Sarasota County closed nine single-family home sales at $10 million or more between July and September, up from one during the same period in 2025. Manatee County added two sales at that price level after recording none a year earlier, according to the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee's (RASM) third-quarter report.

The luxury spike rippled through the broader numbers that shape property values across Lakewood Ranch, which straddles both counties.

Inside the Ranch, homes move fast

Lakewood Ranch itself is outpacing the surrounding market. As of Nov. 2, the community had 299 homes for sale and 2.9 months of supply, a full month tighter than Manatee County's 3.9 months, according to a Local Life Homes market report. Recent sales spent a median of 26 days on the market, half the 53-day county pace, and closed at a median $274 per square foot versus $199 countywide.

An MLS analysis by real estate agent David Liberatore found 666 closed sales in the Lakewood Ranch area ZIP codes (34202 and 34211) during the third quarter at a median price of $575,000. Those ZIPs include some addresses outside the master-planned community. Sellers in the Lakewood Ranch area received a median of 97.3 percent of their original list price, the highest among six local markets Liberatore tracked.

Lakewood Ranch recorded more than 1,000 new-home sales in the first half of 2026 and ranked No. 1 among multi-generational master-planned communities nationally in the mid-year survey, according to a community press release citing RCLCO Real Estate Consulting's mid-year survey. Sales above $1 million strengthened compared with 2025, the release said.

Luxury deals pull averages higher

The biggest sale of the quarter was a newly built estate at 3990 Higel Ave. on Siesta Key that closed Sept. 28 for $26 million, the county's highest-priced home sale so far in 2026, the Herald-Tribune reported. The 1.18-acre, 13,035-square-foot property sold as an all-cash purchase, luxury agent Adnan Dedic of Compass told the paper.

"We're seeing prices that we haven't seen before," Dedic told the Herald-Tribune. "Sarasota has always been a luxury location, but it's attracting a lot more new buyers and luxury properties."

Ten condos and townhomes in Sarasota County also sold for $10 million or more during the quarter, compared with zero a year earlier, RASM data shows. All 10 of those closings landed in September.

Those blockbuster deals pulled Sarasota County's average single-family sale price up 20.2 percent year over year to $807,627 in the third quarter. The median, less sensitive to a handful of high-end transactions, rose 3.7 percent to $485,000. In Manatee County, the median rose 3.2 percent to $490,000.

Inventory keeps shrinking

Across both counties, the four major market segments recorded 5,699 closed sales in the third quarter, up 8 percent from a year earlier, RASM reported. Condo and townhome sales drove much of the growth, climbing 26.8 percent in Sarasota County and 13.9 percent in Manatee County.

Active single-family listings in Sarasota County fell 16.2 percent year over year by the end of September, dropping months of supply from 4.8 to 3.7. Manatee County's single-family inventory dipped 1.7 percent, with supply falling from 4.2 to 3.9 months.

"Even with new listings increasing across all segments, inventory continues to shrink, showing buyer demand is outpacing current supply," David Crawford, 2026 RASM president, said in the association's third-quarter report.

Cash purchases accounted for 37.6 percent of Sarasota County single-family sales and 60.9 percent of condo and townhome sales during the quarter. Sellers received a median of 94.4 percent of their original list price for single-family homes, up from 91.9 percent a year earlier.

Some Florida luxury markets are outpacing the national rate of price growth. Luxury home prices in Miami rose 18 percent year over year during the three months ending in July, the largest increase among the 50 most populous U.S. metros, according to a Redfin analysis. Tampa followed at 15.4 percent. Nationally, luxury prices rose 5.3 percent over the same period.

RASM's full third-quarter report, including county-level detail, is available at myrasm.com.