Port St. Lucie, Florida

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.