206,410
Population
Sunny Days: 238
Florida is the world's greatest amusement park.— Budd Schulberg.
Florida is the world's greatest amusement park.— Budd Schulberg.
If you’re a family or retiree looking for a quiet, safe, reasonably priced city to live near the Atlantic Coast beaches of Florida, Port St. Lucie will fit the bill. Primarily suburban, with some commercial options for shopping and eats, it successfully gives families and retirees a respite from whatever Northeastern or Midwestern ice-bound hellscape they seek to escape.
Here's a local on the pros and cons of living in Port St. Lucie for different people:
-Younger with kids, yes. Good schools, decent parks and not bad socially.
-Younger with no kids, fair. Decent bars some night clubs. Dating limited.
-Middle age, fair. Good restrauants socially limted due to city trying to attract younger crowd.
-Old age, excellent. We have a lot of hospitals, assited/ retirement homes, kidney centers and docs out the young yang
-For the religious folks pretty much a church on every corner.
-Towns fairly quiet except for a few notable happenings.
For more reviews of what living in Port St. Lucie is like from locals check out: The Buzz
Every once in a while the thing that is the greatest strength of a place is also its greatest weakness (see New York City). Port St. Lucie fits this description for many. It’s a seriously quiet place, which for young families with tiny children or retirees who want to just chill, that might not matter. For young adults and older children though that quiet is going to grate. Make sure you consider time of life when picking Port St. Lucie.
Here's a local with her assessment of the cons of the area: Coming from a compact place like Orlando there will be huge differences. Everything here is basically 2-3 stories at maximum. Tons of strip mall style businesses and restaurants. Lots of small community parks. Next to no night life, especially outside of smaller bars in those same strip malls. There’s not really a “downtown” type of area unless you count tradition and that’s more local to them. So there’s the negative things for me, at least.
Your lifestyle in Port St. Lucie will be suburban if you’re a family. The schools are good, there are decent parks and there is a restaurant scene for filling the kiddos bellies with burgers, pizza, pasta and seafood. The city is the spring training home to the New York Mets and has an amazing golf complex, the PGA Village. You’re also on the Atlantic Coast with 21 miles of uncrowded (there’s that quiet thing again), pristine beaches so if you’re feeling like a dip or a stroll you’re going to like it here.
If you want to see what's happening in Point St. Lucie check out the calendar of events: https://visitstlucie.com/calendar/
Two big work sectors in the city include healthcare, not surprising given the retiree population, and construction, not surprising given the never-ending expansion of cities going on across Florida. Service jobs are plentiful, given the booming population that needs to be fed and sold stuff. Incomes aren’t particularly high but the cost of living and taxes are low so it kind of works.
Port St. Lucie, like most suburban cities, has come to realize that in order to create gravitational pull for population, they need an interesting commercial district (https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/2022/03/11/port-st-lucie-acquires-city-center-property-business-development/6998898001/).
Young or old, peeps want things to do. While they’re behind, they’re scrambling to develop so if you’re interested in buying in while the prices are still low but the future looks more interesting, then it’s time to make a move.
Create a Movebook on LookyLoo to start organizing your move from the very start of your search.
Get StartedPort St. Lucie is not the obvious choice for young professionals but they’re working on it. Many of the professional jobs in PSL are in St Lucie West, which also has a commercial district with some bars and restaurants so that’s where you’d want to start your search. https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/2022/03/11/port-st-lucie-acquires-city-center-property-business-development/6998898001/