Looking to fulfill that dream of living on a beach? A new report from WalletHub [1]found Naples, Florida, to be the best beach town in the nation.
Naples was ranked No. 1 in quality of life, 15th in safety, 41st in economy, 51st in affordability, No. 101 in weather, and 61st in education and health.
To assemble the list, WalletHub compared 192 cities across six key dimensions: Affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life.
Lahaina, Hawaii, was found to have the best economy, followed by Carlsbad, California, Laguna Beach, California, Burien, Washington, and Kailua, Hawaii.
Florida beaches dominated the affordability scale, with Merritt Island, Destin, Satellite Beach, Bonita Springs, and Gulfport rounding out the top five.
The Texas coastal communities of Port Lavaca and La Porte had the lowest housing costs, while Asbury Park, New Jersey, and Santa Cruz, California, had the highest housing costs.
Florida communities Cocoa Beach, Marco Island, and Hallandale Beach were all tied for the highest percentage of waterfront homes for sale. Lompoc, California, had the fewest waterfront homes for sale.
Encinitaes, California, had the lowest foreclosure rate of the cities surveyed, while Shirley, New York, had the highest. Holliday, Florida, was reported to be the least desirable beachfront community, with its safety and economic ranking at the bottom of the list.
While improved, affordability remains an issue for the California housing market [2], as a report from Trulia found that four of the priciest zip codes in the nation were located in the Golden State: San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
With a median home value of $590,700 and a median income of $75,110, only 8% of the ZIP codes in San Diego had 100% of homes that could be considered affordable.
Additionally, LendingTree reported [3]that San Jose had the nation’s highest average home price at $815,000. San Jose, however, also has the highest average salaries for all three classifications: $70,539 (lower-middle-class), $105,809 (middle-middle-class), and $211,618 (upper-middle-class).