Sarasota ranked No. 3 best beach town in U.S.

Sarasota possesses plenty of pleasing qualities to boast about. And thanks to the number-crunchers at WalletHub and their many amusing lists, we have another one.

Sarasota ranks as the third best on the 2018 Best Beach Towns to Live In. Naples took second and Venice came in a respectable 15th on the list of 161.

Florida dominated the top 10 in this study by the personal-finance website, published Wednesday, with St. Augustine fifth, Boca Raton seventh and Key West 10th. Lahaina, Hawaii, scored the most points and placed first.

To determine the most livable beachside communities, WalletHub compared 205 cities across 58 key metrics in six categories. The data ranges from housing costs to share of for-sale waterfront homes to the quality of the water offshore. Imagine filling your head with tons of numbers, debating with colleagues about the meaning of it all, and somehow scoring all this to find the most favorable conditions for beach-town living.

Like a Jeopardy game board, the categories were affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and lastly quality of life. The players included all cities with populations between 10,000 and 150,000 and at least one beach listed on TripAdvisor.

Out of those 205 cities, Sarasota ranked better in affordability — in 31st place — than all the other Florida cities in the top 20. Venice was 52nd.

Is Naples far more affordable than its reputation as a haven for the rich living in oceanfront mansions would indicate? Nah. The city ranked 71st in affordability points. One of the factors in compiling points: the share of for-sale homes with RV/boat parking. And swimming pools. Seriously. Workforce housing is not a factor.

In quality of life, Naples took first place, while Sarasota placed fourth. Venice lagged well behind, at 55th.

What determines quality of life? Eating, drinking and playing. On a per capita basis, the standings counted nightlife establishments, restaurants, breweries, festivals, surfing spots, amusement and water parks, golf courses and, naturally, beach volleyball courts. Museums, theater troupes and other cultural features failed to be included among the factors.

Sarasota was in a six-way tie for most nightlife establishments per capita and in a five-way tie for most restaurants per capita.

The weather rankings look confusing. Scoring was based on weather (presumably in a general sense), water temperature, flood risk, hurricane storm-surge risk, number of disasters since 1953 and total in disaster grants. You might think these factors would appear grim for Florida, but not so. Sarasota ranked 30th and Venice 10th, though such a broad difference between neighboring cities seems puzzling. The weather stinks in Naples, according to Wallethub, at 112th, but that beats Marco Island (158) and Key West (154).

The split between Sarasota and Venice shows up again in the economy, at 85th and 38th places, respectively. Naples landed in the middle, at 62nd.

Sarasota’s worst category was safety, in which it ranked 109, while Venice stood out again, at 71.

Besides trivial conversation fodder, there could be potential here to boast about Sarasota's ranking in a marketing campaign to attract even more tourists and perhaps new residents. Right?

Here are Sarasota's ranking for each category WalletHub considered:

Affordability: 31

Weather: 30

Safety: 109

Economy: 85

Education and health: 27

Quality of life: 4

And here are Venice's numbers:

Affordability: 52

Weather: 10

Safety: 71

Economy: 38

Education and health: 23

Quality of life: 55

In 2017, WalletHub ranked the area highly on its list of "Best Small Cities in America" and as the No. 1 best place to retire in Florida.

.