Answering CONCERNING Questions About Living in Vero Beach, Florida

Most people googling Vero Beach Florida are asking the wrong questions. I'm Sally Daley. I've been brokering luxury real estate here for 23 years. Today, I'm going to keep it real and I'm going to answer the important questions you should be asking about what is it like to live in Vero Beach Florida. The goal of course at the end of this is to say is Vero worthy of being on my radar or not. Cuz once you're here and you know Vero's right for you, I can help you figure out what kind of community and what kind of house or condo you would like to buy.

But the broader question is for today, is Vero Beach the right community for me? So, let's dive right in. Is Vero for retirees and the blue hair set only? Is there going to be anybody with a bicycle or anybody ever giving out Halloween candy? Are there any kids and families around? I'm here to tell you that is wrong. Don't take anything at face value that you read. Always do your own due diligence. It may have been sort of true back in the day, but in the 23 years that we've been here, the biggest change has been the average age is young getting younger.

What's happening is increasingly, I think because of COVID and also the generation that grew up here now aging and coming back and having their own families and starting to make decisions about where they want to raise their families. In the 23 years that we've been here, the age is young getting younger and it's no longer just the blue hair set. And I think one of the biggest changes has been in the increasing presence of younger buyers and families here in Vero Beach. And what's happening as a result? I have to give a shout out today of all days, my friend Alden Bing and his partners have unveiled a launch of their hotly awaited new entertainment dining sports venue business called Hogan Yards.

What's happening is developers and entrepreneurs like Alden are coming to town and having their families here and saying, "We need more things for families and younger folks to do." So, while we've always had gallery strolls and trivia nights and wine dinners, smarty pants like Alden and the guys from Salt & Pepper BBQ also love them are saying, "Let's create something that we would like to go to and let's make it happen instead of bemoaning that it doesn't exist." So, they gave a shout-out to an old citrus packing house and instead of wrecking it and building it, they rebuilt the interior and have built food stations, barbecue, all kinds of games and stations for families to have fun, play corn hole.

There's going to be live music and it's a place where they are paying homage to the citrus heritage of the facility and in the design, yet creating something new to service the younger folks that are here in Vero and saying, "We want families to come here." So, don't listen to all those doomers that don't know what they're talking about. The average age has gotten younger and there are interesting things to do after 4:30. So, really Sally, is it really too boring? Depends how you define boring. If your idea of super fun is to wait for an Uber and hope they show up and go pay $25 for a cocktail at a very bougie place, fantastic and maybe Vero's not your spot.

Maybe Miami is or downtown West Palm. However, we still have lots of action. There's all kinds of There's new distillery that opened up. Shout-out to the guy that bought the old diesel parcel and place and renovated it and it's now a beautiful icon brewery. He's renovating a lot of the southern part of US1 corridor. There's a new distillery, there's microbreweries, there's wine dinners, there are trivia nights, there are plenty of things to do whether or not you belong to a country club. So, it depends on what your idea of boring is.

So, do you have to join a country club to have a social life? I kind of just answered that. No, you do not. Broadly, if there's something that you're passionate about, whether it's film studies or whether it's Orca and volunteering and taking care of our beloved Indian River Estuary and making sure that she remains healthy, or whether it's the Greenheart Tribe that's doing great things along Ocean Drive and planting and beautifying Ocean Drive, there's all kinds of ways. No matter what you're passionate about, there's going to be a group here for you.

Is the Barrier Island really worth the extra cost it takes to buy there? And what about the risk? That is something that you need to sort it out yourself. It depends on your priority. What I like to say is think about how you like to live. How important is walking, biking, golf carting to the beach? If it's really important, pay the premium. You'll be glad you did. If it's not and you think, "I don't know. We're only going to be here half, you know, half the year or I'm not really a beach person." Maybe it's not worth it cuz don't forget, we have low density, low profile.

We don't have high-rises. We don't have super crowded beaches. And they're all free of charge. The same house on the Barrier Island and just off could be a million dollars differential. No joke, that's a premium. The question is, is it important to you? Proximity. This is another big one. "Sally, we love Vero, but it seems kind of hard to get to. How do you handle proximity so far away from a major airport?" Well, this is kind of an amended answer. It depends where you need to get to. What's good is in the past three or four years, our little municipal airport, begun by Breeze, shout out to Breeze, has more and more air travel into our little Vero Beach Municipal Airport.

Meaning, with Breeze, you can get to Providence, Rhode Island, you can get to MacArthur on the Long Island, you can get to Newburgh and Westchester in New York State. You can get many different places. Secondarily, American and JetBlue are here. With JetBlue, you can get to Boston and JFK. Yes, Boston and JFK. So, it has become easier. Well, what if you don't live in any of those places? Well, you're going to be about an hour and 15 minutes from Palm Beach and about an hour and a half to Orlando. So, you're equidistant.

We do have the Brightline that we've talked about before, which is high-speed rail that can take you all the way down to Miami in a New York minute and it's a great ridership experience. So, the news is better than it was and we've seen an increase in folks from New York and parts of the Boston area willing to consider Vero, who previously had said "Too far away from an airport" cuz it is no longer. What about the public schools? Do we want to have our kids in public schools or are there alternatives?

One of our biggest surprises coming down here 25 years ago or whenever we did, was the array of options that you have that we did not have in the Northeast. What do I mean by that? There are public schools, there are parochial schools, there are private schools that are more traditional like St. Edward's School, shout out to them, and there's a whole host of new schools. There's a Willow School, there's Master's Academy, which is a faith-based organization, there are parochial schools, and there's a beautiful new school started by a bunch of local fellows and their families called Vero Classical School out west of town and it's based on the classical classical principles of curriculum.

There is a performing arts high school that's a charter school. That high school is on campus of Indian River State College out west of town and gosh those kids graduate and are able to take college classes and a lot of those kids graduate with a year of college under their belts. So the choices are going to be more diverse than you expect they will be and you may be pleasantly surprised. There is a very well regarded elementary school called Beachland Elementary on Vero Beach mainland where a lot of island residents have their children go into grade five and then they either switch to another public middle schools or they make a decision to enroll in a different kind of institution.

But what I would say is call me, DM me, text me, call the school district. I can give you a bevy of options and they may be more robust even than where you currently reside. So it's an important part of your due diligence if you have children. If you want or need public school, it's important to talk about the zone and what school those kids would be in because you can't assume there will be room in other schools because if there's not that would be their school that they would be going to.

Friends and relationships. What I always say is and it really is true. If you dive in with whatever your passionate about, whether it's philanthropic, you're a runner, you like motorcycles, you want to help preserve the Indian River estuary, you love art and you want to get involved at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, there are going to be things for you to get to know people and create a life here in Vero Beach. So what about a boat, Sally? Do you have to own a boat to enjoy Vero? Heck, no.

You know, one of the beautiful things about Vero Beach that we've talked about repeatedly is the fact that we are blessed to be on the Indian River Estuary, which is a brackish, not fresh, body of water that's home to bald eagles and manatees and dolphins and beautiful birds and herons and white pelicans and you never know what you're going to see. And supposedly it's brackish and the alligators don't like it. I would never say never, mind you, but it is not fresh water. I personally have never seen one in the river.

That doesn't mean never say never, but in general, just walking along the jungle trail or going to the Riverside Park to enjoy the river or the river parks that are there, you can appreciate it and love it and say, "What a marvelous place to live." Same thing with the ocean. I'm not a boater. We love to walk the beach. My husband takes our dog on the beach and always has. Just be mindful of where you are. Certain parts of the island, no dogs are permitted. but you must carry a leash and have the dog on a leash.

And of course, goes without saying, pick up after your dog and please be mindful of any turtle nesting eggs that are identified as such and do not let your pup dig them up. We also have a dog park that's terrific. So, you know, no, this is a boat optional place, but boy, if you are a boater or a paddle boarder or whatever, it's fantastic because there are so many places to put your boat in and with the river being an estuary and different species of fish and spoil islands to tootle around and manatees to see and dolphins.

And on the ocean, it's the same thing. All different species and it's like two different bodies of water to play in. And as the crow flies, we're only about 3 miles to get to the Bahamas for deep water fishing. Is it true that Vero is stuck in the past and resistant to growth? No, hard no. Vero today looks a lot different than it did even 20 years ago, 25 years ago when we first moved here. Vero is not stuck in the past. Vero wants to preserve what makes a Vero Vero, which is low density, no high-rises, respect for what is, respect for the river, respect for the ocean, respect for the manatees and our beloved live oaks.

That doesn't mean we're stuck in a time warp. For example, voters recently approved and said yes, go forth with a project we've talked about before known as the three corners project where it's a large tract of land that was formerly occupied by our power plant that is no longer making power and the adjacent parcels nearby. And they did a request for proposals and there a couple of guys that are out now trying to chase funding to build a combination of a boutique hotel, a marina, some outside dining, some open space.

So, these are the kinds of slow growth that enhance the quality of life without hurting the quality of life that Vero is known for. So, as long as you understand the philosophy and that the high-rises are meant to preserve the quality of life for all of us, for quality of life now and support long-term growth for everybody, you'll understand where they're coming from. It's not build, baby, build. It's let's be smart about it, slow growth. Oh, Sally, this all sounds so great. Sign me up. But I'm not I I mean, you know, I'm not a tech titan.

Is there anything affordable or do you need to be a jillionaire? Well, it depends how you define affordable. I don't mean to be coy about that answer. We are not an inexpensive market, but contextually, we are say 40% 4-0 more affordable than Palm Beach, Jupiter, Stuart, all of South Florida. Now, can Can find a cheaper house in Orlando or north of us in Viera or Melbourne? You can. It depends what's important to you. Broadly, on the mainland, you're going to have more affordable housing than you would on the barrier island cuz the location and being on the island, the value of the land pushes prices up.

It makes sense, right? So, broadly, you'll be able to go from, say, 250 to 350 to 4 for entry-level townhouses, if you will, and 350 to 900 for detached single-family houses. I know that's a really big range, but it depends on what you want, if you want amenities, if you want the Disney World amenities in your community, that's probably going to drive the prices up as well as the cost of ownership. But, it's all there, and it's a function of what's important to you, the age of the house, size, and the age of the roof.

So, the question is what's important to you, and together we can figure it out. So, those are all the hot questions that people commonly ask about what's it really like to live in Vero Beach, Florida. If there's a question that you have that I have not answered, DM me or text me or call me, and I'll give you the straight scoop. I'm a total straight shooter, and together we can figure it out. I'm Sally Daley. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the next one.