Bridges Homes Average $1.04M; Seven Bridges $1.38M

For the first half of 2018, home sales that closed in The Bridges averaged 1.04 million at $268 per square foot. Most homes sold between $800,000 and $1.5 million but there was one that sold for $2.3 million and a seven homes sold under $800K, mostly smaller models around 2600 square feet. Twenty seven homes sold, ten of them for more than $1 million.

Seven Bridges homes averaged higher at nearly $1.4 million with most going between $900,000 and $2 million. Three homes sold just under $900K, with only one of them smaller than 3200 square feet. The average was just over $300 per square foot. Seventeen homes sold in total with twelve of them over $1 million.

The Bridges transactions are all or nearly all resales of existing homes. They sell, on average, in close to four months. Many of the Seven Bridges transactions are new homes and they’re taking over five months to sell. On both sides of Lyons Road they’re actually taking longer to sell because the numbers don’t include failed listings. Sixty listings expired or canceled in the first half of the year, more than the 44 that closed.

For example 9610 Labelle Court in Seven Bridges was purchased from the builder in early 2016 for $2 million. After the buyer did substantial upgrades it was listed by a Miami-based brokerage in 2016 for $2.9 million. That listing canceled after four months, and then another Miami broker listed it for $2.3 million. It’s a 6-bedroom house with 7500 square feet, 7 full bathrooms, 2 half baths, and loaded with features and high end finishes. In the middle of 2017 the seller switched to a Palm Beach County realtor. The house finally closed in early June for $2.05 million. The statistics show it was on the market for 10 months but it was really 22 months.

The biggest transaction of the year so far was in Seven Bridges where 16525 Fleur De Lis Way sold for $3.2 million. It’s a six bedroom house with six full bathrooms and another two half baths, all in just over eight thousand square feet. The house was bought new from the builder in 2016 for $2.9 million. The new owners are a successful business couple. The wife is a casino executive and is now president of the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.

The second biggest deal was in The Bridges, 16876 Crown Bridge Drive, at $2.3 million for a six bedroom in 7500 square feet. The average sale in the Bridges was 3900 square feet, while the average in Seven Bridges was 4600 square feet.

While the vast majority of the homes are selling for well over $200/sq.ft. and some over $300/sq.ft., there are still some “bargains” in The Bridges. Just under $190 per square foot were 8658 Lewis River Road ($960,000 for a 5200 square foot 5-bedroom) and 16658 Gateway Bridge Drive ($796K for a 6-bedroom with 4300 square feet).

October Homes $700K And Up: The Oaks, Bridges, 7 Bridges, and Delray Lakes Estates

Eleven homes in West Boca and southwest Delray sold in October for prices ranging from $710,000 to $1,240,000. All eleven were in four neighborhoods – Delray Lakes Estates, The Oaks, The Bridges and Seven Bridges. The market in this range may be heating up as most of the homes sold in two months or less.
Delray Lakes Estates
Two homes sold on Sawpine Road in Delray Lakes Estates, which is on the south side of Atlantic just west of the Turnpike. The community has a manned entrance and is in the process of adding a new gate.

8476 Sawpine Road was the highest price this month at $1,240,000. Built in 2015 the home has five bedrooms and five and half baths in 4600 square feet of living space on two floors, with a small attached guest house. It sits on a one acre lot with a gorgeous pool and its own tennis court. The backyard looks out to a canal and undeveloped land.
A few doors down 8538 Sawpine sold what looks like a bargain at $805,000. Built in 1989 the house has 5 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths in 4300 square feet, all on one floor.
The Oaks
17603 Middle Lake Drive sold for $1,237,000. The house has 5 beds with 5 1/2 baths in 4900 square feet on two floors. It’s on a cul de sac, one of the nicest lots in the community, with a wraparound lake view.
17838 Cadena Drive sold for $1.08 million with 5 beds, and 6 1/2 baths in 4900 square feet. It’s not a particularly special lot, with the backyard up against Lyons Road and not far from Clint Moore, but it sold in just 3 days.
The Bridges
The lone straggler on the market was 8879 Sydney Harbor Circle, which sat on the market for several months listed too high, starting at $1.45M, later reduced to $1.3M. It was recently relisted for just under $1.2M and then sold in 20 days for $1.15M. It’s not a big house for The Bridges with 3 beds and 3 1/2 baths in 3350 square feet, with nothing particularly special about the lot.
16566 Sagamore Bridge Way sold for $820K with 4 beds and 3 1/2 baths in 3000 square feet with a lake view and a small backyard pool. On paper it looks like the buyers got a lot more for their money.
8153 Hutchinson Court sold for $780K with 5 bedrooms and 5 baths in 4300 square feet. It’s located at the start of a cul de sac but the lot is not any bigger and there’s nothing special in the backyard.
8980 Little Falls Way sold for $742,500 with 4 beds and 4 baths in 3500 square feet. It was oddly listed by a Broward-based Realtor through the Miami Realtors MLS. The listing used low resolution photos and was very short on detail. It’s possible that the owner and Realtor were related.
16538 Gateway Bridge Drive sold for $710K with 4 beds and 3 baths in 2500 square feet, one of the smallest models in The Bridges.
Seven Bridges
Two very similar new homes sold in the Greenwich section of Seven Bridges for nearly identical prices. Both sold for about $1.06 million. 16323 Pantheon Pass and 16383 Pantheon Pass each have 5 bedrooms and 6 baths in 4735 square feet.

$800K+ Home Sales: The Bridges, Seven Bridges, The Oaks and More

Seventeen single family homes sold west of the Turnpike for over $800K since August 1st. Six were in The Bridges, four in Seven Bridges, three in The Oaks, with one each in Long Lake Estates, Rio Poco, Saturnia Isles, and Mizner Country Club.
The Bridges
The biggest transaction was 16781 Crown Bridge Drive in The Bridges, which was sold new by GL Homes for just over $2 million in mid-August. It is by far the largest house in this report with over 7500 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 6 full and 2 half baths, a cul de sac location with waterfront, a pool, and a variety of high end features including an elevator. The price works out to $273 per square foot.
On the same street, the much smaller 16834 Crown Bridge Drive sold for $1.6 million with 4600 square feet, 4 bedrooms and 5 and a half baths. For the size this was a much higher price at $345/sq.ft. It took over a year to sell.

16910 Charles River Drive sold for $1,598,000 at the end of August; image from PBC appraiser.

16910 Charles River Drive sold for just under $1.6 million with only 3350 square feet. The price works out to $476 per square foot. The seller touted over a million dollars in upgrades including air conditioned garages, a generator for the house, salt pool with infinity spa, etc. With all that in mind we’d guess the seller lost money on the house after upgrades.
Stepping down a bit, 8365 Hawks Gully Avenue sold in a couple weeks for just over $1 million with the same 3350 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 3 and a half baths. Its pool design was featured in a YouTube video:

Dropping below $1M, 8701 Lewis River Road sold for $983K with 5200 square feet (under $200/sq.ft.), and 8187 Lawson Bridge Lane sold for $885K with 4300 square feet.

Seven Bridges
9735 Vitrail Lane sold new by GL for just over $1.1 million with 4200 square feet, 4 bedrooms and 4 and a half baths.
Next door the much larger 9831 Vitrail Lane was also sold new by GL for just under $1.1 million with 5200 square feet, 5 bedrooms and 6 and a half baths.
16436 Pantheon Pass sold for $1.03 million in August, only 4 months after a previous transaction for $940K. The contract was signed only 2 months after the earlier transaction, making us wonder if the new buyer’s agent informed the buyer about that earlier price.
16903 Pavilion Way sold new by GL for $964K with 3000 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 3 and a half baths. The price works out to roughly $320 per square foot, even though there’s no waterfront.
The Oaks
We don’t see many single story homes in The Oaks, but two of them are in this report.
9074 Pintura Way sold for just over $1.2 million with over 3400 square feet, 4 bedrooms, and 3 and half baths. The rear of the house faces south with a lake view. It’s encouraging to see this sold for $200K more than when it was purchased new in 2014.
17654 Cadena Drive sold by the builder (Standard Pacific) for $900K with 3500 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths.
The two-story 17842 Lake Azure Way sold for $855K with 4500 square feet. We think this was a Chinese drywall home that was completely redone as it was originally sold for just over $1M in 2006 by Albanese, and then bought in 2016 for only $315K.
Others
In Long Lake Estates, 18094 Sentinel Circle sold for $1.5 million with 5300 square feet, 6 bedrooms and 6 and two half baths. The one floor home has over an acre of land and over 250 feet of waterfront.
16215 Rio Baile in Rio Poco sold for $975K with nearly 4800 square feet, 6 bedrooms and 5 baths.
Across 441 in Saturnia Isles, 9512 Savona Winds Drive sold for $855K with 4800 square feet, 5 bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths.
And just north of The Bridges in Mizner Country Club, 8911 Oakland Hills Drive sold for $850K with 4500 square feet, 5 bedrooms and 5 1/2 baths.

May Home Sales I: $800K to $6.4M

16031 Quiet Vista Circle in Stone Creek Ranch sold for $6.4M. Image and map data by Google.

We reviewed over 80 single family home sales (west of the Turnpike up to Atlantic in Delray) from May 1 into early June, restricted to homes with 3 or more bedrooms and at least 2000 square feet of living space. This is Part One of that review, covering homes selling over $800,000. All these homes were in zip codes 33498, 33496, and 33446, mostly in The Bridges, Seven Bridges, and The Oaks.
Click here for Part Two.
At the high end was 16031 Quiet Vista Circle in Stone Creek Ranch, on the west side of Lyons just north of Seven Bridges. The nearly 14,000 square foot house with 10 bedrooms and 10 1/2 baths sold for $6.4 million. The seller was billionaire Steven A. Cohen. The buyers are Cynthia Williams and her husband Ronald “Ron” Williams, former CEO of Aetna, with an estimated net worth close to $200M.
8700 Surrey Lane sold for $2.8M; image and map data by Google

There was one other transaction for over $2M. 8700 Surrey Lane in Horseshoe Acres (north of Clint Moore, east of Lyons) sold for just over $2.8M with only 5 bedrooms and 5 1/2 baths in 6000 square feet.
Nine other homes sold for $1M or more, in The Bridges, Seven Bridges, The Oaks, and Long Lake Estates. Most of these sold for between $215 and $250 per square foot, with two in The Bridges going for closer to $300 per square foot.
The smallest of these was 8510 Hawks Gully Avenue, with 3 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths in 3350 square feet. It sold for $1.1M ($328/sq.ft.) in just 17 days on the market. The house is on a corner lot with no waterfront and has significant upgrades including a gorgeous pool, but it still seems like a hefty price for what the buyer got. The house was previously purchased for less than $1M in 2015.
The best bargain of the million dollar homes was probably 8646 Lewis River Road, a 5200 sq.ft. 5 bedroom with a partial lake view which sold for just over $1.1M, or $216/sq.ft.
Others sold include:

  • $1.43M: 18529 Long Lake Drive, Long Lake Estates, 6 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, 5800 sq.ft.
  • $1.35M: 16844 Strasbourg Lane, Seven Bridges, 5 bedrooms, 6 full and two 1/2 baths, 5500 sq.ft.
  • $1.2M: 17681 Middlebrook Way, The Oaks, 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 baths, 5500 sq.ft.
  • $1.14M: 16615 Sagamore Bridge Way, The Bridges, 4 beds, 5 baths, 3900 sq.ft.
  • $1.08M: 17745 Vecino Way, The Oaks, 5 beds, 4 baths, 4450 sq.ft.
  • $1.07M: 8518 Hawks Gully Ave, The Bridges, 4 beds, 4 1/2 baths, 4300 sq.ft.
  • $1.02M: 9488 Eden Roc Ct, Seven Bridges, 5 beds, 6 baths, 4700 sq.ft. (new home)

$800K – $1M
Six homes sold for prices between $800,000 and $1,000,000, including three in The Oaks, one in Mizner Country Club, one in Saturnia, and one in Rio Poco.

16135 Rio Baile sold for $995,000. Image by Google.

16135 Rio Baile in Rio Poco (west side of 441 across from Saturnia Isles) sold for $995K. The house has 6 bedrooms and 5 1/2 baths in 4200 square feet on a one-acre lot.
What would seem to be one of the biggest bargains was 17891 Monte Vista Drive in The Oaks. Selling for $880K, the house has 7 bedrooms, 6 full and 2 half baths in 5500 square feet. Those familiar with The Oaks will guess correctly that the house has a Chinese drywall history. Purchased in 2007 for $1.3M, it was foreclosed in 2013 and then sold to an investor for $751K. Considering the cost of capital and other expenses, the investor probably lost money on this deal.
Others selling at $800K or more include:
$860K: 17978 Lake Azure Way, The Oaks, 4 beds, 5 1/2 baths, 4300 sq.ft.
$832K: 17689 Lake Azure Way, The Oaks, 3 beds, 3 full and 2 1/2 baths, 3400 sq.ft.
$800K: 16367 Braeburn Ridge Trail, Mizner Country Club, 4 beds, 3 1/2 baths, 3550 sq.ft.
$800K: 11742 Watercrest Lane, Saturnia, 6 beds, 4 1/2 baths, 4700 sq.ft.
It’s an interesting question comparing older and newer homes and that’s illustrated by two of the above transactions. In Saturnia, 11742 Watercrest Lane was built in 1999 and seems a relative bargain at $800K for a two-story home with 4700 square feet. While it could use updating in a few places the house has some very nice features including a gorgeous kitchen, a downstairs master bedroom suite and a swimming pool. By comparison in Seven Bridges, 9488 Eden Roc Court sold brand new for just over $1.02M, also with 4700 square feet. The Seven Bridges buyer paid an extra $224,000 for a house that is narrower on a smaller lot with no pool, and the master bedroom is on the second floor. Seven Bridges also has substantially higher HOA fees at close to $500/month vs. $320/month in Saturnia.
11742 Watercrest Lane in Saturnia at $800K vs. 9488 Eden Roc Ct in 7 Bridges at $1.02M. Images by Google.

Which house do you think is a better deal?
Coming in Part Two – Homes from $185K to $750K.

Values Up in The Bridges and Seven Bridges

Entry to The Bridges; image by Google

The Bridges and Seven Bridges are bright spots on the real estate market for 2016. Our analysis of MLS data shows that prices are rising in those two communities.
A great example of this is the house at 8200 Lost Creek Lane in the east end of The Bridges. It sold new for $812K in 2014 and sold again in 2016 for $1.1M, an increase of nearly $300,000. Upgrades explain some of the differences (the 2016 listing included a golf cart and furniture) but it doesn’t look like $300K in added value.
8200 Lost Creek Lane sold for $812K in 2014; it was resold in 2016 for $1.1M. The house has 5 bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths in 4200 square feet, a backyard pool, and a location close to the Florida Turnpike. Image from County Appraiser.

Overall the average price for the 49 transactions in 2016 was just under $1.1M, up from $985K for 36 transactions in 2015 and $936K average of 19 transactions in 2014. Measured in dollars per square foot, the average for 2016 was $252/sq.ft., up from $241 in 2015 and $225 in 2014.
2016 was also the first time an MLS sale in The Bridges exceeded $2M. 16840 Crown Bridge Drive sold for $2.4M, up from its $1.9M sale price (not through MLS) in 2014.
16840 Crown Bridge Drive has 6 bedrooms, 6 full and 2 half baths in 7600 square feet under air (over 10,000 total) on a cul de sac lot with over 180ยบ of water views.

It should be noted that a pool was added before the current sale, which is mentioned in the listing and shows up on the latest Google Maps satellite image (apparently taken within the past few weeks).
Image from Google.

Transactions in 2016 ranged from $660K for a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house (2500 square feet) up to the $2.4M. Of the 49 MLS transactions, 29 were under $1M and 20 were over $1M.
Another good example to understand price changes is 8652 Lewis River Road. The house sold in 2015 listed with four bedrooms for $870K. A year later it sold for $960K (up $90,000). The 2016 listing included five bedrooms and noted $135K in upgrades. It is unclear how much of the upgrades, if any, were included in the 2015 listing which indicated “top of the line” upgrades already.
8652 Lewis River Road; image from County Appraiser.

On the numbers alone it appears that transaction prices are up in The Bridges and Seven Bridges. A source tells us that new home sales are slowing in Seven Bridges but we can’t confirm that and it certainly seems like volume is up.
Both developments are gated communities from GL Homes, one of the leading builders in the area (also active in other parts of Florida). New homes there include impact glass, natural gas connections, and lawn care provided by the association. Reported HOA fees range from near $400/month up to the mid-$500s. They are located just north of the Boca/Delray line.
Map showing location of Seven Bridges (left of Lyons) and The Bridges (right of Lyons). Image and map data by Google.

Seven Bridges is newer and has an additional gate on US-441. The main gate is on the west side of Lyons Road. Across Lyons is the main gate for The Bridges, which extends to the Turnpike. Stone Creek Ranch and Mizner Country Club are to the north. The Oaks is a little south of Seven Bridges.