At the risk of letting the secret get out, there are many benefits of living by the beach that we Florida locals know well.
When the personal finance website WalletHub sought to rank the top U.S. beach towns to actually live in, they unsurprisingly found many of them in the Sunshine State.
Recommended Videos
Top on the list of oceanside cities was Naples, with Sarasota (No. 6), Boca Raton (No. 8) and Destin (No. 9) also cracking the top 10.
The study took into account affordability, weather, safety, economy, education/health and quality of life.
“Sadly, some people don’t pursue their dream of living by the water, precisely because of the misconception that beach towns are relatively more expensive and generally less livable than landlocked cities,” WalletHub wrote. “Contrary to popular belief, however, many beach towns are suitable to everyday life — and easy on the wallet.”
Broward County seemed to largely miss the boat in this study, with only one city ranked in the top 100 (Hollywood at No. 98). Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties were better represented, and Key West repped Monroe County at No. 38.
Here are all the South Florida spots to make the top 100:
- No. 8 Boca Raton
- No. 22 Jupiter
- No. 33 North Palm Beach
- No. 38 Key West
- No. 56 Key Biscayne
- No. 66 Coral Gables
- No. 75 Delray Beach
- No. 76 Boynton Beach
- No. 85 Miami Beach
- No. 98 Hollywood
For the full results of the study and methodology, click here.
And as a reminder, you can always pretend you live on Hollywood Beach by tuning into our live beach cam.