3 FL Towns Are Among Money’s 50 Best Places To Live

FLORIDA — Three cities in Florida are among the 50 Best Places to Live in America, according to a recent report from Money.

Money said the 50 places on the list, released earlier this month, offer affordability, good schools and strong job markets, and are places with “a palpable spirit, nurtured and sustained by engaged citizens and receptive public officials.”

In a departure from previous years, Money did not rank the places but instead grouped them into five categories highlighting their strengths: suburbs with soul, best-kept secrets, new boomtowns, not just college towns, and culture hubs.

In Florida, Port St. Lucie was recognized in the New Boomtowns category. With a population of 240,000, Money noted Port St. Lucie’s job growth and said the community is the Sunshine State’s sixth-largest city.

“Port St. Lucie’s booming economic growth has led to the development of what the city calls the Jobs Corridor, a 3.5-mile stretch of land that runs parallel to I-95,” Money said.

Ybor City, a Tampa community, is deemed a culture hub by Money. Florida’s “Cigar City” reflects Cuban, Spanish and Italian influence, Money said.

“A main street — 7th Avenue — dissects the neighborhood and boasts boutique shops, award-winning food, lively venues and cozy cafes; many tucked inside old, impeccably-preserved cigar factories. The strip is lovingly called La Setima (not-quite Spanish and not-quite Italian for “seventh”). Here, roosters are allowed to roam free, giving an extra dash of color and flair to an already eccentric district,” Money said.

While multiple Florida cities are known, Money said the southern state has one “best kept secret:” Babcock Ranch. The “hometown of tomorrow” is Florida’s first community that is fully solar powered, Money said.

“The town itself is divided into a patchwork of walkable villages, each leading to Founder’s Square — a central hub of activity where residents can buy fresh produce and enjoy a glass of wine at Slater’s Goods and Provisions. On Friday nights there’s live music — and food trucks — at the Babcock Bandstand. Each village has its own amenities — like community pools and tennis courts — and schools are within walking distance of all of them,” Money said.

Collectively, the cities and towns on the list are a “blueprint for the future,” Money said.

The report is based on data on such things as the health of the job market, average housing costs, the percentage of residents living in poverty and the quality of public schools, as well as reader polls. But, the editors acknowledged, things that make a town or a city worth living in can’t always be quantified.

To expand the report, Money also considered a breadth of research from public policy and advocacy groups, such as the American Planning Association, Brookings, Main Street America and the Project for Public Spaces, supplemented by data from Moody’s Analytics, SchoolDigger, Realtor.com, the St. Louis Federal Reserve, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and others.