Lakewood Ranch, FL
Real Estate: Living In Lakewood Ranch
A roofer works atop one of several single-family houses under construction in a new suburban development during a building boom in southwest Florida. File photo: Ken Schulze, Shutter Stock, licensed.
Lakewood Ranch is a master planned community in southwest Florida, located in southeastern Manatee County and northeastern Sarasota County.
The community stretches from State Road 64 to the north, Fruitville Road to the south, Interstate 75 to the west, and approximately 7 miles east of the interstate to Bournside Boulevard. Lakewood Ranch has a total land area of 47.1 square miles, of which 46.1 square miles consist of land along with one square mile of water.
According to the 2020 census, Lakewood Ranch had a population of 34,877. The median value of a single-family home is $735,316 and the median rent of a one-bedroom apartment is $1,809. The median household income is $110,026, with 6.3 percent of the population living behold the Poverty threshold.
Lakewood Ranch is maintained through the Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District and five community development districts within the District, which was established in June, 2005, by the Florida legislature. The main powers of the five community development districts consist of planning, financing, constructing, operating, and maintaining infrastructure and services specifically for the community.
In turn, the community development districts receive administrative, financial, and operations/maintenance services by the Lakewood Ranch Inter-District Authority (IDA), which is comprised of one representative from each district; the IDA also operates the community’s Town Hall.
Lakewood Ranch has its own public school system, made up of elementary, middle, and high schools; it is also home to several private schools and three colleges – State College of Florida, Manatee–Sarasota, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Keiser University – and three vocational schools.
Currently, there are over 17,000 residences in 28 “villages,” featuring single-bedroom apartments to golf-course-view executive mansions. In addition, there are 1,800-plus businesses, ranging from mom-and-pop pizzerias to major corporate headquarters; several major medical facilities, from a hospital to LECOM, one of the country’s largest schools of dentistry, pharmacy and osteopathic medicine; and a huge range of recreational amenities including 11 community parks and 150 miles of trails.
