A friendly chat about moving to, or investing in, Clearwater & Tampa Bay
So, you're thinking about Florida. Good news: so is half the country. People keep heading south, and lately a lot of them are discovering what we've known for a long time, that Clearwater keeps getting better. Grab a coffee (or something with an umbrella in it) and let me tell you why.
How the beach craze found Clearwater
Florida's real estate boom started in Miami and Orlando. Prices went up, then up some more, and pretty soon buyers and developers were driving around looking for the next great spot. They found Naples, then Fort Myers, then Sarasota, each one lovely in its own way. And as the wave kept rolling up the coast, it eventually reached Pinellas County and the Florida Suncoast, where the best beach of all was waiting: Clearwater Beach. Wide, white, soft sand, with a causeway straight to the mainland. TripAdvisor travelers have named it the #1 beach in the U.S. more than once, and honestly, we don't argue with travelers.
Here's the part people tend to forget. Go north of Clearwater and the white-sand beaches basically stop until you get to the Panhandle. There's only so much of this coastline to go around, and we're sitting right on it.
And don't get me wrong, Miami seems a great place. But Miami has sunrises. We have sunsets, and our sunsets are priceless. Every single evening the whole beach stops to watch the sun drop into the Gulf, people clap, kids run into the water, and you remember why you moved here. Even the seagulls seem to stop arguing for a minute. You can't buy that, but you can live next to it.
Tampa Bay keeps growing, and we're right in the middle of it
Big cities have always grown where people and goods come and go, and Tampa Bay has that part covered. Port Tampa Bay handles cargo and cruise ships, and Tampa International Airport has nonstop flights across the U.S. and to Europe, with an expansion plan for its international terminal. Add miles of bay shoreline full of waterfront homes (sorry, Orlando), the Bucs, the Lightning, the Rays, plus museums, Busch Gardens and concerts all year, and you start to see why people stay. Oh, and the Phillies have done their spring training right here in Clearwater since 1948, so baseball season starts early around here.
The region isn't standing still either. In August 2026, Hillsborough County commissioners approved the agreements to build a new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark in Tampa's Westshore area near the airport, planned for 2029. Over on Water Street Tampa, a new entertainment district is planned with a 3,500-seat music venue and a 250-room hotel, with construction that could begin as early as 2027.
So why Clearwater, exactly?
For years we called downtown Clearwater "a diamond in the rough." Well, the polishing has started, and you can see it from the water. In my view, Clearwater is just at the beginning of its rebirth, and from here it can only get better. This isn't a market that already feels saturated, like some places where everything's been built, bought and priced to the moon. Here, a lot of the story is still being written, and that's exactly what makes it exciting.
Now, to be fair, we already have some gorgeous waterfront luxury buildings. Water's Edge sits on Cleveland Street right downtown, steps from Coachman Park, Marina Bay sits on the bayfront along North Osceola Avenue in the Old Bay District, and Serena by the Sea faces the water on Sunset Point Road in North Clearwater. But we're just getting started. This beautiful waterfront city is getting a brand-new skyline, and we're only at the beginning. (Locals have started giving directions by crane: "turn left at the big yellow one.")
It starts at the waterfront. The rebuilt 24-acre Coachman Park opened in 2023, and The BayCare Sound amphitheater now brings big-name concerts downtown, while the Fourth of July fireworks and Jazz Holiday still pull everyone to the bluff. Right above the park, on the site of the old City Hall, The Bluffs is going up: a 28-story tower with 400 apartments, more than 10,000 square feet of shops and 440 parking spaces. Construction started in spring 2026, the first elevated concrete was poured in September, and completion is planned for summer 2028. Just next door, at Cleveland Street and Osceola Avenue where the old Harborview Center used to be, the 10-story Ballad Hotel broke ground in December 2025, with restaurants, shops and a rooftop bar planned. And the city's list keeps going, with a new City Hall, the Osceola Parking Garage (nearly 400 spaces, EV charging and shops on the ground floor), a new PSTA Clearwater transit station, and friendlier, more walkable streets along Osceola Avenue. "Clearwater, The Good Life" is starting to look like more than a slogan.
Walk a few steps up Cleveland Street, our Main Street, and you can feel it waking up. The Cleveland Street Alliance is restoring historic buildings block by block, and new places keep opening their doors. Nourish & Nosh Bakery Bistro, a European café at 601 Cleveland, opened in summer 2026, and in August more than 3,000 people showed up for the grand opening of Nubo Café & Bakery, a Ukrainian café at 420 Cleveland. Three thousand people. For pastries. We get it. Next up are Hanami Japanese Izakaya at 635 Cleveland and two spots from Tampa's Michelin-recognized Tastes Pretty Good group: Rippers, for burgers and wings, planned for late 2026, and Streetlight Taco, planned for early 2027. And then there's the big one, EVO Entertainment's planned $50 million family entertainment center at Cleveland and Myrtle, with movie screens (including one the developer calls the largest in the world), bowling, an arcade, laser tag and dining. The city has approved the site, design is underway, and completion is targeted for the end of 2027. Movie night is about to get serious, and so is the popcorn budget.
There's even talk of a "super sports complex." On October 14, 2026, City Council voted 4-0 to move ahead with negotiations to turn the city-owned Landings Golf Course, 77 acres by Clearwater Airpark, into a sports and entertainment district with sports fields, pickleball and sand volleyball courts, a water park, a fitness center and restaurants. It's not final yet, since contracts and more approvals still come first and some neighbors have concerns, but it tells you a lot about where Clearwater is heading.
And of course, the beach is still the star of the show. Opal Sol Resort opened on Beach Walk in February 2025, the ChartHouse Clearwater Beach Marina Hotel opened in 2025, and CW Resort & Marina, a 91-residence boutique condo-hotel with its own 45-slip marina on East Shore Drive, is being built. The city is also rebuilding the Clearwater Beach Marina with new docks, a higher seawall and a "Marina Walk" connecting to Beach Walk, scheduled to be completed in 2026, and a 9-story, 135-room hotel has been approved at 405 Coronado Drive.
Some things, happily, haven't changed at all. You still get to the beach over the Memorial Causeway, or you hop on the water taxi and skip the parking hunt. Tampa International Airport is still about a 30-minute drive over the Courtney Campbell Causeway (traffic permitting, and on the Courtney Campbell, traffic has opinions). And Clearwater is still home to the international headquarters of several churches, which bring visitors and new residents from all over the world year-round.
So here's my honest advice
Put it all together: the last stretch of white-sand beach on Florida's west coast, a metro area that keeps growing, and a downtown going through its biggest makeover in decades, with a new waterfront park, concerts, apartments, a hotel, restaurants, an entertainment center and a sports district in the works. The cranes are already up, so come see it for yourself while the story is still being written, and come grow with us while we build our ideal city. We want to see quality of life go up for everyone who calls Clearwater home, and we hope to see property values grow right along with it.
(Of course, real estate values can go up or down, and nobody can promise the future. We'll give you the facts so you can decide.)
We are where your best investment starts
And that brings me to your best first investment: a conversation with a Great Homes Realty agent or our broker. We've worked full time in Clearwater for 24 years, so we know the neighborhoods, the buildings, the streets and the people. We listen, we search, we negotiate, and we guide you from your very first question to your closing and beyond. That's why our clients don't stay clients for long. They become friends for life. And whatever language you dream in, chances are we speak it too: English, Italian, Spanish, Russian and more.
My best,
Paola Lombardi
Real Estate Broker, Great Homes Realty, Inc.
Great Homes Realty, Inc.
511 N. Osceola Ave, Clearwater FL 33755