St. Lucie County, Florida: A Local Guide for Home Buyers and Homeowners

St. Lucie County covers 571.66 square miles of land on Florida’s Atlantic side, and about 400,000 people live here. The largest share of them live in Port St. Lucie, a city that started in 1958 when General Development Corporation bought about 40,000 acres along the North Fork of the St. Lucie River.

If you’re buying or refinancing anywhere from Tradition to Fort Pierce, this page lays out how the loan limits and down payment math work, which local and state programs can help with the down payment, how homestead works, what Frances, Jeanne and Milton did here, and who to call once you’re moved in.

Every source for this guide is listed at the bottom of the page.

  • County seatFort Pierce
  • Most populous cityPort St. Lucie
  • Barrier islandHutchinson Island
  • PopulationAbout 400,000
  • Land area571.66 sq mi
  • FHA limit, 1 unit$603,750 in 2026
  • Conventional limit, 1 unit$832,750 in 2026
  • School districtSt. Lucie Public Schools

Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce and the places in between

Most St. Lucie County residents live in one of two cities. Port St. Lucie, incorporated on April 27, 1961, is the most populous, and Fort Pierce, incorporated in 1901, is the county seat. Spanish Lakes, River Park and Hutchinson Island are among the other places you’ll see on listings. Before you buy, find out which city, if any, a home is in, because it decides who supplies your water, which office handles your service calls and which local taxes show up on your bill.

Port St. Lucie

Port St. Lucie grew out of General Development Corporation’s 1958 purchase. The company opened the first bridge over the North Fork in 1959 and platted much of the city into a large grid of single-family lots.

The river has three high-capacity crossings: Crosstown Parkway, Port St. Lucie Blvd. and Prima Vista Blvd. The city runs its own water and sewer service and bills city customers directly, and City Hall is at 121 SW Port St. Lucie Blvd.

Tradition

Tradition is the master-planned community Core Communities started developing in 2006 on Port St. Lucie’s west side, laid out like a 1950s-era town around Tradition Square. It’s part of the Tradition Center for Innovation, which includes Martin Health System’s Tradition Medical Center.

Southern Grove and the city’s growth areas

Port St. Lucie promotes Southern Grove, Walton & One, East Lake Village and Village Green as its named economic-development and mixed-use areas. Southern Grove and Tradition are the newer growth areas on the west side, and Walton & One is also listed as a destination.

Fort Pierce

Fort Pierce, The Sunrise City, is named for an 1838 Army post from the Second Seminole War that honored Benjamin Kendrick Pierce, brother of President Franklin Pierce.

Downtown has the Sunrise Theatre, and the A.E. Backus Museum and Gallery is in Fort Pierce too. The National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum sits on the training grounds of the original Navy combat divers, the Frogmen, which is why Fort Pierce is called the original home of the Navy SEALs. The Port of Fort Pierce ships citrus out and brings cement and aragonite in.

Lincoln Park

Lincoln Park is the historic Fort Pierce neighborhood where author Zora Neale Hurston lived. Every February it hosts a celebration of the Highwaymen painters, who got their start in the 1950s, many of them mentored by A.E. Backus.

Hutchinson Island

Hutchinson Island is the barrier island east of Fort Pierce. FPL’s St. Lucie nuclear plant, about 10 miles southeast of Fort Pierce, has run there since its Unit 1 license in 1976, and Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne both came ashore at the island’s southern end in 2004.

Buying a home in St. Lucie and the loan limits

St. Lucie County’s FHA and Conventional limits are in the table below. HUD and FHFA reset them every January, and the table fills in the new figures on its own, so you’re always looking at the limit in force.

Here’s the down payment math, as an example and not a local price: on a $320,000 purchase, FHA’s 3.5% minimum down payment is $11,200, and down payment assistance can cover part or all of it. Call or text us at 954-816-8820 with the address, a Tradition new build or a resale on the Port St. Lucie grid, and we’ll work out the down payment and the monthly cost.

If you’re writing a rent check in Port St. Lucie or Fort Pierce, call 888-601-8344 and we’ll show you what that money could do as a mortgage payment.

Loan limits in St. Lucie County for 2026 Maximum loan
FHA, single-family home $603,750
FHA, two-unit home $772,900
FHA, three-unit home $934,250
FHA, four-unit home $1,161,050
Conventional, single-family home $832,750

HUD sets the FHA limits and FHFA sets the Conventional limits for every county, and both change each January. This table refreshes itself from HUD's published figures.

Port St. Lucie’s newer growth areas are on the west side, in Tradition and Southern Grove. If you’re looking at new homes out there, get pre-approved with us before you walk into a builder’s sales office. On a resale in the older grid, ask early which water provider serves the lot and how old the roof is.

Down payment help for St. Lucie County buyers

St. Lucie County buyers can check two local offices, the county’s Housing Division and Port St. Lucie’s SHIP program, along with Florida Housing’s statewide programs. Local dollar amounts aren’t always posted, so a phone call is the fastest way to find out what’s open.

St. Lucie County Housing Division

The Housing Division, part of the county’s Community Services Department, runs state SHIP and federal affordable-housing grants, and purchase assistance for eligible homebuyers is among its services. Office: 714 Avenue C, Fort Pierce, (772) 462-1777, comm_info@stlucieco.org.

The county doesn’t post its award amounts, and the money arrives in grant cycles that can open and close during the year. Before you write an offer outside Port St. Lucie city limits, call 888-601-8344 and we’ll ask the Avenue C office what purchase help pays and whether it’s accepting applications for that address.

Official program page

City of Port St. Lucie SHIP Program

Port St. Lucie’s Neighborhood Services Department runs the city’s SHIP money under three-year Local Housing Assistance Plans. Office: 121 SW Port St. Lucie Blvd., 772-871-1775.

The city’s plans have leaned toward emergency repair and rehabilitation for eligible homeowners, and each new plan can shift that mix. If you’re buying inside Port St. Lucie, call or text us at 954-816-8820 and we’ll ask Neighborhood Services whether any of the city’s SHIP money goes toward purchases and whether it’s open.

Official program page

Florida Hometown Heroes (statewide)

Florida Housing’s Hometown Heroes program combines a 30-year fixed first mortgage with a 0% second toward the down payment and closing costs. You make no payments on that second, and you pay it back when you sell, refinance, pay off the first or stop living in the home, since it isn’t forgiven.

At least one buyer needs a full-time job at an eligible Florida-based employer in health care, K-12 schools, first response, public safety, the courts or licensed child care, so a St. Lucie Public Schools employee or a nurse at Tradition Medical Center qualifies. Active duty qualifies on its own, whoever the employer is, and veterans plus Reserve and National Guard members qualify with full-time work at any Florida-based business. The job has to be full time and not remote, and an offer letter alone isn’t enough.

Florida Housing help is once in a lifetime, so put it on the right home with the right lender. Funds are reserved loan by loan, so call 888-601-8344 before you offer on a Port St. Lucie or Fort Pierce home and we’ll confirm the program is reserving and that your income and price fit the county’s limits.

Official program page

FL Assist, HLP and HFA Advantage PLUS (statewide)

FL Assist covers part of the down payment and closing costs at 0%, with no monthly payment, and it’s due back when you sell, refinance, transfer or move out. It goes behind a Florida Housing FHA, VA, USDA or Conventional first. HLP charges a small fixed monthly payment over 30 years instead, and HFA Advantage PLUS sets a Freddie Mac Conventional first beside a second that’s forgiven over 5 years if you stay in the home.

Applications go through a participating lender or broker; Florida Housing doesn’t accept them from buyers. Which one goes furthest on your loan depends on the rules when you apply, so call or text us at 954-816-8820 and we’ll run each one on the St. Lucie house you want.

Official program page

FHA 100% financing is the other option: a 96.5% FHA first mortgage plus a down payment assistance second, which can leave you bringing no down payment of your own. Since neither local office posts its amounts, call us before you write an offer and we’ll check which programs have money and how they line up with your loan.

Property taxes and your homestead exemption

If the home will be your permanent residence, file for the Florida homestead exemption with the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser. The exemption can lower your taxable value by as much as $50,000: the first $25,000 applies to all property taxes and the rest to non-school taxes. It brings Save Our Homes with it, which holds yearly increases in assessed value to 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower, and portability lets you move some or all of that difference to your next Florida homestead.

You have to own the home and live there permanently on January 1, and the deadline is March 1 of the year after you close. Miss it and you can go a full year paying taxes without the exemption.

Most buyers with a mortgage pay property taxes through escrow, so the lender pays the Tax Collector for you.

St. Lucie County Property Appraiser

Homestead filing and property search: paslc.gov

Tax bills and payments: St. Lucie County Tax Collector

Frances, Jeanne, Milton and your insurance

Hurricane Frances made landfall at the southern end of Hutchinson Island on Sept. 5, 2004. The highest measured surge was 5.89 feet at St. Lucie Lock, and a tower in Port St. Lucie recorded an 83-knot gust. Hurricane Jeanne hit the same spot three weeks later as a Category 3. Fort Pierce Inlet recorded a 111-knot gust, the highest in Florida, and the pressure in Fort Pierce fell to 952.9 mb.

On Oct. 9, 2024, Hurricane Milton spun up several tornadoes in the county. An EF-3, estimated at 155 mph, tore through Fort Pierce and Spanish Lakes, where six people died. An EF-2 ran from Palm City into Port St. Lucie, and an EF-1 crossed Treasure Coast International Airport.

  • Before you make an offer, from a Port St. Lucie canal lot to a home on Hutchinson Island, check the address on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center. A high-risk zone, one starting with A or V, means flood insurance is required with an FHA, VA or other federally backed loan.
  • Find your evacuation zone on Florida’s Know Your Zone map.
  • Ask for a homeowners quote as soon as you’re under contract. Insurers care a lot about how old the roof is, and a wind mitigation inspection can cut the premium.
  • Ask your agent about sinkhole coverage. Florida law requires every property insurer to cover catastrophic ground cover collapse, but broader sinkhole coverage is optional and costs extra.

Work, schools and getting around

FPL runs the St. Lucie nuclear plant on Hutchinson Island, a pressurized water reactor whose Unit 1 was licensed in 1976. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute is based in Fort Pierce, the Port of Fort Pierce handles citrus exports and cement and aragonite imports, and on Port St. Lucie’s west side, the Tradition Center for Innovation includes Tradition Medical Center. Clover Park brings the New York Mets to Port St. Lucie every spring.

Schools and colleges

St. Lucie Public Schools runs the county’s public schools from its headquarters at 9461 Brandywine Lane in Port St. Lucie.

For college, Indian River State College serves the area, and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute does marine research in Fort Pierce.

Getting around

Florida’s Turnpike and I-95 run close together through the county. The Turnpike has exits 142 and 138 in Port St. Lucie, and I-95 has exits 126, 121, 120, 118 and 114. Fort Pierce is about an hour north of West Palm Beach.

Treasure Coast International Airport in Fort Pierce handles general aviation. For airline flights, the nearest scheduled service is in Melbourne, and the closest major airport is Palm Beach International.

Inlets, preserves and local favorites

Fort Pierce Inlet State Park

Fort Pierce Inlet State Park, at 905 Shorewinds Drive, has a half-mile beach on the north side of the inlet that’s known for surfing, snorkeling and diving. Dynamite Point, where the Navy Frogmen trained in World War II, is now a bird-watching spot.

Jack Island Preserve

Jack Island sits about 1 mile north of Fort Pierce Inlet State Park, with trails for hiking, biking and nature study.

Savannas Preserve State Park

Savannas Preserve protects a remnant of the basin marsh that once ran through South Florida. It has more than 17 miles of trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding, and you can launch a canoe or kayak at Evans Creek. The main entrance is at 2541 S.E. Walton Road in Port St. Lucie.

Manatees and gardens

Fort Pierce is known for its manatees, and the Manatee Observation and Education Center is the place to see them. In Port St. Lucie, the city owns and runs the Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens.

Spring training

Clover Park in Port St. Lucie is the New York Mets’ spring training home, and two Mets minor league teams play there too.

Moving to St. Lucie County: your first-month checklist

  • Water and sewer: inside Port St. Lucie, the city provides and bills water and sewer service. Elsewhere, ask the seller which provider serves the address.
  • Electric: service areas vary across the county, so get the provider’s name and a utility bill from the seller and schedule the transfer before closing day.
  • City services in Port St. Lucie: use the 1PSL request system or call Neighborhood Services at 772-871-5010. City Hall is at 121 SW Port St. Lucie Blvd., Port St. Lucie, FL 34984.
  • Homestead: file at paslc.gov by March 1 of the year after you close.
  • Yard debris: check with the county before you burn anything, since dry spells can bring countywide burn bans.
  • Hurricane season: county emergency management sits in the Public Safety Department. Look up your evacuation zone before June.

Buying or refinancing in St. Lucie County with AAA Capital Funding

Buying a home

FHA is the loan most of our St. Lucie County buyers use, at 3.5% down with flexible credit guidelines, and it pairs with the programs above. Eligible veterans and service members can buy with VA and nothing down, and we also write Conventional loans, Hometown Heroes, FHA 100% financing and DSCR loans for rentals.

We’ve worked as a licensed Florida mortgage broker since 1997 and lend statewide in all 67 Florida counties, from Fort Pierce to the Panhandle. We shop your loan with multiple wholesale lenders and pre-approve you before you start touring resales or model homes.

Refinancing the home you have

Lower your monthly payment, take cash out for a new roof or storm repairs, pay off higher-interest debt, or buy another owner off the title. If your Port St. Lucie or Fort Pierce home has gained value since you bought, that equity can pay for it.

Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll line up your current payment, the new one, the cash out and the closing costs, so you can compare them on one page.

St. Lucie County questions we hear a lot

What is the FHA loan limit in St. Lucie County?

The live table in the homes section shows St. Lucie’s FHA limits for one to four units and the Conventional single-family limit. HUD and FHFA reset them every January, and the table refreshes itself when they do.

Is there down payment assistance in St. Lucie County?

The county’s Housing Division lists purchase assistance among its services, Port St. Lucie has its own SHIP program, and statewide programs like Hometown Heroes and FL Assist work here too. Local amounts aren’t posted, so call us and we’ll check what’s open.

When do I file for homestead in St. Lucie County?

File with the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser no later than March 1 of the year after your closing. You need to own the home and live in it on January 1.

Who supplies water in Port St. Lucie?

The City of Port St. Lucie provides and bills water and sewer service to city customers. Outside the city, ask the seller which provider serves the address.

Do I need flood insurance in St. Lucie County?

An FHA, VA or other federally backed loan requires it when FEMA puts the home in a high-risk zone. Hurricane Frances pushed a 5.89-foot surge at St. Lucie Lock in 2004, so look up the zone and get a quote before you make an offer.

Sources for this guide (26)
  1. U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: St. Lucie County, FL
  2. Port St. Lucie, Florida (Wikipedia)
  3. Fort Pierce, Florida (Wikipedia)
  4. City of Port St. Lucie
  5. City of Port St. Lucie: Neighborhood Services
  6. City of Port St. Lucie: SHIP Program
  7. St. Lucie County government
  8. St. Lucie County: Community Services
  9. Florida Housing: Homebuyer programs
  10. Florida Housing: Hometown Heroes
  11. Florida Department of Revenue: Property tax exemptions
  12. St. Lucie County Property Appraiser
  13. St. Lucie County Tax Collector
  14. Indian River County Property Appraiser (statewide homestead rules)
  15. National Hurricane Center: Hurricane Frances report
  16. National Hurricane Center: Hurricane Jeanne report
  17. National Weather Service Melbourne: Hurricane Milton impacts
  18. Florida Division of Emergency Management: Know Your Zone
  19. Florida Division of Emergency Management: County offices
  20. FEMA Flood Map Service Center
  21. Florida Statutes 627.706 (sinkhole coverage)
  22. U.S. NRC: St. Lucie Unit 1
  23. National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum
  24. St. Lucie Public Schools
  25. Florida State Parks: Fort Pierce Inlet
  26. Florida State Parks: Savannas Preserve

AAA Capital Funding, Inc. NMLS #374739. Jason J. Sarji, NMLS #374700. Licensed Florida mortgage broker serving St. Lucie County and all 67 Florida counties since 1997. Equal Housing Opportunity.

You work with the same person from start to finish, in every county in Florida.

We've been closing Florida loans since 1997, in all 67 counties. If you want to know what's possible in St. Lucie County, call 888-601-8344 or text 954-816-8820. One call, under ten minutes. No application needed to start.

AAA Capital Funding, Inc. · NMLS #374739 · Jason J. Sarji, NMLS #374700