5 Best Towns Near Miami For Retirees
Florida has no state income tax and weather most people would call retirement-friendly. The five small towns on this list put both within an easy drive of Miami without the Miami price tag. Dania Beach pairs a wooden fishing pier with antique shops downtown. Everglades City keeps its Old Florida fishing-village feel an hour and a half west. Inland, Florida City puts you between Everglades National Park and the road south to the Keys. Five towns where retirement runs slower than the city does.
Dania Beach
Dania Beach is one of South Florida's oldest cities, sitting just minutes from downtown Fort Lauderdale and about 40 minutes from Miami in light traffic. The town runs a working wooden fishing pier on the Atlantic, an antique-shop downtown, and a residential mix that runs from modern townhouse communities to large single-family houses. The median sale price sits around $326,000, well below the South Florida average.
Downtown is a slow walk past antique shops, with the Mad Arts museum running rotating exhibits in a converted industrial building a block off Federal Highway. The fishing pier is the local sunset spot, with a restaurant and shops at the entrance and pelicans working the rails most afternoons. For healthcare, Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood is six miles south, with the larger Holy Cross Hospital and Broward Health network within reach. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport sits five miles north for travel.
Everglades City
Everglades City was connected to the rest of Florida in 1928 by the Tamiami Trail, the road that finally cut through the swamp from Tampa to Miami. The town sits about an hour and a half west of Miami and south of Fort Myers, on the far southwestern tip of the Florida peninsula. It started as a fishing village, turned to commercial sportfishing in the 20th century, and has held onto more of an Old Florida identity than almost anywhere else in the state. The annual Seafood Festival in February is the town's biggest event.
Housing runs from stilted bungalows with screened porches to bayfront estates and lower-maintenance condos, with median prices around $289,000. Everglades National Park sits at the edge of town for hiking, biking, or kayaking the mangrove tunnels. The downside is medical access. Urgent care is in Marco Island, 35 miles north, and the larger hospitals are concentrated in Naples about an hour away. Retirees who need regular specialty care should factor that in.
Florida City
Florida City was founded in 1910 under the name Detroit, before adopting its current name in 1914. The town sits at the southern end of Miami-Dade County, with median home prices around $372,000, between three significant outdoor anchors: Everglades National Park to the west, the Florida Keys to the south, and Biscayne National Park to the east, the latter of which is 95% underwater. The Biscayne visitor center has free admission, an art gallery, short flat trails, and guided boat tours. South of town, the Southern Glades Wildlife and Environmental Area runs nature trails through marsh and pine flatwoods.
The town's commercial draw is the Florida Keys Outlet Marketplace, an open-air mall in Spanish-style architecture that pulls Keys-bound travelers off US-1 for brand-name shopping. Just up the road in Homestead, the Coral Castle on South Dixie Highway and Robert Is Here, the long-running tropical-fruit stand on SW 192nd Avenue, are two more classic South Florida stops. For hospital care, Homestead Hospital is six miles north, with the larger Baptist Health network within reach.
Palm Springs
Palm Springs, incorporated in 1957, is a residential village of just under 30,000 about an hour north of Miami, near Palm Beach International Airport and the city of West Palm Beach. The town sits on slightly higher ground than much of South Florida, with a median home price around $267,000, the lowest on this list. Frost Park is the local lakeside green space, with a four-acre layout running a fitness trail, fishing pier, benches, and fountains.
For healthcare, HCA Florida JFK Hospital in Atlantis covers acute and emergency care, with senior-focused medical offices in nearby Greenacres adding another option. Within a 20-minute drive, residents reach the sand at Palm Beach, the public 18-hole Park Ridge Golf Course in Lake Worth, and John Prince Memorial Park for trails, a boardwalk, and birdwatching.
Port Salerno
Port Salerno sits on Florida's east coast just south of Stuart, about two hours north of Miami. The town is a historic fishing village built around Manatee Pocket, a sheltered bay that runs marinas, waterfront restaurants, sport fishing tournaments, and retirement communities along its sides. Median home values land around $334,000. Cleveland Clinic Martin South Hospital sits in nearby Stuart for hospital care.
St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park, just up the road, runs as a sea turtle nesting site on the Great Florida Birding Trail, with two miles of beach and a 3,000-foot boardwalk through mangrove and maritime hammock. The Banyan Tree Tunnel and the Manatee Pocket Walk both trace short scenic routes through the village. In Stuart, the Council on Aging of Martin County at the Kane Center handles senior wellness classes, regular events, and resources for residents.
From Dania Beach in the south to Port Salerno in the north, Florida's small towns near Miami cover a wide range of retirement options at lower price points than the city itself. Florida City puts retirees minutes from Everglades, Biscayne, and the road into the Keys. Everglades City keeps the Old Florida fishing-village feel intact along the Gulf side. Palm Springs runs the most affordable median price of the group. Port Salerno covers the working waterfront option two hours north. Dania Beach is the urban-adjacent pick. The right fit depends on whether the priority is price, quiet, or a working coastline.
