{"id":655,"date":"2026-05-28T13:40:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=655"},"modified":"2026-05-28T13:40:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:40:39","slug":"exclusive-sleepy-retiree-haven-in-florida-is-booming-with-hip-new-residents-eager-to-launch-their-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=655","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | Sleepy retiree haven in Florida is booming with hip new residents eager to launch their careers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Boca is booming \u2014 without the boomers.<\/p>\n

When Diana Gonc\u0327alves, 33, a Pilates instructor and personal trainer, was looking for the perfect place to live and open her fitness business, she chose the pink-painted, gray-haired town of Boca Raton, Florida \u2014 on purpose.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve lived in Scotland, Portugal, Spain, and stayed in Thailand and San Jose, California, but when I came to Boca, I thought, \u2018I would love to live here,\u2019\u201d Gonc\u0327alves told The Post. \u201cI love the weather. I love that we are very close to the beach. I love that we have everything that a big city has.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonc\u0327alves is one of many young millennial and Gen Z entrepreneurs who have traded the bright lights of big cities for the early-bird specials of Boca Raton. Of course, the town has long been the butt of retirement jokes. It has more golf courses (around 35) than square miles (about 30). According to census data, of Boca\u2019s approximately 120,000 residents, 24.6% are over age 65. And, in 2024, when Billy Joel bought his waterfront East Boca home for $24 million, he quipped on stage: \u201cI\u2019m just gonna spend a little more time in Florida like old Jewish guys from Long Island do.\u201d<\/p>\n

But now, the seniors from Long Island increasingly have some much younger neighbors.<\/p>\n

Courtney Levitt, 30, a stylist and personal shopper, and her husband, Jason Stein, 32, a commercial realtor, moved to Boca earlier this year after eight years in Manhattan. At first, Levitt was worried that she\u2019d be the youngest person on their West Boca street. But after visiting a few restaurants in the new Uptown Boca development and nearby Delray Beach\u2019s Atlantic Avenue, the newlyweds realized that wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep hearing of more and more people who are trying to bring their businesses down here,\u201d Levitt said. \u201cWe go out with couples who are around our age, and it\u2019s really starting to feel like a mini New York. It\u2019s really crazy, even a new bagel place near us was filled with young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levitt was referring to Long Island Bagel Cafe, which just opened in West Boca \u2014 its first outside Long Island, where it has nine locations. And New Yorkers looking for their food fix don\u2019t need to go far: H&H Bagels opened in Boca in 2024; Patsy\u2019s Pizzeria opened in downtown Boca last year; Gallagher\u2019s Steakhouse opened in Boca in 2023; and the historical Boca Raton resort has an on-site Sadelle\u2019s.<\/p>\n

According to a new report from CoWorking Cafe, Boca Raton ranked No. 14 on the recent Top 20 US small cities for career growth list. The report noted that Boca has one of the \u201cdensest business environments in the entire dataset, at 12,640 establishments per [100,000] residents.\u201d Boca isn\u2019t a stranger to big business either: The first-ever personal computer was built on IBM\u2019s Boca campus in 1981. Office Depot, Celsius, ADT and Canon all have a Boca headquarters.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a robust health scene. Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift notably spent time in Boca during the 2025 NFL off-season while Kelce was training at local gym, Johnny O\u2019s. A different Johnny \u2014 \u201cBananas\u201d of \u201cThe Challenge\u201d fame \u2014 is an owner of the Rumble Boxing franchise downtown. Boca is also home to two Lifetime Fitness locations, which serve as an alternative to the two dozen or so country clubs in town. And Equinox just started construction on its first-ever Boca location.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMost of my [Pilates] clients are my age,\u201d Gonc\u0327alves said. \u201cI\u2019ve been lucky to find friends through fitness here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serhant agent and entrepreneur Tyler Cameron \u2014 who was runner-up on Season 15 of \u201cThe Bachelorette\u201d \u2014 said Boca\u2019s boom is great for business. Cameron is a co-owner of a location of the healthy wrap-and-smoothie shop, 3 Natives. He also knows the area well: A decade ago, the model and reality star attended Boca-based Florida Atlantic University (FAU).<\/p>\n

\u201cBoca used to be a sleepy retirement community, even when I played football there in 2015 through 2017,\u201d Cameron told The Post. \u201cBut now, there\u2019s definitely more restaurants, more shops, more things that are focused on the younger demographic.\u201d<\/p>\n

FAU reported receiving a record number of applications in 2024, a 27% increase from 2023. The influx of younger residents has also led to a rise in luxury rentals. The Post reported last year that nearly 8,000 apartment units are being planned in Boca, four times more than between 2022 and 2025. The real estate market is also healthy \u2014 and pricey. According to Zillow data, the average Boca Raton home value is nearly $563,000, while Redfin reports the average home sale price in Boca was $828,000 in March 2026. According to the National Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the median sales price of houses sold in the US in Q4 2025 was $405,300.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

However, Boca\u2019s growth has not been without bumps and bankruptcies. In the last few years, after city officials considered giving 30 acres of public land to developers and government agencies, green signs displaying \u201cSave Boca\u201d started popping up on lawns. The movement went small-town viral and sparked outcry about overdevelopment. After a March vote, around 75% of residents rejected the proposal. The election also made national news \u2014 the race for mayor was decided by five votes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Mandarin Oriental hotel and condo project, which was supposed to serve as a shiny you-are-now-entering-Boca-Raton-from-the-south sign, is instead a half-built, twice-bankrupt, concrete eyesore facing pending lawsuits. <\/p>\n

The issues haven\u2019t stopped new projects, though. Just a few blocks away, longtime Boca developers and philanthropists, James and Marta Batmasian, were approved in March for a 12-story hotel project, after a lively city council meeting filled with profanities. That project aims to replace Boca\u2019s \u201ciconic\u201d pink plaza along the south edge of Mizner Park, one of Boca\u2019s upscale shopping and dining plazas. Then there\u2019s the 10-story Glass House, which dubs itself as Boca\u2019s \u201cfirst modern glass building,\u201d which is underway downtown, with condos starting at $2.5 million.<\/p>\n

Read more Seattle debuts the left\u2019s latest greedy grift \u2014 \u2018Transgender refugees\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be keeping our eyes on the next census.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now, the seniors from Long Island increasingly have some much younger neighbors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate"],"yoast_head":"\nExclusive | Sleepy retiree haven in Florida is booming with hip new residents eager to launch their careers - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=655\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exclusive | Sleepy retiree haven in Florida is booming with hip new residents eager to launch their careers - 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