Where to Live in Vero Beach, Florida [Every Area Explained]

If you're thinking of moving to Vero Beach Florida, stay tuned. This video is for you. We're going to go over the map of Vero on the barrier island today. We're going to start north, go all the way down south, explain how Vero developed, what kind of communities you'll find where, and show you sample examples of each property. If you're interested in Vero Beach, stay tuned because this map explainer is going to help you understand the lay of the land and make an informed decision. So, let's start with the basics. We are a barrier island.

We are a 28-mi long barrier island. We have three fixed bridges. The southern bridge, the middle bridge, which we just call the Barber Bridge, and then the northern causeway. So, if you can see, we're a long skinny island and we go right about down here to St. Lucie County. The first thing is that we obviously have the Atlantic waters here, and in here we have the Indian River Estuary, which is also our Intracoastal. And that's the one we've talked about before that is brackish. It's an estuary, and that means alligators don't like it, but manatees, dolphins, river otters, bald eagles, you name it, love it.

The other great thing about Vero, especially being that we're a low-density, height-restricted community since 1977, there are all these free of charge little pocket parks. So, it's easy to get to the river or the beach, no matter where you are. So, if you're out here, whether you're here, there's always free ways to get to the beach. So, that being said, how do you understand what's the deal with the barrier island? Well, the first thing you need to understand that's helpful is to realize that this middle section of the island and the mainland, this filet mignon quadrant, right in here, this really the very first part that was developed.

Whether we're talking the island or mainland. So, what that means is we've got some old housing stock in here, which frankly is just old. Old doesn't mean, you know, disreputable or hinky in any way. Old just means old. So, what happened is this area got developed first, including the little Ocean Drive downtown, the old original downtown, which is really 14th Avenue, aka our main street. So, if you're on the barrier island and you're looking for properties, what kind of properties are you really going to be finding at different parts? Let's drill down and talk about the island.

Part two we'll talk about the mainland. I'm Sally Gailly. If you want more info, I know it can be kind of confusing. DM me or text me, reach us through our contact form and we can figure it out together. So, the southern end of the island ends right about here. We are then different county entirely. This is St. Lucie County with a very different development philosophy. Lots of high-rises here. So, our county starts right around here and it's going to chock-a-block up here to our very first bridge. This is the 17th Bridge, also known as the Alma Lee Loy Bridge, one of our founding pioneers, wonderful woman, entrepreneur, civic-minded, heart of gold, heart of a servant.

Shout out to her. This quadrant, if you said to me, "Where do primarily I'm going to make some generalizations. Primarily, where do most of the full-time residents reside?" It's going to be in this quadrant. Well, why is that? Two reasons. Number one, the public school, Beachland Elementary, is right around here. Then there's a beautiful private school called St. Edward's School. Shout out to them. So, as a result, because of the schools being located here, tends to pull full-time and a lot of families are in this part of the island. The other thing that's important to understand about these neighborhoods is that they tend to be slightly larger lots.

I'm going to say 100 wide, 120 wide, 110 to 140 deep. And you see how we have A1A dominates here. So, A1A, you have communities on either side. This happens to be a beautiful community known as The Moorings. Lot of boating. This section here is called The Anchor. Guess why? It looks like an anchor. All of these waterways are beautiful and there's a lot of beautiful waterfront homes here. These are all single-family neighborhoods. Many of these neighborhoods, mine included, which is right around here somewhere, uh often have private beach access.

And what does that mean? That means there might be a guard or a gate at the front entry, and then in the back there is an easement in between a couple of lots to get onto the beach. So, many of these communities have homeowners associations, and largely they are going to have a guard or a gated entry, and either access to the river or access to the beach. So, largely that's what you are going to find here. Let's show representative houses. I'm going to show you a couple. It's a great example.

This sold last year for a million 450. The owner's happily ensconced. And you know, if she reinvested and put more money into it when it was renovated, it would be worth about 2 2 to 2 4. And here is what the neighborhood looks like, right here, one little loop. I'm right next door, and right in through here there is a perpetual easement and you go out to the beach. And price is going to be based on condition, whether it's concrete block or frame, how old the roof is, and how big it is.

In terms of values, land values here east and west of A1A are going to be different. East of A1A is going to be more valuable because you don't have to go across A1A to get to the beach. So, this is a good example of original community. Most of the communities on the east side would develop first, and then sister communities over here. And many of them, like with Sand Point, they have reciprocals. So, often there's a a shared agreement. So, it's important for you to understand that. So, that is kind of what a typical interior dry We call it a dry lot, you know, not on the water.

And what you're going to see is the most prevalent flats in Sea Grove Skinny Island, of course, is dry lots, meaning nobody's on water, and then a handful of lucky ducks are over here on the water. These guys are on the river. These guys are on the ocean. I'm telling you that because in a minute we're going to look at communities that are all water, and that's rather unusual. The prevailing development model is some dry lots, and then the fortunate few are either on the ocean like here or on the river.

Now, I want to show you a house that's on an all waterfront community. This is a house that is open water, meaning no obstructed views. This is in a community known as Sea Grove West. Sea Grove is over here. These guys are on the ocean, lucky them. These lots are all an acre. These guys are all on the unobstructed river. What do I mean by that? Well, the prevailing model would be to be on a canal where you're looking across a canal of some width to more land. So, this is this is our rarest riverfront exposure, open water.

I want to show you we do have a couple of all waterfront communities. In here, we've got these three neighborhoods that are very, very desirable. In general, the past 5 years, there's just been a huge trend. See how you've got one bridge here, the middle bridge? And then we've got the southern bridge. This whole notion of being in between these two bridges, and then here's the darling little ocean drive district with all of the independent merchants and boutiques, and here's where the farmers market is on Saturday. Couple beautiful hotels, the cute little hotel, Costa d'Este, the Amelia and Gloria Estefan owned.

That's all right here. This is the heart of the action. Our beautiful riverside park is right here where we have walking trails, fitness trails, free boat launch. But we also have the phenomenal Vero Beach Museum of Art right here. So, it's all right here. This is where a lot of action occurs. And in this Riverside Park, when we have July 4th fireworks, we have boat shows, we have garden shows, it's all right here. So, these communities being all on the water are very, very unusual. This is an area known as Riomar Bay and Riomar Bay II.

The original Riomar Bay is in here. And we talked about this before. These are the shell path roads, some of them, with drapey, drapey live oaks and beautiful, stately houses. And a fixer might be 3 million to 5 million and a and a new one that's renovated could be, you know, 8 to 10 million. These sister communities are known as Riomar Bay II. They're all water communities. Lots are big. Everybody's got deep water. So, I want to show you this is a sample. This is a house I sold a couple of years ago.

It had a new roof and a lot of renovation to it, but look at the size of this lot and look at that dock. Look at that water. And that's you're looking at the 17th Bridge right there. So, this one had renovation to it and it could have been taken off even more. So, this one sold for $3 million and it had multiple offers. And you can see how big the lots are and how wide they are. And that's That's pretty dreamy. So, that is a great example of a entry-level in Riomar Bay and Riomar Bay II.

So, that is Riomar Bay, Riomar Bay II. This whole area here is loosely known as Central Beach. We've got all of old Riomar right here that we talked about. And in here, you've got basically one, two, three, four quadrants. All the houses were built 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. So, here's an example of what's going on in Central Beach. The first one is on Gardenia. And this was a darling cottage. This is a tale of what you can expect in Central Beach. Darling Cottage, I mean, it looks like a storybook. It's just beautiful.

Gorgeous kitchen. This is had renovation, but this is an older structure. Bigger lots, people love it cuz there's no HOA, the lots are bigger. But many of these need reno. Like this one had reno and the folks, nice folks that bought it are doing yet even more to it. So, this is kind of the original OG that's getting reno. In some cases, lots are being scraped and new houses are being put up. This is a beautiful listing of mine presently that's available. This is on 425 Holly and this is a brand new house.

It's one of three. And what's important when you look at Central Beach as take a look at the context of the block you are on. Some blocks are more transition than others in Central Beach. Meaning, some have had knockdowns and new houses, some have had whole house renovations. Here, you're sitting amongst, you know, many renovated houses and this is a brand new house. This is a killer buy. You couldn't build this for what you could buy it for. So, that is the story of what's going on in Central Beach. You've got the original houses that are being zhuzhed up and then you've got a lot of new builds happening as well.

So, now we're going to go north and in the middle part of the island, frankly, are a lot of older condominiums. And then in here, you've got some houses for sure and they're older and they're all kind of going through a renovation cycle as well. And as we go north, we are going to be hitting a very, very large and very popular country club community known as John's Island. It starts and goes, gosh, all the way up here. It's takes up a lot of real estate and you've got mansions across here as well as condominiums as well as golf cottages, estates.

Lots can be 6 million, houses on the ocean that need quite a bit of work are 10, 12 million, brand new builds on the golf course can be 8 to 20 million depending on the lot and depending on whether or not you're on Gem Island or some of these waterways. And the club is optional and it's not a guarantee. So, if you're interested in John's Island, make sure we discuss the fact that membership is not assured and you need to do due diligence ahead of time to understand that just because you buy in there, it does not guarantee you'd be approved for membership.

Speaking of that, back over here, there's another super popular club known as the Quail Valley Club and it's super super popular right around here. Quail Valley is here and they've got a riverfront facility and it's very very popular and they also have another facility over here and they actually have a riverside skiff that goes back and forth, which is kind of cool. And then their golf course is over here this away about 10 miles cuz there wasn't any land available when they did it. And most of our clubs do not have a real estate component, meaning you can join whatever club you want and live wherever you wish.

John's Island is not. John's Island, you may only apply if you reside and own property in here. As we go north, we start to get newer houses. Remember we said this is where the land was available. So, here's what starts to happen when you get up here. This started to be a development area late 1990s, early 2000s. So, let's take a look at one. Lake Bend is a beautiful single family community known as the River Club. This is a beautiful house that I sold a couple of years ago. Look at that view.

Isn't that fantastic? They did a lot of renovation to this house and it sold in the low twos. This community also has shared wall villas as well as condominiums. It's called the River Club. It's a beautiful beautiful community. The lots are a little narrower as you can see here, but they're deep and very long and they happen to be on the lake here. You see the view they have, it's just killer. These are all detached at the front. They have shared wall villas and the condos are at the front over here.

So, this is the River Club. This is an example of lots starting to get a little more narrow, yet you still own them fee simple and you have amenities in the mix. So, it's a different model than on the southern end of the island where we started off. This is definitely more Mediterranean in the way that it looks, but it's got a brand new roof. It's been completely renovated. It's a really, really good buy. The roof is new, the renovation is new. It's a courtyard style. Let's talk about that for a minute.

Courtyard style is very common on a smaller lot cuz it's a way to gain privacy and that's what it does here. But, you know what else it gives you? It gives you this really cool casita right over here, which is detached. It has its own air conditioning and what I love about these is they can be whatever you want them to be. So, this has been completely renovated, freshly painted, all new accordion shutters. They took down the pillars here that had been there, which made it a little dated. So, this is fantastic.

So, again, the lots are narrower, which means generally you're not going to have a side load garage because the lot's not wide enough to accommodate it. And as we get north, there are more communities like that up here. There's one called The Seasons, a beautiful community. You've got a new one here called Orchid Cove. So, this kind of housing product where you own your land, but it's a more diminutive piece of land, yet you get amenities including yard work, tends to dominate this part of the barrier island. This end of the island, there is a beach club for a country club known as Grand Harbor.

Grand Harbor So, you're going to go over the causeway and this is This is the only island that was large enough to have houses. This is Orchid Isle Estates in here and this is Marsh Island. This is a beautiful, fun place called Environmental Learning Center that has programs and boat tours. But, Grand Harbor has a beach club right here. Why am I showing you that? Well, if you went back and lived in here along Indian River Boulevard, this is the Grand Harbor Club where they've got two golf courses, beautiful facility right here.

And they also have a beach club, and it doesn't have a real estate requirement. So, there's lots of ways to cobble together the kind of lifestyle that you want. So, that's the deal. I hope you guys found this helpful. DM me, text me, call me, our contact form, and I'd be delighted to help be your boots on the ground to figure out if Fura Beach is the right place for you, and if it is, where you want to land on this wonderful map. Take care.