Diamond Shores On Hutchinson Island

Diamond Shores on Hutchinson Island: A Straight Answer Guide for Buyers

Diamond Shores is a gated community of 43 new construction oceanfront single-family homes on Hutchinson Island, built by Phoenix Custom Homes, with every home steps from a private beach.
Recent asking prices have run from roughly $3.4 million to $3.9 million for a 3-story, 3,911 square foot living area home with 4 bedrooms, a private elevator, a gas-heated pool, and a 3-car garage.
The community is pet friendly, has a clubhouse and a kayak/day dock, and permits monthly rentals, which matters if you want flexibility most oceanfront communities don’t offer.
It sits in the Fort Pierce 34949 zip code in St. Lucie County, on the same stretch of barrier island coastline that runs up to Vero Beach. You’re roughly 25 minutes from Vero’s Central Beach.
The builder pages won’t tell you about barrier island insurance costs, the county tax picture, or how this compares to established Vero Beach communities. This post does.

Most of what you’ll find online about Diamond Shores reads like a brochure. Private paradise, luxury meets tranquility, remote but connected. All of that is fine, and honestly some of it is true. But if you’re seriously considering spending $3.5 million on an oceanfront home, you don’t need more adjectives. You need numbers, rules, and context. I sell real estate on this coast, so let me give you the version I’d give a client.

What Diamond Shores actually is

Diamond Shores is a gated oceanfront community of 43 single-family homes on Hutchinson Island, developed by Phoenix Custom Homes, a builder that has been doing oceanfront construction on this coast for over 30 years. Every home in the community is oceanfront or steps from the private beach. There are no back-row lots looking at someone else’s roof.

The homes follow one core formula: three stories, 3,911 square feet of living space (about 5,785 total square feet), 4 bedrooms, 5.5 baths, a private elevator, a 3-car garage, and a gas-heated pool. Ceilings run 10 to 12 feet. You get floor-to-ceiling impact glass, oversized covered terraces facing the water, a chef’s kitchen, and a built-in outdoor BBQ. Some homes include backup solar battery systems, which is a genuinely useful feature on a barrier island where storms and outages are part of life.

Community amenities are simple by design: a clubhouse, private beach access, and a kayak/day dock on the lagoon side. This is not a country club community with golf, tennis, and a dining minimum. If you want that lifestyle, keep reading, because I’ll point you toward better fits later.

What housing costs at Diamond Shores

Recent listings have been priced between about $3.4 million and $3.9 million, which works out to roughly $895 to $920 per square foot of living area. Model homes have been open daily, and the community has been selling in phases, so pricing and available inventory move. Treat those numbers as a snapshot, not a promise.

For context, that per-square-foot figure puts Diamond Shores in the same conversation as new oceanfront construction anywhere on the Treasure Coast. New build directly on the sand is the most expensive product type on this coastline, full stop. What you’re paying for is the combination of new construction (current building codes, impact glass, new roof, new everything) and a true oceanfront position, which almost never comes together in an established community without a teardown.

The rules that matter: pets, rentals, HOA

Three things buyers always ask me about, and the brochure sites bury or skip:

Pets are welcome. Genuinely pet friendly, which is not a given in gated oceanfront communities.

Monthly rentals are permitted. This is a big one. Many luxury oceanfront communities restrict rentals to once or twice a year, or ban them outright. A monthly rental allowance gives you real flexibility if you plan to use the home seasonally and offset carrying costs the rest of the year. Verify the current HOA documents before you write an offer, because rental policies can be amended, but as marketed this is one of the more rental-friendly luxury communities on the island.

It’s gated with a small HOA footprint. With only 43 homes and modest shared amenities, the HOA exists mainly to maintain the gate, the clubhouse, the dock, and the common grounds. Get the budget and reserve study during due diligence like you would anywhere, but you’re not underwriting a golf course here.

Where it actually sits, and why that matters

Here’s the context the marketing copy glosses over. Diamond Shores carries a Hutchinson Island address in the 34949 zip code, which is the Fort Pierce barrier island zip in St. Lucie County. If you’ve read my Vero Beach vs. Hutchinson Island comparison, you already know the punchline: this coastline is a string of barrier islands split across county lines, and the county you land in drives your property taxes, your school district, and part of your insurance picture.

Practically, here’s what that location gets you:

Fort Pierce is your closest city for groceries, restaurants, marinas, and the everyday stuff. A short drive over the causeway.
Vero Beach is roughly 25 minutes north along A1A. That means Vero’s restaurants, shops, cultural scene, and hospital are absolutely in your orbit, even though you’re not paying Indian River County prices to live there. If you’re weighing this whole stretch of coast, my complete Vero Beach relocation guide covers the area in depth.
The beach itself is the quiet kind. This part of the island is known for uncrowded sand, sea turtle nesting, and the occasional horseback rider. The Reynolds Team post that ranks for this community got that part right. It really is that quiet.

If you’re not sure how all these towns and islands fit together, I wrote a plain-English geography explainer: Where is Vero Beach, Florida?

What nobody tells you before you buy Vero Beach oceanfront

I’d be doing you a disservice if I only listed the good parts. Three things to price into your decision:

Insurance. Oceanfront on a barrier island means wind coverage and flood coverage, and both have gotten more expensive across Florida. New construction helps a lot here. Homes built to current code with impact glass and new roofs get materially better rates than older oceanfront stock. But get real quotes during your inspection period, not after closing.

Salt air is relentless. Everything metal, everything mechanical, everything exterior ages faster within a few hundred feet of the ocean. New construction buys you years of runway, and the builder warranty matters. Ask exactly what Phoenix Custom Homes warrants and for how long.

Resale pool. A 43-home community with one basic floor plan formula means your future resale comps are your neighbors. That’s clean and predictable, which is good. It also means you can’t renovate your way into being the special house on the street. Buy the lot position you actually want, because the ocean view is the variable that separates these homes.

Who Diamond Shores fits, and who should look elsewhere

It fits you if: you want new construction directly on the ocean, you value privacy over amenities, you may want monthly rental flexibility, and you like the idea of being between Fort Pierce and Vero Beach rather than inside either one.

Look elsewhere if: you want a club lifestyle with golf, tennis, and a social calendar. That buyer is usually happier in Vero Beach’s established communities. Orchid Island is the closest comparable geography, sitting on the same barrier island just north of the county line, with a full club and a very different feel. My Vero Beach communities guide walks through the whole map, from oceanfront club communities to riverfront neighborhoods, if you want to compare before you commit.

My honest read

Diamond Shores is a legitimate product. New oceanfront construction with a private beach, sane HOA scope, pet and rental flexibility, and a builder with a long track record on this exact coastline is a rare combination. The tradeoff is that you’re buying location and the ocean, not a lifestyle package, and you’re paying new-construction oceanfront pricing to do it.

If you’re weighing Diamond Shores against Vero Beach options, or you just want someone local to pressure-test the numbers before you talk to the builder’s sales team, that’s exactly the kind of conversation I have every week. I’m a licensed Florida real estate agent based in Vero Beach, and I work this entire stretch of coast. Reach out here and I’ll give you the unvarnished version.

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