Boca Raton Real Estate

Boca Raton is the 23rd-largest city in Florida, and it wears its architecture on its sleeve -- the Mediterranean and Spanish Colonial Revival look that defines downtown was set by Addison Mizner in the 1920s, and it still shapes what gets approved today. The city has an unusually strict commercial code (no billboards on major roads, for one), which is part of why it reads as more polished than most of its neighbors.

The housing stock spans an enormous range: Mizner-era estates near downtown and Old Floresta, some of the most prestigious gated country-club communities in the country (Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, The Sanctuary and Le Lac have all been named among Forbes' most prestigious gated communities nationally), high-rise Intracoastal and oceanfront condos, and large master-planned single-family developments further west toward the Sawgrass Expressway.

The nuance a generic listing site gets wrong constantly: a "Boca Raton" mailing address does not always mean the property is inside Boca Raton's actual city limits. Large stretches of "West Boca" are unincorporated Palm Beach County -- same ZIP code and mailing city, but different municipal services, different police jurisdiction, and sometimes different tax treatment than the incorporated city. It trips up relocating buyers constantly, and it's the first thing worth confirming on any listing that isn't clearly east of I-95.

Downtown living centers on Mizner Park, the open-air arts-and-retail district built in 1991, with two miles of public beach at Red Reef Park and Spanish River Park. Single-family homes in the incorporated city typically run from the high-$700Ks and up, with gated country-club estates and oceanfront property reaching into the multi-millions and, in the most prestigious clubs, tens of millions. Damara's block-by-block coverage of specific Boca neighborhoods -- Downtown/Mizner Park, Addison on the Ocean, The Oaks, Boca Marina, Golden Harbour and more -- is on the Neighborhoods page, and Boca's gated country clubs (Royal Palm, St. Andrews, Boca West, Broken Sound, Woodfield) each get real treatment on the Country Clubs guide, since membership costs change the real math on any of these addresses.