Best Places to Retire: Venice, Florida

Coming into downtown Venice, Fla., feels a bit like slipping back to an older America, where once thriving Main Streets sat at the center of quiet, walkable neighborhoods. It's no accident. Venice was designed to re-create the atmosphere of a traditional small town, specifically for retirees.

The South Jetty was the place to watch the sun, the surf and the storms rollling over Venice Beach.

(Charlie Archambault for USN&WR)

"We can walk or bike to just about anything—activities, shopping, doctors, whatever," says Paul Cline, who retired to Venice with his wife, Diane, nine years ago. The couple was drawn to Venice's cozy design, which emphasizes a mix of housing that is close to shops and services, undeveloped beaches, neighborhood parks and—unusual for Florida—sidewalks.

Venice was planned, and most of its downtown was built, back in the 1920s. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers bankrolled Venice as a place for its union members to retire. A crash in land values and the Great Depression stalled development, a fact that now seems fortunate. "It's old Florida that didn't lose its character," says Shannon Staub, a commissioner for surrounding Sarasota County.

Venice has since turned into the charming core of a Gulf Coast community that has boomed since the 1980s, with most of the recent growth spreading into the surrounding county in the form of typically modern developments: often gated subdivisions that hug a dozen or so championship golf courses. "But everyone in the area considers themselves a Venetian," says Jack Meyerhoff, 81, who has lived for 25 years in the county. Apart from the history, he says, Venice has the hospital, art center, social clubs, award-winning community theater, and events big and small, including weekly jazz concerts in one of its many parks. And, of course, there is plenty of golf.

Venice also has its own small airport, built by the military as an airbase in World War II. Commercial flights can be caught in nearby Sarasota or Fort Myers.

Venice sits on a coastal stretch without barrier islands, offering direct access to the Gulf of Mexico that makes for prized boating—if also exposure to the rare hurricane that threatens Florida's west side.

Indeed, insurance rates have risen after a spate of big storms in recent years. Property values, too, have jumped, but they have notably stalled or are falling in Venice, as in many markets in Florida.

Development pressures are building on the core area known as "The Island," which was carved away from the mainland by the man-made Intercoastal Waterway. Residents worry about builders pushing for taller buildings, a few of which have already been built along the waterway. "We don't want a lot of 15-story buildings," says retiree Janis Fawn. But, she says, residents understand that the city has to grow. "If we didn't, Main Street would just die. And Venice wouldn't be the same."

ABOUT VENICE, FLA.

Population: 20,974

Median home price: $278,750

January average temperatures (high/low): 73/52

July temperatures: 91/74

Source: OnBoard LLC

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