Should You Move To Vero Beach Florida? Pros & Cons (2026)

Vero Beach, Florida has been called Florida's bestkept secret and also the Hamptons of Florida. But is it right for you? I'm Sally Daley and today I'm going to give you honest pros and cons of what it's like to live in Vero Beach, Florida, so you can figure out if it's worthy of your consideration or not. By the end of the video, you're going to have a great idea as to whether or not Vero is a place that you need to check out. Let's break it down. Let's start with the pros.

Number one, because this drives everything, low density zoning. What the heck does that mean? It means no highrises. Buildings could only be 35 ft. Very limited commercial and multifamily development. What does that really mean for you? It means less people, cars, and boats on the beaches, the waterways, the roadways. It means you can get to a restaurant if you want to. You might have to make a reservation, but at least you can get to it. Means you can get to the beach and it's going to be remarkably uncrowded. There's less of everything.

So, not only does that help your quality of life when you're here, less people, less crowds, we don't have six lane roads. you don't have to go to the beach at 9:00 a.m. to get a spot. It also means in terms of long-term value, if your house or condo is one of X, if there's only a limited amount permitted, that is great for you cuz it's better long-term value support. Number two, small town vibe. A lot of people say, "Sally, I can't do Florida. It's charmless." I thought that was the same way till I found Vero Beach.

You're not going to find a lot of strip malls. Okay, there's a couple. But we've got a darling downtown on our barrier island which is full of independent merchants, art galleries, the farmers market, beaches. And on our mainland, three fixed bridges, no drawbridge drama. And the mainland there's also a vibrant art scene and a lot of galleries, a Friday stroll. There's a really charming Christmas parade. There's a Halloween parade, farmers market. Everybody brings their coffee and their pup. It just has a vibe that people say, "I didn't know Florida could feel like this." And it's a derivative of the low density we just talked about.

So, if you like the feeling of a small town vibe, Vero Beach is worthy of you to consider. Number three is a strong real estate market. What do I mean by that? Again, a direct function of the low density policy. We only have so many homes to offer. We have X number of houses and condos. And what that means is instead of build baby build where that number is getting bigger bigger bigger diluting your property value in Vero Beach, it's relatively fixed. You can't knock one down and put two up in its wake.

You can't do a high-rise building that's going to throw a hundred units on the market. So, not only is the quality of life strong by policy since 1977, that translates into great long-term support where your market value isn't diluted. Next, we have a perfect location tucked just inside the tropics. Goodbye, old man. Winter, Florida is a skinny peninsula. You know what that means? From Vero, 6 hours to Charleston, five to Savannah. two and a half, you're over in Tampa. Three, you're down in Miami. Four, you're down in the Keys. It really is a wonderful launch pad to get everywhere.

And in addition to I95, our airport has private aircraft as well as Breeze and now JetBlue. Yay. up to JFK, Boston, Providence, Hart North, Newberg, as well as the Bright Line that you can get to if you go down to uh West Palm and pick it up and you can take a highspeed rail all the way down to Miami or all the way up to Orlando. So, options are plentiful here. Lack of traffic. Holy cow, isn't that a good thing? And it's again a total derivative of the low density, lowprofile zoning.

The less units you allowed to exist, the less people you have in vehicles trying to get to them. So we don't have six lane roads where it seems like, oh my gosh, this is a major freeway. I'm in the middle of LA. We've got at most I think I think we have one road where it's got like two lanes uh on either side. So, the lack of traffic is a quality of life issue and everybody's super civilized. Quick anecdote, when we moved here from the New York City area in Connecticut, I was told, "Don't toot your horn.

It's considered impolite." So, I was like, "Okay, we are not in the New York area anymore." The lack of traffic is an everyday matter that you are going to appreciate that translates into quality of life. And at the risk of stating the obvious, an incredible natural environment. We've got the wide waters of the Atlantic along our 28mm barrier island. Free beaches all the time. And on the west side, we have what's known as the Indian River, which is our inter coastal waterway. Well, that's your inner coastal. What's an estuary? Estuary is a mixture of water that's part fresh and part salty.

And it's brackish. Guess who does like it? Bald eagles, manatees, dolphins, wild big herand. It's every day you never know what you're going to see. Just today I saw dolphins out in our estuary. And because it's brackish and generally doesn't have appeal to alligators, it's easy to play in whether you want to be on a paddle board or a kayak or a boat. And it's not super deep. So, you've got to watch your channels if you're a boater, but if you're not, like I'm not, and you want to be on a paddle board, you can pretty much stand up and get out of harm's way.

It is fantastic. The physicality of what Vero Beach offers is second to none. So, now I'm going to give you the honest scoop about the cons, and only you can decide which is more important. Number one, shopping. We've got big box stores. We've got HomeGoods, Ulta, Target, Walmart. We've got it. Two things we do not have straight up Whole Foods, Trader Joe's. But what we do have, beautiful farmers market every Saturday where you can get fresh grown produce, locally caught fish, beautiful offerings, and we have a store known as Fresh Market, which gives you a whole foods experience.

A lot of folks I know say, "I'd much rather have no traffic every day and uncrowded beaches and this quality of life. Once a month, if I want to, I can drive 45 minutes to an hour south with my insulated bags, go to Palm Beach Gardens, shop, and come back home. But if you're really, really a person that needs to go to Trader Joe's every single week, Vero Beach might not be for you. Number two, it's hot, it's humid, it's Florida. That said, we're in the tropics, just under. If you're from the East Coast, like I was born and raised in Connecticut, I've got a secret for you.

It's the same heat and humidity. What's the difference? Starts earlier, lasts longer. It's going to start miday and go really to the end of September. By the end of September, you're really pretty tired of it. That said, you're not shoveling snow and you're not worried about ice storms. So, what's a girl to do? What I would say is what we do is the reverse of when I lived up north. Up north, when it was snowy and cold, we did everything in the middle part of the day, and we stayed in daytime and dusk.

We do just the opposite here. We go out and do our thing early in the morning up until about 10:00. And then after 4:00, we go out again and try to stay in. And don't forget, our building codes are designed to keep cool in and heat out. So, our codes understand it and make life comfortable. And we've got air conditioning everywhere. So, let's talk about air travel. We have a municipal airport that has Breeze Airlines, smaller 32 seat planes that go up to Providence, uh, Portland, uh, Newberg, New York, Long Island, etc.

We also have JetBlue that's now come back and they're going to go to JFK in Boston a couple times a day. Beyond that though, unless you are lucky enough to have private aircraft, you're going to be going either up to the Melbourne airport north of us where you're going to go into Atlanta and make connections or Charlotte or what we have found is we're equidistant between Orlando and West Palm. And they both have great flights and are great options. And honestly, it's only about an hour, an hour and 15 minutes.

If you're looking for 20 minutes, Vero might not be your place. But if you're okay with hour, whenever you need to go and you have twice as many flight selections to choose from because you're in the middle, this might not be a problem for you, but it's something to consider. Chill, laidback, the Hamptons of Florida, that's a great thing if you're looking for a chill environment. That said, if you're looking for a lot of night life in the form of say clubs and hot spots, a place like Palm Beach or West Palm might be more your jam.

It's not that we don't have nighttime activity. Don't misunderstand me. We've got private wine clubs, a lot of country clubs, outside dining. We've got beautiful arts activities and plays and theater. It all happens. But if you're looking for the next Studio 54 and a really vibrant, rocking art scene that's late at night, we might not be for you. That said, our downtown original area, the 14th Avenue District, is choa block with live music. We've got a couple micro breweries happening. Here's why. Young folks that used to say Vero Beach was called Zero Beach are now coming back and raising their families here because they want the quality of life that Vero offers, but they also want a little more diversity and things to do.

So, there's a couple new restaurants that just opened. There's a really interesting concept that's going on by the airport in an old hanger that's going to have live music and food stations. We've got a new distillery that just opened up. So, increasingly, as our population gets younger, as it has been, so too are the offerings and the things to do. Keep in mind with limited zoning, we've got a limited amount of houses. Most of Vero Beach was developed in the 80s, 90s up until about 2004, 2006. What does that mean?

That means a lot of our housing stock often times clients will come in and they'll say, "I I love Vero Beach Sally. Where are the new houses, you need to know where to look?" Another consideration is many people will buy in a neighborhood they love, a floor plan that they like, and after closing, they'll pull a permit and do the renovation to make the house their own. What that means is careful understanding of the rest of the neighborhood cost to get the house what you want it to be and understanding what the build codes were of the house when it was built so you understand what you're dealing with.

Nobody wants a big surprise after the fact. So some judicious due diligence will help you get where you want to go. But there's also to some degree some new builds available both on and off the island. I can help you discern where they are and which ones might be worthy of your consideration and or put you together with a trusted builder that can help you understand what an older house could be if you love it and want to make it your own. Is Vero Beach right for you? If a chill low density environment, Hampton's of Florida is appealing to you with natural beauty and lots of wonderful things to do outside, Vero Beach might be worthy of your consideration.

If you're really considering a move to Vero Beach, write to me through our contact form or contact me with the information you see on screen and we can figure it out together. and subscribe so you'll always get the latest videos when I post them and you can be an insider for all things Vero