Sarasota vs St. Pete

Posted by Marc Rasmussen on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 at 1:13 PM By Marc Rasmussen / April 24, 2018 Comment

Sarasota vs. St. Pete - Which is Best for You?

Since opening our doors nearly six years ago , we've worked with thousands of clients from all walks of life interested in calling the Gulf Coast their home. The Sarasota area notably draws a lot of attention with its stunning beaches and active lifestyle but more times than not our agents work with clients curious about the St Pete area and want to know the difference between the two cities separated by the Skyway Bridge. With the success of our older blog post, Sarasota vs. Naples, and now that our St. Pete office is up-and-running and buzzing with business, we felt it was as good a time as ever to compare these two Gulf Coast cities.

Demographics.	Map Location
Weather	Real Estate
Beaches	Arts, Culture, Entertainment
Crime	Schools

Demographics of Sarasota & St. Pete

Both Sarasota and Pinellas county cover a lot of terrain, and encompasses a number of cities and unincorporated communities, so to make this information easier to absorb, we'll gear our demographic information to the Sarasota and St. Pete city limits.

Based on the 2016 estimates, the city of St. Pete nearly quintuples the city of Sarasota's population and offers over 4 times the city limit boundaries compared to Sarasota. If you're looking for a big city vibe, St.Pete might be the place for you, however, this data showcases full time residents, so prepare for a population increase in peak season. The percentage of persons under the age of 18 is higher in St. Pete while the percentage of persons 65 and older is higher in Sarasota. Is there a correlation between age demographics and post secondary schooling opportunities in the surrounding area (USF & UT), tough for us to say but definitely something to note. Median household incomes are relatively the same while median owner occupied housing values differ by $24,000; Sarasota holding the higher value at $169,100.

	Sarasota (Sarasota county)	St. Pete (Pinellas county)
2016 City Population Estimate	56,610	260,999
2016 County Population Estimate	396,692	938,098
Mar. 2016 cost of living index for county (U.S. average is 100)	95.2	95.3
White Non-Hispanic	84.9%	76.9%
Black Non-Hispanic	4.5%	10.0%
Hispanic or Latino	7.9%	8.0%
Median Resident Age	52	46
Median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2011-2015	$169,100	$145,100
Median household income 2011-2015	$43,244	$45,748
Land area in square miles, 2010	14.66	61.74
Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2015	8.8%	13.5%

Map of Sarasota City Limits

Map of St. Pete City Limits

Weather

The charts below show weather averages for both Sarasota and St. Petersburg. As you might expect, they are going to be very similar since they are so close in terms of distance. These charts are courtesy of Weather.com.

Sarasota, Florida weather

St. Petersburg, Florida weather

Real Estate

Single Family Homes

	Sarasota	St Pete
$10,000,000+	4 homes	4 homes
$5m - $10m	35 homes	10 homes
$2m - $5m	151 homes	102 homes
$1m - $2m	275 homes	244 homes
$500k - $1m	545 homes	614 homes

Condominiums

	Sarasota	St. Pete
$10,000,000+	0 Condos	0 condo
$5m - $10m	4 condos	0 condos
$2m - $5m	5 condos	24 condos
$1m - $2m	129 condos	101 condos
$500k - $1m	281 condos	307 condos

Downtown Living

Both downtown St. Petersburg and Sarasota area in high demand. Just take a drive around both cities and you will see the construction boom first hand. Construction cranes are working overtime in both downtown areas as the real estate construction boom continues into 2017. Living downtown is attractive to many. People want to be within walking distance to shopping, restaurants, bars, culture and other excitement. They prefer the walkable lifestyle instead of jumping in the car to access all of these things.

With the current real estate boom as well as the last one we saw in 2003 to 2005 both downtown areas saw tremendous growth in construction of condos, retail and office space. There are plenty of fabulous places to call home.

Newer Downtown Condo Buildings

New condo buildings are always in high demand. People love the new design, trendy style, popular floor plans, fresh amenities and other things that draw people to new construction. Some of the new condo buildings in downtown Sarasota include 7 One One Palm, 1500 State Street, One88, Orange Club, Sansara, The Mark, The Q, and The Vue. Some of the new condo buildings in downtown St. Petersburg include One St. Petersburg, Bliss, 747 North, The Salvador and Liv233.

Downtown Sarasota vs. Downtown St. Petersburg

Below are some random statistics that we pulled from city-data.com

	Zip 34236 (Sarasota)	Zip Code 33701 (St. Pete)
Population in 2015	11,843	14,848
Houses and Condos	9,641	11,104
% of Renters	48%	65%
Mar 2016 Cost of Living (U.S. Avg is 100)	103.8	100.1
Population Density	3,365 people per sq. mile	5,566 people per sq. mile
Real estate property taxes paid for housing units in 2015	$5,401	$2,548
Estimated median house/condo value in 2015	$580,700	$263,900
Median resident age	62.4	47.3
Average Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) in 2012	$211,679	$91,344
Salary/wage	$121,757	$61,668

Beaches

Sarasota

When it comes to the powder white sand found along the Gulf coast, your options will likely be similar in both Sarasota and Pinellas. Both government county sites proclaim having 35 miles of beach frontage. Sarasota County appears to offer more public access locations for people to enjoy some fun in the sun. Pinellas County has a handful of public access points but also requires a parking permit in their lots ($5 a day or $75 for an annual parking pass); something, currently, not done in Sarasota County.

Siesta Key: Siesta Beach, Crescent Beach & Turtle Beach
Lido Key: North Lido Beach, Lido Beach & South Lido Beach
Longboat Key
Casey Key
Venice: Caspersen Beach, Venice Beach
Manasota Key: Manasota Beach, Englewood beach, Blind Pass and Stump Pass

Pinellas

Clearwater Beach
St. Pete Beach
Treasure Island Beach
Pass-a-Grille,
Fort De Soto
Honeymoon Island & Caladesi Island

Arts, Culture and Entertainment

There is never a dull day for entertainment in either county. Both offer a huge collection of performing arts, museums, music venues and cultural events. St. Pete's Ruth Eckerd Hall will likely show more noteworthy national touring shows but Sarasota's Van Wezel Performing Arts gives Ruth Eckerd a run for their money with seasons of great shows and performances. St. Pete's slight edge to Sarasota would be it's proximity to major sporting events and headlining tours. St. Pete is home to the Tampa Bay Rays Baseball team and is only a short distance away from major venues that host concerts, touring shows and act as the home base for the Tampa Bay Lightening Hockey Team and Tampa Bay Buccaneer football team.

Sarasota

St. Pete

Crime

St. Petersburg is a larger city so naturally, it will have more crime. According to the statistics below there is more crime per capita. I am a bit leery of statistics like these. All of the crime reporting websites claim that Bradenton, FL (town just to the north) has less crime and is safer than Sarasota. Honestly, I am not sure how that is possible.

			Forcible Sex		Aggravated			Motor Vehicle		% Index	Index Rate	Rate
County	Population	Murder	Offenses	Robbery	Assault	Burglary	Larceny	Theft	2016 Total Index	Change 15/16	Per 100,000	Change 15/16
Pinellas	954,569	39	457	1,091	2,484	4,694	25,381	2,390	36,536	-9.2	3,827.5	-10.1
Sarasota	395,049	9	76	169	647	1,343	6,354	389	8,987	-6.9	2,274.9	-8.6

Schools

Education quality is big factor when deciding where to live. It drives real estate desirability because few parents want their kids to get a bad education. So how do the schools compare between Sarasota and St. Pete? There are a lot of good resources on the web for researching schools. I have used Greatschools.org to learn more about individual schools. According to Niche.com they rank Sarasota county schools #4 in the state and rank Pinellas county schools #19 in the state. I cannot vouch for that website so please do your own research.

According to Niche.com, The 2017 Best School Districts ranking is based on rigorous analysis of key statistics and millions of reviews from students and parents using data from the U.S. Department of Education. Ranking factors include state test scores, college readiness, graduation rates, SAT/ACT scores, teacher quality, public school district ratings, and more.

Conclusion

In many aspects, both of these areas are pretty similar and would really boil down to personal preference and lifestyle options. Pinellas County, St. Pete specifically, offers a big city setting with a larger, younger population with relatively more affordable housing options. Sarasota, downtown specifically, is smaller but offers a growing metropolitan setting with an emphasis on the luxury real estate market. We encourage visitors and buyers to scope out both areas and get a sense of which area best fits the Florida lifestyle you have in mind. Regardless of where you choose, there will be plenty of recreational and cultural activities to participate in and DWELL Real Estate can easily facilitate any sale in either county.

Sarasota vs St. Pete

Sarasota vs. St. Pete - Which is Best for You?

Table of Contents

Demographics of Sarasota & St. Pete

Map of Sarasota City Limits

Map of St. Pete City Limits