Florida's 6th-Largest City Is A Scenic Retreat Worth Retiring In

Retirees are always searching for the perfect place to spend their golden years, and one city along Florida's Treasure Coast may just offer exactly what they're looking for. Port St. Lucie, the state's 6th-largest city, has become a popular retirement destination in a state that thousands of seniors flock to year after year to live the life they've saved for and dreamed of.

Port St. Lucie is home to palm tree-lined streets, colorful buildings with picturesque beach-style architecture, and more reasons than not for retirees to fall in love with it. Thanks to its location on the Atlantic coast, the city boasts beautiful sunrises daily and has 21 miles of soft, sandy beaches ideal for swimming, shelling, strolling, and fishing. Off the beach, retirees enjoy cultural events, festivals, museums, and historic attractions along with nature trails and a thriving food scene. This is all made even more accessible and appealing to seniors thanks to the low cost of living, which, according to Best Places, comes in at a score of 98.6, a number that is 1.4% lower than the national average and more than 4% lower than the Florida state average, which will make it more likely for that hard-earned nest egg to last you so you can enjoy your retirement the way you want to.

In 2021 alone, more than 78,000 seniors moved to Florida from other parts of the country according to a study conducted last year by SmartAsset. That number is more than three times the number of seniors that moved to Arizona, the state which ranked second on the list. While it's no secret that warm weather and the practically year-round sunshine of cities like Port St. Lucie are major factors for many seniors who head to the Sunshine State when they retire, there are also incredible tax incentives that make it a very appealing long-term destination.

Florida has a moderate sales tax at 6%, but it makes up for it with no estate or inheritance taxes and no income tax, which means that retirees can collect pensions, Social Security payments, and 401(k) distributions without being taxed on them and can continue to work post-retirement without having to pay taxes on that income. While the state does levy property taxes, Florida offers a variety of property tax exemptions that seniors can take advantage of, like homestead exemptions and widow(er) exemptions.

Port St. Lucie boasts a moderate climate that fluctuates between average lows of 59.5 degrees in January and average highs of 87.6 degrees in August, and the city has a low crime rate that is 3.5 times lower than the national average. Buying a house is one of the first things many retirees do when they move to a new state, and the housing market in Port St. Lucie is another factor that makes the city appealing for its many resident retirees. The average home value, according to Zillow at the time of this writing, is $394, 504, which is approximately 32.3%, or roughly one third of the average home value of $583,030 in nearby Miami, one of Florida's costlier cities to purchase a home.

Port St. Lucie has additional location benefits as well. If the beautiful coastline with beaches, water sports, and fishing don't offer enough entertainment for visiting family, the city is situated about midway between Miami and Orlando, making it a great jumping off point for the kids and grandkids to visit both Disney World and the cultural hotbed of Miami, both of which can easily be reached in about two hours by car.