2 Florida cities make this list of best U.S. towns to buy waterfront homes
Florida is one of the best places in the U.S. for a waterfront home, just based on geography. The state is basically a huge sandbar, with 825 miles of sandy beach along its coasts. But the cost of living on the coast is high.
Virtual Staging AI, an internet-based AI tool that helps real estate professionals virtually furnish rooms, just released a study ranking the best U.S. towns in which to buy a waterfront home.
And two Florida beach towns made the list of the top 10 best cities to buy a waterfront home in the country.
Here’s which Florida cities ranked on the list, where they ranked and the cost of living in each city.
Where are the most affordable beachfront properties in the U.S.?
To make the rankings list, Virtual Staging AI ranked 100 of the most popular beach and lake towns in the U.S. to find the most and least affordable towns to buy waterfront homes, based on housing price-to-income ratios.
“Additionally, we found the best towns to buy a waterfront home, across the board, based on six real estate-related ranking factors, including median home price, median square footage, price per square foot, number of bedrooms and the number of bathrooms,” the study said.
“On average across the study, Americans pay $624,051 more for a waterfront property. That's a 74.9% premium!”
The coastal city of Kiawah Island, South Carolina placed as the town with the most affordable waterfront homes in the U.S.
On Kiawah Island, the median home price is a little over $1 million, but the median annual income is around $214,000, which makes the housing price-to-income ratio 4.83.
Naples was the first Florida city to appear on the list, in fifth place, with a housing price-to-income ratio of 5.85.
St. Augustine was the only other Florida city to rank in the top 10, rounding out the list in 10th place, with a housing price-to-income ratio of 6.88.
Here’s Virtual Staging AI’s list of the most affordable places to buy a waterfront home, according to the ratio of housing price to average income in each area:
Kiawah Island, South Carolina (ocean)
Branson, Missouri (lake)
Ocean Springs, Mississippi (ocean)
Osage Beach, Missouri (lake)
Naples, Florida (ocean)
Hampton, New Hampshire (ocean)
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (ocean)
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (ocean)
Chelan, Washington (lake)
St. Augustine, Florida
What's the average cost of housing in Naples, Florida?
Naples recently placed on another rankings list from U.S. News and World Report, ranking as the best city to live in Florida.
But the cost of living in Naples depends on where you live in the town. Of course, housing along the coast will cost more than housing prices further inland.
“As is the case in much of the country, residents in Collier County can expect to pay a premium if they want to live closer to the urban coast, especially in wealthy cities like Naples and Marco Island. Closer to the area’s rural interior, meanwhile, the cost of living drops,” the report says.
“With generally high property values, local municipalities in the area largely rely on property taxes as a primary revenue source. Those taxes vary depending on whether residents live in the county’s two cities, Naples and Marco Island, or Collier’s unincorporated area.”
According to Zillow, the current median home price in Naples is around $602,301 and the median monthly rent is $5,700.
Is it expensive to live in St. Augustine, Florida?
Like Naples and every other coastal town in Florida, the price of living in St. Augustine gets higher the closer you are to the water.
According to the most recent home price averages from Zillow, the average value of a home in St. Augustine is currently around $456,198 and the average price to rent each month is around $2,263.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Waterfront homes list ranks 2 Florida cities among nation's best