Cortez, Florida.
Typical home $781,276 (+4.7% in a year). North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,286 (+126%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $35,250 +5%
- $746,025$781,276 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $131,475 +20%
- $649,801$781,276 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Cortez$4,101
- Florida$1,970
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 19 years.
Typical home values in Cortez, FL rose 4.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Cortez, Manatee County, Florida
Cortez, in Manatee County, had 4,121 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $79,895 a year and half less, against $78,457 across Manatee County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 87% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 13% are rented. Unemployment in Manatee County was 4.9% in August 2026, and the county had 1.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Manatee County work in schools and health care, then professional services.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Cortez is a small community in Manatee County, home to an older population, with a median age well above that of the country as a whole. Almost everyone here owns their home, far more than is typical, and household incomes sit a little above the county's. Homes are costly, and a four-year degree is common among adults.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by professional and business services, shops, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Manatee County, the largest workplaces include Manatee Schools, Manatee Memorial Hospital and Feld Entertainment. The typical commute is a fairly long one, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. For a day out, Anna Maria Island is a beach a short drive away, and the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is a museum a short drive away. Siesta Key, another beach, is a longer drive. Winters are mild and summers are hot, with a fair amount of rain through the year.
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- 2,517households
- 47%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 33 mintypical commute
- 15%work from home
What people in Manatee County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Manatee County had 146,007 jobs in 2025, 1.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 72° and lows near 52°; warmest in August, with highs near 92° and lows near 75°. About 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sarasota Bradenton Airport weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest employers in Manatee County
- Manatee County School Board5,804
- Manatee Healthcare System2,804
- Publix2,600
- Amazon2,500
- Manatee County Government2,493
- Beall's, Inc.2,300
- Blake Medical Center1,742
- Manatee County Sheriff's Department1,275
From Manatee County’s annual financial report for 2025, its schedule of principal employers, as Florida’s Auditor General publishes it: the report. Employees as the report counts them.
Natural hazards
- Coastal floodingRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Cortez’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Manatee County and the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL metro.
Cortez home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Cortez$781,276
- Florida$375,361
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Cortez16
Zip codes with a Cortez address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Cortez — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.