Palm Beach Gardens, FL

What Palm Beach Gardens is actually like

Palm Beach Gardens exists because Chicago insurance and real-estate magnate John D. MacArthur wanted to build a “garden city” from scratch. He announced a 4,000-acre planned community designed to house 55,000 people in March 1959, briefly wanted to call it “Palm Beach City” before West Palm Beach officials objected, and got the city incorporated on June 20, 1959 with a five-member founding City Council made up entirely of his own representatives. MacArthur pursued industrial tenants as deliberately as homebuyers — “People will come to Florida if they can find work to support them where they reside,” he said — and landed RCA as an early anchor in August 1960, a deal bringing roughly 2,000 jobs that helped the new city's population actually materialize rather than stay a plat map (PBG History).

The city's best-known institution arrived two decades later. PGA National Resort opened in 1980 and became the PGA of America's own headquarters for more than four decades, until the PGA relocated to Texas in 2022. The resort's Champion Course, which opened November 17, 1981, hosted the 1983 Ryder Cup and the 1987 PGA Championship and ran the Senior PGA Championship annually from 1982 through 2000; its signature closing stretch, holes 15 through 17, is nicknamed “The Bear Trap” after Jack Nicklaus, who redesigned the course. Following a 2002 renovation, the Champion Course became home to the PGA Tour's Honda Classic starting in 2007, an arrangement that continues today (Wikipedia).

Palm Beach Gardens' population was an estimated 63,883 as of July 1, 2025, with a median household income of $106,947 (U.S. Census Bureau). It's also named directly alongside Jupiter, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton as one of four Palm Beach County cities real estate agents describe as current hotspots for New Yorkers relocating after the 2025 mayoral election (WPTV).

Home values in Palm Beach Gardens

Zillow's Home Value Index for Palm Beach Gardens was $693,873 as of July 31, 2026, up 1.8% year-over-year (Zillow). On top of Palm Beach County's overall combined millage of roughly 18.72 mills countywide (Momentum), the City of Palm Beach Gardens' own municipal component was 5.0537 mills for fiscal year 2026, unchanged from the prior year (City of Palm Beach Gardens). Florida's standard $50,000 homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes 3% assessment-growth cap both apply to a primary residence, though a new buyer's first-year bill is based on market value at purchase rather than a prior owner's capped assessment. Palm Beach Gardens' housing stock leans heavily single-family and townhome across its master-planned neighborhoods, with condo and high-rise product concentrated mainly around the PGA Boulevard corridor and Downtown at the Gardens — so Florida's post-Surfside condo law, SB 4-D (a milestone structural inspection at 30 years old, 25 within three miles of the coast, plus a funded reserve study for buildings three stories or taller), is a narrower concern here than in a condo-dominated downtown like West Palm Beach's, though it still applies fully to the buildings it covers (Florida DBPR). Homeowners insurance countywide runs from the mid four figures a year for inland or entry-level homes up to five figures or more for coastal, older, or luxury construction (Living in Palm Beach County FL).

Getting around

A 56 Walk Score and 37 Bike Score are honest numbers, not an outlier — Palm Beach Gardens is a car-first city built around PGA Boulevard, Northlake Boulevard, and Military Trail rather than a walkable downtown grid. There's no Tri-Rail or Brightline stop in the city, so getting to regional rail means a roughly 13-mile drive south to West Palm Beach; Palm Tran's local bus routes cover the main commercial corridors but aren't a substitute for a car for most daily errands.

Palm Beach Gardens FAQ