Bradenton to Port St. Lucie? (Miami, Sarasota: renting, HOA, condo)

[KentuckyWildcat]

My fiance is wanting to move to Port St. Lucie based on information she's gathered about the city through things she's read. We lived in Bradenton until last year when we moved back north. Can anyone with experience explain differences and similarities between each? Shopping, dining, beach access, etc.

[FlaLadyB]

You really cant do that unless you have lived in both places.

I have been to Sarasota and like it, but difficult to answer your question without living there

[KentuckyWildcat]

Originally Posted by FlaLadyB

You really cant do that unless you have lived in both places.

I have been to Sarasota and like it, but difficult to answer your question without living there

Maybe I wasn't exactly clear in my questions.

I have lived in Bradenton. It's an older crowd with a lot of snow birds. It doesn't appear too "touristy" with large hotels all over the beach.

Basically, how would one describe Port St Lucie? Small-town feel? A lot of tourist? Snowbirds? How's the shopping and dining? This includes Port St Lucie and outward to the beach area.

[FlaLadyB]

Port St Lucie is kinda quiet, working people with families, some retired people, no large hotels on the beach but the beaches over on Hutchinson Island are great and free. I would not call us a touristy beach town but the snowbirds seem to like it here because it's not touristy. Shopping is ok, but if you want the BIG stores like Saks you go down to Palm Beach Gardens Mall where you have everything. The drive is easy.

I'd say its more an "easy living" than "crazy horn honking" area. People work in WPB but live here because of better prices and less stress.

[sammylovesu]

a beach side town similar to vero beach and well taken care of and very safe.. with great un crowded beaches only minutes drive over on the island.. lots of great fishing and relaxing spots...

I am moving back as soon as I can. Port St Lucie then Jensen Beach a few minutes below then Stuart a few minutes below... all the same basically. Stuart has a nice little down town Historic area.

http://www.visitstluciefla.com/hutchinson_island.htm



I move to Port St Lucie from up north about 2 years ago. I was there for 1 year then sold my condo and now I am going back as soon as I can sell what I own now.. or I am thinking of just renting this place out..

[sak9210]

OMG, how funny, I was just about to post the same question. We're originally from NJ, lived in Lakewood Ranch (Bradenton) for 5 years, and moved back up north. Now we want to move back to FL, and we're torn between Bradenton and Port St Lucie. I read that Port St Lucie is a very safe and family oriented town. I also like that it's the same distance to Disney as from Bradenton. So I will be reading the comments here. We have young kids, so schools and safety are important to us.

[srsx9]

Originally Posted by FlaLadyB

Port St Lucie is kinda quiet, working people with families, some retired people, no large hotels on the beach but the beaches over on Hutchinson Island are great and free. I would not call us a touristy beach town but the snowbirds seem to like it here because it's not touristy. Shopping is ok, but if you want the BIG stores like Saks you go down to Palm Beach Gardens Mall where you have everything. The drive is easy.

I'd say its more an "easy living" than "crazy horn honking" area. People work in WPB but live here because of better prices and less stress.

Lots of traffic and tailgaters. Other than golf, there is nothing for tourists to do and that's why they go to places like Sarasota or Miami instead. There is no art, cultural, or decent restaurants.

[quattrohead]

There is every chain store and eating establishments you could ever need on route 1 through PSL and Stuart.
PSL is everything I want in a city.
Traffic ? what are you on about, can you not wait 2 mins for the lights to change ?

[aridon]

St Lucie isn't a bad place to live, especially if you're out in the western areas. If you are looking to move towards the ocean I'd suggest Jensen beach.

You'll notice that Srsx9 will mention that St lucie lacks restaurants. What he means is they lack some of the larger chain restaurants like Ruth's Chris or Cheesecake. Which frankly don't impress me much. Same with the PGA mall. The stores in there I'd actually use are in PSL, others I couldn't care less about. There are lots of smaller, very good places to eat that aren't a dime a dozen "do you want some steak with your butter" type establishment a la Ruth's Chris. There is a challenge in finding them at times but trip adviser does a good job of directing you to potential gold mines. Personally I prefer those types of places over the commercialized garbage others use as a badge of importance.

Not to say I wouldn't like to have a costco here or other restaurants like a Chicfila or Firehouse. We do lack some of that but they will come in time. They just don't define an area for me, especially when there are some really good Greek, Cuban, Italian and other eateries filling the gap.

My biggest beef with the county is they recently were trying to hit home runs with luring big bio tech and other industries to the area. Not a bad plan at the surface but when you realize that no one here has the degrees necessary nor do we have in infrastructure to support such industry it was a stupid plan. They should of focused on bringing companies here that were a better fit with the local population and not just super specialized work requiring specialized degrees in some failed attempt to boost average income statistics.

St lucie also suffered greatly during the housing bubble. Fortunately things have recovered a good bit but there is still a few years left to go if not a little longer before things recover like that have in Palm beach already. Now this is good for someone looking to buy as there is still some value left. Just watch where you buy and if you decide to go into a HOA make sure you read the covenants, bylaws and rules / regs. I suggest PGA and Lake Charles to be places to look first.

Otherwise St Lucie is the standard burbs type sprawling city. There isn't much here that you could point to and say "look its awesome because". Frankly, most of SE FL is like that. St lucie does a good job of being a bedroom community type town with adequate options which are growing and relatively fast access to Palm Beach if you want to commute. Its a safe place, its a nice place and the people here tend to be from all over.

Its not a bad place to live / settle down.

[EMMc]

Not that my idea of "good" restaurant, in terms of someone asking about dining in PSL...but you don't seem to know that there is a Chick-fil-A on Rt 1, in Jensen Beach..it's near the entrance (from rt. 1, heading south, right side) to the Treasure Coast Mall.....down near Sunset Blvd.

PSL, is not known for it's dining...that's for sure. Chain restaurants? Yes.... run of the mill, low end.... not even any high end chains.