The Towns On The Atlantic Coast Where Retirees Are Moving To
The retirement boom on the Atlantic coast is happening one county over from everywhere you would expect. Jasper County, next door to Hilton Head, has gained retirees at twice the pace of Hilton Head’s own county, Ocean City’s buyers are crossing into Delaware, and thousands leave Palm Beach County every year for Port St. Lucie, where a house costs a quarter of a million dollars less for the same ocean. The famous stretches got expensive first, so the towns beside them are the ones filling up now. Delaware charges no sales tax and Florida no income tax, and the new hospitals open years after the people who need them have moved in.
Milton, Delaware
Each May, Milton's Horseshoe Crab and Shorebird Festival includes boat rides on the Broadkill River and guided walks in Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, whose Boardwalk Trail is half a mile long. The rest of the year, the $5 Quick Sip tour at the Dogfish Head brewery in town starts at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. every day. Each tour lasts about 25 minutes and has room for 20 people, with spots handed out first come, first served. The $20 Off-Centered tour lasts an hour or more and is open to those 21 and older in closed-toe shoes. By late November, ELF: The Musical is on stage at the Milton Theatre on Union Street, with performances through December 13.
Four in ten of Milton's roughly 3,600 residents are 65 or older, and many of Sussex County's newer arrivals come from Philadelphia's suburbs in Chester and Delaware counties. Homes in town sold for a median of about $450,000 in the three months ending in June. Delaware has no sales tax, and Social Security is exempt from state income tax. Windstone, a gated neighborhood of 260 homes for people 55 and older, has a Milton address. Walk-in care has been available every day since 2024 at Beebe Healthcare's Milton health center, between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Millsboro, Delaware
Cupola Park sits at the end of Morris Street on the Indian River, where 24 boat slips are rented by the year through a waitlist at Town Hall, and Concerts in the Park are held on Tuesdays through late spring and summer. Boaters launching at one of the park's two ramps can follow the river toward Indian River Bay, where Holts Landing State Park has a pier for crabbing and fishing with a kayak launch beside it. Houses in Millsboro went for about $335,000 this spring, well under Milton's prices.
In a typical year about 150 people 65 and older move to Millsboro from other states. Maryland's Eastern Shore is close enough that Wicomico County and Ocean City's Worcester County rank among the biggest sources of Sussex County's new residents. Independence, planned for 455 homes for people 55 and older, has a clubhouse called Independence Hall with indoor and outdoor pools. The Peninsula, a private club on 800 acres along the bay, has a Jack Nicklaus Signature course. Beebe's South Coastal emergency department in Millville is open around the clock.
Leland, North Carolina
Leland in Lights is held in Founders Park, beside Leland's Town Hall, between late November and early January. Train rides are offered on event weekend evenings, and on some nights Leland Brewing Company beer is poured at a beer garden on site. The brewery's taproom is across the street. At Brunswick Riverwalk Park at Belville, next door, a boardwalk and a river viewing deck sit beside a kayak launch that can be used only at certain tides.
House of Pickleball has 12 indoor courts. Del Webb Wilmington at Mallory Creek, planned for 761 homes for people 55 and older, is one of the Leland communities built with retirees in mind. The town's median sale price rose 6 percent over a year, to about $414,000 by late summer. North Carolina's flat income tax is 3.99 percent for 2026, with Social Security exempt. The Leland Senior Center is on Town Hall Drive. Novant's New Hanover Regional Medical Center is across the Cape Fear River in Wilmington, and a 20-bed Novant hospital with a 24-hour emergency room has state approval for Leland itself, though no opening date has been set. About 2,150 people moved into Brunswick County from New Hanover County in a single year. In July, Leland economic development director Barnes Sutton told WECT that many newcomers have come from New York, New Jersey, and Virginia.
Surfside Beach, South Carolina
A farmers market is held in Memorial Park in Surfside Beach on Tuesdays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and an arts and crafts market is held in the same park on Thursdays. Down at the water, the rebuilt Surfside Beach Pier opened in March 2024 and extends 800 feet over the ocean. A few miles south in Murrells Inlet, Huntington Beach State Park has about three miles of beach. Admission is $5 for South Carolina seniors, against $8 for other adults. A look inside Atalaya, the house on the park grounds, costs $2 more.
Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital, with 124 beds, is in Murrells Inlet as well. Surfside's median sale price rose 11.3 percent in a year, to about $609,000 by midsummer. Horry County's population 65 and older grew by about 32,800 over five years, and New Jersey's Ocean County and New York's Orange County both rank among its top sources of newcomers.
Hardeeville, South Carolina
Homes at Latitude Margaritaville in Hardeeville sold for a median of $494,861 in September, about $50,000 above the citywide median a month earlier, according to Redfin. Residents of the 55-and-older community share Paradise Pool and a thatched-roof bandshell on Latitude Town Square, and their dogs have a park of their own called Barkaritaville. Hardeeville's population grew about 16 percent between July 2024 and July 2025, to 16,459. According to The Post and Courier, much of that growth came from retirement-age people moving into 55-and-older communities such as Latitude Margaritaville and Sun City Hilton Head. Jasper County's newcomers include people from as far as New York and Ohio.
In April, the Low Country Pickleball Classic was played on Sun City's 12 North pickleball courts in Hardeeville. Argent Lakes, one of Sun City's golf courses, is open to the public. Novant Health Coastal Carolina Medical Center in Hardeeville has a 24-hour emergency department and is certified as a primary stroke center. Under South Carolina's 2025 rules, residents 65 and older can deduct up to $10,000 in retirement income plus a separate $15,000 age deduction, and Social Security is not taxed in the state. The chairman of Jasper County Council told The Post and Courier in March, "Our growth is outpacing some services, especially primary care health positions for the retirees."
Bluffton, South Carolina
Bluffton Oyster Company, on Wharf Street at the edge of the May River, is the last oyster house in South Carolina where the shucking is still done by hand. Local oysters and clams are sold at its small market between mid-September and mid-May, and local shrimp between mid-June and mid-January. The public boat landing is next door, and the family also runs Bluffton Seafood House in town.
The farmers market is open on Thursdays in Martin Family Park, and a new show goes up every month at the Society of Bluffton Artists gallery on Church Street. Sun City Hilton Head, the Del Webb community that extends into Jasper County, has more than 14,000 residents and more than 200 clubs. New homes there are listed starting at $335,990, while Bluffton's September median sale price was $534,645. About 700 Bluffton residents 65 and older had lived in another state a year earlier, and Beaufort County's newcomers include people from Savannah's Chatham County and Long Island's Suffolk County. The director of the 1,700-member lifelong learning institute at USC Beaufort said in 2024, "Most area residents moved from elsewhere and classes serve as an intro to the Lowcountry." A freestanding Novant Health emergency room opened in Bluffton in July. Beaufort Memorial's 28-bed hospital is expected to open in early 2027 as the town's first.
St. Marys, Georgia
The first Cumberland Island ferry leaves downtown St. Marys at 9 a.m., and the crossing takes about 45 minutes. A senior fare is $42 plus tax. An America the Beautiful senior pass covers the $15 park entrance fee but not the boat. Steps from the ferry office, Waterfront Park has boardwalks and piers along the river, and the St. Marys Submarine Museum is on the same street.
Crooked River State Park, a short drive north of town, has four miles of trails and 11 cottages, and the golf course at Osprey Cove is a private Mark McCumber design. Houses in St. Marys sold for about $315,000 over the summer. Georgia's flat income tax dropped to 4.99 percent for 2026, and residents 62 and older can exclude part of their retirement income. The Southeast Georgia Health System's Camden Campus in St. Marys is a 40-bed hospital with a Senior Care Center. Camden County has about a third more Medicare enrollees 65 and older than it did in 2020, and many of its newcomers come over the Florida line from Jacksonville's Duval County and from Nassau County.
World Golf Village, Florida
King & Bear, at World Golf Village west of St. Augustine, is the only course designed jointly by Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. It reopened in October 2024 after a five-month, $2.5 million restoration in which the greens were resurfaced and the bunkers relined. The 7,279-yard course is public, and the neighboring Slammer & Squire course is shorter at 6,939 yards. The village center around the courses has been mostly quiet since the World Golf Hall of Fame's 2023 move to Pinehurst, and the IMAX theater and the Murray Bros. Caddyshack restaurant have since closed. Houses across St. Johns County sold for a median of $493,349 in August. Florida has no state income tax, and the largest group of newcomers to the county comes south from Jacksonville's Duval County.
More than 40 shows were on the St. Augustine Amphitheatre's 2026 season calendar. UF Health MuraBella, in the World Golf Village ZIP code, has urgent care and imaging, and UF Health Flagler Hospital is in St. Augustine. Membership in Flagler College's Lifelong Learning Institute was full for 2026.
Vero Beach, Florida
Round Island Park has a county-run kayak launch on the Indian River Lagoon, with restrooms and water at the put-in. According to the state's paddling guide, paddlers on this stretch are almost guaranteed to see manatees and dolphins. The same section of the lagoon's paddling trail continues north past Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge toward Sebastian Inlet. In town, a senior ticket to the Vero Beach Museum of Art costs $11, and admission is free on the second Saturday of every month. Riverside Theatre's season includes Clue, January 6 through 31, and guided tours of the 18 acres at McKee Botanical Garden are held on Tuesday mornings.
Meals on Wheels and the GoLine buses are run by the Senior Resource Association on 14th Street. Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital has the Scully-Welsh Cancer Center on its campus. Indian River County's population 65 and older rose by about 9,600 over five years. About half of the people moving into the county come from elsewhere in Florida, many of them from St. Lucie County next door. Prices have eased, and the September median of $377,320 was 11.5 percent below a year earlier.
Port St. Lucie, Florida
Each February the New York Mets open spring training at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie, and the 2026 schedule included 16 home games, with the spring opener on February 21 against the Marlins. Tickets for the spring go on sale in December. On the St. Lucie River, the boardwalk at The Port District was finished in August 2025 and extends about 4,300 feet along the North Fork beside Rivergate Park. Valencia Walk in the Riverland area has 37 pickleball courts. PGA Golf Club at PGA Village has 54 holes plus a six-hole short course. Villas at the 55-and-older Del Webb Tradition community are listed starting at $367,990.
The $250,000 gap between a median house here and one in Palm Beach or Martin County is visible in the moving numbers. In one recent year about 6,400 people moved into St. Lucie County from Palm Beach County and 4,000 from Broward. Port St. Lucie has had the fastest growth of the country's 91 largest cities for five straight years. Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital has 177 private rooms, and HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital has 207 beds. "I just strictly think it is pricing," a local real estate agent told CBS12 in August.
Stuart, Florida
Market on Main is held in Flagler Park on the St. Lucie River every Sunday, rain or shine, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through March and until 1 p.m. in the warmer months. Riverwalk Park starts behind City Hall, a block away, with a boardwalk over the water and a stage for evening music. Over the bridge on Hutchinson Island, senior admission to the Elliott Museum is $18, or $26 with the House of Refuge included. Bathtub Reef Beach, on the same island, has a reef built by tiny worms just offshore. According to Martin County, more than 500 kinds of marine creatures live on it. In the calmer spring and summer seas, waves break on the reef before they reach the shore, and lifeguards are on duty between 10 a.m. and 4:45 p.m.
The 18 pickleball courts at Halpatiokee Regional Park are open for first-come play every day, and Stuart's median sale price was about $340,000 in August. Cleveland Clinic Martin North Hospital, on Hospital Avenue, has an emergency department open day and night. More people move to Martin County from Palm Beach County than from anywhere else, with St. Lucie County second.
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
A morning round at Sandhill Crane, the city-owned golf course in Palm Beach Gardens, cost $89 in October, and the same round is $164 between January and April. Holders of the $25 resident pass get 15 percent off. The Gardens GreenMarket season began on October 4, with the market held 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays at the City Hall campus on Military Trail. The PGA Tour's Cognizant Classic is played at PGA National each winter.
Regency at Avenir, a 55-and-older community of 469 homes, is in the city's western section. Ground was broken there in June on a 29-bed Jupiter Medical Center hospital due in early 2028, and Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center is already open in the city. The city's median sale price was $729,653 in September, according to Redfin, and a third of its residents are 65 or older. In one recent year about 2,700 people moved into Palm Beach County from Long Island's Nassau and Suffolk counties. Last November a North Palm Beach broker told WFLX that Palm Beach Gardens is among the top cities his New York City clients are targeting.
Up 11 Percent in Surfside Beach, Down 11.5 in Vero Beach
Many of the moves along this coast cross a single county or state line, toward a house that costs less and a beach or golf course still close at hand. New hospitals tend to open a few years after the houses around them, and Leland's approved 20-bed Novant hospital still has no opening date. In Jasper County, South Carolina, where Medicare enrollment among people 65 and older rose 44 percent between 2020 and 2025, the council chairman has already said primary care is falling behind the retirees. House prices rose 11 percent in a year in Surfside Beach and fell 11.5 percent in Vero Beach, so the cheaper town on any given stretch of coast can change within a year or two.
