Long-term Leasing, Pros and Cons
Committing for a year will be the most affordable way to stay in Sarasota, if you want to live downtown most or all of the year. You’ll avoid the extra 6% lodging tax on ≤ six months rentals and the 7% sales tax. With a lease for a residence for more than six months, you are exempt from these taxes, or 13%.
There are multiple apartment complexes with amenities like pools, dog walking courts, gyms, grills, etc. which cater to younger professionals as evidenced by the their planned social events like weekly cook-outs and cocktail parties. These places are good options as most are downtown, but can be too noisy/active for older folks. They include CitySide Apartments, ARCOS, One Palm, Aster and Links, BOLD Lofts, Cordelia, and the DeSOTA and The District at Rosemary Apartments which borders Mentone Court. All required a minimum one-year lease.
An unfurnished studio or tiny apartment can be found downtown for as little as $2200/month thus the absolute minimum would be $26,000 for a year-round place. If you are seasonal, you’ll pay utilities for months you don’t use it, renter’s insurance and worry about a pipe leak, etc. And, since you have to furnish it your possessions are at risk in a hurricane, and you are bogged down with stuff when you want to move. Storage centers are everywhere, and this writer pays $130/month for a 4’x8’ unit, which is not big enough to store a house worth of furniture. They actually fill up and storage space can be hard to find and not cheap.
All the big complexes listed above and have fees (e.g., for pets) and require at least a one-year lease, often more. None are furnished. All start around $2600 for a one-bedroom and over $3000 for a two-bedroom apartment with a balcony. Many have no outdoor balcony/patio space, but may offer common areas for the large complexes. As of 01/06/25 AparmentFinder.com indicated an average downtown rent of $2915/mo for a one-bedroom apartment of 810 sf. Sarasota is one of the most expensive cities in the US.
Of course, no one who seasonally visits wants to pay for an entire summer season in a place they won’t use during the hot times. If you will be in town for less than four months per year, it is smarter to rent a place (at a high rate) just for the season.
A small furnished place will be at least $4000/month in-season, or $16,000 for four months and it will be furnished with utilities included. Lodging/sales tax pushes the cost to $18,000 – a crazy price, but still much cheaper than $26,000 for a year-round place with the obligations of a lease, furnishings, utilities and renters’ insurance. Now you know why people pay crazy prices to come to Sarasota for the season. This is why the option of a boat made sense for us, which we’ll discuss later.
Well, lets address the option of living on a boat in the downtown marina in the next section.
