The winds of change are blowing through Newtown, and the breeze smells a lot like money.

During the just-ended real estate boom cycle, property values here appreciated considerably, and buying and selling of property picked up. That's a first in the 80-year history of Newtown, a name that to most Sarasotans is code for "black," "segregation" and "poor."

In Amaryllis Park, Newtown's central neighborhood, bounded to the south by Martin Luther King Jr. Way and to the north by Myrtle Street, 50 homes and empty lots have changed hands since 2000, at prices ranging from a rock-bottom $40,000 to a modest $216,000 for a new home built in 2005, according to the Sarasota Property Appraiser's database.

If this triggers yawns, consider that there were only nine sales in the same neighborhood during all of the 1990s, and seven during the 1980s. Some properties have doubled in value; a historical home on 36th Street actually quadrupled its sales price over just three years.

The recent price spurt coincides with positive demographic trends and the realization of three or four major projects in and around Newtown, both public and private, which had been pending for years.

"The community has made a tremendous turnaround," says Newtown native Jetson Grimes, co-founder of the 10-year-old Newtown Redevelopment Corporation and owner of a hair salon just off Martin Luther King Jr. Way, the area's Main Street. "Now we can bring in the bricks and mortar."

Maybe Grimes is a booster. But outside investors are beginning to respond, overcoming what he diplomatically calls "perceptions."

Banking on long-term appreciation and a pickup in activity, investors continue to snatch up empty lots throughout an area considered off-limits since segregationists forced Sarasota's black residents north from the central Rosemary District in the 1920s and '30s.

It's not just speculators. Several investors and groups have been assembling land, with single-family construction in mind. Already, some bricks-and-mortar projects-most small, in low-profile areas-have begun to change the demographics.

"I believe there's more renovation and construction activity than at any time before," says Newtown Economic Development Coordinator Dru Jones, who started her job in 2002.

According to Jones, Enterprise Zone funding applications by builders for sales tax refund and impact fee waivers doubled in 2005-06 to $475,000 on 75 construction projects, from $187,000 for 49 properties in the previous year. (The state established the Enterprise Zone program 16 years ago with the intent of triggering economic development in areas that rank below the federal poverty level. Under the program, the city of Sarasota provides impact fee waivers and sales tax refunds to businesses and homeowners in four census tracts, all located in the Newtown area.)

"Affordable housing" is the key phrase, and the time for investing is right now, if you believe local real estate players.

"I'm quoting my mom: 'Progress follows the path of least resistance'," says Terry Fine, owner of 41 West Realty Group. "In Newtown, they don't resist development, and developers won't have to fight with City Hall. This is the last community in Sarasota where you can buy for less than $200,000."

Adds Kerry Kleppinger, whose Kleppinger Homes LLC is building dozens of affordable homes for under $150,000, mostly in the Newtown area: "Because of market conditions, [construction] prices are at a standstill. Two years from now, it could be right back to increasing prices. Now is an excellent time."

The rise in real estate activity comes as Newtown is witnessing positive long-term trends. Although Newtown crime statistics still are among the worst in the county, "Crime rates have declined over the past 10 years," says Lt. Steve Breakstone, a veteran Newtown officer. "All major crime is down, especially violent crime. Ten to 12 years ago, you could hardly drive a police car through [the] Janie Poe [public housing complex]; now it's much more quiet. We've made more drug arrests in the last few years, but I attribute that to us doing a better job rather than an increasing drug trade."

What's more, Newtown's rock-solid core of hard-working residents and retirees has apparently seen a slight improvement in household incomes. Amaryllis Park recently lost its Enterprise Zone designation, because the 2005 Census showed that average household incomes had risen above the poverty threshold set by the state.

That apparent rise in incomes may have been behind the accelerated buying, building and renovating by the people who already live in the neighborhood.

National real estate tracking company Trulia rates Amaryllis Park as "warm" (as opposed to "cold or "hot") with "moderate activity and consumer interest compared to other Sarasota neighborhoods." As of late December, five properties were for sale, ranging from $99,000 to $239,000.