Where Does Dick Vitale Live in Florida? Inside His Lakewood Ranch Home

Where does Dick Vitale live? The ESPN college basketball voice lives in Lakewood Ranch, a master-planned community east of Sarasota and Bradenton. He and his wife Lorraine built a custom home there in the early 2000s, inside Lakewood Ranch Country Club, on a cul-de-sac that takes up two lots. They have lived in the Sarasota area since 1988. Here is what public reporting says about the house, how big it is, and why the couple has stayed put for almost four decades.

Key takeaways

• Vitale lives in Lakewood Ranch Country Club, a golf community that straddles Manatee and Sarasota counties.
• Sarasota Magazine described the house as 12,000 square feet on two lots in 2004; later reports put it at 13,000 to 17,000. The cost was not reported.
• The home has a 1,200-square-foot theater with a 135-inch screen and room for 400 party guests.
• Before Lakewood Ranch the Vitales spent 11 years in Prestancia, a golf community in Sarasota.

Where does Dick Vitale live in Florida?

Vitale lives in Lakewood Ranch, about 15 miles east of the Gulf beaches and a short drive from downtown Sarasota. Lakewood Ranch is one of the largest planned communities in the country. It sits on both sides of the county line, so parts of it carry a Bradenton address in Manatee County and parts carry a Sarasota address. The Country Club section, where the Vitales live, sits on the Manatee side. Lakewood Ranch is on the Gulf Coast, on the opposite side of the state from the counties Pure Equity serves. We cover it because the search interest is real.

The local paper, the East County Observer, has covered Vitale for years and simply calls him Lakewood Ranch's Dick Vitale. He is a fixture at community events, at his annual gala for cancer research, and at Sarasota and Bradenton spring training games. He has said the proximity to those ballparks was one of the things that sold him on the area.

The house is inside a gated golf community, and Pure Equity does not publish private addresses. So the neighborhood is as specific as this post gets. The public record does name it, though: the Registry Tampa Bay described the home as sitting in the Country Club's Portmarnock section.

Inside the reported Lakewood Ranch home

Sarasota Magazine toured the house in 2004, soon after it was finished. The magazine described a 12,000-square-foot, two-story home on two lots at the end of a cul-de-sac. Gerald Messman and Paul Fletcher of Bloodgood Sharp Buster Architects drew up the plans, Anchor Builders put it up, and Anne Folsom Smith handled the interiors. The style is informal Mediterranean with a nod to Addison Mizner, the architect behind much of Palm Beach and Boca Raton.

The centerpiece is the theater. It runs 1,200 square feet, with a 135-inch screen, eight leather chairs and a setup that doubles as a production studio for his broadcast work. The grand salon has a 24-foot ceiling, and the floors throughout are pale polished limestone. There are four bedrooms, with guest suites upstairs, and the layout opens straight onto the pool and a white pergola. The magazine said the house can handle 400 guests, which matters for a man who hosts a fundraiser every year.

One detail has followed him ever since. Vitale insisted on a television at the foot of the bed, because he cannot fall asleep without SportsCenter. Later reports have described the home at 13,000 and even 17,000 square feet, so the outlets do not agree. The 2004 figure came from the magazine that walked through it, so we treat 12,000 as the best-sourced number. No price for the land or the build has been published.

Why Dick Vitale chose Sarasota

The Vitales moved to Florida from Michigan in 1988, after his coaching days with the Detroit Pistons and the University of Detroit had ended and his ESPN career had taken off. Sarasota Magazine reported that they first built in Bradenton, then spent 11 years in Prestancia, a TPC golf community on the south side of Sarasota. The Lakewood Ranch house came next.

He has been open about why. The golf courses and tennis courts suit him and Lorraine. The spring training parks in Sarasota and Bradenton are minutes away. And the area gave him a base for the charity work that has become his second career. His annual Dick Vitale Gala in Sarasota has raised tens of millions of dollars for the V Foundation for pediatric cancer research.

The community has repaid the loyalty. When Vitale went through lymphoma treatment in 2021 and 2022, and again when he faced vocal cord cancer in 2024, the local paper ran regular updates. The Observer's April 2021 story on his recovery carried the headline No quit in Lakewood Ranch's Dick Vitale. He has said in interviews that he intends to stay in the house for good.

Where else does Dick Vitale live?

Reporting does not describe a second home. Vitale grew up in New Jersey, where he met Lorraine while teaching sixth grade, and he coached in Detroit before ESPN. Since 1988, though, the Sarasota area has been his only reported base. He travels during the college basketball season to call games, and ESPN is based in Bristol, Connecticut, but those are work trips rather than residences.

That makes his situation simpler than most celebrity homes on this site. There is no Los Angeles house, no New York apartment, and no property sold to fund the Florida move. The Lakewood Ranch home is the primary residence and, as far as the public record shows, the only one.

What homes near Dick Vitale cost

Lakewood Ranch is outside Pure Equity's service area. The closest South Florida equivalent to a custom golf estate on a double lot is a home in Old Palm Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens or St. Andrews Country Club in Boca Raton. Both are gated golf communities where owners have combined lots to build large custom homes, much as the Vitales did.

Our MLS feed as of September 2026 shows about 760 active listings in Palm Beach Gardens, with a median list price near $898,000 and an average of about 107 days on market. Homes inside Old Palm run far above that citywide median. Boca Raton shows about 2,120 active listings at a median near $550,000. Our golf and country club homes page filters both cities down to club communities, and the Palm Beach County page carries the county view.

For the Gulf Coast itself, our Sarasota County and Manatee County pages pull live listings and stats. Lakewood Ranch inventory shows up on both, since the community crosses the county line.

Frequently asked questions

Where does Dick Vitale live now?

He lives in Lakewood Ranch Country Club, east of Sarasota and Bradenton, in the custom home he and Lorraine built in the early 2000s. Local coverage through 2024 still places him there. He has said he plans to stay.

Where in Lakewood Ranch does Dick Vitale live?

The home sits in the Country Club section of Lakewood Ranch, which the Registry Tampa Bay identified as the Portmarnock neighborhood. That part of the community has a Bradenton mailing address in Manatee County. Pure Equity does not publish street addresses.

Where does Dick Vitale live full time?

Lakewood Ranch is his full-time and only reported home. He travels for ESPN during the season but has no reported second residence. The Vitales have lived in the Sarasota area since 1988.

How much did Dick Vitale pay for the Lakewood Ranch home?

Nobody has reported the cost. The house was a custom build on two lots rather than a purchase, and no outlet has published the land price or construction budget. Sarasota Magazine's 2004 tour gave the size but not the cost.

Is Lakewood Ranch part of South Florida?

No. Lakewood Ranch is on the Gulf Coast, about 190 miles by road from West Palm Beach. Pure Equity serves Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and five nearby counties on the Atlantic side.

Can you buy a home in Lakewood Ranch Country Club?

Yes. Lakewood Ranch Country Club is a gated community with resale homes on the market most of the year, and club membership is a separate purchase. Our Manatee County page shows current listings for the area, though Pure Equity does not represent buyers there.

If you own a home in Palm Beach Gardens or anywhere in Palm Beach County and want a current number on what it would sell for, request a free home valuation from Pure Equity. Buyers can browse Palm Beach Gardens listings or see luxury homes across South Florida. Related reads: where AC/DC's Brian Johnson lives in Sarasota and where Michael Jordan lives in Jupiter.

Sources

• Sarasota Magazine, A Big Win (tour of the Vitale home)
• East County Observer, No quit in Lakewood Ranch's Dick Vitale
• Registry Tampa Bay, Florida's Emerald City: Life in Lakewood Ranch

Based on publicly reported information; details may change and are not independently verified by Pure Equity. We do not publish private addresses.