8 Florida Beach Towns Where You Can Retire on $1,700 a Month (Or Less)

If living beside the sea and spending your days lounging on white-sand beaches are key components of the stress-free retirement you've always pictured, Florida could be right for you. Even better, you could comfortably retire to several of these seaside towns without breaking the bank, as we found in a recent FinanceBuzz study ranking the most affordable towns for snowbirds.

Keep reading for our list of southern Florida towns by the sea where the median monthly rent is $1,700 or less.

Median monthly rent: $1,625

Set along the Atlantic Ocean, the city offers miles of sandy beaches. Residents also benefit from access to leading health care, including Mayo Clinic. Jacksonville has expansive parks, nature preserves, golf courses, and waterways for boating and fishing.

Median monthly rent: $1,481

With easy access to over 50 miles of white-sand beaches, Pensacola is a beach-loving retiree's paradise. It's also a prime spot for free entertainment, including spectacular airshows put on by the U.S. Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron. Plus, Pensacola is as accessible as it is affordable with wheelchair-friendly beach access, making it ideal for aging seniors.

Median monthly rent: $1,509

If your dream retirement features more surfing than golfing, make Sebastian Inlet State Park your top destination. Waves draw international surfers year-round, and even better, the park entrance fee is just $8 per vehicle.

But if you're looking for a quieter pace of life, the city of Sebastian has plenty to offer you as well. The very first wildlife refuge in the U.S., Pelican Island, has no entrance fee and a beautiful Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-accessible boardwalk that ends at a 500-foot-high viewing platform.

Median monthly rent: $1,509

Like nearby Sebastian, Vero Beach offers easy access to beautiful sugar-sand beaches. It's also comparably affordable. Salary.com reports that its overall cost of living is 3% lower than the national average. Residents save not just on housing but on food (13.4% lower than average) and health care (22.7% lower than average).

Median monthly rent: $1,543

Panama City is further north than most of the cities on our list. It's midway between Pensacola and the capital city of Tallahassee, which means it combines the best of two worlds: a quiet, low-cost beachside life, and easy access to big-city perks.

Of course, you don't have to drive to Tallahassee for retirement-friendly fun. Panama City has its own softball complex and multiple pickleball courts that line the picturesque bay.

Median monthly rent: $1,614

Daytona Beach might be best known for hosting the annual Daytona 500 race at the Daytona International Speedway. But the city has plenty to offer retirees, even if they aren't NASCAR fans. It has its own international airport, so if travel is important to you, Daytona is a good base of operations. And as a crucial spot on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, Daytona is a great spot for history buffs, since Jackie Robinson integrated baseball in Daytona in 1947.

Median monthly rent: $1,614

Slightly smaller and quieter than nearby Daytona, Ormond Beach is a very family-friendly town. Its public beach includes a splash pad and children's play area, and the 150-acre central park in the heart of the city ensures it's easy for retirees like you to get outside and enjoy the sun any time of the year.

Ormond Beach was also the location of one of John D. Rockefeller's homes, which has been restored and renamed The Casements. The building now functions as a cultural center, event space, and a beautifully preserved peek into the past.

Median monthly rent: $1,681

If you can't imagine yourself retiring to Florida without making frequent visits to Orlando theme parks like Disney World and Universal Studios, Palm Bay is a good place to put down roots. It's just a little over an hour away from Orlando, but you'll benefit from the smaller-town cost of living (which should free up your budget for more theme park fun).

There's plenty of golf and fishing access, and if you're interested in science, you could visit the nearby Kennedy Space Center (or just watch rocket launches from across the bay).

Fortunately for sun-loving retirees, a retirement plan doesn't have to require you to trade personal happiness for a low cost of living. Instead, if you retire to one of the towns on our list, you could have both.

Make sure to consider factors other than the sea before you move, including proximity to family members and Florida's above-average insurance costs, but don't swear off beach towns before investigating their costs yourself.