Manatee County, Florida: A Local Guide for Home Buyers and Homeowners

Manatee County runs from Anna Maria Island and the fishing village of Cortez to Lakewood Ranch and Myakka City, about 743 square miles of land in all, and about 470,000 people live here. The county was once more than 5,000 square miles before it was split into seven counties.

Use this page as a starting point before you shop: which city or community a house falls in, how the loan limits work, the county’s own housing finance authority and SHIP programs, the homestead paperwork the Property Appraiser asks for, and how Manatee’s evacuation levels work.

Every source for this guide is listed at the bottom of the page.

  • County seatBradenton
  • Founded1855, from Hillsborough County
  • PopulationAbout 470,000
  • Land area743 sq mi
  • Gulf islandsAnna Maria Island, Longboat Key
  • FHA limit, 1 unit$547,400 in 2026
  • Conventional limit, 1 unit$832,750 in 2026
  • School districtSchool District of Manatee County

Cities and communities across Manatee County

Manatee County has six municipalities: Bradenton, Palmetto, the three island cities of Anna Maria, Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach, and the Town of Longboat Key, whose north end is in Manatee and south end in Sarasota County. Lakewood Ranch, Parrish, Ellenton, Cortez, Terra Ceia and Myakka City aren’t among them. That matters for down payment help, because the county’s SHIP program covers unincorporated Manatee and Palmetto, while its CDBG program covers only unincorporated areas.

The county was carved out of Hillsborough County in January 1855 and named for the West Indian manatee, the slow-moving sea cow and Florida’s official marine mammal.

Bradenton

Bradenton is the county seat and largest city, on the Manatee River, incorporated in 1903. The 1.5-mile Bradenton Riverwalk runs through downtown with a fishing pier and splash pad, and Village of the Arts is a working artist district.

Bealls, the department store chain, was founded in Manatee County in 1915 and is headquartered in Bradenton, and Tropicana got its start in the county in the 1950s.

Anna Maria Island

Anna Maria Island is a seven-mile barrier island with three cities: Anna Maria on the north end, incorporated in 1923, Holmes Beach in the middle, incorporated in 1950, and Bradenton Beach on the south end, incorporated in 1952. A free trolley runs the length of the island, and Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach each have a city pier.

Longboat Key

Longboat Key, a town since 1955, has 12 miles of beaches. Its north end sits in Manatee County and its south end in Sarasota County, so check which county an address falls in before you look up taxes or programs.

Lakewood Ranch

Lakewood Ranch is a master-planned community east of I-75 that spans Manatee and Sarasota counties, and it’s where much of the county’s new construction goes up. If you’re shopping builders out there, get pre-approved with us before you walk into a sales office.

Cortez

Cortez is a historic fishing village on Sarasota Bay, described as one of Florida’s last true working fishing waterfronts. It’s home to the Florida Maritime Museum and the 98-acre FISH Preserve, the last large undeveloped parcel on Sarasota Bay.

Palmetto and Terra Ceia

Palmetto, incorporated in 1897, sits across the Manatee River from downtown Bradenton by way of the DeSoto Bridge. Emerson Point Preserve on Snead Island has trails with views of Tampa Bay and the Sunshine Skyway.

Terra Ceia sits next to Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve, about 24,900 acres of submerged land at the mouth of Tampa Bay.

Parrish and Ellenton

Parrish is North Manatee’s main new-home growth area, along with Palmetto-area master-planned communities like Trevesta and Artisan Lakes. Ellenton, on U.S. 301, has Ellenton Premium Outlets, the Tax Collector’s North River office and the Gamble Mansion, now a state historic park and the last remnant of the Gamble sugar plantation.

Manatee homes and how the loan limits work

Manatee buyers usually land in one of four settings: an older street in Bradenton or Palmetto, a newer master-planned community east of I-75 or around Parrish, a waterfront spot in Cortez or Terra Ceia, or a home on Anna Maria Island or Longboat Key. Each one changes the insurance quote, the flood check and which down payment programs can apply.

Paying rent in Bradenton or Palmetto? Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll compare it with the payment on a house or townhome you’d own.

Manatee is part of the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton metro. Its FHA and Conventional limits are in the table below, and they reset every January when HUD and FHFA publish new figures.

Loan limits in Manatee County for 2026 Maximum loan
FHA, single-family home $547,400
FHA, two-unit home $700,750
FHA, three-unit home $847,050
FHA, four-unit home $1,052,700
Conventional, single-family home $832,750

HUD sets the FHA limits and FHFA sets the Conventional limits for every county, and both change each January. This table refreshes itself from HUD's published figures.

As an example with a round number, not a Manatee price: on a $400,000 purchase, FHA’s 3.5% minimum down payment is $14,000, and the HFA and county seconds below can cover some or all of it. Call or text us at 954-816-8820 and we’ll run the math on the Parrish house or island home you have in mind.

Down payment help for Manatee County buyers

Manatee has its own housing finance authority plus two county programs run through Community Development. For the county programs, start with a Homeownership Training Course from Step Up Suncoast, (941) 757-1166, option 1, or Community Solutions 360, (941) 809-2231. Then you work with one of the county’s certified lenders, who submits the application.

HFA of Manatee County: Key to Homeownership

The Housing Finance Authority of Manatee County offers a down payment second at 0%, deferred 30 years and repaid when you sell, transfer, refinance or rent the home out, or at the end of the term. It isn’t forgiven. It pairs with FHA, VA, USDA-RD or Freddie Mac HFA Advantage first mortgages and is for first-time buyers, with exceptions for qualified veterans and purchases in targeted census tracts. The HFA also runs a Mortgage Credit Certificate program, administered with eHousingPlus.

The HFA resets its second mortgage amount, price limits, income limits and credit minimums from time to time. Call 888-601-8344 once you’re eyeing a house and we’ll check the HFA’s figures for that price and reserve the second with your loan the day you’re under contract, if funds are there.

Official program page

Manatee County SHIP Downpayment Assistance

SHIP makes a 0% deferred second mortgage with a 20-year term, forgiven at the end of the term and repaid in full if you sell, rent or move out sooner. You put in a small contribution, take the county’s Homeownership Training Course and work with a county-certified lender. It covers unincorporated Manatee County and the City of Palmetto, and existing homes need a county HQS inspection.

Community Development sets a maximum purchase price and income limits each SHIP year, and moderate-income help depends on funding. Buying in Palmetto or unincorporated Manatee? Text us at 954-816-8820 and we’ll ask Community Development what SHIP will pay on that address and how much money is left before you offer.

Official program page

Manatee County CDBG Down Payment Assistance

CDBG helps income-qualified households with down payment, closing costs or both as a 0% deferred loan forgiven at the end of its term. The home has to be in unincorporated Manatee County, built after 1978 and under the program’s value cap, and you put in a small contribution.

The value cap and income limits move with federal figures. Because the home also has to be built after 1978, call 888-601-8344 with the Ellenton, Parrish or Myakka City address and we’ll check that it qualifies and that CDBG has money before you offer.

Official program page

Florida Hometown Heroes (statewide)

Hometown Heroes pairs a Florida Housing 30-year fixed first mortgage with a 0% down payment and closing cost second that has no monthly payment. It’s deferred, not forgiven: you repay it when you sell, refinance or pay off the home, or stop living in it.

A buyer has to work full time for a Florida-based employer in health care, K-12 schools, first response, public safety, the courts or licensed child care, so a teacher in Manatee schools or a Bradenton firefighter may qualify. Military buyers in Manatee qualify on the same footing: active duty with any employer, and veterans, Reserve and National Guard members by working full time for a Florida-based employer. A remote job or a signed offer letter won’t qualify.

Florida Housing assistance is a once-in-a-lifetime benefit for each buyer, and you apply through a participating lender or broker. Get the right Manatee house with the right lender: call us first at 888-601-8344.

Official program page

FL Assist, FL HLP and HFA Preferred (statewide)

FL Assist is a Florida Housing second at 0%, deferred with no monthly payment, repaid when you sell, refinance, transfer the home or move out. It sits behind a Florida Housing first: FHA, VA, USDA, or Conventional through HFA Preferred or HFA Advantage. The FL HLP second has a small fixed monthly payment over 30 years, and HFA Advantage PLUS brings a second forgiven over 5 years while you live in the home.

Florida Housing funds these loan by loan. Call or text us at 954-816-8820 and we’ll tell you whether a statewide second or the Manatee HFA’s second leaves you with more cash after closing, and which one is open the week you write your offer.

Official program page

Manatee buyers can also use our FHA 100% financing, where a down payment assistance second sits behind a 96.5% FHA first mortgage, so a Manatee buyer can skip the out-of-pocket down payment. The county and HFA programs each cap the price they’ll help with, so call 888-601-8344 before you offer and we’ll match the house to the programs that can still take it.

Property taxes and your homestead exemption

The Manatee County Property Appraiser takes homestead applications for homes owners live in full time. The exemption can take up to $50,000 off your taxable value: the first $25,000 applies to all property taxes and the additional exemption to non-school taxes. It also brings Save Our Homes, which limits yearly increases in assessed value to 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower, and lets you move some or all of that difference to your next Florida homestead.

You must own the home and live in it on or before January 1, and if you don’t file by March 1 of the following year, you lose the exemption for that year. Apply online at ManateePAO.gov or by mail with your Florida driver license or ID, the Florida registration for every vehicle you own or lease, and your Manatee County voter registration card if you’re registered.

Coming from a homestead elsewhere in Florida, file Form DR-501T by that same March 1 to bring your Save Our Homes difference along. The Tax Collector sends the bill, and an escrow account pays it if your loan has one.

Manatee County Property Appraiser

915 4th Avenue West, Bradenton, FL 34205

Phone: 941-748-8208

Homestead filing and property search: manateepao.gov

Tax bills and payments: Manatee County Tax Collector

Hurricanes, surge and evacuation levels

In 2024, Hurricane Helene pushed 5 to 7 feet of surge inundation down the coast from the Anclote River to Longboat Key, and a USGS sensor on Longboat Key measured 6.68 feet above normal high tide. Two weeks later, Hurricane Milton came ashore at Siesta Key and brought another 4 to 6 feet from Longboat Key to Venice. The same Longboat Key sensor read 5.04 feet.

Two years before that, during Hurricane Ian in 2022, more than half of Manatee County’s electric customers lost power, including nearly nine in ten Peace River Electric Cooperative members.

Manatee uses evacuation levels A through E, based on potential storm surge: A for 11 feet, B for 14, C for 18, D for 27 and E for 33. Levels aren’t flood zones and don’t match hurricane categories.

  • If you’re offering on anything in Cortez, Terra Ceia, Palmetto or the islands, look up the flood zone on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center first. Your FHA, VA or Conventional lender will require a flood policy if the home falls in a high-risk zone, one starting with A or V.
  • Check the address on the county’s Learn Your Level map, and sign up for Alert Manatee. Emergency Management is at (941) 749-3500.
  • Ask for a homeowners quote during your inspection period, especially on Anna Maria Island or Longboat Key. A wind mitigation report can bring the premium down.

Jobs, schools and getting around

The county names tourism and agriculture as its top industries. Tropicana is one of the top employers, and Bealls is headquartered in Bradenton. Port Manatee near Piney Point opened in 1970 and bills itself as the closest U.S. deepwater seaport to the expanded Panama Canal.

New-home construction is a major local industry too, driven by Lakewood Ranch east of I-75 and the master-planned communities around Parrish and Palmetto.

Schools and colleges

Public schools are run by the School District of Manatee County, 215 Manatee Ave. W, Bradenton, (941) 708-8770.

Colleges include State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota in Bradenton, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) Bradenton and the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee.

Getting around

Interstate 75 is the main north-south freeway, and I-275 starts near Palmetto and crosses Tampa Bay to St. Petersburg on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Bradenton is about 45 miles south of Tampa, roughly an hour’s drive, and about 30 minutes south of St. Petersburg.

Sarasota Bradenton International Airport’s runway is in Manatee County and its terminal is in Sarasota County. Tampa International is the other commercial airport.

Islands, rivers and local favorites

Island beaches

Anna Maria Beach, Bean Point, Manatee Beach, Coquina Beach and Cortez Beach line the island. Manatee Beach has a 100-foot mat that lets wheelchair users reach the sand.

Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival

Every February, the festival takes over the working waterfront by the Starfish Company and A.P. Bell Fish Company, and proceeds go to restoring the FISH Preserve on the east end of the village.

De Soto National Memorial

The National Park Service site at 8300 De Soto Memorial Hwy. in Bradenton marks the May 1539 landing of Hernando de Soto’s expedition, with living history at Camp Uzita.

Gamble Plantation

Gamble Plantation Historic State Park in Ellenton preserves the mansion of Major Robert Gamble’s sugar plantation, where Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin hid in May 1865.

Lake Manatee State Park

The park runs three miles along the south shore of Lake Manatee, which formed when the Manatee River was dammed in the mid-1960s. It’s at 20007 State Road 64 East, with camping, boating, paddling, fishing and swimming.

Robinson and Emerson Point preserves

Robinson Preserve has nature trails and kayaking near Bradenton. Emerson Point Preserve has trails with views of the Manatee River and Tampa Bay, plus historical sites.

Pirates at LECOM Park

The Pittsburgh Pirates hold spring training at LECOM Park in Bradenton.

Downtown Bradenton history

Manatee Village Historical Park preserves buildings from the county’s founding era, 1840 to 1918. The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature downtown has a manatee habitat and a planetarium.

Moving to Manatee County: your first-month checklist

  • Electric: Florida Power & Light serves most of the county, and Peace River Electric Cooperative serves members mostly in the eastern county. Ask which one serves the address.
  • Water and sewer: ask the seller which utility bills the house, and set up the account before closing day.
  • Driver license and tag: the Manatee County Tax Collector runs a full-service Driver License Office at 904 301 Blvd W, Bradenton, with license services also at the North River office (4333 US 301 N, Ellenton) and Lakewood Ranch (6007 111th St E).
  • Homestead: apply online at ManateePAO.gov or by mail to 915 4th Avenue West, Bradenton, by March 1 of the year after you close.
  • County questions: dial 311 inside Manatee County, or use the Manatee311 portal. It handles flood-zone questions too.
  • Hurricane season: Emergency Management, (941) 749-3500, and Alert Manatee.

Buying or refinancing in Manatee County with AAA Capital Funding

Buying a home

FHA is the loan most of our Manatee County buyers use: 3.5% down, flexible credit guidelines, and it pairs with the HFA’s second and the county programs above. Eligible veterans can use a VA loan with no money down, and we also write Conventional loans, Hometown Heroes and FHA 100% financing in Manatee.

AAA Capital Funding has been a licensed Florida mortgage broker since 1997, closing loans from Myakka City to Anna Maria and lending statewide in all 67 Florida counties, Sarasota next door included. We shop your loan with multiple wholesale lenders, and we’ll get you pre-approved before you tour new construction in Parrish or Lakewood Ranch.

Refinancing the home you have

Cut your monthly payment, pull cash for a new roof or storm repairs, clear higher-interest debt, or buy a co-owner off the title. If you’ve built equity in a Manatee home, a refinance puts it to use.

Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll lay your present loan beside the new one, with the payment, the cash you’d receive and the closing costs all on one page.

Manatee County questions we hear a lot

What is the FHA loan limit in Manatee County, Florida?

You’ll find it in the loan limit table on this page, with the two- to four-unit limits and the one-unit Conventional limit. HUD and FHFA reset them each January, and the table refreshes from HUD’s figures.

Is there down payment assistance in Manatee County?

Yes. The Housing Finance Authority of Manatee County offers a deferred second, the county’s SHIP program covers unincorporated Manatee and Palmetto, and its CDBG program helps in unincorporated areas. Hometown Heroes and Florida Assist work here too. Price caps and funding change, so let us confirm availability before you build it into an offer.

Is my evacuation level the same as my flood zone?

No. Manatee’s evacuation levels A through E are based on potential storm surge and don’t match FEMA flood zones or hurricane categories. Check both: the county’s Learn Your Level map for evacuation and FEMA’s map for flood insurance.

When do I file for homestead in Manatee County?

By March 1 of the year after you buy, with the Manatee County Property Appraiser. If you’re bringing Save Our Homes savings from another Florida homestead, file Form DR-501T by the same date.

Do I need flood insurance in Manatee County?

Your lender will require it if FEMA maps the house in a high-risk zone. Helene and Milton both pushed several feet of water onto Longboat Key and the coast in 2024, so get a quote on any home near the water before you write an offer.

Sources for this guide (32)
  1. U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Manatee County, FL
  2. Manatee County, Florida (Wikipedia, history)
  3. List of municipalities in Florida (Wikipedia)
  4. Manatee County Government: About
  5. Visit Florida: Bradenton
  6. Visit Florida: Anna Maria Island
  7. Visit Florida: Longboat Key
  8. National Fisherman: Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival
  9. Sarasota Magazine: North of the Manatee River
  10. Florida State Parks: Lake Manatee
  11. National Park Service: De Soto National Memorial
  12. Florida Ports Council: Port Manatee
  13. HUD: FHA mortgage limits lookup
  14. Manatee County Property Appraiser
  15. Manatee County Tax Collector: Locations
  16. Florida Department of Revenue: Property tax exemptions
  17. Manatee County: Evacuation levels
  18. FEMA Flood Map Service Center
  19. National Hurricane Center: Hurricane Helene report
  20. National Hurricane Center: Hurricane Milton report
  21. Florida Public Service Commission: Hurricane Ian outage report
  22. Florida Public Service Commission storm report (electric providers)
  23. HFA of Manatee County program guide (eHousingPlus)
  24. Manatee County SHIP guidelines
  25. Manatee County CDBG guidelines
  26. Manatee County: Down payment assistance programs
  27. Florida Housing: Hometown Heroes
  28. Florida Housing: Homebuyer programs overview
  29. School District of Manatee County
  30. Your Observer: Manatee County 311
  31. Manatee311 portal
  32. Manatee County Property Appraiser: homestead packet

AAA Capital Funding, Inc. NMLS #374739. Jason J. Sarji, NMLS #374700. Licensed Florida mortgage broker serving Manatee County and all 67 Florida counties since 1997. Equal Housing Opportunity.

You work with the same person from start to finish, in every county in Florida.

We've been closing Florida loans since 1997, in all 67 counties. If you want to know what's possible in Manatee County, call 888-601-8344 or text 954-816-8820. One call, under ten minutes. No application needed to start.

AAA Capital Funding, Inc. · NMLS #374739 · Jason J. Sarji, NMLS #374700