year's top ten sales list numbers are a little tamer than in 2022. In fact, 2022's top three most expensive sales beat this year's top sale. 

The irony? Though sales prices calmed, listing prices did not. This year saw the highest-ever priced single-family home listing hit the local residential market—new construction in Harbor Acres for just under $34 million. It beat the previous priciest listing ever on Siesta Key, which saw an eyebrow-raising $32.5 million price tag in 2022. The Siesta Key spec home design never broke ground, however; instead, the lot sold this year for $7.5 million, illustrating it's one thing to list a number and quite another to fetch it.

Regardless of soaring price tags, what remains the same about our top 10 priciest sales of homes in 2023 are waterfront locations oozing with square footage and picture-perfect views. What's newer is a rise in new construction, with a new generation of mansions making the cut. Let's take a look at what buyers shelled out for in 2023.

No. 10: $9.33 Million

5131 Jungle Plum Road, Sarasota

This home was one of three Siesta Key homes that were named finalists in HGTV’s annual Ultimate House Hunt, a month-long online event showcasing extraordinary homes for sale.

The two-story, six-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom home spans 6,369 square feet and is located in Hidden Harbor on the northern end of Siesta Key. It sits on over three-quarters of an acre with lush gardens and bumps up against 150 feet of water frontage.

Boaters have deep water access with two boat lifts and a floating dock for easy access to kayaking and paddle boarding, a 500-gallon saltwater aquarium and a media room. Built in 2001, a 2023 remodel has updated it from top to bottom and it’s now on the market for $9.98 million. It previously sold for $4.6 million in 2019. 

No. 9: $9.4 Million 

1465 Hillview Drive, Sarasota

This two-level home in Harbor Acres, Sarasota, was a new construction spec home, and the buyers, Jeffrey and Mary Rosenberg, plucked it up mid-way through building, allowing them to customize the home as it neared completion.

Inside, there are five en suite bedrooms, plus two extra bathrooms, with an owner’s suite on the main level and a guest suite upstairs, along with laundry rooms on both floors. It also has a hidden service kitchen and an elevator. Other features include a new seawall, a saltwater pool with a heated spa and enclosed kayak storage underneath the home. A double dock connects to Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Sitting on more than half an acre, it spans 6,654 square feet.

No. 8: $9.45 Million

6877 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key (Manatee County)

Hats off to the only Manatee County home that made this year's top 10 list. This three-story home sits on a .74-acre lot with 102 feet of beach frontage. Upstairs, there are three bedrooms, two of which offer en suites and Gulf views. The home also features an elevator and a four-car garage.

Located at the north end of Longboat Key, a limited liability corporation called 6877 Gulf of Mexico purchased the property from Todd Lee Borck, but a little digging reveals the owner as Maureen Kelly with Scott McDonough and Michael Kelly as Trustees. Maureen Kelly is the CEO and founder of Tarte Cosmetics, and Michael Kelly and McDonough are part of its executive team.

Touted as cruelty-free, vegan-friendly and female-founded, the Tarte Cosmetics website tells the CEO's story, which began in 2000 "out of my one-bedroom, rent-controlled NYC apartment with my friends and family as employees getting paid in pizza." Today the company is valued at nearly $100 million, is sold nationwide in Sephora and other retailers, and has more than 10 million Instagram followers. (For real, though, the company's under-eye concealer is the best.)

No. 7: $9.75 Million

622 S. Owl Drive, Sarasota

In a double-whammy, pricey coincidence, Bird Key saw two of its highest sales ever happen on the same day. On June 1, this home fetched $9.75 million. The other, which closed just minutes later, beat that record and sold for $11.25 million—read on for more. Both waterfront homes, which are located at one of the southern tips of the key, happen to be right next door to each other, at 622 and 626 S. Owl Drive.

Both homes were also cash deals. Former 622 S. Owl Drive homeowner Julie McGue, an award-winning author, sold the home after becoming widowed after 37 years of marriage and her daughter moving out of state. 

The McGues moved to Bird Key when they bought the home in 2021 for $6 million. It was built in 2003 by Perrone Construction, and the architect was Clifford Scholz. The 5,600 square-foot home is two stories, perched on more than a half-acre lot. Elizabeth and Richard Stumler are its new owners.

No. 6: $11.15 Million

605 S. Gulfstream Ave. (18th-floor penthouse)

When it was first listed in July of last year, it was the priciest condo on the market, at $16.35 million. It caught our attention not just for its price point, but because it also had the highest putting green in the county. But as part of the sale contract, it was removed. 

It's still one of a kind. The two-story penthouse, which occupies both the 17th and 18th floors (as high as a condo tower can go in the City of Sarasota), is located in Epoch, between South Palm and Gulfstream avenues in downtown Sarasota. It sold for $11.15 million, cash.

It has massive terraces with more than 1,900 square feet of dining and lounge space, a rooftop terrace and tempered glass railings for nearly 44 feet of unobstructed views. In all, the outdoor spaces span just less than 5,000 square feet.

Its new owners are Richard J. Henley and Susan L. Davis, who own Healthcare Strategic Solutions LLC, an advisory firm focused on increasing profits for health systems, private equity firms and portfolio companies. He’s the CEO and president, she’s a managing partner at the firm.

Epoch's amenities include a three-car private garage that can handle five cars with lifts, around-the-clock concierge service, a fitness center with a massage suite, a social room for entertaining that opens to the 70-foot lap pool, a bar and grill area, and cabanas with fire tables.

No. 5: $11.25 

626 S. Owl Drive, Sarasota

You just read about 622 S. Owl Drive—this home, at 626 S. Owl Drive, is its neighbor. It closed just minutes after 622 for $11.25 million, becoming the highest sale on Bird Key ever, beating its $9.75 million neighbor by minutes. 

Dawn Duques built 626 S. Owl Drive in 2021 with help from the same builder and architect as the home next door—which, in a twist, was also hers and where she lived during construction. The builder was Perrone Construction, and the architect was Clifford Scholz.

We first wrote about this address in 2018 when it sold along with the lot next door which was being kept vacant as a sort of private park for the Duques' at the time. The 2018 purchase amounted to $8.6 million, which, at the time, was also the highest-recorded sale on Bird Key.

The cash buyers of the 6,576-square-foot home are H. Lee Scott Jr. and Linda Scott. H. Lee Scott Jr. was the CEO of Walmart from 2000 to 2009. 

The two-story home has five bedrooms and eight bathrooms with water views from all main rooms and large, covered terraces on both levels.

No. 4: $11.5 Million

683 Mourning Dove Drive, Sarasota

Jerald and Kathleen Kamiel bought 683 Mourning Dove Drive on Bird Key from Theresa Franklin, who bought it in 2016 for $4.34 million. 

New Jersey native Jerald Kamiel founded the children's clothing line Garanimals in 1941, and he's also the president of Garan Inc., its parent company, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. We wrote about the Kamiels back in 2015 when their massive, Mediterranean-style home at 552 S. Spoonbill Drive—also on Bird Key—hit the market for $6.25 million. 

This one was built in 2016, but renovated in 2021. It includes a 75-foot infinity edge lap pool and hot tub, has six bedrooms and eight bathrooms, and spans 6,540 square feet on a roughly half-acre lot.

Maybe the Kamiels' vision is to break even on their recent purchase; their home at 3500 Bayou Louise Lane on Siesta Key is on the market for the same price. They bought it in 2021 for $8,050,000 million.

No. 3: $12 Million

1312 Casey Key Road, Sarasota

Originally listed for $20 million, this sprawling, Gulf-to-bay home was owned and built by former Cadbury CEO Todd Stitzer and his wife Marenda. When it was listed,  it was the priciest home on Casey Key.

Despite the effects of a Florida hurricane, the home sold days before Hurricane Idalia was set to make landfall for the most money a Casey Key sale had seen in more than two years: $12 million cash. 

The buyers, a couple who wished to remain anonymous, wanted a home large enough to accommodate their kids and grandchildren. With six bedrooms and seven-and-a-half bathrooms spanning nearly 12,000 square feet on almost an acre, along with 100 square feet of private beachfront, they got it. At the time, the new owners had recently sold their home in Boca Grande and had a well-established business in Lakeland, Florida, where they had another home.

Designed by Naples-based Herscoe Hajjar Architects and built by The Aerial Companies, Tweenwater, as the Stitzers call it, evokes the styles of the 18th- and 19th-century Caribbean homes constructed by British planters. In fact, it was inspired by a yellow clapboard house they saw in St. George’s, Bermuda, during their 1977 honeymoon. They originally bought the property in 2011 for $2.25 million, and it took three years to build at the cost of roughly $14 million. It also has an infinity-edge pool, exercise room, sauna, tiki hut on the beach, and boating and kayak lifts. Despite its traditional façade, it has an integrated solar panel system, a whole-house generator, an eight-car drive-through garage and a separate boating garage. 

No. 2: $12.25 Million

4001 Flamingo Ave., Sarasota

This new construction home on a little more than half an acre boasts 128 feet of water frontage along Roberts Bay on Siesta Key. Built by Sarasota-based NC Ferguson Construction, the gated, almost 7,500-square-foot, two-story home has five bedrooms, four bathrooms and two half bathrooms.

Outside, there's an infinity-edge pool and spa, a separate cabana with a fireplace, a pool bath, an outdoor shower and an expansive terrace. A new dock has a 16,000-pound boat lift with room for additional mooring. There's also a four-car garage and generator. The home was purchased by Kathryn Angell Car, who is a partner at the local law firm Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick.

No. 1: $13.95 Million

171 Whittier Drive, Sarasota

This new construction home stole the top spot of 2023 when it fetched $13.95 million in a cash deal. (For comparison’s sake, the most expensive residential sale countywide ever sold last year for $17.5 million.)

Key selling points were water views, a prime beachy location, and lots of square footage. With construction finished just as the deal closed, this rectangular layer cake of a home has an ultra-modern look inside and out—plus plenty of balconies to take in the Gulf views. The five-bedroom, six-bathroom home sits on nearly half an acre that was “vacant forever,” says Charles Buky of Coldwell Banker Realty, who represented the sellers. Based in Kentucky under the name of Wilson AMI LLC, the sellers built the spec home after buying the lot in 2021 for $3.4 million. 

Located in the heart of Lido Key, steps from St. Armands Circle, the water views are the star, with outdoor kitchens and loads of terrace space, plus an outdoor pool and a negative edge spa. Halasa Design led the architecture and Delaney Davis was the interior designer.

The buyer, Amy Katz, was familiar with the area. She sold a Longboat Key home for $9.25 million last year and still owns homes in East County—maybe the perfect getaway during a Sarasota County hurricane evacuation.