Gulf Trace Homes for Sale

Living in Gulf Trace

Gulf Trace was platted in two steps. The original plat, Plat Book 5, Page 44, was filed June 10, 1980, and the First Addition, Plat Book 5, Page 73, followed on May 11, 1981. County parcel numbers keep them apart: 08-3S-19-25020 for the original and 08-3S-19-25040 for the addition, 44 and 42 parcels, 86 in all. The prefix and the plat reference in a legal description decide which plat a lot belongs to, not its street address, and six parcels are described by bearings and distances from the plat corner rather than by a plain lot number.

Walton County's planning overlay map labels the 29.7-acre area Gulf Trace NP and cites Ordinance 2010-03 and Appendix C NP-4 of the Land Development Code, and the county lists the Gulf Trace Neighborhood Plan among its approved plans. The plan's text applies it to both plats, and the overlay outline covers all 86 parcels, with a sliver of up to about 6 percent of ground outside it on 23 of them. Its standards allow single-family detached houses and home occupations only, with no multi-family, commercial or vending use. Buildings may stand no taller than 45 feet, as two levels of living space over pilings with no flat roofs, and must hold at least 1,200 square feet of heated and cooled space. Lots may not be subdivided further. The front setback is 25 feet, or 10 feet for Gulf-front houses. One accessory apartment of up to 600 square feet is allowed per lot, rentable only to the owner's family or together with the main house. The plan also standardizes rental and for-sale signs and bars on-street parking except for service vehicles.

The plan's own history says the subdivision's private covenants expired on December 1, 2006 and a 2008 owner vote to renew them fell one owner short of the unanimity required, which is why the plan was written. That is the plan's account as of 2009 and 2010, and nothing cited here shows whether covenants have been recorded since. The plan describes the Gulf of Mexico to the south and state park land on the other three sides, and the county roll agrees for the north, east and west, where the neighboring parcels are listed to the state's recreation and parks office. It also says the subdivision holds an access right-of-way across the park, that Gulf Trace maintains its paved roads, and that the original plat dedicates two pedestrian beach accesses to Gulf Trace property owners, between Lots 13 and 14 and between Lots 19 and 20 of Block A. Confirm road responsibility and beach access in writing before relying on them.

The county parcel file classes 74 parcels as single family, 7 vacant, 3 multi-family under 10 units, 1 common area and 1 site improvement. The 2026 state tax roll reaches the same 86 parcels, all Santa Rosa Beach 32459: 74 single-family houses dated 1981 to 2025, with 30 from the 1980s, 19 from the 1990s, 13 from the 2000s, 4 from the 2010s and 8 from the 2020s, and living areas of 1,718 to 7,964 square feet. Eight parcels are coded vacant, one of which the county calls a site improvement, three are multi-family, and one is the common area. Situs addresses fall on Gulf Shore, Savelle, White Sands, High Dune, Gulf Ridge and Gulf Breeze drives. The roll's land-area field differs from the county's drawn outlines by more than a quarter on 6 of the 85 parcels that carry one, with one parcel at 187,586 square feet against about 10,000 drawn, so use the lot tables printed on the recorded plats. The three multi-family parcels sit beside a single-family-only rule; the plan lets earlier lawful uses continue, but these records do not say which uses qualify.

One parcel, 4.31 acres on the county map, holds the shared ground, and Gulf Trace Owners Assoc Inc is its owner of record; its legal text names the common areas, streets, rights-of-way and easements of the First Addition plat. A nonprofit of that name was incorporated July 3, 2007 and reinstated February 2, 2009, and is active in the state's corporate record. The records are silent on association assessments, enforcement and rentals.

Gulf Trace's flood picture splits by position. Intersecting the 86 county outlines with FEMA's map and with the county's own layer gave identical tallies: 75 outlines meet Zone X, 20 meet VE, 4 meet AE and 12 meet the shaded X band for 0.2 percent annual chance. The counts overlap, since one parcel can meet several. All 19 lots with velocity-zone ground are Block A lots, the row the plats draw along the Gulf, and 18 of the 20 VE parcels are at least half VE, in bands labeled 11, 12 and 15 feet. Fifty-nine parcels meet nothing but the unshaded X. None of this fixes an individual floor height; that takes a lot-specific elevation certificate.

The August 19, 2026 reading of 3 active and 33 sold in Santa Rosa Beach comes from matching on the name, which spans two plats and four decades of building. It dates a moment and does not describe what is listed today.