- July 12, 2025
One Sotheby International Realty sold 3747 N. Ocean Shore Blvd for $2,800,000 in March. Courtesy of One Sotheby
This Calle Del Sur home sold for $5.2 million in July 2024, a then-record-breaking sale. One Sotheby International Realty had the seller's listing while Coastal Gateway Real Estate Group worked with the buyer. Courtesy photo
One Sotheby International Realty sold 15 Northshore Drive for $1,815,000 in April Courtesy of One Sotheby
One Sotheby International Realty sold 27 S. Cypresswood Drive for $1,800,000 in April. Courtesy of One Sotheby
This home at 139 Island Estates Parkway sold for $2,200,000 in March by One Sotheby International Realty. Courtesy of One Sotheby
A rendering of the future Ritz-Carlton condo buildings. Courtesy photo
On June 16, two luxury penthouse condos in the Ritz-Carlton towers that are in the works for Hammock Dunes sold for a combined $20 million, breaking records in Flagler County.
These two sales mark the third time in a year that a real estate sale has broken records in the county, and all of them were in Flagler’s Hammock area. All three also were, in some way, tied to Coastal Gateway Real Estate Group, which sold the Ritz-Carlton penthouses.
Owner Craig Straky said the first of the two condo buildings is already 20% sold out. These luxury sales, he said, will have a positive impact on the Hammock’s communities.
“I think this will have a long-term impact,” Straky said. “It’s helping reset a whole new market in Flagler County.”
Straky has lived in Hammock Dunes himself since 2006, and has owned Coastal Gateway for 15 years. When he first began in real estate in The Hammock, he said, it was a good mix of primary, secondary and vacation homeowners and properties.
Since the pandemic in 2020, house prices across the country have increased, Straky said, including in The Hammock: Listing prices there have increased by 50%-100%, he said. Homes in The Hammock now sell in the millions, he said, though pricing varies depending on the community.
THE RECORDS
One Sotheby’s International Realty’s Kate Gable said the first quarter of 2025 saw Ocean Hammock and Hammock Dunes properties selling for $1 million to $2 million at the high end.
“That’s kind of a hot price-point,” she said.
Gable was the other party in the July 2024, $5.2 million Hammock Dunes sale that initially broke the county’s highest sale listing. Coastal Gateway brought in the buyer while One Sotheby’s had the seller.
Shortly after the Hammock Dunes sale, followed another: a home on Ocean Crest Drive, also in Hammock Dunes, was sold for $6.3 million by Coastal Gateway in August. Now, less than a year later, the Coastal Gateway teams sold the Ritz-Carlton penthouses — which will not begin construction until 2026 — for a combined $20 million, according to a news release from the developers, BH Group.
In Gable’s experience, the high price points are cyclical. Just months after the $1 million-$2 million sales, now, she said, the company is not seeing as many buyers in that price range. Homes are not selling as quickly.
“Not to say that they’re not coming. But those higher price points last year that sold have definitely commanded a higher price now,” she said.
The new record-breaking sale of the Ritz-Carlton penthouses will definitely have an impact on the market, Gable said, in a positive way. People equate the brand with being prestigious, she said.
“You know you’ve made it if you’re going to have a Ritz-Carlton,” Gable said. “It confirms that we are the best steal in Florida.”
Hammock Real Estate Group’s Luke O’Reilly, who has worked real estate in The Hammock area since 2005, said The Hammock had a “boom” in the early 2000s when people were making “speculative buys.” These were people who were purchasing properties on a pre-construction basis, he said, who intended to later sell the property.
When the market crashed in 2008, O’Reilly said, The Hammock was affected by the crash more than some other areas because these buyers were getting rid of these properties.
“We had probably more than our share of short-sales and foreclosures,” he said.
The next time a boom hit the area, he said, unexpectedly coincided with the COVID pandemic.
People typically live in The Hammock because they want to, not to work, he said, as there is not a major metropolitan area for jobs nearby. Because of that, the first thought was that the real estate market in The Hammock would take another hit with its secondary and vacation-home market.
“To everyone’s surprise, it had the opposite effect,” O’Reilly said. “The work-from-home phenomenon became a thing — it hadn’t been before — and all of a sudden you had people across the country that could choose to live anywhere.”
Now, he said, it is difficult to find a property in The Hammock areas his company serves for less than $1 million. And when properties sell at record-breaking prices, that further appreciates property values.
“High tides raise all ships,” O’Reilly said. “Just the fact that it’s out there is helping keep values high.”
Straky said he was once told that areas that are traditionally undervalued will eventually increase in value as people from larger, more condensed areas move out. That’s what has happened in The Hammock, he said.
“The secret is really starting to get out,” he said. “It’s a hidden gem.”
THE TRENDS
Straky said the pandemic has changed what people are looking for in a home. They want less congestion, more natural surroundings and privacy, he said. And they’re finding it in The Hammock.
“It’s reminiscent of what Old Florida used to be,” he said.
Through 2021 and 2022, people continued to buy homes in The Hammock, O’Reilly said. That phenomenon has since cooled off, and the market has since started to slow.
“Homes are still moving, they’re just not moving as quickly,” O’Reilly said. “It’s a little bit of what I call a ‘standoff’ market right now.”
What that means, he said, is that sellers are wanting to sell their homes at the higher prices neighboring homes sold for a year prior, and are not willing to come down. Meanwhile, buyers do not want to pay full price because the homes have been on the market for a while.
O’Reilly said when you have these elevated sales, it can inspire other homeowners to increase their listings.
“We are seeing sellers make the mistake right now of pricing their homes a little bit too high,” he said.
Gable said that though that is a concern, The Hammock buyers are coming from other high-end markets, like South Florida or New York, with much higher price points.
“You can’t beat our price point when you compare what we have in our area,” Gable said. “Just with Hammock Dunes and Hammock Beach, you have four golf courses to choose from.”
Straky agreed. He said he believes that the Ritz-Carlton sale — and other luxury, high-end sales — will have a positive impact on the local market, partly because of the price. The Ritz-Carlton penthouses could have sold for double or triple in South Florida, he said.
“We’re still undervalued,” he said. “These people see the exceptional value in Flagler County.”
