Cyndee Haydon, premier Clearwater Beach Realtor, seems to think that muggy Clearwater can somehow best Coronado Beach real estate!
Cyndee is a dear friend and prolific blogger, but San Diego real estate and Coronado homeowners in particular, should take note of Miz Haydon’s observations.
Do YOU think Clearwater playgrounds are superior to San Diego beaches? Is pricing built into value?
Recently I was reviewing the Top 10 Best Beaches in America by Dr. Stephen Leatherman, aka “Dr Beach”.
Every year he goes in search of the best beaches in the US – now that’s a job I think I would love. He has developed quite a sophisticated scoring system to determine his pick of the top 10 best beaches in America list based on over 50 items like current, sand quality and water clarity. Even though both Clearwater Beach and Coronado Shores have made this list you might be surprised how different these beaches, the lifestyle and cost of living can vary from east coast to west coast.
Three of Pinellas County’s local beaches have ranked in the top 20 of this prestigious list. Clearwater Beach, Ft Desoto and Caladesi Island State Park have all been recognized in the past. Caladesi Island was actually named number 1 Beach in the US in 2008. This primitive beach is only accessible by walking from North Clearwater Beach or by ferry. This year I also saw that Coronado Beach is #3. So it got me thinking for 2 places with award winning beaches, how do Clearwater Beach condos for sale compare in price to condos for sale in Coronado Shores in Coronado, CA?
Well first I checked Sperling’s Best Places to see how Clearwater real estate compared to Coronado real estate and what I found was they only have information available at the city level (which 90% is not beach properties) so when you compare buying real estate in Clearwater versus buying real estate in Coronado, I was surprised to learn that overall Clearwater is 76 percent cheaper and living in Clearwater Florida is 48% cheaper.
Basically housing is the area where you see the biggest difference between these two beach communities. (See chart included). I decided to dig a little deeper since these statistics include all of the City of Clearwater which is over 100,000 people and Clearwater Beach, our 2.5 mile barrier island, is only a small piece of the whole cities population and real estate out there and obviously those Clearwater Beach condos are much more expensive than real estate in the rest of the city.
So I compared the current price of a Clearwater beach condos for sale compared to a beach condos for sale in Coronado Shores.
How do you think it compares with Coronado Beach and condos on Coronado Shores?
When I compared the Grande Condos I found that the $/sq ft for the most expensive property on Clearwater Beach is a Sand Key condo penthouse at the Grande which is currently listed for $728/sqft and asking over $3,750,000. Now typically we find that even the best Clearwater beach condos for sale are commanding a minimum of $400/sq ft and right now the most expensive beach condo for sale here is a unit at The Sandpearl which is actually asking for $775/sq ft which is currently the highest dollar per sq ft of Clearwater beach condos on the market.
So how do Clearwater Beach condo prices compare with Coronado Shores condos for sale?
I found right now it’s up to 60% more expensive to own a condo in exclusive Coronado Shores California than in Clearwater Beach Florida. Who said living on one of the best beaches in the US wouldn’t have it’s price – but I gotta tell you if you can afford it, I can assure you the lifestyle is priceless.
Well the good news is if you’re moving to Clearwater Florida from the San Diego area your money goes a lot further; however if you’re moving from Clearwater Florida to San Diego living on the best beaches will cost you more.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 4:14 am and is filed under Best of San Diego, Coronado, San Diego Beaches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, ortrackback from your own site. Edit this entry.
Cyndee in Clearwater Fl said at May 18th, 2011 at 4:54 amRoberta, I gotta tell you, your beaches are beautiful and I’d love to spend time out there anytime – especially with someone like you who knows San Diego inside and out.I was really surprised to see how similar the cost of living was when you took away “real estate” – so there are no bad choices here..Coronado or Clearwater, as I’ve got my flip flops I’m happy!!!
Paula said at May 23rd, 2011 at 10:14 pmAbout now, I could go for a SUNNY beach in either Clearwater or Coronado, but San Diego is my all time favorite and any beach there would include great weather year round.Something I’m missing here in Indy.
Roberta Murphy said at May 23rd, 2011 at 10:30 pmIndy and San Diego could probably match weather today and San Diego would lose. We are cool, overcast and cloudy! Paula, hope you are distant from tornado activity!
Kristal Kraft said at May 27th, 2011 at 5:54 pmWow! I guess Clearwater wins out in the budget beach category! I’ve been to both places and suspect I could be perfectly happy digging my toes into the sand of either place!