Cracker Cove is a 37-home enclave of detached Key West style houses on Cracker Way and Survey Circle in Bonita Bay, Bonita Springs, built 1986 to 2003, with 12 recorded sales in 60 months at a $987,500 median. Sell or buy with McGreevy and Comisar.
McGreevy and Comisar are the #1 real estate team in Southwest Florida selling and buying homes in Cracker Cove at Bonita Bay. Cracker Cove at Bonita Bay is a 37-home neighborhood of detached Key West style houses on two short streets, Cracker Way and Survey Circle, inside the master-planned community of Bonita Bay in Bonita Springs, Florida. The Lee County Property Appraiser codes every one of its homes with its “Key West” improvement type, and the field cards record wood or fiber-cement siding, metal roofs and living floors raised on pilings over ground-level garages, built from 1986 to 2003 around a shared pool and a small pond. Whether you’re ready to sell your Cracker Cove home or buy your next one, we’re the team that delivers: Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008, the #1 team in Southwest Florida since 2012, and over $900 million in personal sales between Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar.
The Lee County qualified-deed record shows 12 Cracker Cove sales in the 60 months since November 2021 at a median of $987,500, ranging from $500,000 to $1,227,500, and the newest of them was recorded on March 11, 2026. The Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 30, 2026, counted two Cracker Cove closings in the 12 months to that date and two homes listed for sale on the pull date. If you are choosing an agent to sell or buy here, our comparison of the best real estate agents in Bonita Springs shows how local agents stack up on the public record.
This guide is built from the Lee County Property Appraiser parcel roll, all 37 Cracker Cove home field cards, its qualified-sale file (index dated November 1, 2026), Lee County’s parcel and hydrography map layers, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s condominium register, the Cracker Cove association’s own public website, the Bonita Bay Community Association’s recorded Declaration and public pages, FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer, Lee County’s evacuation layer, the City of Bonita Springs, Florida’s homeowners’ association statute and the Southwest Florida MLS figures pulled on September 30, 2026. Where the public record stops, we say so and name the document that answers the question.
By Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar, McGreevy and Comisar, Domain Realty Group. Updated November 2026.
McGreevy and Comisar are the best realtor for Cracker Cove at Bonita Bay because the case is on the record: the #1 team in Southwest Florida since 2012, Top 1% of agents nationally since 2008, over $900 million in personal sales, and a Cracker Cove market read built from every qualified Cracker Cove deed of the last five years, all 37 county home cards, the county’s water and golf parcels and FEMA’s flood layer at every lot.
If you’re searching for the best realtor for Cracker Cove in Bonita Bay, Bonita Springs, whether you’re ready to sell your Cracker Cove home or buy your next one, McGreevy and Comisar is the team that delivers. We lead Domain Realty Group, the #1 real estate team in Southwest Florida since 2012, Top 1% Nationally since 2008, with over $2.5 billion sold as a team and $900 million in personal sales between Jesse and Marc.
That matters in Cracker Cove for a specific reason. A 37-home enclave of nearly identical-looking houses does not price itself. The 12 qualified deeds of the last 60 months run from $500,000 to $1,227,500, a spread of $727,500 among homes that share one architectural style, one era and lots of almost exactly the same size. Two houses sold twice in the window: 3784 Cracker Way recorded $745,000 in November 2023 and $1,078,000 in March 2026, and 3788 Cracker Way recorded $1,000,000 in March 2022 and $950,000 in August 2025. Two-story plans, the size of the finished living area, the condition of a 1980s wood-sided house on pilings and what has been replaced since decide most of the price, and a listing agent who prices from a Bonita Bay average can miss by a wide margin in either direction.
Recent Cracker Cove track record (last 12 months): In the 12 months to September 30, 2026 the Lee County record holds two qualified Cracker Cove deeds, 3812 Survey Circle at $500,000 on October 21, 2025 and 3784 Cracker Way at $1,078,000 on March 11, 2026, and the Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 30, 2026, shows the same two closings, at 90.9% and 93.8% of their list prices. On the pull date two Cracker Cove homes were listed for sale and none was pending. We will walk you through every one of those sales and every deed of the last five years.
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Selling your Cracker Cove home? Get a free home valuation → mcgreevyandcomisar.com/home-valuation OR call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.
Buying a home in Cracker Cove? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873 for a personalized buyer consultation, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida.
Cracker Cove at Bonita Bay, section by section. Each link below jumps to its part of this guide, from the 60-month county deed record and the raised Key West style homes to the pad lots and the condovision question, the pond and preserve edges, the flood zone at every lot, the comparison with Lost Lake, the seller section and the sources behind every figure.
Living in Cracker Cove at Bonita Bay means a raised Key West style house on a pad-sized lot inside a shared, landscaped enclave of 37 homes, with a neighborhood pool and small community building at its center, a pond on its east side, preserve land to the west, Lost Lake as the neighbor to the south and the whole Bonita Bay setting (12 miles of paths, three waterside parks, the Private Beach) through the master association.
Every Cracker Cove home carries a Cracker Way or Survey Circle address: 27 homes on Cracker Way, from 3770 to 3804 and 3826 to 3827, and 10 on Survey Circle, from 3806 to 3828. The Bonita Bay Community Association’s own street table assigns both streets to the Cracker Cove neighborhood (BBCA Street and Neighborhoods), and on the Lee County roll every home on the two streets is a Cracker Cove parcel. By our straight-line measurement from the center of the neighborhood’s common parcel, the Bonita Bay Club address on Country Club Drive is about 0.5 mile to the north, the master association’s office at 3451 Bonita Bay Boulevard about 0.55 mile to the east, the shops and restaurants of the Promenade at Bonita Bay about 0.6 mile northeast and the Bonita Bay Marina about 0.8 mile away.
A planned enclave of 37 detached homes on pad lots around shared land. Cracker Cove’s legal descriptions read “CRACKER COVE OR 1853 PG 2555 LOT 5”, for example: each home is a numbered lot described in the instrument recorded at Official Records Book 1853, Page 2555, not a lot on a plat book page. The lots are small by design. Thirty-five of them measure about 0.077 acre on Lee County’s parcel layer, about 3,350 square feet, roughly the footprint of the house and its porches, and the two lots on Survey Circle that absorbed the split Lot 31 (3818 and 3822) measure about 0.116 acre. Everything around the houses, the two streets, the pool, the community building, the walks and the planted grounds, is one 6.94-acre parcel at 3769 Cracker Way.
The Property Appraiser assigns every home its “Key West” improvement type (code 104), records one living unit in each building on all 37 cards, and codes every one with the single-family use code. The county groups the neighborhood in its own appraisal neighborhood, “CRACKER COVE AT BONITA BAY”, on all 37 cards.
Cracker Cove is not a block-and-stucco, tile-roof street like most of Bonita Bay, not a golf-course street and not a dockfront boating street. No Cracker Cove card records concrete block walls or a tile roof; every one records siding and a metal roof covering. On Lee County’s parcel layer the nearest Bonita Bay Club golf course parcel (the Marsh course) is about 620 feet from the closest Cracker Cove lots (3818 and 3822 Survey Circle) and about 1,125 feet from the farthest (3794 Cracker Way), so no lot fronts a fairway. No field card shows a dock, boat lift or seawall, and none shows a private pool.
The live description of Cracker Cove that buyers read most often calls it Old Florida and Key West inspired, and the county’s own cards back that up in detail. The association’s website describes “a collection of 37 Key West Style homes” modeled after Florida homes of the early 1900s, with wood or wood-style siding, ornate exterior moldings, cupolas and gables, and tin roofs (Cracker Cove association website). The field cards record the same things in the county’s terms: cedar or redwood siding on 30 homes, the county’s “HARDI/LOG/FSP” siding class (fiber-cement and similar sidings) on 7, a modular metal roof covering on all 37, an irregular roof structure on 27 and a hip roof on 9. Raised floors on wood pilings are the feature that ties the houses to the Florida vernacular tradition, in which homes were lifted off the ground for air flow and floodwater and roofed in metal (Florida cracker architecture); the Key West conch house adds the porches and trim (conch house).
The cards record the living area as two stories on 28 homes and one story on 9, and every card records a garage at the lower level beneath it: an unfinished lower garage on 35 homes and a finished lower garage on 3 (one home has both), from about 490 to 1,460 square feet of lower garage area per home (median about 1,105). Most cards add a lower carport or open porch and a finished lower utility area. Fourteen cards record a finished lower-level area as well, which is a flood-rating question covered in the flood section. Four cards record a residential elevator: 3770, 3775 and 3802 Cracker Way and 3814 Survey Circle.
Bonita Bay has 12 miles of walking and biking paths connecting its neighborhoods, parks and the Club campuses, inside a gated community of 3,346 residences on about 2,400 acres (BBCA Media Brochure, January 2026). Cracker Cove adds its own. The association’s website describes the swimming pool and a small community building at the center of the neighborhood as its gathering place, a walking trail immediately beside the homes that joins the Bonita Bay path network, and pond or preserve views from several homes, with the small pond on one side and the preserve running to the west (Cracker Cove association website). Lost Lake adjoins the south side of the neighborhood, Oakwood lies to the east, and Cracker Cove owners share the parks and the Private Beach with the rest of Bonita Bay.
McGreevy and Comisar, Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008, sell and buy in Cracker Cove, a 37-home enclave inside Bonita Bay where the plan (one living level or two), the finished size, the condition of a wood-sided house on pilings and the view toward the pond or the preserve decide most of the price. Selling a Cracker Cove home? Start with a free Cracker Cove home valuation, or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072. Buying on Cracker Way or Survey Circle? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida. If you want to see what is listed right now, our Domain Realty Group team keeps the current Cracker Cove at Bonita Bay homes for sale on its own site.
Data updated: November 2026. Cracker Cove at Bonita Bay recorded 12 qualified sales in the 60 months since November 2021 at a $987,500 median, from $500,000 to $1,227,500, in the Lee County Property Appraiser recorded sales, through September 2026. The newest recorded Cracker Cove sale is March 11, 2026 (the index’s newest Lee County sale overall is September 25, 2026), and the MLS figures below are from the Southwest Florida MLS pull of September 30, 2026.
Two sources describe the same market from two angles. The Lee County Property Appraiser’s qualified-sale file records the deed consideration for every arm’s-length sale the Property Appraiser accepts as a market sale, and it is the primary recent-sales source on this page. The Southwest Florida MLS records the reported closing price of homes marketed through the MLS, plus asking prices, days on market and active listings, which the deed record cannot show. Where the two disagree on a sale, this page publishes the deed figure as the sale price and names the MLS figure once with its date; the county records the deed consideration, while the MLS records the reported closing price. They are never averaged. Twelve sales in five years on a 37-home enclave is a small sample, and we say so wherever a figure leans on it.
A 12-month window, since November 2025, holds one qualified Cracker Cove sale; a 24-month window holds four, a 36-month window seven, a 48-month window ten and the 60-month window twelve. We use the 60-month window, since November 2021, and list every sale in it rather than lean on the median alone. Every sale in the window was a resale; the last new Cracker Cove home on the roll was finished in 2003. The county’s summary for all recorded history, back to the 1980s, is not a current price and we do not present it as one.
Recorded | Address | Lot class (county card) | Living stories (card) | Heated sq ft | Deed price | Per heated sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
January 11, 2022 | 3774 Cracker Way | Lake | Two | 2,267 | $950,000 | $419 |
March 2, 2022 | 3788 Cracker Way | None | Two | 2,103 | $1,000,000 | $476 |
February 13, 2023 | 3824 Survey Circle | None | One | 1,804 | $810,000 | $449 |
March 21, 2023 | 3808 Survey Circle | None | Two | 2,082 | $1,227,500 | $590 |
October 2023 | 3822 Survey Circle | None | Two | 2,219 | $1,225,000 | $552 |
November 6, 2023 | 3784 Cracker Way | None | Two | 2,113 | $745,000 | $353 |
November 30, 2023 | 3814 Survey Circle | None | Two | 2,072 | $1,145,000 | $553 |
March 14, 2024 | 3791 Cracker Way | None | One | 1,942 | $975,000 | $502 |
March 4, 2025 | 3790 Cracker Way | None | Two | 2,491 | $1,050,000 | $422 |
August 19, 2025 | 3788 Cracker Way | None | Two | 2,103 | $950,000 | $452 |
October 21, 2025 | 3812 Survey Circle | None | One | 1,564 | $500,000 | $320 |
March 11, 2026 | 3784 Cracker Way | None | Two | 2,113 | $1,078,000 | $510 |
The twelve deeds total $11,655,500. Twelve is an even count, so the median is the midpoint of the sixth and seventh prices in order: sorted, the prices run $500,000, $745,000, $810,000, $950,000, $950,000, $975,000, $1,000,000, $1,050,000, $1,078,000, $1,145,000, $1,225,000 and $1,227,500, and the midpoint of $975,000 and $1,000,000 is $987,500. The per-square-foot median works the same way: the sixth and seventh of the twelve sorted values are $451.7 and $475.5, a median of $464 per county heated square foot. Two houses recorded two deeds each (3784 and 3788 Cracker Way), so the twelve deeds cover ten different homes, a little over a quarter of the neighborhood. The October 2023 deed at 3822 Survey Circle carries a month, not a day, in the county’s sale file.
Two qualified Cracker Cove deeds were recorded in the 12 months to September 30, 2026. The first, 3812 Survey Circle at $500,000 on October 21, 2025, is one of the smaller houses in the neighborhood (four homes on the roll are smaller, down to 1,416 square feet): 1,564 heated square feet on one living level over the garage, two bedrooms on the roll, built in 2003, the only home on the roll built after 1996. The second, 3784 Cracker Way at $1,078,000 on March 11, 2026, is a two-story home of 2,113 heated square feet that had recorded $745,000 in November 2023. Neither deed tells us what was inside either house. The MLS record of the $500,000 sale shows a first asking price of $550,000 and 229 days on market, and the county card grades its condition “average”, the same grade the cards give all 37 homes; we found no primary source that explains the price, so we do not guess.
The Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 30, 2026, counted two Cracker Cove closings in the 12 months to that date: 3812 Survey Circle, listed at $550,000 and sold for $500,000 on October 21, 2025 after 229 days (90.9% of list), and 3784 Cracker Way, listed at $1,149,500 and sold for $1,078,000 on March 11, 2026 after 34 days (93.8% of list). The median sale-to-list ratio of the two is 92.3%, and the median price per MLS living square foot is $377. On the pull date two homes were listed for sale: 3798 Cracker Way asking $1,125,000 after 292 days on market, and 3814 Survey Circle asking $1,050,000 after 180 days. No sale was pending, and the same pull’s 12-month rental search returned no leased Cracker Cove record. Two closings is a count, not a trend, and asking prices are what sellers wanted on September 30, 2026, not what buyers paid.
On the two recent sales both records hold, they agree on the price to the dollar ($500,000 and $1,078,000) and on the dates, so the deed-versus-MLS rule has nothing to settle on price. They disagree on size. The county’s heated area for 3784 Cracker Way is 2,113 square feet and the MLS reported 2,478 living square feet with three bedrooms plus a den; for 3812 Survey Circle both report 1,564. Each measures by its own method, and the per-square-foot figures on this page say which denominator they use.
In Cracker Cove the gap between the two square footages has a specific cause worth knowing. The county card separates the heated living floors from the finished rooms at the garage level, which it records as “finished lower utility” or “finished lower level” areas, and the MLS listing often counts them as living space. For 3798 Cracker Way, listed on September 30, 2026 at 2,656 living square feet, the county records 1,998 heated square feet plus a 658-square-foot finished lower utility area, which together make exactly 2,656. A buyer comparing price per square foot should know which number the listing uses, and should ask how the lower-level room is built and permitted, because it sits below the base flood elevation (see the flood section).
The two homes listed on September 30, 2026 were asking $1,125,000 (3798 Cracker Way, 292 days on market) and $1,050,000 (3814 Survey Circle, 180 days). Both asks sit above the 60-month deed median of $987,500 and below the top two deeds of the window, $1,227,500 and $1,225,000. 3814 Survey Circle recorded a deed of $1,145,000 in November 2023, so its 2026 ask is below its last sale price. Both recent closings sold below their first list price, at 90.9% and 93.8%. When a Cracker Cove home comes to market, read its ask against the deeds in the table that match its plan, size and condition, not against the median alone.
The twelve deeds span $727,500, and the county record explains part of that spread without guessing at the rest. Plan: the nine two-story homes that sold recorded $745,000 to $1,227,500, a median of $1,050,000; the three one-story homes recorded $500,000, $810,000 and $975,000, a median of $810,000. Size: the two lowest prices per square foot were the one-story 3812 Survey Circle (1,564 square feet, $320) and the November 2023 sale of 3784 Cracker Way ($353), and the same house recorded $510 a square foot 28 months later. Water: only one lake-class home sold in the window (3774, $950,000), and the four preserve-edge sales (three homes) recorded $950,000 to $1,227,500, so the record is too thin to price the preserve or the pond on its own. The deed record does not say what was inside any house, and we do not guess; renovation and condition are the likely remaining variables, but only the listing, the disclosures and a showing establish them for a specific sale. The county’s 2025 values, which cover all 37 homes rather than the few that sold, put two-story homes at a median just value of $817,124 and one-story homes at $674,211.
The county record shows how far Cracker Cove prices moved before this window. The first qualified home sales on the file were $280,000 (3827 Cracker Way, April 1988), $235,000 (3778, October 1988) and $277,000 (3771, April 1989), and three lots sold vacant from 1990 to 1993 for $52,000 to $65,600. Resales through the 1990s ran about $206,500 to $295,000. In the mid-2000s peak, 3800 Cracker Way recorded $625,000 (June 2006) and 3814 Survey Circle $606,000 (April 2007); after it, 3786 Cracker Way recorded $338,000 (May 2011), 3784 $347,000 (March 2012) and 3790 $385,000 (April 2012). Qualified deeds from 2014 through 2021 include $305,000 (3775, April 2014), $410,000 (3808, May 2014), $480,000 (3801, May 2016), $725,000 (3804, February 2019), $606,500 (3770, March 2019), $662,500 (3788, March 2020), $715,000 (3790, August 2020), $975,000 (3778, June 2021) and $950,000 (3798, June 2021). Repeat sales tell the story best: 3808 Survey Circle went from $410,000 in 2014 to $1,227,500 in 2023; 3790 Cracker Way from $440,000 in 2014 to $715,000 in 2020 and $1,050,000 in 2025; 3814 Survey Circle from $606,000 in 2007 to $1,145,000 in 2023; 3791 Cracker Way from $465,000 in 2019 to $975,000 in 2024; and 3788 Cracker Way from $662,500 in 2020 to $1,000,000 in 2022 and $950,000 in 2025. The deed record does not say why a price moved, and we do not guess; the disclosures and the house itself explain a specific sale.
The table below runs the same county measure for nearby Bonita Bay single-family neighborhoods: qualified improved deeds recorded in the 60 months since November 2021, from the same Lee County index (built November 1, 2026), with each neighborhood matched to its own recorded legal descriptions. Each neighborhood’s own guide may quote a different window; this table keeps one window for all of them.
Neighborhood | Homes | Built | Heated sq ft | Deeds (60 months) | Median | Range | Median per heated sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cracker Cove | 37 | 1986 to 2003 | 1,416 to 2,515 | 12 | $987,500 | $500,000 to $1,227,500 | $464 |
Lost Lake | 26 | 1991 to 1996 | 1,881 to 2,768 | 9 | $1,013,400 | $580,000 to $1,495,000 | $470 |
Arbor Strand | 27 | 1993 to 1999 | 2,005 to 3,234 | 12 | $975,000 | $740,000 to $1,180,000 | $437 |
Bay Harbor | 62 | 1995 to 1998 | 1,761 to 3,093 | 22 | $969,375 | $630,000 to $1,625,000 | $452 |
Tuckaweye | 31 | 1987 to 2003 | 1,980 to 2,779 | 10 | $865,000 | $640,000 to $1,025,000 | $392 |
Oakwood Villas | 26 | 1987 to 1989 | 1,612 to 2,531 | 10 | $554,500 | $448,000 to $725,000 | $324 |
Riviera | 35 | 1990 to 1997 | 1,810 to 3,844 | 14 | $1,187,500 | $875,000 to $1,700,000 | $492 |
Anchorage | 37 | 1991 to 1999 | 2,268 to 4,644 | 14 | $1,300,000 | $885,000 to $2,250,000 | $518 |
Cracker Cove sits in the cluster of Bonita Bay single-family neighborhoods that trade near $1,000,000: Lost Lake next door, Arbor Strand and Bay Harbor all hold 60-month medians from $969,375 to $1,013,400, with Riviera and Anchorage a step up and Tuckaweye and the Oakwood Villas homes to the east a step down. Lost Lake is the closest pair on price and size: its 60-month median is $25,900 above Cracker Cove’s, its median per square foot $6 higher, and its median home 15 square feet smaller.
For a buyer, the record says Cracker Cove trades a few times a year (12 deeds in 60 months on 37 homes, two in the last 12) and that the two homes listed on September 30, 2026 had been on the market for 180 and 292 days, so there is room to negotiate on a house that needs work. For a seller, the same record says the enclave supports prices above $1,200,000 for the right two-story house and well below $1,000,000 for a smaller or dated one: 3808 Survey Circle recorded $1,227,500 in March 2023, and 3812 Survey Circle $500,000 in October 2025. With so few sales, the closest matching deeds, the county’s values for all 37 homes and the condition of the house carry more weight than any neighborhood median.
Cracker Cove grew out of the Bonita Bay master plan of the mid-1980s: its association was incorporated in December 1985, its 38 lots and common land were described in the instrument recorded at Official Records Book 1853, Page 2555, and the houses were built one or a few at a time from 1986 to 1996, with a last one in 2003.
The Bonita Bay Community Association was established in 1985, and the community now covers about 2,400 acres with 3,346 residences across condominiums, high-rises, coach homes and single-family neighborhoods (BBCA Media Brochure, January 2026). The original Declaration of General Protective Covenants and Restrictions for Bonita Bay was recorded on April 3, 1985 at Official Records Book 1778, Page 3516, and the current master Declaration was recorded on June 22, 2011 as Lee County Instrument 2011000142834. The master association frames the community between Spring Creek to the north, the Imperial River to the south and Estero Bay to the west (BBCA, vision); Cracker Cove sits in the interior of its southern half, between Lost Lake and the Oakwood neighborhoods. The City of Bonita Springs, which incorporated in 1999, now governs the land (City of Bonita Springs, history).
The county roll dates the houses from 1986 to 2003: two in 1986, six in 1987, seven each in 1988 and 1989, six in 1990, two in 1991, one in 1992, two in 1993, one in 1994, two in 1996 (3786 Cracker Way and 3818 Survey Circle) and the last, 3812 Survey Circle, in 2003. The earliest qualified home sales on the county file are $235,000 to $280,000 in 1988 and 1989. Every house shares the same vocabulary on its card (siding, a metal roof, a living floor raised on pilings over a garage), and the association’s website describes five basic interior designs behind exteriors that look alike (Cracker Cove association website). We do not name a builder or developer, because no primary record we read identifies one.
The common parcel at 3769 Cracker Way, 6.94 acres on Lee County’s parcel layer, carries the legal description “CRACKER COVE CONDOVISION DESC OR 1853 PG 2555 COMMON ELEMENTS”, less four instruments recorded in 2008, three of which re-describe Lots 33, 34 and 35 at the end of Survey Circle and Cracker Way. The association’s website says Cracker Cove carried out a major improvement of its common areas in 2012, covering the roads, the storm drainage, the pool and pool deck, brick-paver driveways and sidewalks, and native landscaping in place of most of the grass, and that owners then renovated many of the homes and adopted a new paint palette in keeping with the Key West style (Cracker Cove association website). The driveways and walks are therefore part of the common improvements the association describes, not the individual lots. In 2024 and 2025 the neighbors at 3818 and 3822 Survey Circle divided Lot 31 between them by recorded instruments (2025000070960 and 2025000070956), which is why those two lots now measure about 0.116 acre.
Cracker Cove owners belong to the Bonita Bay Community Association, a Florida not-for-profit corporation (document N07041, filed January 10, 1985) operating as a homeowners’ association under Chapter 720, Florida Statutes, and to the Cracker Cove Property Owners Association, Inc., a Florida not-for-profit corporation incorporated on December 18, 1985 under document number N12614, active with annual reports filed through 2025 on the state’s corporate record. The state’s corporate search refused our automated check on November 1, 2026, so we cite the record by its document number; confirm the association’s current record, officers and status with the Division of Corporations and in the documents delivered with a sale. The neighborhood association’s role is set by its own recorded documents, and those documents, not a summary, govern what it maintains and what it charges.
Cracker Cove’s homes are 37 detached single-family houses that the Lee County Property Appraiser classes as “Key West” construction, built 1986 to 2003, from 1,416 to 2,515 heated square feet (median 2,103), with siding and metal roofs, living floors raised on pilings over ground-level garages, 28 of them with two living stories and 9 with one.
Measure (county roll, field cards and parcel layer, November 1, 2026) | Two living stories | One living story |
|---|---|---|
Homes (single-family use code) | 28 | 9 |
Streets | Cracker Way 22, Survey Circle 6 | Cracker Way 5, Survey Circle 4 |
County improvement type | Key West, one living unit each | Key West, one living unit each |
Year built | 1986 to 1994 | 1986 to 2003 |
Heated area | 1,998 to 2,515 sq ft (median 2,150) | 1,416 to 1,942 sq ft (median 1,564) |
Bedrooms (roll) | 3 bed: 26 · 2 bed: 2 | 2 bed: 6 · 3 bed: 3 |
Exterior wall (card) | Cedar or redwood siding 24 · fiber-cement style 4 | Cedar or redwood siding 6 · fiber-cement style 3 |
Lake-class lots | 4 | 0 |
Residential elevator (card) | 3 | 1 |
2025 just value | $658,011 to $910,282 (median $817,124) | $626,378 to $765,500 (median $674,211) |
Across all 37 homes the roll records a metal roof covering, a ground-level garage and one living unit on every card, two baths on 35 homes and three on 2, and a 2025 just value total of $28,984,531.
Every one of the 37 cards records one living unit in the building under the county’s Key West improvement type, and every home has its own parcel number and the single-family use code: these are freestanding houses, not attached or town-house units. What makes Cracker Cove unusual is the lot. Thirty-five lots measure about 0.077 acre on Lee County’s parcel layer, about 3,350 square feet, and the two lots that took in the split Lot 31 measure about 0.116 acre; the lot is close to the size of the house, its porches and its stoops. Yards, the paver driveways and walks, and the landscaping around the houses sit on the neighborhood’s 6.94-acre common parcel, which the association maintains under its own documents. A buyer who wants to add a pool, extend a porch or plant a garden is asking about common land, and the declaration and the association’s architectural review decide it.
The cards describe a consistent section through every house. At ground level is a garage, recorded as an unfinished lower garage on 35 homes and a finished lower garage on 3 (one home has both), from about 490 to 1,460 square feet of lower garage area per house, plus a lower carport or open porch on 36 cards and a finished lower utility area on 29. Above it are the heated living floors: one on 9 homes and two on 28, with a finished upper story of 546 to 856 square feet on the two-story cards. The association’s website describes two-, three- and four-car garages (Cracker Cove association website); the card gives the area, and the garage door count is confirmed on a showing.
Twenty-seven cards record a finished screen porch, nine a finished open porch and seven an enclosed porch (six finished, one unfinished). Thirty cards record cedar or redwood siding and seven the county’s fiber-cement and similar siding class (3772, 3778, 3786, 3796, 3798 and 3800 Cracker Way and 3812 Survey Circle). All 37 record a metal roof covering, on an irregular roof structure on 27 homes, a hip roof on 9 and a gable or hip roof on 1. The cards grade quality “above average” on 36 homes and “average” on 1, and condition “average” on all 37; the grade describes the county’s cost model, not a renovation.
Three bedrooms is the Cracker Cove norm (29 homes), with two bedrooms on eight. The cards record a traditional floor plan on 22 homes and a split plan on 15, ceilings of 8 to 10 feet on 33 and under 8 feet on 4. A listing may add a den or a finished lower-level room the roll does not count as a bedroom, so confirm the plan on a showing. The association describes five basic interior designs behind similar exteriors.
Every Cracker Cove home is wood-framed on a raised foundation, so the inspection list is different from Bonita Bay’s block-and-stucco streets. Ask for the age and permit of the metal roof, the condition of the siding and trim (wood siding needs paint and rot checks; fiber-cement siding less so), the pilings and the connections under the house, termite history and any treatment contract, the wind mitigation report (roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall connection, opening protection), the four-point report an insurer will want on an older house, the air-conditioning age (29 cards record additional air-conditioning units), the elevator inspection on the four homes that have one, and the elevation certificate. Nineteen cards record some form of opening protection: shutters on part of the home (5), panel and electric shutters (5), impact glass (4), panel or accordion shutters (3) and impact glass with shutters (2). The City of Bonita Springs permit history by address shows which of those have been replaced and when (City of Bonita Springs, apply for a building permit). The Florida Building Code, 8th Edition (2023), governs any work done now (Florida Building Commission).
The Property Appraiser’s 2025 just values for the 37 homes run from $626,378 to $910,282, a median of $791,061, and total $28,984,531. The four lake-class homes carry a median of $849,156 and the other 33 a median of $776,971. Just value is the county’s estimate as of January 1 for tax purposes, not a sale price; the 60-month deed median of $987,500 sits well above the median just value, and a buyer should expect the assessed value, and with it the tax bill, to reset the year after a purchase, because a seller’s homestead assessment cap does not transfer with the house. The Lee County Property Appraiser and the Lee County Tax Collector publish each parcel’s value and bill.
Cracker Cove is owned, on every public record we could read, as 37 single-family lots plus one common parcel: the homes carry the single-family use code and lot legal descriptions, the association is a property owners’ association, and the state’s condominium register does not list Cracker Cove. The county’s label for the common parcel, “CRACKER COVE CONDOVISION” with “common elements”, is the reason to read the recorded declaration before you buy.
In Florida real estate usage a condovision is a planned neighborhood laid out like a condominium, with small home sites and everything else held as shared land, and the term is sometimes used for neighborhoods that were in fact created under a condominium declaration. The difference matters to a buyer in three ways. A condominium unit is financed under a lender’s condominium project rules, insured under a condominium form with the association insuring parts of the property, and governed by Chapter 718, Florida Statutes, which includes the post-2022 condominium safety provisions. A fee-simple lot in a homeowners’ association is financed and insured like any single-family house and governed by Chapter 720.
Record (checked November 1, 2026) | What it shows for Cracker Cove |
|---|---|
Lee County roll, all 37 homes | Use code 01, single-family residential; legal “CRACKER COVE OR 1853 PG 2555 LOT n” |
Lee County field cards, all 37 | Model “single-family residential”, one living unit in the building, Key West improvement type |
Lee County parcel layer, common parcel 334725B10140000CE | 6.94 acres at 3769 Cracker Way, use code 09, owner name “CRACKER COVE CONDOVISION”, legal “COMMON ELEMENTS” |
DBPR condominium register, all six regional files | No Cracker Cove entry; nothing on Cracker Way or Survey Circle |
Florida corporate record, document N12614 | Cracker Cove Property Owners Association, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation incorporated December 18, 1985 |
Lee County roll, 2008 and 2025 instruments | Lots 33 to 35 re-described, and Lot 31 divided between two neighbors, by recorded instruments |
Every marker we could check points to fee-simple single-family lots inside a homeowners’ association: the county treats each home as a single-family parcel rather than a condominium unit, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s public condominium files list no Cracker Cove condominium (DBPR condominium public records), and the association’s name is a property owners’ association. What we could not read is the declaration itself at Official Records Book 1853, Page 2555, because the Lee County Clerk’s search portal blocks automated access. That document, and the owner’s title commitment for a specific home, settle the form of ownership.
On the record we read, a Cracker Cove purchase is a single-family purchase: the lender underwrites the house, the appraisal, the homeowner’s policy and the flood policy rather than a condominium project. Because the lot is about the footprint of the house, the declaration also decides who insures and maintains what lies outside it, the paver driveway, the walks and the planted grounds on the common parcel, and whether the association carries any coverage on the houses themselves. Ask your insurance agent to read the declaration’s insurance and maintenance sections before writing the policy, and ask the lender early whether its review needs the declaration.
Florida’s milestone structural inspections (Section 553.899, Florida Statutes) and structural integrity reserve studies (Section 718.112, Florida Statutes) were written for condominium and cooperative buildings. Cracker Cove’s association is not on the DBPR condominium register and its homes are coded single-family, so on the record we read those requirements do not reach Cracker Cove; if a title review ever found the declaration created a condominium, the association and the lender would answer that question for the specific buildings (Section 553.899, Florida Statutes; Section 718.112, Florida Statutes).
Cracker Cove is a pond-and-preserve enclave, not a golf or dockfront one: 4 of its 37 lots are coded lake frontage on a pond of about 0.84 acre on the east side, eleven lots on the west and south edge lie within about 27 to 67 feet of a natural tidal area of about 33 acres, no lot touches a golf course on the county map, and no county record shows a private dock, seawall or pool.
On November 1, 2026 we read the land line on all 37 Cracker Cove home cards at the Lee County Property Appraiser, and overlaid the Cracker Cove parcels on Lee County’s parcel and hydrography map layers (Lee County parcel layer; Lee County hydrography layer). Because every lot is a pad close to the house, the distances below run from the edge of the lot across the common ground to the water. The results:
Lot group | Lots | Addresses | What the county map shows beyond the lot |
|---|---|---|---|
Lake class (county card) | 4 | 3770, 3774, 3776 and 3780 Cracker Way | A freshwater pond of about 0.84 acre about 22 to 48 feet from the lot edge, across common ground |
East side, no water class | 3 | 3778, 3782 and 3784 Cracker Way | The same pond about 21 to 28 feet away; the card carries no lake class |
West and south edge, no water class | 11 | 3788 to 3804 Cracker Way (even), 3808 and 3810 Survey Circle | A natural tidal area of about 33 acres about 27 to 67 feet away, the preserve the association describes to the west |
Interior and Survey Circle | 19 | The rest of both streets | Neighboring homes, the pool and common grounds; the pond or the tidal area about 90 feet or more away |
The common parcel itself reaches the tidal area on the county map. Three east-side homes sit as close to the pond as the lake-class lots, but their cards carry no lake class; the card, not a distance, decides the county’s classification, and the view from the porch decides what a buyer will pay for. The association’s website describes the small pond, home to a few tarpon, and the preserve to the west (Cracker Cove association website). Lost Lake’s lake lies about 62 feet beyond 3810 Survey Circle. All distances are measured edge to edge on the county’s map layers, not surveyed; the recorded declaration and a survey decide the true boundary of any lot.
Some descriptions of Bonita Bay neighborhoods promise golf course views. For Cracker Cove the county map does not support that. Searching Lee County’s parcel layer for golf course parcels around Bonita Bay, the nearest Bonita Bay Club course to Cracker Cove is the Marsh course parcel, about 620 feet from the closest Cracker Cove lots (3818 and 3822 Survey Circle) and about 1,125 feet from the farthest (3794 Cracker Way); the Creekside and Bay Island course parcels are farther away. No lot adjoins a fairway, and none of the 37 cards carries a golf land class.
No Cracker Cove field card lists a dock, boat lift, seawall or private pool among its extra features, and the boat dock and seawall fields on Lee County’s parcel layer are empty for all 37 homes. The pond is a freshwater stormwater pond and the tidal area is natural land, not a navigable canal behind the homes. The neighborhood’s swimming pool is on the common parcel. Building anything at the pond or preserve edge needs master association Design Review approval under §9.2 of the master Declaration and the Cracker Cove association’s own review, and the South Florida Water Management District regulates the surface water management system the pond belongs to (South Florida Water Management District; Florida DEP).
The Bonita Bay Marina is a semi-private, full-service marina on the Imperial River with direct access to Estero Bay and the Gulf, “created and owned by a group of resident investors” and operated separately from both the master association and the Club. The master association lists 326 dry storage spaces for boats up to 36 feet and 98 wet slips for vessels up to 16,000 pounds, with a ship’s store, boat launch, bait, fuel and on-site repair; additional fees apply (BBCA, marina and Backwater Jacks). The January 2026 brochure confirms that the Marina and the Club “operate as separately owned and managed member-exclusive entities.” Spotlight News reported that 39 resident investors bought the marina and restaurant in July 2013 (Spotlight News). By straight line the marina’s published GPS position is about 0.8 mile from the center of Cracker Cove.
The specification that matters most is draft: the marina publishes a maximum draft of 36 inches, set by its permitting agreement (Bonita Bay Marina, about the marina). Check your boat’s draft and length against the marina’s rules before you buy around a boat. Backwater Jacks, the waterfront restaurant at the marina, is open for dining to all residents (Backwater Jacks; Bonita Bay Marina). Slip and storage availability and fees are set by the marina, not by either association.
A Cracker Cove home comes with the neighborhood’s own pool, community building and walking trail on the common parcel, plus Bonita Bay’s paths, three waterside parks, gated entry, Community Patrol and Private Beach through the master association; the Bonita Bay Club’s golf, racquet sports, fitness and dining come only if you join, and marina slips and storage only if you rent them.
The pool is the one amenity that belongs to Cracker Cove alone, and with no private pool on any of the 37 cards, it is the neighborhood’s pool. The association’s website places the swimming pool and a small community building at the center of the neighborhood, describes it as the gathering spot where neighbors meet informally about once a month, and lists the pool and pool deck among the common areas renovated in 2012 (Cracker Cove association website). The common parcel’s county card did not load when we requested it, so we do not state the pool’s size or year from the county record. Hours, guest rules and the cost of keeping the pool up are matters for the association’s rules and budget, delivered with the documents in a sale.
Every Cracker Cove owner is automatically a member of the Bonita Bay Community Association, which maintains “grounds, roads, streetlights, lake and storm water management, plus all of our recreational parks including the Private Beach,” runs the Community Patrol and staffs the Design Review Department (BBCA, Community Association). Homeowners “gain membership and access to all Association amenities” (BBCA, realtor and buyer resources). None of this requires a Club membership.
Bonita Bay is gated, and the master association’s Community Patrol works inside the gates (BBCA, Community Association). Visitor and vendor access runs through the association’s procedures, delivered with the documents at purchase. Law enforcement is the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
Bonita Bay has “three onsite parks and a Private Beach located only a short drive from the front gates” (BBCA, the parks of Bonita Bay). Estero Bay Park, in the northwestern corner, has an 800-foot boardwalk through coastal mangroves to a private pier on Estero Bay, a butterfly garden, nature trails and shell mounds the association dates to 5,000 years ago. Riverwalk Park, on the Imperial River at the southern edge, has a boat ramp, kayak launch, bocce and pickleball. Spring Creek Park, on the northern border, has a kayak and canoe launch dock, bocce and an observation deck. The master association’s maps show where they are (BBCA property maps; facilities and amenities map).
Bonita Bay’s Private Beach is a Gulf-front facility owned by the master association on Hickory Boulevard, outside the main gates. It “sustained total destruction during Hurricane Ian,” was rebuilt in concrete with breakaway walls and reopened on November 13 (BBCA, Private Beach). It is an amenity of every Cracker Cove owner through the master association, with a resident shuttle; the master association’s facilities map shows the shuttle stops.
The 12 miles of paths (trails map) connect Cracker Way to the parks and the Club campuses, and the association’s website notes a walking trail immediately beside the homes. The master association lists its grounds and environmental awards, including its Audubon certification, in its 2026 awards summary (BBCA Awards and Recognitions 2026), and its lifestyle page describes community programming (BBCA, style of living).
The Bonita Bay Club is an optional, separately owned, member-owned private club inside Bonita Bay, with five championship golf courses on two campuses, a sports center, a Lifestyle Center and dining. Buying a Cracker Cove home does not make you a Club member and does not require you to join; membership is a separate decision with its own fees.
“Bonita Bay Club is a separate entity within the community of Bonita Bay,” the Club says (Bonita Bay Club, our community). The master association describes the Club as operating independently, with five courses (three designed by Arthur Hills and two by Tom Fazio), 16 Har-Tru tennis courts and 15 pickleball courts (BBCA, Bonita Bay Club). The two Fazio courses, Cypress and Sabal, are on the Club’s Naples campus (Bonita Bay Club, golf); the Sports Center, Lifestyle Center and dining pages describe the rest. By our straight-line measurement the Club address at 26660 Country Club Drive is about 0.5 mile from the center of Cracker Cove. On the county map the nearest of the Club’s courses, the Marsh course, is about 620 feet from the closest Cracker Cove lot.
Members bought the Club from the developer in 2010 for $11.5 million, $7.5 million of it real estate, as the Business Observer reported (Business Observer, April 2, 2010). A Club release says members approved a $110 million clubhouse project in May 2026 and that about $250 million has been reinvested since members acquired the Club (Hunter PR release). A Club release dated November 8, 2019, before Hurricane Ian, announced the reopening of the renovated Bay Island course (PR Newswire, Bay Island reopening).
Bonita Bay Club membership is optional and separate from home ownership. The Club does not publish initiation fees or dues on its public website; the Club’s membership office provides the current schedule. A Cracker Cove owner can skip the Club entirely and use the neighborhood pool, the master association’s paths, parks and Private Beach, or join for golf or racquet sports. Either way, the Club is a cost only if you choose it, and a membership does not transfer with a Cracker Cove deed unless the Club’s own rules say so.
Cracker Cove owners pay the Bonita Bay Community Association master assessment and the assessment of the Cracker Cove Property Owners Association, plus their own property taxes and insurance. Neither association publishes its assessment on a public page, and Bonita Bay has no CDD, so the real numbers come from the estoppel certificates in the sale.
Bonita Bay Community Association does not publish its master assessment or resale charges on its public website. Every owner pays the master assessment plus any neighborhood or condominium association assessment. Current figures, including any charge due at closing, appear in the estoppel certificate and the §720.401 disclosure summary provided in the sale (Section 720.401, Florida Statutes). The Cracker Cove association’s assessment appears in its own estoppel certificate, which Florida law requires an association to issue on request within a set time and fee schedule (Section 720.30851, Florida Statutes).
The Cracker Cove association levies whatever its recorded documents authorize. Its common parcel is unusually large for 37 homes, 6.94 acres holding the two streets, the paver driveways and walks, the pool and community building, the storm drainage and the planted grounds around every house, so its budget can be expected to cover far more of the outdoor upkeep than a typical single-family neighborhood association. Only the documents and the budget say exactly what it maintains and charges, including whether anything on the houses themselves (paint, roofs or siding, for example) falls to the association or to the owner. We have not read the declaration, and the association publishes no budget on a public page, so the estoppel certificate and the annual budget, which an owner may inspect under Section 720.303 (Section 720.303, Florida Statutes), answer those questions.
The Bonita Bay Community Association (Florida not-for-profit corporation, document N07041, active, filed January 10, 1985) operates as a homeowners’ association under Chapter 720, Florida Statutes. Its assessment funds the common areas and roads, streetlights, lake and stormwater management, the three parks, the Private Beach, the Community Patrol, the Design Review Department and community programming. The dollar amount is not published.
Club membership is optional and separate from home ownership, and the Club does not publish its initiation fees or dues. It is a cost only if you choose to join.
Bonita Bay has no Community Development District and no special taxing district. Lee County’s published list of special districts names nearby CDDs, including Bay Creek, Bayside Improvement, the two Brooks of Bonita Springs districts, Bonita Landing and Saltleaf, but no district for Bonita Bay. The Bonita Springs Fire Control and Rescue District on that list is an independent fire district covering the area, not a Bonita Bay district, and it appears on every Bonita Springs tax bill; the Cracker Cove parcels carry the tax district “City of Bonita Springs / Bonita Springs Fire” on the county parcel layer.
Property taxes are set by the City of Bonita Springs, Lee County, the School District and the other taxing authorities on the Lee County bill; the parcel’s TRIM notice and tax bill from the Lee County Tax Collector itemize every line for a specific home. A buyer’s bill depends on the buyer’s exemptions and the new assessed value after the sale, not the seller’s bill. Insurance on a Cracker Cove house is the owner’s to carry unless the declaration assigns part of it to the association, with flood a separate policy. Every owner pays electricity to Florida Power and Light and water and sewer to Bonita Springs Utilities.
The recorded 2011 master Declaration contains a buyer-paid resale reserve assessment, and a later master association written statement describes a different formula; no recorded amendment reconciling the two has been located. We therefore do not publish either figure as the current charge. The master association’s estoppel certificate states what is due at a Cracker Cove closing, and the neighborhood association’s estoppel states anything owed to it (Section 720.30851, Florida Statutes).
Budget the neighborhood and master assessments from their estoppel certificates, a homeowner’s and windstorm quote and a flood quote for the specific address, the property tax on the parcel’s tax bill, utilities, and any upkeep the declaration leaves to you. On a wood-sided house of 1986 to 2003 on pilings, the roof, the siding and paint cycle, termite protection and the wind mitigation report drive the cost of ownership more than anything else you can control, so order the inspections early. The state’s insurance consumer offices explain the policy types (Florida Office of Insurance Regulation; Florida Department of Financial Services, consumer services).
Special assessments at Cracker Cove can come from two associations: the Bonita Bay Community Association, whose board approved a $500 per unit beach-rebuild assessment on March 20, 2025, due June 30, 2025, and the Cracker Cove association, whose pending or approved assessments appear on its estoppel certificate.
A recap of the master association’s March 20, 2025 special board meeting, posted on March 26, 2025 by the Wild Pines of Bonita Bay association, reports that the board approved a special assessment of $500 per unit for the rebuild of the Private Beach facility, with payment due by June 30, 2025 (Wild Pines of Bonita Bay, recap of the March 20, 2025 meetings). That assessment is past; a Cracker Cove buyer’s title agent confirms on the master estoppel that nothing remains owed on the home being purchased.
Whether the Cracker Cove association has levied, approved or is considering a special assessment of its own, for the roads and pavers, the drainage, the pool, the community building or anything else, is a question for its estoppel certificate, its budget and its board meeting records, which owners can inspect under Section 720.303. We do not state what those records contain. The association’s website dates its last major common-area project to 2012, and a buyer who asks for the budget, the reserve schedule and recent board minutes before the inspection period ends is in the best position to negotiate. Florida law requires the estoppel certificate to list assessments due and any pending special assessment.
Cracker Cove is governed by two sets of documents: its own neighborhood documents (the instrument recorded at Official Records Book 1853, Page 2555 that describes the lots and common elements, and the association’s articles, bylaws and rules) and the Bonita Bay master Declaration, recorded June 22, 2011 as Lee County Instrument 2011000142834.
The Lee County Clerk’s search portals block automated access, so a buyer or title agent retrieves these by book and page or instrument number at the Clerk.
Every Cracker Cove home is a single-family parcel inside the Bonita Bay master association, so the homeowners’ association statute applies. Section 720.401 requires the seller to give a prospective buyer a disclosure summary before the contract is signed, stating that the buyer must join the association, that assessments are owed and may change, and that restrictive covenants govern the property; a contract signed without it is voidable by the buyer before closing (Section 720.401, Florida Statutes). The master Declaration (§12.13) repeats that duty for every Bonita Bay transfer. Section 720.303 governs an association’s official records and an owner’s right to inspect them (Section 720.303, Florida Statutes), and Section 720.3085 makes a buyer jointly liable with the seller for assessments unpaid at the transfer, which is why the estoppel certificate matters (Section 720.3085, Florida Statutes). Florida’s real estate contract forms also carry the state-required flood disclosure for residential sales (Section 689.302, Florida Statutes).
Cracker Cove’s look is the reason buyers come, and the association guards it. The association’s website lists an Architectural Review committee and describes the paint palette the owners adopted to match the Key West style (Cracker Cove association website). On a pad lot surrounded by common land, almost any exterior change, a paint color, a roof, new windows or shutters, a porch enclosure, a generator or a fence, is visible to the neighbors and may touch common land. Anything visible from outside goes to the Cracker Cove review and to master association Design Review under §9.2 before it goes to the City for a permit. Begin the approvals before you order materials; Design Review standards may be stricter than the building code.
Cracker Cove at Bonita Bay is not described as a 55-and-over community in any source we reviewed: the master Declaration provisions summarized on this page, the Lee County roll, the association’s website and the master association’s public pages set no age restriction, so buyers of any age can purchase a Cracker Cove home.
If an age restriction ever mattered to a purchase or sale, it would have to appear in the recorded neighborhood documents and meet the federal housing-for-older-persons rules, so confirm it in the documents delivered with the sale rather than relying on marketing. Federal fair housing law protects every buyer regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or disability (HUD, fair housing).
A Cracker Cove owner can lease the home subject to the Cracker Cove neighborhood documents, which set any neighborhood leasing terms, and the Bonita Bay master Declaration, which sets no minimum lease term but binds every tenant to the governing documents. The Southwest Florida MLS pull of September 30, 2026 showed no leased Cracker Cove record in the prior 12 months.
Data updated: November 2026. The Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 30, 2026, returned no Cracker Cove row in its 12-month rental pull: no lease closed through the MLS and no rental listing was active on the pull date. That is not proof that no Cracker Cove home is leased, because a lease arranged privately never reaches the MLS, but it does mean there is no recent MLS rent figure for the neighborhood. A buyer modeling rental income should test any assumption against comparable Bonita Bay single-family leases and the neighborhood documents.
The master Declaration’s leasing language provides that any lease “shall provide or be deemed to provide that the tenant and all occupants of the leased Unit are bound by” the governing documents; it sets no minimum lease term, no cap on leases and no lease approval, and where a neighborhood’s documents are more restrictive, the more restrictive controls. The Cracker Cove neighborhood documents are where any minimum term, frequency limit or approval process would live. Read them in the disclosure package before you plan a rental.
No public Bonita Bay or Cracker Cove document we reviewed authorizes nightly or weekly rentals, and the master association’s rules bind tenants like owners. With no recent MLS lease in Cracker Cove, the rental case rests on comparables from other Bonita Bay neighborhoods; the realistic case is an owner who uses the home part of the year and may lease it for a season, offsetting carrying costs rather than producing a high year-round yield.
Pet rules at Cracker Cove come from the Cracker Cove neighborhood documents and the master association’s Rules and Regulations, not from the recorded Bonita Bay master Declaration, which contains no pet provision. We found no published Cracker Cove pet rule, so the number, size and type of pets must be read in the neighborhood documents before you buy.
Leash, waste and nuisance rules apply in Bonita Bay’s common areas, parks and paths, and the shared grounds around every Cracker Cove house will carry the association’s own rules. Near the pond and the preserve edge, keep dogs away from the water, where alligators live. Under federal fair housing law, properly documented assistance animals are protected regardless of any pet rule (HUD, fair housing). Request the current rules early in your inspection period if you have a pet.
Cracker Cove at Bonita Bay sits wholly in FEMA Zone AE with a base flood elevation of 10 feet (NAVD88): the center point and the full outline of every one of its 37 home lots, and of its common parcel, fall in that zone, on FIRM panel 12071C0652G, effective November 17, 2022, inside the City of Bonita Springs (NFIP community 120680) and Lee County Evacuation Zone A. The City’s CRS Class 5 rating gives NFIP policies a 25% discount.
On November 1, 2026 we took the center point of every Cracker Cove lot, and the full outline of every lot, from Lee County’s parcel layer and intersected them with FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer (FEMA NFHL), and ran five of them, spread across both streets and every side of the neighborhood, against FEMA’s panel index and Lee County’s evacuation zone layer (Lee County Evacuation Zones). We used the US Census geocoder (Census geocoder) to locate the offices and places whose distances this page gives.
Address | Position | Flood zone at the lot center | Base flood elevation | FIRM panel | Evacuation zone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3770 Cracker Way | East side, lake class | AE, coastal floodplain | 10 ft | 12071C0652G | A |
3784 Cracker Way | North end, near the pond | AE, coastal floodplain | 10 ft | 12071C0652G | A |
3796 Cracker Way | West edge, beside the preserve | AE, coastal floodplain | 10 ft | 12071C0652G | A |
3827 Cracker Way | Interior | AE, coastal floodplain | 10 ft | 12071C0652G | A |
3812 Survey Circle | South side | AE, coastal floodplain | 10 ft | 12071C0652G | A |
Across all 37 lots and the common parcel, the center point falls in Zone AE with a 10-foot base flood elevation, and the lot outline lies wholly in that zone. An adjoining Collier County panel, 12021C0180H, also touches these points on FEMA’s index; the Lee County panel governs a Lee parcel. Zone AE is a Special Flood Hazard Area, and flood insurance is federally required for a federally backed mortgage on a structure in it. FEMA rates a building by where the building sits and how high its lowest floor is, so a Cracker Cove home’s rating is settled by its elevation certificate and the lender’s flood determination for the structure. The City’s flood page explains the map colors and the November 17, 2022 effective date (City of Bonita Springs flood protection information), and the NFIP’s consumer site explains the policy itself (FloodSmart).
A base flood elevation is the height FEMA expects the 1% annual chance flood to reach, and what matters for a Cracker Cove home is how its lowest floor compares with 10 feet. Cracker Cove’s design helps here: every card records the living area raised over a ground-level garage, on wood pilings on 35 homes and breakaway walls on 2, and every card grades the site elevation at 7 to 9 feet. That points to living floors well above the ground, but the number that counts is on the elevation certificate, not on the county card. The City notes that “for each 1 foot above the required Base Flood Elevation your home or business is elevated, you will see a corresponding decrease of nearly 50% in your annual flood insurance premiums,” and that for each foot below, rates double (City flood protection information).
The ground level is the part to examine. Under the floodplain rules, enclosed space below the base flood elevation in a new or substantially improved building is limited to parking, building access and storage, built with flood-resistant materials and flood openings. Fourteen Cracker Cove cards record a finished lower-level area and 29 a finished lower utility area at the garage level. How a finished room below 10 feet is treated depends on when and how it was built and permitted, and it can affect both the flood rating and what a future renovation may keep. Ask for the elevation certificate, the permit file for any lower-level finish and the insurer’s view before you rely on a quote or on that room’s square footage.
For a Cracker Cove home in Zone AE, a renovation or repair whose cost reaches 50% of the structure’s market value counts as a substantial improvement under the City’s floodplain rules, and the whole building must then meet current flood requirements, including the limits on enclosed space below the base flood elevation. On a raised house that means the living floors may already comply while a finished lower level may not. The City explains how it applies the rule in its toolkit (City substantial improvement toolkit) and its floodplain ordinance (Ordinance 22-05).
Cracker Cove’s panel, 12071C0652G, is one of the November 17, 2022 G panels covering Bonita Bay. FEMA’s own flood layer is the live record; check the address again before closing and after any announced revision. WGCU’s January 2026 explainer describes how and why Lee County’s flood maps are revised (WGCU, January 27, 2026).
The City of Bonita Springs holds a Community Rating System Class 5 rating, a 25% discount on NFIP flood policies, and FEMA confirmed on November 21, 2024 that the City keeps it after the post-Ian review (City of Bonita Springs, FEMA CRS; City news release). WGCU covered the outcomes across Lee County in July and November 2024 (WGCU, July 19, 2024; WGCU, November 21, 2024), and WUSF reported the earlier April 2024 notice that put the discounts at risk (WUSF, April 1, 2024). The City’s floodplain management plan progress report describes the program behind the rating (CRS Floodplain Management Plan, FY 2025-26 progress report).
All five Cracker Cove points we ran fall in Lee County Evacuation Zone A (storm surge zone 1). Zone A is the first area Lee County orders to evacuate, often for any named storm approaching from the Gulf; the state’s Know Your Zone lookup confirms an address (Florida Division of Emergency Management, Know Your Zone; Lee County evacuation zones dataset). The hurricane plan (shutters or impact glass, what is stored in the ground-level garage, who checks the house after a storm, and how the association secures the pool and common grounds) belongs in place before summer.
Hurricane Ian made landfall on September 28, 2022 (NOAA National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Ian report). In the City, surge came up the Imperial River and flooded homes along the river and creeks (WUSF, October 1, 2022; NPR, October 1, 2022), and the Gulf beaches took the worst of it (Tampa Bay Times, September 29, 2022). Inside Bonita Bay, the documented damage includes the total destruction of the master association’s Private Beach facility, since rebuilt (BBCA, Private Beach), and, per the Club’s October 13, 2022 update, a flooded cart barn and golf course bridges left “structurally undrivable” on the Bay Island and Marsh courses (Bonita Bay Club, Hurricane Ian update). The City keeps its Ian recovery pages and grant program online (City of Bonita Springs, Hurricane Ian; Ian progress report; CDBG-DR grant management). We found no primary source documenting Ian damage to specific Cracker Cove homes; the seller’s disclosures, the City permit history by address and the insurance claim history are where a buyer confirms it, with the ground-level garage and any finished lower room the first places to ask about. Ten of the twelve qualified Cracker Cove deeds of the 60-month window were recorded after the storm, from February 2023 to March 2026.
Helene and Milton in 2024 are documented at the City level (City of Bonita Springs, Milton; NHC Helene report; NHC Milton report); no Bonita Bay-specific damage from either was found in a primary source.
Insuring a Cracker Cove home means insuring a wood-framed, sided house on pilings: a homeowner’s policy with windstorm, priced from the wind mitigation report and the roof, plus a flood policy priced from the elevation certificate, which a federally backed lender will require because every Cracker Cove lot measures in Zone AE.
On the records we read, each Cracker Cove home is a single-family house on its own lot, so the owner normally insures the structure and contents. Because the lot is about the size of the house and the driveways, walks and grounds are common land, the declaration decides where the owner’s responsibility ends and the association’s begins, and whether the association insures anything on the houses. Read the declaration’s insurance and maintenance sections in the disclosure package, and have your agent write the policy to match.
Florida insurers must offer discounts for documented wind-resistant features, and the standard wind mitigation inspection records them: roof covering and its permit date, roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall connection, roof shape and opening protection. Cracker Cove’s metal roofs and the hip roofs on nine homes are features the inspector records; on a house of this age, a documented roof permit and impact glass or approved shutters on every opening are usually the difference between an ordinary and an expensive windstorm quote. Nineteen of the 37 cards record some opening protection. Citizens Property Insurance is the state’s insurer of last resort if the private market will not write a policy, and the state’s My Safe Florida Home program offers inspections and, for eligible homesteaded homes, hardening grants.
Flood is a separate policy, through the NFIP or a private carrier. Every Cracker Cove lot measures in Zone AE, so a federally backed lender requires it, and an owner without a mortgage has every reason to carry it inside Evacuation Zone A. The premium follows the elevation certificate, the foundation type, the treatment of the enclosed ground level and the replacement cost; the City’s CRS Class 5 discount applies to NFIP policies. Get the flood quote during the inspection period, from the elevation certificate rather than an estimate, and ask whether the current policy can be transferred to you.
Insurers commonly ask for a four-point inspection (roof, electrical, plumbing, air conditioning) on homes of Cracker Cove’s age. Wood siding, trim and the structure under the house are inspection items an insurer may ask about too, and the four homes with a residential elevator (3770, 3775 and 3802 Cracker Way and 3814 Survey Circle) need its inspection record. Keep the permit for any roof, window or siding replacement with the house documents.
Lee County public schools serve Cracker Cove through proximity-based choice: a student ranks schools within the proximity zone for the address rather than being placed at one school by address. Under the district’s most recent published plan, nearby options include Spring Creek Elementary, Bonita Springs Middle and Bonita Springs High. Confirm an address’s zones with the School District of Lee County before relying on them.
Under the district’s most recent published plan (2025-2026), the elementary proximity zone that holds the Bonita Springs schools is Zone Q (Bonita Springs, Pinewoods, San Carlos, Spring Creek and Three Oaks elementary schools), the middle proximity zone is Zone GG (Bonita Springs Middle and Three Oaks Middle), and high school uses the South residential choice zone with sub-zones (2025-2026 Student Enrollment Plan). The School Board approved the 2026-2027 plan on December 1, 2025 (School District of Lee County, school zones); use the district’s school zone locator for a specific Cracker Way or Survey Circle address. School sites: Bonita Springs High and Bonita Springs Middle, listed in the district’s middle school directory. WGCU reported the district’s 2024-25 school grades (WGCU, July 9, 2025).
Cracker Cove is not age-restricted, so school access works the same way here as at any Bonita Springs address: the proximity zones above are the starting point, and transportation follows the district’s zone rules.
Building permits for Cracker Cove homes are issued by the City of Bonita Springs Community Development Department, not by Lee County, because Bonita Bay lies inside the incorporated City of Bonita Springs (incorporated in 1999). Exterior work also needs the Cracker Cove association’s review and master association Design Review approval under the master Declaration before the City permit is pulled.
Up to three approvals can apply to a Cracker Cove project: (1) the Cracker Cove association’s architectural review under its own documents, for anything that changes the exterior or touches the common land around the house; (2) master association Design Review under §9.2 of the master Declaration; and (3) a City of Bonita Springs building permit for roofs, siding, windows, doors, elevators, generators, electrical, plumbing, mechanical and similar work (City of Bonita Springs, apply for a building permit; City Community Development). The City’s online services guide covers its Citizen Access permit portal (how to use online services). Fire-related plan review is part of City permitting (Fire Prevention plan review application). Work that touches the pond, the preserve or the stormwater system also involves the state and water management district rules (Florida DEP). A buyer can search a home’s permit history by its address through the City, which is the best way to see when the roof, air conditioning, windows, siding or any lower-level finish was last permitted.
Cracker Cove sits in the interior of southern Bonita Bay: Lost Lake on Lost Lake Lane along its south side, the Oakwood neighborhoods on Oakwood Lake Drive to the east, preserve and master association common land to the west, and the Marsh golf course about 620 feet from its nearest lot. Zoning and land use are set by the City of Bonita Springs, and the county roll carries every Cracker Cove lot as planned development (PUD).
The City’s Zoning District Map Book shows zoning districts by map sheet within city limits, and the City’s maps page links its current maps (City area maps). Zoning ordinances and resolutions are indexed on the City site (zoning ordinances; zoning resolutions), and the City’s stormwater program covers the drainage system Bonita Bay’s lakes feed (City stormwater and drainage). Because Bonita Bay is built out, every Cracker Cove lot is improved and the land beside it is neighborhood, conservation or club land, the practical questions for a Cracker Cove buyer are changes on the Club campuses (the members’ May 2026 clubhouse vote) and individual rebuilds in the enclave, not new subdivisions next door.
Daily life at Cracker Cove runs on City of Bonita Springs services: Florida Power and Light for electricity, Bonita Springs Utilities for water and sewer, Waste Management curbside collection in Bonita Springs, and the Bonita Springs Fire Control and Rescue District for fire and emergency response, with the master association handling gates and patrol, the Cracker Cove association handling the two streets, the pool and the common grounds, and each owner handling the house.
Every Cracker Cove field card records a garage at the ground level, and the association describes two-, three- and four-car garages. Whether a boat, trailer, kayak rack or golf cart may be kept outside the garage, on the common land, is a question for the master association’s rules on traffic, parking and vehicle types and the Cracker Cove neighborhood documents; on two short streets of shared grounds, read both before you buy around a boat or a trailer. Vehicle registration and driver licensing for a new Florida resident run through the state (Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles).
Bonita Bay is a gated community. Guest and vendor access procedures, resident credentials and contractor rules are set by the master association and delivered with the association documents. Mail delivery on Cracker Way and Survey Circle follows the arrangement for the neighborhood; confirm it for the specific address when you tour.
Cracker Cove sits in southern Bonita Bay, in ZIP 34134 in the City of Bonita Springs, between Fort Myers to the north and Naples to the south, with US 41 at the Bonita Bay gates and I-75 to the east. That position gives Cracker Cove owners both metro areas’ shopping, dining, healthcare and the region’s airport without living in either city, and a short trip inside the gates to the Club, the master association office and the marina.
Drive times depend heavily on season and time of day along US 41, so we do not publish minute figures; test the drives that matter to you during a winter visit. The National Weather Service office for the region posts storm and marine forecasts (NWS Miami; National Hurricane Center).
Cracker Cove is Bonita Bay’s one Key West style enclave, 37 detached homes on pad lots around shared grounds, with a 60-month deed median of $987,500: in the same price band as Lost Lake next door, Arbor Strand and Bay Harbor, below the larger single-family streets such as Riviera and Anchorage, and above Tuckaweye and the Oakwood Villas homes to its east.
Bonita Bay’s master association describes residences across condominiums, high-rises, coach homes and single-family neighborhoods. On the 60-month county yardstick in the market section, the single-family neighborhoods closest to Cracker Cove line up as Oakwood Villas ($554,500 median), Tuckaweye ($865,000), Bay Harbor ($969,375), Arbor Strand ($975,000), Cracker Cove ($987,500), Lost Lake ($1,013,400), Riviera ($1,187,500) and Anchorage ($1,300,000). Cracker Cove’s median sits in the middle of the $969,375 to $1,013,400 band, and with twelve deeds its median moves on a single sale; its range runs from $500,000 to $1,227,500.
Lost Lake adjoins Cracker Cove’s south side, its lots meeting Cracker Cove’s common land on the county map: 26 detached homes on Lost Lake Lane built 1991 to 1996, with 9 deeds in 60 months at a $1,013,400 median and $470 per square foot. The Oakwood neighborhoods lie just to the east on Oakwood Lake Drive; their 26 Oakwood Villas single-family homes, built 1987 to 1989, recorded 10 deeds at a $554,500 median on the same yardstick. Tuckaweye, near the US 41 entrance, mixes 25 attached homes with 6 freestanding ones and recorded 10 deeds at an $865,000 median. Arbor Strand, beyond Lost Lake to the south, is 27 one-story detached homes built 1993 to 1999 with 12 deeds at $975,000, and Anchorage is 37 larger detached homes on Riverbank Drive with 14 deeds at $1,300,000. The construction sets Cracker Cove apart from its nearest neighbors: the county cards for Lost Lake’s 26 homes and Tuckaweye’s 31 record block and stucco walls under concrete tile, while Cracker Cove’s 37 record siding, metal roofs and raised living floors.
Cracker Cove and Lost Lake are next-door single-family neighborhoods inside Bonita Bay with median home sizes of 2,103 and 2,088 heated square feet and 60-month county medians of $987,500 and $1,013,400; the choice comes down to the house itself (a raised Key West house on a pad lot with shared grounds, or a one-story block house on its own yard) more than to price.
Lost Lake is 26 detached single-family homes on Lost Lake Lane, built 1991 to 1996, from 1,881 to 2,768 heated square feet, on Lots 1 to 26 of the Lost Lake at Bonita Bay plat. On the county parcel layer its northern lots meet Cracker Cove’s common parcel along Survey Circle, and by straight line the north end of Lost Lake Lane is about 0.12 mile from the center of Cracker Cove. In the 60 months since November 2021 Lost Lake recorded 9 qualified deeds at a $1,013,400 median, from $580,000 to $1,495,000, at a median of $470 per heated square foot; Cracker Cove recorded 12 at $987,500, $500,000 to $1,227,500, $464 per heated square foot. Both medians come from the same Lee County index, built November 1, 2026, with each neighborhood matched to its own legal descriptions.
Question | Cracker Cove | Lost Lake |
|---|---|---|
Homes and streets | 37 homes, Cracker Way and Survey Circle | 26 homes, Lost Lake Lane |
Recorded as | Lots 1 to 38, Official Records Book 1853, Page 2555, plus a 6.94-acre common parcel | Lost Lake at Bonita Bay plat, Plat Book 48, Pages 52 to 54 |
Construction (county cards) | Key West type: siding, metal roof, living floors on pilings over a garage | Ranch or colonial type: block and stucco, concrete tile roof |
Built (county roll) | 1986 to 2003 | 1991 to 1996 |
Heated area (county) | 1,416 to 2,515 sq ft (median 2,103) | 1,881 to 2,768 sq ft (median 2,088) |
Lot size (county parcel layer) | About 0.077 acre on 35 lots, 0.116 on 2; grounds held in common | 0.158 to 0.357 acre (median 0.195) |
One / two living stories (county cards) | 9 / 28 | 23 / 3 |
Qualified deeds, 60 months since November 2021 | 12 | 9 |
Median deed price | $987,500 | $1,013,400 |
Deed range | $500,000 to $1,227,500 | $580,000 to $1,495,000 |
Median per heated sq ft | $464 | $470 |
Turnover (deeds per home, 60 months) | 32.4% (12 on 37) | 34.6% (9 on 26) |
Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 30, 2026 | 2 closed in 12 months, 2 active, 0 leases | 0 closed, 0 active, 1 lease |
Lake lots (county land class) | 4 | 9 |
Private pools (county record) | 0 | 15 |
Neighborhood pool | Yes, on the common parcel (association website) | Yes, Tracts A and C (county card, 2014) |
Flood zone (FEMA NFHL, November 1, 2026) | AE, BFE 10 ft at all 37 lots; panel 12071C0652G | AE, BFE 10 ft at all 26 lots; panels 12071C0652G and 12071C0654G |
Evacuation zone | A | A |
Associations | Cracker Cove Property Owners Association (N12614) plus the master association | Lost Lake property owners’ association plus the master association |
Choose Cracker Cove if you want the Key West look that no other Bonita Bay neighborhood has, living floors raised above a ground-level garage (the cards record wood pilings on 35 homes), a two-story plan (28 of 37), grounds kept by the association rather than a yard of your own, and a neighborhood that came to market a little more often (12 deeds in 60 months against 9, and two listings on September 30, 2026). Choose Lost Lake if you want a one-story block-and-stucco house (23 of 26), a yard and room for a private pool (15 of 26 have one on the county record), a lake behind the lanai (9 lake lots against 4), and a top-of-range record that has reached $1,495,000. Flood exposure does not separate them: both measure Zone AE at 10 feet in every lot, and in both the elevation certificate of the specific house decides the flood premium. Price does not separate them much either; the house does.
Cracker Cove’s strengths are documented ones (a unique Key West style recorded on every county card, raised living floors, shared grounds and a pool kept by the association, pond and preserve edges, the full Bonita Bay master amenities) and so are its limitations (every lot in Zone AE at 10 feet and in Evacuation Zone A, a pad lot with no yard of its own, no private pools, wood construction from 1986 to 2003 that needs upkeep, a thin resale market and unpublished fees).
If you’re searching for a Cracker Cove listing agent, or thinking, ‘I need someone to sell my Cracker Cove home…’, start with the record: 12 qualified Cracker Cove deeds in 60 months at a $987,500 median, from $500,000 to $1,227,500, two MLS closings in the 12 months to September 30, 2026 at a 92.3% median sale-to-list ratio, and two homes listed for 180 and 292 days on that date. McGreevy and Comisar price, prepare and market Cracker Cove homes from that record, not from a Bonita Bay average.
Our credentials as your Cracker Cove listing agent:
In the 12 months to September 30, 2026 we tracked two qualified Cracker Cove deeds in the Lee County record: 3812 Survey Circle at $500,000 (October 21, 2025) and 3784 Cracker Way at $1,078,000 (March 11, 2026). Before them, the window holds 3790 Cracker Way at $1,050,000 (March 4, 2025) and 3788 Cracker Way at $950,000 (August 19, 2025). Over 60 months the record shows 12 sales at a $987,500 median and $11,655,500 in volume. The Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 30, 2026, shows the same two closings and two homes listed, asking $1,050,000 and $1,125,000.
Four things. First, the house type: a Cracker Cove listing has to explain and sell the Key West design, the raised living floors and the shared grounds to the buyers who want them, with the roof, siding and paint history documented. Second, the paperwork: Section 720.401 requires your disclosure summary before the contract is signed, Florida’s residential flood disclosure applies to every sale, every buyer with a mortgage will need flood insurance, and the county’s condovision label means a careful buyer will ask for the declaration early, so having the declaration, the estoppel requests, the elevation certificate, the wind mitigation report and the permit history ready at listing protects your timeline. Third, Bonita Bay’s open house and sign rules: open houses need 72 hours’ notice to the master association with the listing agreement, run Monday to Saturday 9 to 5 and Sunday 1 to 4, use the master association’s sign standard, and allow no SOLD signs (BBCA Open House Guidelines). Fourth, time on market: the two homes listed on September 30, 2026 had been on the market 180 and 292 days, and both recent closings sold below their first list price, so the first price decides how your sale goes.
Start with a free Cracker Cove home valuation, or use our Bonita Bay home valuation page. Or talk to Jesse direct: (239) 898-6072, text or call.
Buying rather than selling? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida.
Price a Cracker Cove home from the deeds that match its plan, size, view and condition, not from the neighborhood median. On the county record the 60-month median is $987,500, but the deeds run from $500,000 to $1,227,500; the nine two-story sales recorded a median of $1,050,000 and the three one-story sales $810,000. We adjust from the closest matches for plan, finished lower level, roof and siding age and renovation, then test the price against the two active asks and Lost Lake sales on the day you list.
The two Cracker Cove closings on the Southwest Florida MLS pull of September 30, 2026 took 34 days (3784 Cracker Way) and 229 days (3812 Survey Circle), and the two homes listed on that date had been on the market 180 and 292 days. Two closings are not a pattern; in a 37-home enclave the time to sell depends mostly on the first price and the condition.
A Cracker Cove buyer usually asks first for the two estoppel certificates (neighborhood and master), the §720.401 disclosure summary, the declaration recorded at Official Records Book 1853, Page 2555 and the association’s rules, the elevation certificate, the wind mitigation and four-point reports, the roof, siding and air-conditioning permits, any lower-level finish permit, the flood and windstorm policy declarations, and the neighborhood rules on leasing, pets and vehicles.
The master Declaration requires no sale approval that we found; it requires you to deliver the §720.401 disclosure summary, and the estoppel certificates are needed for closing. Whether the Cracker Cove documents add any approval or notice step is set in those documents, which we read for every listing before your home goes on the market.
A Bonita Bay Club membership is separate from your Cracker Cove deed. The Club does not publish its initiation fees, dues or transfer rules on its public website, and whether a membership can pass to a buyer is the Club’s decision under its own rules. Your Cracker Cove sale itself never requires a Club membership on either side.
Cracker Cove’s long-run value rests on Bonita Bay’s fixed supply, its master-association amenities, its own one-of-a-kind architecture and its quiet interior position between Naples and Fort Myers; the recorded deeds show that Cracker Cove prices rise and fall with the wider market, from first qualified home sales of $235,000 to $280,000 in 1988 and 1989 to $1,227,500 in 2023 and a $987,500 median over the last 60 months.
A master association that maintains roads, lakes, parks, the Private Beach and patrol, funded by every owner, protects the setting of every neighborhood inside the gates. Bonita Bay’s recorded master Declaration and Design Review standards (§9.2) are what keep an enclave built from 1986 to 2003 looking cared for in 2026, and Cracker Cove’s own association keeps its streets, pool and grounds and its paint palette.
Bonita Bay is built out, and Cracker Cove has 37 homes, all improved. New supply in the region comes from new communities outside the gates, not from more Key West houses on Cracker Way. That does not guarantee appreciation (the county record shows 3788 Cracker Way recording less in 2025 than in 2022), but it means every buyer who wants this style inside Bonita Bay competes for one of a fixed 37.
For a buyer who wants a detached home of about 1,400 to 2,500 heated square feet inside Bonita Bay’s gates, with the grounds kept by an association, Cracker Cove is one of a handful of neighborhoods trading near $1,000,000 at the 60-month median, and its one-story homes have recorded $500,000 to $975,000. The trade is a flood zone on every lot, wood-framed homes that are 23 to 40 years old and a resale market of a few sales a year.
Bonita Springs is the incorporated city that governs Cracker Cove’s permits, zoning, flood program and city taxes; its CRS Class 5 rating lowers NFIP premiums, and its location puts Cracker Way between Naples and Fort Myers with Gulf beaches, I-75 and US 41 close by.
Residents voted to incorporate the City in 1999, and the City marked its 25th anniversary in 2024 (City of Bonita Springs, history; 25th anniversary; City Charter). For the wider market, see our Bonita Springs guide and our Bonita Bay guide. Documentary stamp tax on Florida deeds is set by the state (Florida Department of Revenue, documentary stamp tax), and in Lee County the seller customarily pays the owner’s title policy, though the contract controls.
Cracker Cove owners and buyers work directly with Jesse McGreevy and Marc Comisar, the McGreevy and Comisar team at Domain Realty, whose office at 24031 S Tamiami Trl #101 in Bonita Springs is about 3.1 miles from Cracker Cove by straight line. For this Cracker Cove guide we read the county’s water coding, the master Declaration, all 37 county home cards, the state’s condominium register, the association’s own website and every qualified Cracker Cove deed of the last five years in the Lee County record before writing a word.
McGreevy and Comisar are the Domain Realty team behind this Cracker Cove guide: Jesse McGreevy, Sales Associate, and Marc Comisar, Broker Associate, with over 45 years of combined direct real estate experience. You can read how the team was built on our about the McGreevy and Comisar team page. We tracked all 12 qualified Cracker Cove deeds recorded since November 2021 for this update, we read every one of the 37 Cracker Cove home cards to count the stories, siding, roofs, foundations, garages, elevators and water classes, we checked the state’s condominium files for the neighborhood, we measured each lot’s distance to the pond, the preserve and the nearest golf course on the county map, and we measured the flood zone at all 37 Cracker Cove lots ourselves rather than repeating a map summary.
McGreevy and Comisar lead Domain Realty Group, a full-service Southwest Florida real estate team. Learn more about our team at DomainRealtyGroup.com.
McGreevy and Comisar are Top 1% Real Estate Agents Nationally Since 2008, and the full record is below:
Cracker Cove is an enclave where specifics decide the price: one living level or two, the finished size and how the garage level is finished, the pond or preserve view, the age of the metal roof, the condition of the siding and trim, and whether the kitchen and baths have been redone since the house was built. With twelve qualified deeds in five years, a Cracker Cove price cannot lean on last month’s sale, and buyers moving from out of state often decide from photos, video and documents before they visit, so the listing has to explain the Key West design, the raised floors, the pad lot and shared grounds, the condovision label, the Zone AE rating and elevation certificate, the wind mitigation report and the two association layers in plain language. That is the work we do on every Bonita Bay listing.
McGreevy and Comisar is a top-reviewed Cracker Cove realtor on Google, and the quotes below are genuine five star client reviews reproduced in the reviewer’s own words. We publish no aggregate score and no star rating widget. Read the full set on the McGreevy and Comisar Google Business Profile.
★★★★★ “Their recommendation on pricing my unit was sound and proved prescient. I never questioned their integrity and found it easy to rely on their recommendations. I would work with them again in a heartbeat.” Charlie Carroll, verified Google review
★★★★★ “We had been on the market for several months with no offers. When we signed with Marc our house was sold in 2 weeks. He has a unique system for selling homes.” Sandra Decker, verified Google review
★★★★★ “Working with Jesse was easy, I was kept up to date on all feedback from showings and the many open houses. Highly recommend!” Ann Perez, verified Google review
★★★★★ “Marc is extremely knowledgeable, professional and a true pleasure to work with. He kept us informed throughout the process and went over and beyond our expectations to ensure an extremely smooth process.” Lori Crosby, verified Google review
Selling a Cracker Cove home? Get a free Cracker Cove home valuation, or call Jesse direct at (239) 898-6072.
Buying in Cracker Cove? Call Marc at (239) 287-5873, or read how we represent buyers in Southwest Florida. Buyers focused on Bonita Bay can also start at our Bonita Bay buyer guide.
Jesse McGreevy (Sales Associate) and Marc Comisar (Broker Associate) are licensed Florida real estate professionals with Domain Realty; Florida real estate licensure is regulated by the Florida Real Estate Commission (FREC).
Video walkthroughs, market updates and community tours are on McGreevy and Comisar on YouTube, and the team keeps a company page at McGreevy and Comisar on LinkedIn. For the wider market around Cracker Cove, see our Bonita Bay guide, our Bonita Springs guide and our guides to the neighbors Lost Lake and Oakwood.
The best Cracker Cove buyers we work with ask the most questions before the offer and the fewest after closing. Order both estoppel certificates early, read the declaration and the association’s rules, get windstorm and flood quotes from the elevation certificate and wind mitigation report during your inspection period, and read the neighborhood documents before you plan an exterior change, a boat or a rental. There is no obligation and no cost for an initial conversation.
The questions below are the ones Cracker Cove buyers ask us most, answered from the county roll and field cards, the county’s map layers, the state’s condominium register, the association’s own website, FEMA’s flood layer and the Southwest Florida MLS figures pulled on September 30, 2026. Every answer names its source on this page, and where the public record stops we say which document a buyer should read.
Cracker Cove at Bonita Bay is a neighborhood of 37 detached Key West style homes on Cracker Way and Survey Circle inside the Bonita Bay master-planned community in Bonita Springs, Florida. The homes were built from 1986 to 2003 on pad-sized lots around a 6.94-acre common parcel with the streets, a pool and a community building.
Key West style, on the county’s own record: all 37 field cards carry the Property Appraiser’s “Key West” improvement type, with cedar or redwood siding on 30 homes, fiber-cement style siding on 7, a metal roof covering on all 37 and living floors raised on pilings over a ground-level garage. The association describes ornate moldings, cupolas and gables and a Key West paint palette.
Yes, on the county cards. Every card records the living area above a ground-level garage, with a foundation on wood pilings on 35 homes and breakaway walls on the other 2. The cards grade the site elevation at 7 to 9 feet; the elevation certificate gives the height of the lowest floor that the flood rating uses.
Detached. Every one of the 37 Lee County field cards records one living unit in the building under the county’s Key West improvement type, and every home has its own parcel number and the single-family use code. The lots are small, about 0.077 acre on 35 of them, with the grounds between houses held as common land.
Not on any public record we could read. The county roll codes all 37 homes as single-family residences on numbered lots, the state’s condominium register lists no Cracker Cove condominium, and the association is a property owners’ association. The county does label the common parcel a “condovision” with “common elements”, so read the declaration at Official Records Book 1853, Page 2555 and the title commitment.
It is the county roll’s label for the 6.94-acre common parcel, which holds everything outside the home lots. It signals a layout like a condominium’s, with small home sites and shared grounds, and it is the reason to read the recorded declaration, which sets ownership, maintenance and insurance duties. On the roll and the state register, the homes themselves are single-family lots.
About 0.077 acre, roughly 3,350 square feet, on 35 of the 37 lots on Lee County’s parcel layer, which is close to the footprint of the house and its porches; the two lots on Survey Circle that divided Lot 31 between them measure about 0.116 acre. Driveways, walks and landscaped grounds sit on the common parcel.
Cracker Cove sits in the interior of southern Bonita Bay, with Lost Lake to the south, the Oakwood neighborhoods to the east and preserve land to the west. By straight line from the center of the common parcel, the Club address on Country Club Drive is about 0.5 mile away, the master association office about 0.55 mile, the Promenade about 0.6 mile and the Bonita Bay Marina about 0.8 mile.
Cracker Cove has 37 homes, every one carrying the county’s single-family use code: 27 on Cracker Way and 10 on Survey Circle, street numbers 3770 to 3828. They sit on Lots 1 to 38 of the recorded instrument, with Lot 31 now divided between 3818 and 3822 Survey Circle, plus one common parcel at 3769 Cracker Way.
The county roll dates the homes from 1986 to 2003: two in 1986, six in 1987, seven each in 1988 and 1989, six in 1990, and the rest from 1991 to 1996, with the last, 3812 Survey Circle, in 2003. The association’s website says the common areas were renovated in 2012 and that owners then began renovating their own homes.
The county roll records 1,416 to 2,515 heated square feet, a median of 2,103. The two-story homes run from 1,998 to 2,515 (median 2,150) and the one-story homes from 1,416 to 1,942 (median 1,564). MLS listings often report more living area, because they count finished rooms at the garage level that the county lists separately.
Three bedrooms on 29 of the 37 homes and two on 8, on the county roll, with two baths on 35 and three on 2. A listing may add a den or a finished lower-level room that the roll does not count, so confirm the plan on a showing.
Mostly two. The county cards record two living stories on 28 homes and one on 9, every one of them above the ground-level garage. Four cards record a residential elevator: 3770, 3775 and 3802 Cracker Way and 3814 Survey Circle.
Yes. Every one of the 37 field cards records a garage at the ground level beneath the living area, from about 490 to 1,460 square feet of lower garage area per home, and the association describes two-, three- and four-car garages. Whether a boat, trailer or golf cart may be kept outside is set by the master association’s rules and the Cracker Cove documents.
None does on the county record: no field card lists a private pool, and the pool field on Lee County’s parcel layer is empty for all 37. The neighborhood pool and community building on the common parcel, renovated in 2012 according to the association, serve every owner.
Yes. The association’s website places the swimming pool and a small community building at the center of the neighborhood as its gathering spot, and lists the pool and pool deck among the common areas renovated in 2012. Its rules and hours come with the association documents in a sale.
Some do. The Property Appraiser codes 3770, 3774, 3776 and 3780 Cracker Way as lake frontage on a pond of about 0.84 acre, and eleven lots on the west and south edge lie within about 27 to 67 feet of a natural tidal area of about 33 acres, the preserve the association describes. The view from each porch is confirmed on a showing.
Not on the county map. The nearest Bonita Bay Club course parcel, the Marsh course, is about 620 feet from the closest Cracker Cove lots and about 1,125 feet from the farthest, and no card carries a golf land class.
No. No Cracker Cove field card lists a dock, lift, davit or seawall, and the boat dock and seawall fields on the county parcel layer are empty for all 37 homes. The pond is a stormwater pond and the tidal area is natural preserve land.
At the Bonita Bay Marina on the Imperial River, a separately owned marina with 326 dry storage spaces for boats up to 36 feet, 98 wet slips and a published maximum draft of 36 inches, about 0.8 mile from Cracker Cove by straight line. Slips and storage are rented from the marina at its own fees.
The neighborhood pool, community building and walking trail on the common parcel, plus every Bonita Bay Community Association amenity: 12 miles of paths, three waterside parks, the Private Beach with its shuttle, the gated entry and the Community Patrol. The Bonita Bay Club’s golf, racquet sports, fitness and dining are optional and separate.
Yes. Cracker Cove is inside Bonita Bay’s gates, and the master association’s Community Patrol works inside them. Guest and vendor access procedures are set by the master association and delivered with the association documents.
Cracker Cove owners pay the Bonita Bay Community Association master assessment and the Cracker Cove Property Owners Association’s assessment, which funds what its documents assign, including the streets, pool and grounds of its 6.94-acre common parcel. Neither association publishes its assessment on a public page, so the current figures come from the two estoppel certificates in the sale.
The Cracker Cove Property Owners Association maintains the common parcel, which holds the streets, paver driveways and walks, pool, community building and landscaping; the association’s website describes its 2012 renovation of all of them. What it maintains on the houses themselves, if anything, is set by the declaration and confirmed in its budget and estoppel certificate.
No. Bonita Bay has no Community Development District and no special taxing district; Lee County’s published list of special districts names nearby CDDs but none for Bonita Bay. The Bonita Springs Fire Control and Rescue District on every tax bill is an independent fire district, not a Bonita Bay district.
No source we reviewed describes Cracker Cove as a 55-and-over community. The master Declaration provisions summarized on this page, the county roll, the association’s website and the master association’s public pages set no age restriction, so buyers of any age can purchase a Cracker Cove home.
Subject to the Cracker Cove neighborhood documents and the Bonita Bay master Declaration, which sets no minimum lease term but binds every tenant to the governing documents. The Southwest Florida MLS pull of September 30, 2026 shows no Cracker Cove lease in the prior 12 months. Read the neighborhood documents for any minimum term or approval.
Pet rules come from the Cracker Cove neighborhood documents and the master association’s Rules and Regulations; the recorded master Declaration contains no pet provision, and we found no published Cracker Cove pet rule. Read the neighborhood documents before you buy. Documented assistance animals are protected under federal fair housing law.
Yes. On FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer, measured November 1, 2026, the center point and full outline of every one of the 37 Cracker Cove lots, and of the common parcel, fall in Zone AE with a base flood elevation of 10 feet, on panel 12071C0652G, effective November 17, 2022.
If you buy with a federally backed mortgage, yes: every Cracker Cove lot measures in Zone AE, a Special Flood Hazard Area. Without a mortgage it is your choice, and inside Evacuation Zone A most owners carry it. The premium follows the home’s elevation certificate and the treatment of the ground level, and the City’s CRS Class 5 rating gives NFIP policies a 25% discount.
Lee County Evacuation Zone A (storm surge zone 1), at every one of the five Cracker Cove points we ran on November 1, 2026. Zone A is the first area Lee County orders to evacuate, often for any named storm approaching from the Gulf.
We found no primary source documenting Ian damage to specific Cracker Cove homes. Inside Bonita Bay the documented damage includes the destruction of the master association’s Private Beach facility, since rebuilt, and flooded Club golf infrastructure. The seller’s disclosures, the City permit history by address and the insurance claim history confirm it for one house, starting with the ground-level garage.
No. The Bonita Bay Club is a separately owned, member-owned private club, and buying a Cracker Cove home neither makes you a member nor requires you to join. The Club does not publish its initiation fees or dues on its public website.
Yes. The Private Beach on Hickory Boulevard belongs to the Bonita Bay Community Association, and every Cracker Cove owner is a member of it automatically. It was rebuilt in concrete after Hurricane Ian and is served by a resident shuttle.
The master association’s $500 per unit beach-rebuild assessment, approved March 20, 2025, was due June 30, 2025 and is past. Whether the Cracker Cove association has levied or is considering one of its own, for the streets, drainage, pool or anything else, appears on its estoppel certificate and in its budget and board records.
On the Lee County record, 12 qualified sales in the 60 months since November 2021 recorded a median of $987,500, from $500,000 to $1,227,500, a median of $464 per heated square foot. The nine two-story sales recorded a median of $1,050,000 and the three one-story sales $810,000.
The two Cracker Cove closings on the Southwest Florida MLS pull of September 30, 2026 took 34 and 229 days on market, and the two homes listed on that date had been on the market 180 and 292 days. Two closings are a count, not a typical time.
Two on the Southwest Florida MLS pull of September 30, 2026: 3798 Cracker Way asking $1,125,000 and 3814 Survey Circle asking $1,050,000, with no pending sale. Listings change weekly; the current homes for sale are on our Domain Realty Group site.
The Bonita Bay Community Association is the master association every Bonita Bay owner belongs to; it runs the main roads, gates, patrol, parks, lakes, Private Beach and Design Review. The Cracker Cove Property Owners Association owns and keeps Cracker Cove’s own common parcel, including its streets, pool and grounds, under its own documents. Each issues its own estoppel certificate.
Before the contract, the seller’s §720.401 disclosure summary; during the transaction, both estoppel certificates, the Cracker Cove declaration and rules, the master Declaration, By-Laws and Rules, Florida’s flood disclosure, and the seller’s property disclosures. Ask also for the elevation certificate, wind mitigation report and permit history.
Lee County public schools use proximity-based choice: a student ranks schools in the proximity zone for the address. Under the district’s 2025-2026 plan, nearby options include Spring Creek Elementary, Bonita Springs Middle and Bonita Springs High. Confirm zones for a specific Cracker Way or Survey Circle address with the district’s locator.
They are next-door single-family neighborhoods. On the same 60-month yardstick Cracker Cove recorded 12 deeds at a $987,500 median and $464 per square foot; Lost Lake 9 at $1,013,400 and $470. Cracker Cove offers raised Key West houses on pad lots with shared grounds; Lost Lake offers mostly one-story block homes on their own yards, 15 with private pools.
These are the questions Cracker Cove owners ask us before they list, answered from the Lee County record, the recorded documents, the state’s condominium register, FEMA’s flood layer and the Southwest Florida MLS figures pulled on September 30, 2026, and from the way we market Bonita Bay homes.
Your Cracker Cove home’s value starts from the twelve qualified Cracker Cove deeds of the last 60 months, a median of $987,500 and a range of $500,000 to $1,227,500, then moves for your plan, finished size, view and condition. The nine two-story sales recorded a median of $1,050,000 and the three one-story sales $810,000, and the county’s 2025 just values put two-story homes at a median of $817,124 against $674,211 for one-story homes. We build the number from the closest matches, then test it against the active asks and Lost Lake sales.
The best listing agent for Cracker Cove is one who prices from the neighborhood’s own record and explains its unusual houses to buyers. McGreevy and Comisar are the #1 team in Southwest Florida since 2012, Top 1% nationally since 2008, with over $900 million in personal sales, and this guide shows the work: every qualified Cracker Cove deed of five years, all 37 county cards, the state condominium files, the pond and preserve edges measured on the county map and the flood zone measured at every lot.
Two. The Lee County record holds two qualified Cracker Cove deeds in the 12 months to September 30, 2026: 3812 Survey Circle at $500,000 on October 21, 2025 and 3784 Cracker Way at $1,078,000 on March 11, 2026. The Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 30, 2026, shows the same two closings, at 90.9% and 93.8% of their list prices, and two homes listed for sale on that date.
On the Lee County record, the twelve qualified Cracker Cove sales of the 60 months since November 2021 recorded a median of $987,500, from $500,000 to $1,227,500, and a median of $464 per county heated square foot. Twelve deeds is a small sample, so we never price a Cracker Cove home from the median alone; the deeds closest to your house in plan, size and condition carry far more weight.
The two Cracker Cove closings on the Southwest Florida MLS pull of September 30, 2026 took 34 days (3784 Cracker Way, at $1,078,000) and 229 days (3812 Survey Circle, at $500,000), and the two homes listed on that date had been on the market 180 and 292 days. The spread says the first price matters more than the season: a home priced to the matching deeds sells in weeks, and one priced above them waits.
The two recent Cracker Cove closings sold at 93.8% and 90.9% of their list prices, a median of 92.3%, according to the Southwest Florida MLS pull of September 30, 2026. Two sales are not a rule for the neighborhood, but both show the cost of a first price set above what buyers will pay: time on market and a lower final number. We set the first price from the matching deeds.
On the county record, yes. The nine two-story homes that sold in the last 60 months recorded $745,000 to $1,227,500, a median of $1,050,000, and the three one-story homes $500,000, $810,000 and $975,000, a median of $810,000. Two-story homes are also larger on the roll (median 2,150 heated square feet against 1,564), so price per square foot, not the plan alone, is the fairer comparison.
The record is too thin to put a number on it. Only one lake-class home sold in the 60-month window (3774 Cracker Way at $950,000 in January 2022), and the four preserve-edge sales (three homes) recorded $950,000 to $1,227,500. The county’s 2025 values give the four lake-class homes a median of $849,156 against $776,971 for the rest. Your photos and a showing make the case for the view.
The county record explains part of the $727,500 spread: two-story plans and larger finished areas sit at the top, and the lowest deed was a one-story home of 1,564 heated square feet. It does not explain everything; 3784 Cracker Way recorded $745,000 in November 2023 and $1,078,000 in March 2026. Renovation and condition are the likely difference, so we document every improvement with its permit.
Describe it the way the county records it: a detached Key West style single-family home with siding and a metal roof, its living floors raised over a ground-level garage, with the heated square footage, bedrooms and stories from your card, the lake class if your lot carries it, and the neighborhood pool. Avoid words the record does not support, such as “golf view”, “private pool” or “condo”, because a buyer’s agent will check the card.
Say what it is, separately. The county card lists the heated living floors and records finished rooms at the garage level as lower utility or lower level areas; MLS listings often add them, as at 3798 Cracker Way, where 1,998 heated square feet plus a 658-square-foot lower area made the 2,656 listed. Because that room sits below the 10-foot base flood elevation, buyers will ask how it was built and permitted.
Not from the county record. On Lee County’s parcel layer the nearest Bonita Bay Club course parcel, the Marsh course, is about 620 feet from the closest Cracker Cove lots and about 1,125 feet from the farthest, and no Cracker Cove card carries a golf land class. If your porch looks across open land or preserve, describe what a buyer will actually see and let the showing make the case.
Single-family, on every public record we read: the county codes all 37 homes as single-family residences on numbered lots, and the state’s condominium register lists no Cracker Cove condominium. The county does label the common parcel a “condovision” with “common elements”, so we put the recorded declaration in front of buyers early and let their title agent confirm the form of ownership before it becomes a question at closing.
Under Section 720.401 you must give your buyer the homeowners’ association disclosure summary before the contract is signed, and Florida’s contract forms carry the state flood disclosure. During the transaction, your buyer will also receive the estoppel certificates of the Cracker Cove association and the master association, the declaration and rules, the master Declaration, By-Laws and Rules, and your property disclosures.
A contract signed without the §720.401 disclosure summary is voidable by the buyer before closing, which hands a buyer a way out of the deal at the worst possible time. The master Declaration (§12.13) repeats the duty for every Bonita Bay transfer. We put the summary in front of every buyer before the contract is signed, so the issue never arises on a Cracker Cove sale.
An estoppel certificate is each association’s written statement of what is owed on your home, including regular assessments, any special assessment and any charge due at closing. A Cracker Cove sale needs two, one from the Cracker Cove Property Owners Association and one from the Bonita Bay Community Association. Section 720.30851 sets the delivery time and fee rules, and the title agent normally requests both early in the transaction.
The recorded 2011 master Declaration contains a buyer-paid resale reserve assessment, and a later master association statement describes a different formula, with no recorded amendment reconciling them, so we do not publish either figure as the current charge. The master association’s estoppel certificate states what is due at your closing, and the Cracker Cove association’s estoppel states anything owed to it.
The master Declaration requires no sale approval that we found; it requires you to deliver the §720.401 disclosure summary, and both estoppel certificates are needed for closing. Whether the Cracker Cove documents add a notice or approval step is set in those documents, and we read them for every Cracker Cove listing before the home goes on the market.
Yes. Bonita Bay’s open house guidelines require 72 hours’ notice to the master association with the listing agreement, allow open houses Monday to Saturday 9 to 5 and Sunday 1 to 4, require the master association’s sign standard and allow no SOLD signs. Any Cracker Cove rule on signs on the common grounds, or on showing the pool and community building, is in the neighborhood documents.
The master association’s $500 per unit beach-rebuild assessment, approved March 20, 2025, was due June 30, 2025, so it is past. Your master estoppel certificate confirms that nothing remains owed on your home. Any pending special assessment of either association, including any Cracker Cove assessment for the streets, drainage or pool, must appear on the estoppel certificates, and we disclose what they show.
Plainly and with documents. Every Cracker Cove lot measures wholly in FEMA Zone AE with a base flood elevation of 10 feet, on panel 12071C0652G effective November 17, 2022, so every buyer with a federally backed mortgage will need flood insurance. Hand buyers your elevation certificate, your current flood policy declaration and the City’s CRS Class 5 discount, and the raised living floors become a selling point.
It is one of the most important documents in a Cracker Cove sale. Every lot sits in Zone AE at 10 feet, and the flood premium follows how high your lowest floor sits against that number and how the ground level is built; the City notes premiums fall by nearly half for each foot above it and double for each foot below. If you do not have a certificate, order one before listing.
Fix what buyers and insurers will flag: an old roof, rotted or unpainted siding and trim, missing opening protection, a tired air-conditioning system, an elevator without a current inspection, and anything under the house that hurts the four-point or wind mitigation report. On a wood-framed house of 1986 to 2003, fresh paint in the association’s palette and documented roof and siding work change how buyers read the whole listing.
Every Cracker Cove lot measures in Zone AE, so a buyer who plans a renovation whose cost reaches 50% of the structure’s market value triggers the City’s substantial improvement rule, and the whole house must then meet current flood requirements, including the limits on enclosed space below the base flood elevation. On a home with a finished lower level, that is the first question a remodeling buyer will ask.
Staging helps most where a buyer has to imagine the space: the porches, the main living floor and the upper rooms with their views toward the pond or the preserve. With most Cracker Cove homes between about 1,500 and 2,500 heated square feet on one or two floors above the garage, furniture scaled to the rooms and clear views out matter more than decoration. Professional photos and video should show the Key West exterior.
Southwest Florida’s buyer traffic peaks from January through April, and seven of the twelve Cracker Cove deeds of the last 60 months were recorded from January to March. A home listed in late fall or early winter is ready for the busiest showing months. The two homes listed on September 30, 2026 had been on the market 180 and 292 days, so price and presentation matter more than timing alone.
A Cracker Cove seller’s closing costs typically include the listing commission, Florida documentary stamp tax on the deed, the owner’s title policy (customarily paid by the seller in Lee County, though the contract controls), the estoppel certificate fees, prorated property taxes and assessments, and any payoff of a mortgage. Your title agent itemizes the exact figures on the settlement statement before closing.
Yes, subject to the lease and the governing documents. The master Declaration binds every tenant to the governing documents, and the lease itself decides whether a buyer takes the home with the tenant in place. The Southwest Florida MLS pull of September 30, 2026 shows no Cracker Cove lease in the prior 12 months, so an investor buyer will want your lease and rent history. Plan showing access in the lease terms.
A Bonita Bay Club membership is separate from your Cracker Cove deed. The Club does not publish its initiation fees, dues or transfer rules on its public website, and whether a membership can pass to your buyer is the Club’s decision under its own rules. Your Cracker Cove sale never requires a Club membership on either side, and the master association’s amenities pass to the buyer with the home.
On the records we read, Cracker Cove homes are single-family homes on their own lots, so a buyer’s lender reviews the house, the appraisal, the insurance and the flood policy. Some lenders may ask for the declaration because of the county’s condovision label, so have it ready. Every lot measures in Zone AE, so a federally backed loan requires flood insurance, and the appraiser will lean on the same twelve deeds.
On September 30, 2026 two other Cracker Cove homes were listed, asking $1,050,000 and $1,125,000, so your first competition is inside the enclave. Beyond it, buyers comparing compact single-family homes in Bonita Bay will see Lost Lake next door and Arbor Strand, both with 60-month county medians near $1,000,000, on the same day they see yours.
On the same 60-month county yardstick, Lost Lake recorded 9 deeds at a $1,013,400 median and $470 per square foot; Cracker Cove recorded 12 at $987,500 and $464. Lost Lake’s homes are mostly one-story block houses on their own yards, 15 with private pools; yours is a raised Key West house with shared grounds and a neighborhood pool. We put those differences into your pricing and your listing copy.
Four Cracker Cove cards record a residential elevator: 3770, 3775 and 3802 Cracker Way and 3814 Survey Circle. In homes whose living floors are raised over a garage, an elevator answers the first question many buyers ask about the stairs. If you have one, have its inspection and service records ready, and make sure the listing says so plainly.
Gather your elevation certificate, wind mitigation and four-point reports, roof, siding, window, elevator and air-conditioning permits, any permit for a finished lower level, your flood and windstorm policy declarations, any survey, the Cracker Cove declaration and rules you received at purchase, and the receipts for improvements. The City of Bonita Springs permit history by address fills gaps, and buyers can then quote insurance in their first week.
Most Florida contracts give the buyer an inspection period to inspect, negotiate repairs or credits, or cancel. On a wood-framed house of 1986 to 2003 raised on pilings, roofs, siding and trim, wood-destroying organisms, air conditioning, the elevator and the structure under the house are the usual findings. A pre-listing inspection and the permits for recent work let you fix or price those items first.
The record is too thin to call a trend. The repeat sales show long-run gains (3808 Survey Circle from $410,000 in 2014 to $1,227,500 in 2023; 3790 Cracker Way from $715,000 in 2020 to $1,050,000 in 2025), but 3788 Cracker Way recorded $1,000,000 in 2022 and $950,000 in 2025, and both recent closings sold below their list prices. We price from the current matching deeds and the wider Bonita Bay market at listing.
Property taxes and both associations’ assessments are prorated between seller and buyer to the closing date on the settlement statement, using the figures on the tax bill and the two estoppel certificates. Any special assessment due, and any charge the master association’s estoppel states is payable at closing, is allocated between the parties under the contract. Your title agent shows each line before you sign.
Every Cracker Cove fact on this page comes from a recorded instrument or state record, a county, city, state or federal record, the Cracker Cove association’s, the Bonita Bay Community Association’s or the Bonita Bay Club’s own published pages, a named news report, or the Southwest Florida MLS figures pulled on September 30, 2026. Every link below was checked and answered on November 1, 2026; recorded instruments are cited by book and page or instrument number in the text.
The official documents below are published by the Bonita Bay Community Association, the City of Bonita Springs, the School District of Lee County, the State of Florida and NOAA. They are the documents we read for this page, and the ones a Cracker Cove buyer or seller should read before signing. Each link opens the issuing authority’s own copy.
Document | Issued by | Date | What it covers | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Street and Neighborhoods | Bonita Bay Community Association | Current posting | Assigns Cracker Way and Survey Circle to the Cracker Cove neighborhood | |
Media Brochure, January 2026 | Bonita Bay Community Association | January 2026 | 2,400 acres, 3,346 residences, 12 miles of paths, separately owned Club and Marina | |
Open House Guidelines | Bonita Bay Community Association | Current posting | Open house hours, 72-hour notice, sign standard, no SOLD signs | |
Trails map | Bonita Bay Community Association | Current posting | The path network that connects Cracker Cove to the parks and the Club | |
Neighborhoods map | Bonita Bay Community Association | Current posting | Where Cracker Cove sits among Bonita Bay’s neighborhoods | |
Facilities and amenities map | Bonita Bay Community Association | Current posting | Parks, beach shuttle points and community facilities | |
Ordinance No. 22-05, Flood Hazard Reduction | City of Bonita Springs | 2022 | City floodplain rules that apply to Cracker Cove permits, including enclosed space below the base flood elevation | |
Substantial improvement and damage toolkit | City of Bonita Springs | Revised May 25, 2024 | How the City applies the 50% rule to flood-zone buildings | |
CRS Floodplain Management Plan, FY 2025-26 progress report | City of Bonita Springs | FY 2025-26 | The program behind the Class 5, 25% NFIP discount | |
Zoning District Map Book | City of Bonita Springs | July 6, 2011 | Zoning districts by map sheet within city limits | |
How to use online services | City of Bonita Springs Community Development | Current posting | The City’s online permit portal, for a home’s permit history | |
Student Enrollment Plan 2025-2026 | School District of Lee County | 2025 | Elementary Zone Q, middle Zone GG and the South high school choice zone | |
Parks of Bonita Bay | Bonita Bay Community Association | Current posting | Estero Bay Park, Riverwalk Park and Spring Creek Park: boardwalk, boat ramp, kayak launches, bocce, pickleball | |
Condominium public records (statewide condominium files) | Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation | Updated regularly | The register we searched for Cracker Cove: no Cracker Cove condominium is listed | |
Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Ian | NOAA National Hurricane Center | 2023 | The official record of Hurricane Ian |
The Cracker Cove instrument (Official Records Book 1853, Page 2555), the recorded master Declaration (Lee County Instrument 2011000142834) and the master association’s By-Laws (Instrument 2020000126919) are public records at the Lee County Clerk, retrieved by book and page or instrument number; none is posted as a free copy online, and the Cracker Cove association’s documents come to a buyer with the disclosure package in a sale.
Market data from Southwest Florida MLS, pulled September 30, 2026. County sales and parcel records from the Lee County Property Appraiser, recorded sales through September 2026. McGreevy and Comisar, Best Realtor for Cracker Cove. Brokered by Domain Realty. Jesse McGreevy, FL Lic. SL3101296 · Marc Comisar, FL Lic. BK3060671.
Thinking about buying or selling in Southwest Florida? Tell us what you are trying to do and we will tell you honestly what it will take. McGreevy and Comisar, Domain Realty Group.
