With coastal states like Florida, North Carolina and Maine among the most popular places to which people relocated last year, the personal-finance website WalletHub released its report on “2021’s Best Beach Towns to Live in.”

To determine the most livable beachside communities, WalletHub compared 191 cities across 62 key metrics. The data set ranges from housing costs to share of for-sale waterfront homes to quality of beach water. The study divided beach towns into two categories, those by the ocean and those by lakes.

By the ocean, WalletHub said the best spots were Naples, Fla., Laguna Beach, Calif., Lahaina, Hawaii, Newport Beach, Calif., North Myrtle Beach, S.C., Sarasota, Fla., Kailua, Hawaii, Boca Raton, Fla., Destin, Fla., and Santa Monica, Calif.

The top beach towns were Traverse City, Mich., Folsom, Calif., Redmond, Wash., Mercer Island, Wash., Cornelius, N.C., Davidson, N.C., Kirkland, Wash., South Lake Tahoe, Calif., Highland Park, Ill. and Brookfield, Wis.

The best versus worst takeaways regarding ocean beach cities included:

• Port Lavaca, Texas, has the lowest median home price as a share of income, 1.85, which is 8.1 times lower than in Newport Beach, Calif., the city with the highest at 14.93.
• Waianae, Hawaii, has the lowest median annual property taxes, 0.17 percent, which is 17.8 times lower than in Shirley, N.Y., the city with the highest at 3.02 percent.
• Miami Beach, Coral Gables and Key Biscayne, Fla., as well as Port Royal, S.C., all share the fewest disaster declarations (since 1953), 16, which is 4.8 times fewer than in Santa Monica, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Palos Verdes Estates and Malibu, Calif., the cities with the most at 76.
• Rye, N.Y., has the fewest property crimes per 1,000 residents, 0.95, which is 118 times lower than in Myrtle Beach, S.C., the city with the most at 112.34.

   

  Lake beach city highlights featured:

• Alpena, Mich. has the lowest median home price as a share of income, 1.86, which is 4.4 times lower than in Mercer Island, Wash., the city with the highest at 8.26.
• Morgan City, La. has the lowest median annual property taxes, 0.28 percent, which is 13.4 times lower than in Zion, Ill., the city with the highest at 3.76 percent.
• Traverse City and Alpena, Mich. have the fewest disaster declarations (since 1953), five each, which is 12 times fewer than in Lake Elsinore, Calif., the city with the most at 60.
• Rocky River, Ohio, has the fewest property crimes per 1,000 residents, 3.21, which is 31.3 times lower than in Branson, Miss., the city with the most at 100.36.