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A new Gulf-front house in Naples sold off-market for $69.4 million on Oct. 13. The same piece of beach sold for $870,000 in 1985. Every Houses story is on the Houses desk page.
17 stories · Edition XIV · Mon Nov 2
Houses stories
- Houses · CollierA Naples beach lot sold for $870,000 in 1985. With a new house, it just sold for $69.4 millionThe seller, a land trust, paid about $30 million for the Gulf-front property in 2022. A new house went up, and the trust just sold the house and land for more than twice that.Old Florida Money desk · Mon Nov 2, 2026
- Houses · Miami-DadeLarry Page, Coconut Grove and the billionaire tax California votes on TuesdayCalifornia votes Tuesday on a one-time 5% tax on its billionaires' wealth, a tax Florida does not have. A UC Berkeley poll released Thursday has 42% of likely voters for it and 50% against.Old Florida Money desk · Fri Oct 30, 2026
- Houses · Palm BeachPalm Beach's 'Ham and Cheese House' finds an unnamed buyer at a $105 million askThe striped 1927 oceanfront landmark went under contract Oct. 20, less than two months after it was listed. Penny Antonini and her late husband, the industrialist Marion Antonini, paid about $16 million for it in 2013.Old Florida Money desk · Wed Oct 28, 2026
- Houses · StatewideUthmeier sues the firm behind home-listing flood scores, calling them deceptiveFlorida's attorney general says First Street's scores call some homes major flood risks where federal flood maps show minimal hazard, and cost sellers sales. First Street has not answered, and no court has ruled.Old Florida Money desk · Wed Oct 28, 2026
- Houses · MiamiMiami-Dade said Stephen Ross's airport hotel deal was ending. A memo says it is still in effectA venture of Related Companies, founded by billionaire Stephen Ross, and Fontainebleau Development, led by chief executive Jeffrey Soffer, won a 2023 lease for a Westin at Miami International Airport. The mayor now says the lease remains in effect, as the airport reviews what the developers say they spent.Old Florida Money desk · Wed Oct 28, 2026
- Houses · Fisher IslandFisher Island Club members sue the island's own association in federal courtClub members who own no home on Fisher Island say the Fisher Island Community Association has no right to bill them a yearly fee for transportation and security. Jim Ferraro, an association board member, calls their move to federal court "a joke."Old Florida Money desk · Wed Oct 28, 2026
- Houses · Miami BeachHedge fund veteran Jay Newman sues Miami Beach and Five Park's developers over a bridge never finishedNewman, who spent 15 years fighting Argentina over its defaulted debt for Paul Singer's Elliott hedge fund, joined the tower's owners' association in suing. The tower's developers say buried power lines make the bridge unsafe to build as designed.Old Florida Money desk · Fri Oct 23, 2026
- Houses · Boca RatonBoca Raton's unfinished Mandarin Oriental faces a $418 million foreclosure as buyers want their deposits backThe stalled condo tower carries the name of Mandarin Oriental, the luxury hotel brand, but may lose it. Its lender says it is owed nearly $418 million. If it wins, it gets paid before buyers who put down deposits.Old Florida Money desk · Fri Oct 23, 2026
- Houses · Miami BeachA Vacchi-backed tower set to replace a 1964 South Beach condo of 238 homes borrowed $507M before selling a unitTerra and partners including Gianluca Vacchi’s GV Development bought nearly all of Bay Garden Manor deed by deed. An Elliott-backed lender has now made the construction loan; sales of 106 new condos start in 2027.Old Florida Money desk · Wed Oct 21, 2026
- Houses · Pembroke PinesBrookfield’s Pembroke Lakes Mall lost nearly three quarters of its value, and its lender sued to forecloseThe mall was appraised at $427 million when its $260 million loan closed in 2013, and at $112 million in April. Deutsche Bank, as trustee for bondholders, sued to foreclose and wants a receiver.Old Florida Money desk · Wed Oct 21, 2026
- Houses · MiamiVenetian Islands record: New York builders sell a $48.5M house on a lot they bought for $5.95MA couple who own a New York construction firm bought the San Marco Island lot in 2021, built a seven-bedroom spec house and sold it, furnished, to a trust. The Real Deal, citing unnamed sources, says the buyer is General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja (The Real Deal; Mansion Global via Haute Residence; Miami-Dade Property Appraiser).Old Florida Money desk · Mon Oct 19, 2026
- Houses · West Palm BeachStephen Ross’s tax-break hotel: neighbors sue to void the voteTwo West Palm Beach neighborhood groups sued Oct. 14 to void Palm Beach County’s 6-1 approval of a $26 million sale-leaseback, paid from county General Fund reserves, for a 400-room hotel Stephen Ross’s Related Ross would lease for up to 97 years without paying property tax (complaint; WPTV; The Real Deal). The suit says the item was added six days before the vote and its 715-page file was posted 90 minutes before the meeting; at the meeting the county attorney said the law requires only 24 hours’ notice, and Related says the hotel brings local jobs (complaint; WPTV; The Real Deal). As of Oct. 18 no hearing has been reported, and the county’s Oct. 20 agenda carries no item on the deal (Palm Beach County).Old Florida Money desk · Mon Oct 19, 2026
- Houses · Palm BeachEx-CIA official admits faking a secret program to buy $102.6M of Palm Beach and Jupiter Island real estateDavid J. Rush, a former senior federal official whose case the CIA referred to the FBI, Director John Ratcliffe says, pleaded guilty Oct. 6 to defrauding the government of about $194 million. He admits that a “highly classified” program he invented to buy South Florida real estate was a fake, and that about $102.55 million of it bought two Palm Beach houses, a Palm Beach lot and a Jupiter Island lot (Justice Department; plea papers; our sum). His plea deal hands the government each property or cash in its place. All four are listed for sale, two under contract, and The Real Deal reports broker Christian Angle is listing them on behalf of the federal government (The Real Deal; USA TODAY / Palm Beach Daily News).Old Florida Money desk · Mon Oct 19, 2026
- Houses · Statewide ballotAmendment 3 skips your school tax, and school boards are on the same ballotThe state’s own estimate shows Amendment 3 takes nothing off the school line of any county’s property tax bill, while counties, cities and special districts lose $4.9 billion in its first year (Florida EDR). On the same Nov. 3 ballot, at least 13 school boards, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach among them, ask voters to keep or add a 1 mill school tax, and Florida Realtors have written $19.5 million for the yes side (school board records; Division of Elections).Old Florida Money desk · Wed Oct 14, 2026
- Houses · Statewide ballotRealtor groups fund Amendment 3’s campaign, and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava runs a third committee against itSeven Florida Realtors checks, Sept. 3 to 30, $19.5 million, are all of Vote Yes on 3’s money apart from $10.33 in bank interest (state records checked Oct. 13). Three committees oppose it, not two: No On 3. Protect Our Homes, chaired by Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, has $201,000, all of it from Our Democracy, which brings the no side to $888,917.15 through Oct. 2, about 22 to 1 in money raised and about 19 to 1 in money spent (Division of Elections; our arithmetic). The unidentified A Better Florida now has a third WESH ad order on file. In Seminole, a legal threat from state Rep. Berny Jacques got links taken off the city’s website.Old Florida Money desk · Wed Oct 14, 2026
- Business · MiamiLennar’s Miami spinoff said it would have no tenants. A shareholder suit says it bought hundreds of Lennar homes to rentMillrose Properties, the Miami land bank Lennar spun off in 2025, told investors it would “not, and will not, have any tenants.” A securities class action filed Oct. 9 in federal court in South Florida says that was misleading, and it rests on Hunterbrook Media’s report that Millrose bought more than 700 Lennar homes, an estimated $200 million or more, in about a month, including houses in Ocala and Wesley Chapel. Hunterbrook’s investment arm was short both companies’ stock. Millrose management described the purchases to Goldman Sachs as a rent-to-own pilot; Hunterbrook, in an Oct. 8 follow-up, says about 95% of the homes it matched were listed for ordinary rent. Lennar and Stuart Miller, whom the complaint calls Lennar’s CEO, are not defendants.Old Florida Money desk · Mon Oct 19, 2026
- Houses · Palm Beach CountyLarry Ellison and WeatherTech’s David MacNeil split the Manalapan lot next door, then kept buyingOracle’s Larry Ellison paid an MLS-reported $34.4M for the southern 2.15 acres at 1960 S. Ocean Blvd. It sits beside the estate and island parcel he bought together in 2022 on a recorded $173M entry, then a Florida record. As of Oct. 18 no deed has posted for either half of the split. WeatherTech’s David MacNeil took the northern slice for $32M and has spent $136.32M assembling three properties. Up the coast, Ellison has listed his Seminole Landing estate at a North Palm Beach record $165M.Old Florida Money desk · Mon Oct 19, 2026