Every Vero Beach Neighborhood Ranked by Appreciation (2015-2025)

If you think you bought in the wrong market in Vero Beach back in 2015, you may be surprised to hear where you are might have outperformed the barrier island. I'm Sally Daley from the Daley Group at Douglas Elliman, and today we're going to do a look back and see neighborhood by neighborhood how everybody did for the past 10 years. And spoiler alert, there was only bad decision was if you didn't buy cuz everybody's done really well. But we're going to break it down, and some neighborhoods are actually even stronger than the barrier island.

And I'll try to figure out maybe why that is. Let's dive right in. From most nominal appreciation to the best, we're going to go zip code by zip code. First one is 32968. 32968 broadly is southwest Vero, and those prices have gone up around 170,000 over the past 10 years. Why is that? Well, it's been a little more muted than other parts, but still huge appreciation in 10 years, mind you, because if you understand the development nature of where our development zones are, that's an area where there was a lot of land available for new builds.

So, anytime you're going to have a lot of new construction coming in, it's going to be a little more muted on resales because human nature is human nature, and people zoom towards new builds. But even so, on average, if you bought a house in 2015, fast forward to today, you've made yourself about a $170,000 profit. So, yay, and good for you. Now, we're going to talk about a zip that's not on Vero's barrier island, but it is on a barrier island. Yes, I'm talking 32949, or North Hutchinson Island. If you look at Vero as an island at the end of the southern end of the island where I reside, if you keep going south, it turns into a new county.

It turns into St. Lucie County, comprised of a lot of older condominiums and high-rises. Cuz again, it's Port St. Lucie, they permit a high-rise, we do not. Not too many single-family homes, but some. In general, that's the next bump. If you bought in there, no matter what you bought, whether it's a condo or single-family home, you made around 180 to 220 grand over the course of the past 10 years. So, good for you. Why the swing, Sally? 180 to 220? Well, I just mentioned, a lot of those condos were older.

The newer product tend to have done better. It's just human nature, and it's still the case now. Because newer, renovated, and there's more of the older condos. It's a bit of a rock on where values can go. So, broadly, where you are depends on what you bought and the age of that property. But anywhere from 180 to 200 grand appreciation if you bought in 3 to 949 in 2015. So, good for you. Now, let's talk about the heart of the original Vero downtown zip code, 32960. Just off the barrier island, talking the Vero Beach Country Club area, around by where the airport is, the middle quadrant of town.

McAnsh Park, very popular neighborhoods. Broadly, if you bought in 2015, you have made between 170 and 200,000 dollars. Now, that's a pretty standard appreciation. Depends on what you paid, of course. But broadly, it didn't have the unknown of new builds coming in like Southwest part. So, it's not really diluted. It's fairly limited by space and density. So, it's a fairly fixed appreciation that really didn't get affected by new builds. But there's also it's also rimmed by commercial. So, there's not a ton of it there. So, broadly, 32960, if you bought in 2015, you have made yourself between 170 and $200,000.

So, good for you. 32962 is a narrow band of town kind of known as Florida Ridge. It does have some workforce housing in it and some affordable housing mandates contained in it. So, to some degree, that is kind of a natural limit on where those prices went. But, broadly, if you bought in 32962 in a number of nice communities in 2015, you have made around 160 to 180,000. To some degree, it's affected with a limit on it because of the workforce housing component that is comprised in there. It's not everywhere, but it's affect the overall numbers.

But, in general, you know, if you spent 170 or 220 now, that house is worth 350, 370. So, good for you. 32967, if you looked at the zip code, is an enormous zip code. It's everything west of Indian River, north of Indian River Boulevard, and west of State Road 60. Enormous. And so, to some degree, their growth has been a little bit muted because of, just like the southwest corridor, it's where there was a lot of land that was available. So, if you bought a single-family home back in 2015, you were going to have made around $200,000.

And that is a nice chunk for appreciation in only 10 years. But, again, a little more muted because of the influx of new builds that pulled some of those buyers along. 32963, zero's barrier island. Back in 2015, if you bought something between 750 and a million five 10 years ago, Fast forward, you have made almost double your money and roughly 5,000 a month in appreciation. So, ka-ching and yay and good for you. Within that, there's going to be some provisos. It's not always an even trajectory for everybody, right? Those that have done well are those that have continued to update the property, put a new roof on the property, etc.

If you haven't reinvested in your house, you're not going to have that same trajectory. But those that have, it's a function of scarcity, of being on the barrier island, and limited supply, and understanding that consumers want renovated or like-new. So, if you bought in 2025 and you have reinvested in your property and updated it and have a new or a newer roof, you're going to have a tidy sum of appreciation. So, good for you. Maybe 800 to a million dollars, sometimes doubling your money. So, percentage we rank. So, we went up by sheer dollar amount.

But let's look at percentage, and then the numbers look a little differently. The most modest would be Hutchinson Island that we talked about, that's St. Lucie. Some of that is more supply that puts natural pressure down, and a good part of it is it's not just the amount of the houses, it's the nature of those houses. And a good many of them, as we talked about, were older condos that over time start to become less interesting. And they're older, and the style is older, etc. They just are. So, percentage-wise, while they enjoyed a nice clip of appreciation, percentage-wise it's going to come in on the bottom.

Shortly after that is going to be 32968 and 32962 that we talked about because of the nature of where they are and the effect on 32968 having some lot of new builds in there that dilute values cuz a lot of people go for them. And then 32968 has a little bit of workforce housing in it that kind of deters the overall percentage. Again, everybody has done very, very well, but in terms of percentage, those would be along the bottom of the rungs as well. Then would be, yes, the Barrier Island.

The basis is bigger, the foundation upon which the appreciation is based. So everybody's done very, very well, but percentage-wise, it's not at the top of the list like you might think. The number's the biggest, but it's not the biggest percentage. You need to sort it out if you wanted to drill down even further, you would say, "Okay, let's take a look at those. Of those, how many of those are being pulled down because these older houses didn't get renovated and the roofs are old and it affects the total." So, if you sorted it out in any of these categories for show me the percentages of the houses that have updated and kept the houses updated and repiped if the old copper piping needed to go and be PEX and or has a new roof, all of them are going to have stronger.

But when you look at the whole cohort together, it mutes it a little bit. So the Barrier Island might be the biggest number, but it's not the biggest percentage. It's kind of right in the middle. So, who's the champ? Two zip codes really are the top tier in terms of percentages. One is that 32960 zip code that we talked about that is the heart of the original downtown and frankly it's because it was so affordable until, you know, 2015 everybody scooped it up and then it be has become less so over time.

So percentage-wise, if you bought something in the Winyah Beach Country Club area or McCants Park, good for you back in 2015 because percentage-wise, even though your basis was less than the barrier island, percentage-wise, you have made more than your average bear in these other marketplaces. Who's number one? Again, we're talking percentage, not gross dollar amount. 32967. Yes, that enormous corridor that I'm talking about that would be north of State Road 60 and west of Indian River Boulevard. And why is that? Well, there's a couple of reasons. Some of it is saying, "I don't know if I want to or can spend the premium for the barrier island, but I want to feel like it's easy to get where I want to go, and I don't want to feel like I'm in the middle of nowhere'sville." Some very smart guys said this Indian River Boulevard corridor takes you 5 minutes to get to the bridge, and then bunch of smart guys got together, developers got together with, I think, the county and said, "If we do this causeway to make it easy to get to our neighborhoods, would you help and kick in some of the money?" So, they did.

So, guess what? Right at the end of US 1 and Indian River Boulevard, there's the 53rd causeway, which is physically beautiful, it's well-lit, there are beautiful landscape pads in the middle of it, and it's easy-peasy, and you get up to all these communities. So, as the barrier island got more expensive, people are looking for alternatives, they go along the Indian River Boulevard corridor, up that causeway cuz it's easy, and you don't feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, and boy, it's born in the numbers. So, congratulations to all of you smarty-pants that bought in 32967, because you have made a tidy sum, and you have beat the street, you're number one by percentage, and have done very well on your investment in paradise known as Vero Beach, Florida.

But, the good news is everybody's values appreciated. And where are we, and where are we going? We've peeled back a little bit. We've lost about 3 or 4% since COVID. We've all made a lot of money while we've loved living here. What I will say is since January, we've talked about how very different the market is, and how quickly real estate seems like the Titanic, but it really can turn. And in January, easier commutation to get here from Breeze and JetBlue, and the worst winter we've all had in a really long time, and postponing life for a couple of years, and waiting for prices to collapse, that didn't happen.

Everybody is here, and all of a sudden, houses are gone, and buyers are saying, "I should have done something last fall." Inventory's down 25%. I think we're going to see, once looking forward, once these pending sales close, I think we're going to end up 2026 appreciative, and whatever little scooch we peel back, we're going to have gained, and I think we're going to be back to slow and steady growth, to 3 to 5% per year, because we've got scarcity on our side, whether it's the barrier island or the policy that is slow and steady and smart, so we don't become build, baby, build, and everybody gets to a lot enjoy life in Vero Beach.

I hope you indulge me in this exercise in crunching numbers. Everybody loves to see what's happened to their properties. So, whether it's by zip code or by percentage, all of us have done very well who enjoy life here in paradise known as Vero Beach, Florida. If you have any specific questions, should I buy, where should I not buy, call me, DM me, text me, and we can figure it out together. We also have really terrific market reports that are free of charge that I'd be delighted to get you subscribed to that allow you to look by a zip code or a town anywhere in the US.

So, whether it's Vero and you keep another house elsewhere in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, South Florida, out in Colorado, you can keep eyes on it there, too. I'm Sally Daley from The Daley Group. Until next time, take care.