Midwesterners are streaming to Sarasota County, FL, for a permanent “toes in the sand” lifestyle after the area was recently named one of the nation’s 10 best beach towns.
Sarasota County’s population surged 12.4% in the five years through April 2025, according to Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR). Migration from the Midwest was a key driver of that growth, local experts say.
“People from the Midwest favor this side of Florida because there’s a pattern of generational traveling for decades,” says Amanda Bray, an agent with Oasis Group. “A lot of people who move here, their parents had a home here, or their grandparents had a home here. So there’s that pattern that has passed down among the generations.”…