Palm Beach County 2030: Retirees, young families moving north in search of less expensive homes

From Palm Beach Post 
By Abraham Mahshie Special to the Post
Posted Dec 18, 2019 at 12:46 PM 

 

With new medical jobs, 45-minute commute times and homes six figures cheaper than Palm Beach County, young families and Baby Boomers prepping for retirement are looking north to St. Lucie County, with some even moving to Indian River and Martin counties.

Thomas Furlong, 39, a mechanical engineer who was born and raised in Lake Worth and works in Jupiter, resisted making the move north from Palm Beach County because of the specter of a longer morning commute. But with a one-year-old and another on the way, a two-bedroom rental at about $2,000 a month just didn’t make sense — and million-dollar homes priced him out.

Now, for a 27-minute commute and $1,900 a month, he pays the mortgage, taxes and insurance on the family’s brand-new 2,200 square-foot five-bedroom, three-bath home in Woodland Trails, off the first Port St. Lucie exit.

“At first, the drive kind of was a little of a deterrent, but once we actually went up there and saw the value that we could get, we were hooked,” he said. “The drive is actually nice. It’s in the morning, you can kind of clear your head and relax.”

 

“What you get for your money, the value of the homes, what you pay for it, you get a lot more bang for your buck, so to speak, and it was just quiet, there’s not a lot of traffic. Jupiter is crazy.”

“After we had seen what was available in our price range in Port St. Lucie, we were sold. My wife fell in love with the new home construction up there.”

“People are starting to move here not just to live a great life but also to work and play,” said Port St. Lucie Mayor Gregory Oravec, about how the city’s Southern Grove jobs corridor is responsible for creating 600 new jobs in a variety of sectors, including healthcare. 

“We’re going to make that full transition from a bedroom community, with a lot of outflow for the morning commute, to one that commutes within town,” he said.

 

A Pembroke Pines Transplant himself, Oravec grew tired of commuting to a job in Miami and traded his two-bedroom, one-bath with no garage for a three-bedroom, two-bath with a 1.5-car garage, fireplace and pool in Port St. Lucie for 20 percent less.

“I think that we provide all of those things at best value, so you get all of that upside at a relatively low price,” he said, adding that Port St. Lucie was rated the safest large city in Florida. “I would say, yes, they absolutely are moving up from Palm Beach County as well as the rest of South Florida.”

Port St. Lucie is now the seventh largest city in the state, a testament to its explosive growth at a clip of 3,000 to 5,000 new residents per year.

St. Lucie County’s population stood at 321,000 at the end of 2018, with an annual growth rate of 2.47 percent. By 2030, the county’s population could top 400,000. That would far outpace Martin, to the south, and Indian River, to the north, which could see growth rise to just under 200,000 in the next decade, according to University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

Larger, more affordable new homes have been the draw to St. Lucie County ever since the housing boom in the early 2000's. Home sales growth and values were interrupted by the Great Recession, but they are picking up again, said John Manrique, marketing director for Kolter Homes, which built nearly a thousand homes in the county?? in the early 2000's and has another 1,500 homes to go at its PGA Village Verona development.

“It’s not what a single builder is doing annually, but the number of builders that are now opening up operations and launching new communities,” he said. “It’s been a good year from a sales standpoint.”

Manrique said Kolter focuses on two markets, the 55-plus active adult group and young families.

The company’s age-targeted homes are designed for “empty-nesters or right sizers,” he said, while a new class of younger, “first time new homebuyers” are looking to the Treasure Coast for more rooms and square footage with commuting times of about 45 minutes, beating out Broward or western Palm Beach County.

“It’s 30s to 40s, probably not infants, toddlers but elementary, middle school children and typically both working,” he said. Oravec added that the median age of the city’s 189,000 residents is 43. That is slightly older than West Palm Beach, 39.6, and Fort Lauderdale, 42.7.

Manrique offered a comparison between a new four-bedroom, 3,200-square-foot Kolter home at Vizcaya Falls in Port St. Lucie selling for $312,000, whereas a 2,700-square-foot, four-bedroom at a different Kolter property in Palm Beach Gardens runs just above $600,000.

“The two price points don’t intersect,” agreed Bill Handler, owner of GHO Homes, a Port St. Lucie and Indian River county developer. Handler said one of his 2,000 square-foot, 3-2 homes in Port St. Lucie sells for just under $300,000.

For a similar price point in Palm Beach County, he said, a buyer would have to look at condos or townhouses, but even then it would be hard to find one, he said.

“I don’t know of anything at 300 that I’ve seen in a long time that isn’t way out west, like crazy,” he said.

New jobs reduce commutes

Creating homegrown jobs so that residents won’t have to commute has been a strategic objective for decades, said St. Lucie city Community Redevelopment Agency director Wes McCurry.

“It’s actually been planned for quite some time,” said McCurry, who noted that three miles of frontage along I-95 offers some 1,100 acres of commercial space at land and rent prices far below at-capacity counties further south.

“Our draw is location and affordability,” he said. “I think the market is going to start to take notice.”

Oravec listed several companies already operating in the area or in negotiation to expand in Port St. Lucie, including Cleveland Clinic, OCULUS Surgical, City Electric and biomedical researcher Torrey Pines.

Previously, said GHO’s Handler, Port St. Lucie has been defined as a “bedroom community.”

“You get paid to drive,” he said, noting higher income levels and demand for skilled workforce in Palm Beach County made it worthwhile for residents to commute from Port St. Lucie.

Kolter’s Manrique said he has noticed the job influx in Port St. Lucie.

“We’re certainly seeing that as well,” he said. “They may be looking for new job up in Port St. Lucie.”

Port St. Lucie Mayor Oravec said that is changing and the new development plan is creating a campus-like area of health sector jobs that will keep citizens working in the community.

Nonetheless, the mayor acknowledged that commute times within the city of Port St. Lucie have been a challenge as infrastructure investment works to catch up with double-digit annual growth.

The recent completion of the east-west Crosstown Parkway helped cut commute times in half, Oravec said. A one-half cent tax increase will also finance $100 million in infrastructure projects.

“We have to address the growing pains, right? The downsides that come with growth. So, we have to adjust infrastructure, especially traffic and mobility,” he explained. “If you get behind, that’s when the natives get restless.”

Less social life, more family life

Many who move north consider they have written off a social life, but developers and local government say the drive to the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach is only 35 minutes and nightlife is replaced by a plethora of family options, such as plenty of youth sports options, a farmer’s markets and not-so-crowded beaches.

Handler said there are definitely fewer bars and restaurants, but those who seek Clematis Street-style nightlife still visit West Palm Beach. Kolter’s Manrique agreed.

“If you’re talking a single millennial who’s looking for the downtown West Palm Beach scene, no. You’re not going to find a similar scenario in Port St. Lucie,” he said. St. Lucie County is more attuned to “the family who’s more about the sports on Saturday, the farmers market and going out to the beach.”

Oravec said that while Port St. Lucie is growing its cultural offerings, he agrees that the city’s advantage is about more family-centered activities. He also challenges people’s perception of their own social life.

“Sometimes there’s a disconnect between what we say we’re going to do and how much we actually go out,” he said, considering his personal situation. “It happens a lot more in theory than in real life. There are local shows here in both Stuart and Fort Pierce but if we want to make the drive, then we go to the Kravis Center.”

Indian River and Martin County see steadier growth

While Port St. Lucie is all the rage for developers, Martin County is seeing “slow and steady” growth for those who like to have an old Florida feel, while Indian River County is attracting those who want low prices and proximity to the beach.

George Stokus, assistant county administrator for Martin County, said Martin has everything from Stuart, an “upbeat bedroom community” to Hope Sound, which he described as “old Florida,” to equestrian communities like Palm City and Indiantown. But growth has not seen the explosive numbers of the county to the north.

“It’s slow and steady,” he said, estimating about 1.5 percent growth over the past eight years.

Stokus said when you fly over Martin County you see expansive waterways void of the open parcels required for mega developments. The result has been urban development, such as the smart growth by boutique developers that help create walkable, urban areas and careful, slow development in places like Pineland Prairie in western Palm City.

“A lot of the planned developments that were prior to the recession have gained resurgence and are starting to come back,” he said. Stokus noted that permits from the building department are predominantly for rehabilitating older homes rather than construction of new homes.

“We do attract the demographic of people who have a family or are starting a family,” he said. “We have a great school district. We have a lot to offer people.”

Bill Handler of GHO homes said his mostly retiree customers are buying homes in Vero Beach, where they can be a 15 to 20-minute drive from the ocean.

“In Vero, it’s much more quiet, it’s much more relaxed. You’re going there to chill out, relax and retire,” he said.

Handler said he commuted from Vero for 20 years and conceded “it’s a little far.” He added his homes are attractive to older adults nearing retirement who don’t want the congestion of Port St. Lucie.

For an average price of about $360,000, you’re getting a smaller town and beach access, Handler explained.

“St. Lucie is dense, there’s a lot of people there and you have to deal with that. In Vero, there’s not,” he said. “In Vero, you can get close to the ocean, where that doesn’t happen in Palm Beach or St. Lucie County.”