Key Real Estate: Fifty-three key sales in last five weeks

After averaging seven transactions a week since the first of the year, real-estate sales on the keys climbed to 53 over the last five weeks from April 27 to May 29, or a weekly average of 10.6 sales recordings.

At the peak of the recent realty boom, this writer reported 57 sales in a single week in May 2004 among a total of more than 150 sales for the entire month.

Recent sales reflect a slow but steady increase in activity. Another positive sign is the reported increasing number of pending sales being reported among Key Realtors. If history is any indicator, most of these will translate into consummated transactions.

The last week of May there were 10 sales recordings for Longboat and St. Armands keys, but for the first time since the second week in April, there wasn’t a transaction for more than $1 million.

Inn on the Beach
The largest transaction of the week on the keys was the $775,000 that The Key Corp., of Indianapolis, paid for the 1,611-square-foot Apartment 507 in Building 3 at the 221-unit Inn on the Beach. Clark Byrum Sr., also of Indianapolis, was the seller.

The condo, located at 230 Sands Point Road, near the southwestern tip of Longboat Key, was constructed in 1982. Byrum bought the apartment for $700,000 in June 2004.

Aquarius Club
Denise and R. Craig Crossley, of Barrington, R.I., sold their Unit P-F-606 at the 59-unit Aquarius Club, 1701 Gulf of Mexico Drive, to Aimee and James Dempsey, from Pulaski, Wis., for $699,000. The Crossleys paid $680,000 for the unit in June 2004.

The two-bedroom, two-bath condo was constructed in 1975 and contains 1,615 square feet of living space.

Sleepy Lagoon
Margaret and Lawrence Myers, of Bradenton, sold their north Longboat Key home in the Sleepy Lagoon subdivision at 6418 Gulf of Mexico Drive (Lot 23-A) to Gail and Richard Cox, of Beach Haven, N.J., for $600,000.

The three-bedroom, two-bath home, with 1,748 square feet of living area, is one of the first to be built in the area, dating back to 1951.

The Myerses bought the home for $292,500 in May 2000.

Seaplace V, II
There were two sales at Longboat Key’s largest condominium complex, the 461-unit Seaplace, built by the Arvida Corp. in the 1970s. In the larger of the two, Amy and Robert Burnett, of Naperville, Ill., paid $530,000 for Apartment M2-309-A at 1945 Gulf of Mexico Drive in Seaplace Unit V. The sellers were Lindsay and Arthur Wardman, of Lymington Hants, England.

The two-bedroom, two-bath condo has 1,265 square feet of air-conditioned living area and was completed in 1978. The Wardmans bought the unit for $485,000 in June 2002.

At Seaplace II, the Carty Family Limited Partnership, of Bowling Green, Ohio, sold their Unit M1-601-H to Jill Thompson, of Toronto, for $375,000. Signing the deed of sale for the Carty family were general partners

Timothy Carty and Colleen Zajac. The two-bedroom, two-bath apartment at 2045 Gulf of Mexico Drive was constructed in 1974 and has 1,265 square feet of living area.

Fairway Bay I
Patricia and Richard Wagner, from Hebron, N.H., bought Unit 903 in Building 9 in the first phase of 288-unit Fairway Bay complex for $512,500. The seller was Edward Webber, of Longboat Key and Dallastown, Pa.

Built in 1982, the two-bedroom, three-bath condo at 1918 Harbourside Drive has 1,626 square feet of living area. Webber bought the condominium for $510,000 in June 2004.

Sea Pines
Sarah Trotta and her husband, John Reed, of Indianapolis, purchased Apartment 11 in the Sanderling building at Sea Pines from Gloria Buckner-Truitt, of Bradenton, for $390,000.

Buckner-Truitt bought the condo for $172,000 in May 1993.

The two-bedroom, one-bath condo at 6945 Gulf of Mexico Drive was constructed in 1973 and has 1,170 square feet of living area.

Sands Point
Sharon Moody, of Sarasota, sold her Unit 305 in the 78-unit Sands Point condominium at the southwestern end of Longboat Key to Lisa and Joseph Whalen, of Chicago, for $350,000.

The two-bedroom, two-bath apartment was constructed back in 1966 and has 1,941 square feet of living area.

Bay Isles Unit I
Former Florida Secretary of State and Congresswoman Katherine Harris and her husband, Anders Ebbeson, sold an interest in their Bay Isles Unit 1 home at 501 Harbor Point Road to Sven Anders Axel Ebbeson for $288,700.

Sven Anders Axel Ebbeson, identified as “husband,” and Katherine H. Ebbeson, listed as his “wife,” are the grantees (buyers).

St. Armands Key
Lisa and Andrew Herrod, of Cardiff, Wales, sold their home at 140 N. Blvd. of the Presidents on St. Armands Key to Richard Shapiro and his wife, Candy Thompson, of Ellicott City, Md., for $390,000.

The two-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath home was built in 1970. The Herrods bought the house for $423,000 in September 2003.

Kent Chetlain is a veteran Florida journalist and historian, a former Manatee County commissioner and a holder of a Florida real-estate license. He has chronicled real-estate activity in this area since 1957.