I was listening to Masters coverage on XM Satellite radio the other day and heard an ad for the Mirasol Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, FL.  They were offering a whopping $45,000 off the price of a membership at the club “just for mentioning the ad.”  I could not resist calling and mentioning the ad.

        I learned that the 2,300-acre Mirasol, which features two golf courses -– the Sunrise by Tom Fazio and the Sunset by Arthur Hills -– is almost completely sold out.  A total of 1,132 homes have been sold of the 1,170 plotted; since purchasers were required to build right away, you won’t find many patches of dirt at Mirasol.

        Membership is also mandatory when you purchase a home at

        Dues are not cheap at Mirasol; full golf membership runs $15,000 annually, and that is before the 6.5% county tax.  The remaining 38 new home packages are priced from $600,000 to $3.5 million, but the lower end provides a nice 3 bedroom, 3 bath home with almost 3,000 square feet of “air-conditioned space” (a Florida designation that means the same as “heated space” elsewhere).  Each one features a 2 1/2-car garage -– the half for the golf cart – as well as a 12 x 24 foot in-ground pool.