A Florida home dubbed “The White House of the South” sold March 1 in a landmark deal.
The 15,000-square-foot riverfront mansion, at 205 Hacienda Drive on Merritt Island along the Atlantic coast, fetched $4.5 million in the second-priciest home deal in Brevard County history. The 79-year-old estate hosted astronauts and U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the Space Race. Also, it was the spot of one of billionaire Elon Musk’s watch parties for his SpaceX rocket launches from Cape Canaveral.
To see inside the home, click here.
The home, known as Hacienda del Sol, spans a large 7.7-acre lot along the Indian River. In addition to the main house, the property contains a guest cottage, pool house, caretaker’s residence and tennis court. Plus, there is a 50,000-gallon saltwater swimming pool and a half-acre koi pond.
Inside, there are 11 bedrooms, 12.5 bathrooms and 10 wood-burning fireplaces. Luxury features include a 1,000-bottle wine cellar, gym, jacuzzi, elevator and walk-in refrigerators. The marble and tile throughout the house were imported from Italy, Portugal and Spain.
Another of the home's standout characteristics is the fact it was designed by renowned architect Addison Mizner, Stephanie Moss Danridge of One Sotheby’s International Realty told Orlando Business Journal. Moss Dandridge represented the buyer and the seller.
Multimillion-dollar home listings are becoming increasingly common in Brevard County, and the region is drawing affluent buyers from the West Coast, New York and outside the U.S., Moss Dandridge said. That is because the county experiences economic growth but still is a "hidden gem" with relatively low home prices, she said.
Luxury homes are popular nationwide, and the Dallas-based Institute for Luxury Home Marketing in January labeled the U.S. luxury sector a seller’s market because of low supply and high demand. In the Orlando area, local luxury home sales grew 105% year over year in January. There were 45 homes sold for $1 million or more in January, up from 22 sales in January 2020, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.
Strong luxury home sales follow the boom happening across the residential real estate sector, said Jeffrey Funk, a team leader at Windermere-based realty firm The Funk Team, which is brokered by Exp Realty. As demand climbs, hard-to-move properties are flying off the market, he said. “It’s not uncommon to see a home on the market for a year to go pending.”
Strong home demand on the Space Coast is fueling more sales and price increases. There were 702 home sales closed in Brevard County in January, up 17% from the 599 closed in January 2020, according to realty firm Re/Max Elite, which has five offices across the county. Meanwhile, the median price of $267,000 was up 11% from $240,982 a year prior.
Trends in the residential real estate market are important, as every home sale in the state has an estimated local economic impact of $77,858, per a 2018 study by the National Association of Realtors. In addition, the housing market often is considered a reflection of the local economy's overall health.
