Vero Beach’s Buyer Pool Is Showing Signs of a South Florida Migration

A Florida enclave along the Atlantic Ocean is proving that people are looking for alternatives to the hustle and bustle of South Beach.

While experts say the elite continue to migrate from Miami and Palm Beach to areas like Hypoluxo Island and West Palm Beach for more value, there are signs that others buyers are going even farther—an hour-and-a-half north to up-and-coming enclave Vero Beach.

"Vero has been overlooked for a long time," Douglas Elliman agent Michael Merrill tells Realtor.com®. "It used to be called 'Zero Beach,' because there wasn't a lot to do here."

But that is changing. There's been an effort to revitalize the downtown area with new restaurants and hotels (singer Gloria Estefan and her husband, Emilio, have owned the Costa d'Este Beach Resort & Spa since 2008). In 2017, an extended stay hotel was completed near the revamped cultural hub Riverside Theater.

A gourmet restaurant scene gained momentum, most notably with Citrus Grille owned by New York City chef Scott Varricchio, which opened in 2019.

Then, about six months ago, Merrill says he noted something new: Older, secondary homeowners in South Florida began selling their highly appreciated homes in Miami, Naples, Delray Beach, Boca Grande, Jupiter, or Palm Beach and coming to Vero.

"Normally, those people would stay to their market because it's very sticky," he says, noting that the elite would have club memberships, social circles, and favorite area activities and restaurants they wouldn't want to abandon.

However, being able to sell their $20 million Palm Beach home and buy the equivalent in Vero Beach for less than half that amount—without sacrificing lifestyle—has proven too tempting for many.

"The lifestyle that they had bought into years ago had shifted," says Merrill, a former pro golfer who also lives in Vero Beach. The more well-known areas now tend to be overrun with newcomers, glutted with traffic, and harassed by construction. "Palm Beach is like on steroids now," he says.

Additionally, the accessibility issues that plagued Vero have diminished dramatically. Breeze Airways goes direct from Westchester, NY, where many keep their primary homes, and Jet Blue just started its direct route from JFK and Boston to Vero. In February, American Airlines begins direct Vero/Charlotte service.

Vero Beach—no longer the 'zero'

Vero Beach—with its subdued streets, low density (buildings can't be higher than four stories), and direct ocean and Intracoastal waterway access—is attracting those who prefer quieter, lower key luxury. Even in high season, the beaches have only a smattering of people.

Merrill says most buyers are retired CEOs in banking, equity, or finance—no mortgage required. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he saw many younger people in their 30s and 40s take advantage of historically low interest rates to speed up their Vero Beach relocation plans by a decade or two, radically lowering the demographic of the town.

Elite buyers trading in Palm Beach or Miami for Vero tend to head to either John's Island Club, a private gated golfing community on the barrier island, or Windsor, a smaller private community that's more equestrian focused.

John's Island encompasses 1,700 acres with a wide variety of housing: There are 1,300 "door handles" including single-family homes, condos, townhouses, and golf cottages.

Its $300,000 initiation fee gets you three golf courses, tennis, squash, and croquet, multiple restaurants, and a beach club. The club has a strict dress code: "Thongs, G-strings, Brazilian bikinis, and the like are not permitted," says its website. As for the men, jeans will get you the boot and "all shirts should be tucked in."

While Vero Beach has a median home price tag of $438,825, John's Island currently has 19 active listings, ranging from $650,000 for a two-bedroom condo to $12.5 million for a four-bedroom, 6.5 bath waterfront new build on the Intracoastal side, repped by Merrill. It's still being built, thus why it has lingered on the market for over three years, he says.

A comparable home in Palm Beach would run you $40 million to $60 million, says Merrill. He reps a 2-acre oceanfront empty lot in Vero priced at $13 million—the equivalent would run $100 million in Palm Beach.

The priciest active listing is a $28.95 million 10-year-old oceanfront estate with eight bedrooms and 8.5 baths on 1.4 acre lot, repped by Cindy O'Dare at One Sotheby's International Realty.

It's not the new Palm Beach

While other areas like Manalapan and Hypoluxo Island don't mind being called "the next Palm Beach," Vero Beach doesn't want the moniker, says Merrill.

He believes the town's fiercely protected low density means it will always retain a more subdued luxury than the home of Mar-a-Lago and notables like Sylvester Stallone and Bill Gates.

"Vero Beach is not glitzy and flashy," he says. "I've known many of my clients for over 25 years without knowing much about their careers but I do know about their families, golf games, and how they enjoy life. You don’t come to Vero Beach to show off your net worth but to enjoy life at a pace that is peaceful and meaningful."

As for home valuations, he says, "There is room to run. But it would take a long time to get to Palm Beach numbers."

That hasn't stopped some from trying.

In February 2023, a 23,000-square-foot seven-bedroom estate on 6.24 acres with 200 feet of ocean frontage was listed for $60 million, then quietly taken off the market a year later. It went to auction in early 2024, and it's unclear what it sold for. The owners had bought it at auction in 2019 for $10.25 million.

Then there's a 20,000-square-foot spec project called BleuHorizon, which would be built on two empty oceanfront lots in John's Island, asking $60 million. The mystery owner had purchased the double lots for $15.75 million in 2021, according to Vero News.

But Merrill predicts the real estate speculator won't get his ask.

"We don't have those kinds of megamansions," he says. "That's not the kind of buyer we're seeing come to Vero Beach."