Virginia Beach makes ‘best cities for boaters’ list

Published August 27, 2014 by Veronica Garabelli

Here’s some news that won’t rock the boat. Virginia Beach has been named to Redfin’s list of 10 best cities for boaters.

Virginia Beach is No. 4 on the list compiled by the real estate brokerage Redin, ranking behind Minneapolis (No.3); Tampa, Fla. (No. 2) and Miami (No.1).

To compile the list, Redfin determined which regions have the most waterfront property for sale, the longest boating seasons, the most boat vendors, the largest boating communities and more. Discover Boating, a public awareness effort by the National Marine Manufacturers Association, provided the data on boat registrations and dealers by state. Weather.com supplied the data on the mean temperatures per month.

According to the report, Virginia Beach had the third highest percentage of properties on the waterfront (11.9 percent). Virginia Beach had more months than Minneapolis where temperatures were above 60 degrees, but fewer boaters (4,534 boat registrations per 100,000 residents).

“With the ocean, bay, river, lakes and many other bodies of water, there are so many places to boat in the Hampton Roads area,” Alyssa Cokinos, a Redfin real estate agent in Hampton Roads, was quoted as saying in the article. “Some of the most popular are Lynnhaven Inlet, Rudee Inlet and Smithfield Station, where you can pull in for fuel and restaurants.”

Redfin’s full list is below:

1. Miami

2. Tampa, Fla.

3. Minneapolis

4. Virginia Beach

5. Providence, R.I.

6. Long Island, N.Y.

7. Baltimore/Annapolis, Md.

8. Chicago

9. Seattle

10. Austin, Texas