Where Does Stephen King Live in Florida? His Casey Key Winter Home

Where does Stephen King live? The author's main home is in Bangor, Maine. But for a quarter century he has spent winters on Casey Key, a narrow barrier island between Sarasota and Venice on Florida's Gulf Coast. He bought the Casey Key home in April 2001 for a reported $8.9 million, then a record for Sarasota County. Sarasota Magazine and the Observer have both written about the property, and he is still a part-time resident. Here is what public reporting says about the house, the rental that led him there, and where he goes when the weather warms.

Key takeaways

• Casey Key near Osprey is King's Florida home, on the secluded northern end of the island south of Sarasota.
• He paid a reported $8.9 million in April 2001, a county record at the time, per Sarasota Magazine.
• The home has about 6,800 square feet with three bedrooms, four baths, a pool and a tennis court added around 2014.
• Maine is the primary residence: the famous Victorian in Bangor and a lake house in Lovell.

Where does Stephen King live in Florida?

Stephen King's Florida home is on Casey Key, an eight-mile barrier island in Sarasota County with one two-lane road and no gate. The island 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. Casey Key is also one of the last places in Florida where a famous person can own a beach and stay unseen.

His house sits at the northern tip of the key, in the Osprey mailing area. There the island narrows to a strip between the Gulf and Little Sarasota Bay. Our Town Sarasota, a local publication, describes it as the place where he got his bearings back after the 1999 van accident that nearly killed him. The Observer, in a 2017 piece on Sarasota's literary homes, called it a larger and more secluded mansion than his earlier rental. The public has never seen it.

Pure Equity does not publish private addresses. Casey Key is a small island, and we leave it at the island's name.

Inside the reported Casey Key home

Public records cited by Sarasota Magazine and local sites put the purchase at $8.9 million in April 2001. Property descriptions give the main house about 6,817 square feet with three bedrooms and four bathrooms, a modest count for the price. That is the Casey Key pattern: buyers pay for Gulf-to-bay land and privacy, not bedroom count. The lot runs from the beach on the west to the bay on the east.

Two additions show up in the record. A swimming pool was there from the start, and a tennis court went in around 2014, according to Sarasota-area real estate coverage. Beyond that, no interior photos or floor plans have ever appeared in a news outlet, which fits a writer who guards his privacy closely.

Value estimates are a different matter. Celebrity home sites now put the estate near $25 million. We could not trace that figure to an appraisal or a listing, so treat it as a guess. What is fair to say is that Casey Key Gulf-to-bay estates have sold well above $8.9 million since 2020. So a 2001 purchase at that price has almost certainly gained value.

The Longboat Key rental that came first

King did not start on Casey Key. The Observer reported that he and his wife Tabitha rented a modernist home on Longboat Key, north of Sarasota. They stayed three consecutive winters in the late 1990s at $100,000 a season. He wanted to buy it. Tabitha preferred the deeper isolation of Casey Key, and she won the argument.

That rental left a mark on his fiction. The Observer traced the setting of Duma Key, his 2008 novel about a wounded man healing on a Gulf island, to those Longboat winters. The book carries the feeling of a northerner meeting Florida's warm air for the first time. So the Sarasota area is not just where he lives part of the year. It is where one of his best-known later books was born.

Why Stephen King chose Sarasota

The first reason was health. King was struck by a van while walking near his Maine home in June 1999 and spent months in recovery. Local coverage says the Florida winters that followed, first on Longboat and then on Casey Key, were part of getting his strength and his writing back. Warm weather and a quiet beach do that better than a Maine February.

The second reason was the town. Sarasota has an unusual literary and arts scene for a city its size, with a well-known reading festival and a strong library system. King has taken part in local events over the years. He also became a visible fan of Florida baseball. He shows up at spring training games and writes about the Red Sox, whose spring home is in nearby Fort Myers. Casey Key gave him privacy with a city 20 minutes away.

Where else does Stephen King live?

Maine is home, and it always has been. The Kings' house in Bangor, a red Victorian with a wrought-iron fence of bats and spiders, is the most photographed writer's home in America. In 2019 the city approved his plan to turn it into an archive and writers' retreat. Realtor.com has estimated its value between $750,000 and $1 million. The couple also own a lake house in Lovell, in western Maine, which reporting has long described as their main summer base.

So the year runs on a simple cycle. Winter is Casey Key, summer is Lovell, and Bangor is the anchor. No reporting places a fourth home anywhere else. King has said in interviews that he writes every day regardless of which house he is in.

What a home like Stephen King's costs in South Florida

Casey Key is a low-density barrier island with Gulf-to-bay estates and no gate. The closest match on our coast is Jupiter Island in Martin County, a town of large ocean-to-Intracoastal lots with the same rule of privacy over show. Our MLS feed as of September 2026 shows only about 14 active listings on Jupiter Island, with a median asking price near $19.7 million. Homes there average about 190 days on market.

The mainland next door is far more reachable. Hobe Sound has about 190 listings at a median around $570,000. Across Martin County, a waterfront home with beach access can still be found below $3 million. Our beachfront homes page lists every oceanfront property from Jupiter Island south to Miami.

For the Gulf side, the Sarasota County page shows current listings from the same feed. Casey Key homes rarely trade, and when they do they tend to set new records for the county, as King's did in 2001.

Frequently asked questions

Where does Stephen King live now?

He lives in Bangor, Maine most of the year and spends winters on Casey Key, a barrier island south of Sarasota, Florida. He bought the Casey Key home in 2001 and still owns it as of 2025, according to local reporting.

Where in Sarasota does Stephen King live?

On the northern end of Casey Key, in the Osprey area of Sarasota County, roughly 20 minutes south of downtown Sarasota. The home runs from the Gulf to Little Sarasota Bay. We do not publish street addresses.

Where does Stephen King live full time?

Maine. Bangor is the primary residence, with summers at a lake house in Lovell. Florida is a winter home. For anyone asking where does Stephen King live for most of the year, the answer is still Maine, as it has been since the 1970s.

How much did Stephen King pay for the Casey Key home?

A reported $8.9 million in April 2001, which Sarasota Magazine and local real estate coverage describe as a Sarasota County record at the time. Estimates of its current value near $25 million come from celebrity home sites, not from an appraisal.

Does Stephen King still own the Casey Key home?

Yes, as far as public reporting shows. No sale has been reported, and Sarasota-area coverage through 2025 describes him as a continuing part-time resident. Casey Key neighbors and local media have noted his presence for more than two decades.

Is Sarasota part of South Florida?

No. Sarasota is on the Gulf Coast in Southwest Florida. South Florida usually means the Atlantic side: Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Pure Equity serves that side and the Treasure Coast, not Sarasota.

If you own a home on Jupiter Island, in Hobe Sound or anywhere along the Treasure Coast, request a free home valuation from Pure Equity. Find out what island privacy is worth today. Buyers can browse Hobe Sound listings or see luxury homes across South Florida. For the Atlantic version of a barrier island retreat, read where Tiger Woods lives on Jupiter Island. For the other big Gulf Coast name, see where Tom Cruise lives in Clearwater.

Sources

• Your Observer, The perfect setting
• Sarasota Magazine, The secrets and scandals inside Sarasota's famous mansions
• Our Town Sarasota, Stephen King's ties to Sarasota

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