5 Best Places to Live in Port St. Lucie, FL

If you’re looking for a coastal community that’s both affordable and jam-packed with amenities, Port St. Lucie, FL, might have your number. With its beautiful beaches, warm climate, and abundant outdoor activities, this east coast town has become a popular destination for those looking to relocate or retire to Florida.

Besides beaches and water access, Port St. Lucie’s easy access to amenities and conveniences, like top-rated schools, healthcare facilities, shopping centers, and restaurants, make it appealing. You can create a lifestyle the way you want when you opt to live here.

Discover Port St Lucie’s advantages with our profile. Then, get your home search off on the right foot with a few of the top neighborhoods people are looking to live in Port St. Lucie.

About Port St Lucie

Welcome to Florida’s Treasure Coast region, a stretch of Atlantic seaboard famous for the Spanish ships sunk offshore in a 1715 hurricane. While your chances of finding a golden galleon are pretty rare, you can find a golden place to live in Port St. Lucie.

Location

This town is north of the West Palm Beach metro by about 45 minutes–far enough away that you escape the thick traffic but easy enough to reach thanks to the Florida Turnpike and I-95 that runs north-south through the city. Be in Miami, Port Canaveral, or Orlando in about two hours.

Accolades

Port. St Lucie has earned attention from numerous sources in recent years. A few of its accolades:

• 5th fastest-growing city in the US for 2023 (PSL)
• 7th best beach town to retire in the US (PSL)
• 8th best place to live in Florida (US News and World Report)
• 2nd safest places to live for 2022 (US News and World Report)
• 15th best real estate market (WalletHub)
• 22nd best place to retire in the US in 2023 (US News and World Report)

Climate

Living here, you’re going to experience the beautiful Florida weather. That means mild and warm winters that allow you to get outside even in January. You can spend a beautiful morning testing your golfing skills on the fairways and afternoons on the boat casting lines for bass and snook. Yes, the summers will be warm for year-round residents, and the afternoon thunderstorms are a fact of life. But, you are close to the waterfront and shoreline whenever you want to dip in the water to cool off.

Cost of Living

Another serious perk of living in Port St. Lucie is the cost of living. Florida generally runs about 3% more expensive than most of the United States. Still, those numbers go way up when you start talking about coastal real estate, like in Miami, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and Daytona Beach.

Not so with Port St. Lucie. You can find real estate on the waterfront, or live at least pretty close to it, right in line with what you’d pay anywhere in the United States. Port St. Lucie is only 0.7% more expensive than the indexed national average. All its costs were in line with what you could expect to pay nationwide, from healthcare to utilities.

Population

Port St. Lucie is Florida’s seventh largest city by population–even bigger than Fort Lauderdale! For residents, that means there is a robust infrastructure with many ways to entertain themselves or find employment opportunities.

Things to do

There’s so much you can do, making a shortlist is a challenge. Obviously, there’s the waterfront, which spans the St. Lucie River and the Indian River across to Hutchinson Island South and Jensen Beach. Hutchinson Beach is one of Florida’s top beach destinations for a getaway-style beach retreat with miles of near-pristine oceanfront. You have access to whatever watersports you can imagine. Kayak quiet nature preserves, parasail across roaring Atlantic waves, or book a deep sea charter to capture trophy fish.

On land is just as interesting. The city has many recreational spaces and an award-winning parks system. A standout park is the Savannah Preserve State Park on the east side with its. 6,000 acres of preserved ecosystems cut by 15 miles of trails. The beautiful Port St Lucie Botanical Gardens has 20 acres, featuring a bamboo garden, an ancient garden, and an orchid room.

Golfers can’t miss the resort PGA Golf Club at PGA Village, but there are an additional 19 courses inside or abutting the city limits! Baseball fans can catch the New York Mets in town for spring training at Clover Park.

For even more things to do, the local event center brings concerts, performing artists, and sporting events using its amphitheater and two ballrooms. When these events aren’t happening, the facility has various fitness training facilities. The Civic Center Art Gallery features regional and local artists’ work, with exhibits changing by the seasons. Or, learn about the area’s history in museums like the Elliott Museum, Railroad Club, or Spruce Bluff.

Real estate in Port St. Lucie

Port St. Lucie isn’t really a beach town, as it is technically landlocked based on its city limits. With all the city’s water courses, it feels like a coastal town as you’re so close to the coastline. It’s right on the St. Lucie River and beside the Indian River. Hutchinson Island is the barrier island across the Indian River that provides oceanfront access.

What that means for homebuyers is there are ample choices when it comes to waterfront living real estate. You can find a home on the St. Lucie River or one of the artificial canals developers have cut. Lakefront real estate is an option if you shift your look westward. Or, look in the surrounding communities, like Jensen Beach and Ocean Breeze, to get closer to the Indian River. If the beachfront is truly what you want, find a single-family, condo, or timeshare on Hutchinson Island.

During 2022, single-family homes in St. Lucie County saw fewer closed sales but a 24% year-over-year increase in the median sale price to $380,000. The median time to contract was 14 days. The year ended with a 3.1 months’ supply of inventory. Townhomes and condos had a median sale price of $280,000, 19.1% above 2021. Their monthly supply of inventory was similar at three months.

Looking closer at Port St. Lucie, the March 2023 market had 2,829 homes for sale at a median list price of $414,900. The most expensive was $2.6 million for a waterfront 5,693 sq ft home on over one acre with five bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. The least expensive was $10,000 for a vacant 1.25-acre lot.

Port St. Lucie has over 33 neighborhoods for you to explore. Your options include HOA communities, over 55+ communities, waterfront, golf villages, or master-planned subdivisions. It’s a lot to cover, but to start your home search, here are a few popular places to look.

Best Neighborhoods in Port St Lucie

Paar Estates

Paar Estates has convenient access to I-95 and the Florida Turnpike. For those who need to commute or want to travel around to the beaches or shopping malls, this is a great feature.

Residents have parks, bike paths, and trails inside the community, including Whispering Pines Park. The Horseshoe Canal forms its eastern border, and there is a meandering reservoir on the west side, so waterfront living is an option. Outside, Treasure Coast High School is minutes down the road.

Paar Estates is a guarded and gated community with 24/7 security. All homes have been built with digital surveillance and an alarm system for your peace of mind. Many homes were constructed on oversized lots, some as large as a half-acre. March 2023 had 12 homes for sale at a median price of $580,000.

PGA Village

Technically not inside Port St. Lucie, PGA Village is surrounded by the town and feels part of it. The neighborhood has luxury homes from 1,300 to over 3,000 sq ft with diverse amenities.

Living here puts you in the backyard of 54 holes of championship golf, and the residential community PGA Verano is packed with perks. Play a round in the morning, followed by time in the fitness center’s sauna or massage rooms. The social club has a theater, waterfront lounge, and billiards room. The event lawn includes outside fireplaces and fire pits for a relaxed happy hour or evening.

All homes either have golf, lake, or nature preserve views. Homes started in the $370,000s in 2023.

Sandhill Crossing

In Sandhill Crossing, you are close to the Indian River Lagoon and the thousands of acres at Savannas Preserve State Park. It’s also one of the nearest mainland communities to Jensen Public Beach.

Several lakes and canals run through Sandhill Crossing. The center of the area has a community park. Shopping and the HCA Florida Hospital are along Highway 1.

In terms of housing, it’s one of the more established communities in Port St. Lucie and it does not have a homeowner’s association. March 2023 had 165 homes for sale, ranging from $45,000 for a vacant lot to $700,000 for a single-family home. The median price was $310,000.

St. Lucie West

This is another master-planned development sandwiched between I-95 and the Turnpike. Dotted with charming suburbs and small lakes, St. Lucie West is a mixed-use community of single-family and multifamily homes. This neighborhood gives you some of the best access to the PGA golf courses, lakes, and training facilities for the New York Mets.

St. Lucie West has its own services district that administers utilities. Shopping and essential services are conveniently centered along St. Lucie Blvd. Families have the St. Lucie West K-8 school with rigorous academic courses and an emphasis on technology.

Inside St. Lucie West are multiple communities for you to choose from. Try Country Club Estates, which winds around the St. Lucie Trail Golf Club, for golf course living. You have lakefront options in The Vineyards, Lake Charles, and Lake Forest. Active adult living is the focus of Magnolia Lakes and the Cascades. Overall, St. Lucie West had 173 homes for sale at a median $379,900.

Tradition

Tradition pops up again and again as one of the most popular places to live in Port St. Lucie. This master-planned development feels like a small town with its own shopping districts, schools, and parks. Tradition Square and its Town Center serve as the community hub, where the farmer’s markets and street festivals happen. Its Town Hall was purposefully designed to resemble a church and serve as a recognizable landmark. Other unique features under development are the HEART, a 73-foot-tall public sculpture, the Southern Grove Amphitheater and Park, and the Western Grove sports park.

The residential area has around 2,500 homes spread over 8,000 acres of land. About 300 acres are designated parkland or green spaces, including its lakefront. A pedestrian trail system connects the various parks.

The multiple sub-developments inside Tradition vary, with some being active adult 55+ communities and others luxury development with amenity-rich homes. Prices started in the $300s during 2023.

Living in Port St. Lucie

Don’t think that Port St. Lucie is just a retirement community. It’s one of the best communities for small businesses. It is rich in family amenities like top-performing schools and sports leagues. Truly, life in Port St. Lucie has a lot to offer.

Besides the featured neighborhoods here, the city has more communities with different advantages, from being close to one of its parks to excellent access to shopping or the waterfront. A local real estate agent can help you explore the 30+ neighborhoods of Port St Lucie and narrow down your top picks.