5 Reason Families Love Fall in Northwest Florida

So, you're wondering why when people come out here to Northwest Florida, why families seem to fall in love with this place, make it their vacation spot, and even maybe call it home. Well, in this video, we're going to go over the five reasons why families fall in love with Northwest Florida. So, stick around.

Alright. So, let's get into it. Let's start talking about the five reasons why families love this area here in Northwest Florida. Now, Northwest Florida is pretty diverse. Right? We've got everything from the countryside to the beach from to the really popular tourist destinations, like, it's all right here. Alright. Now when you are looking down this area when's the best time to come down. Well, if you ask this person here, I'm going to say it's in the fall. Why? Cause it's when it's not so devastatingly hot out. And it's a little less crowded when, you know, the kiddos end up starting to go back to school. And it's just more of a pleasant scene altogether, festivals, all sorts of great things that are going on. But why do people really want to go into this? Let's go ahead and name off the top five based off of, what are people here I've said. Alright.

1. MILD WEATHER

If you go down to South Florida, Central Florida, it's just hot. It's just so hot. It's just so humid all the time. And you never get any reprieve. At least here in northwest water, we do get some of that, where it comes into the fall. And into our winter, where it actually does get, well, cold, air quotes with the cold, mainly because it's relative for us to get cold. It's got to be in the 40’s. And those people in the northeast or you know, up there in Montana are probably laughing right now at what we consider cold. But we do get a little bit cooler of the temperatures and for more for Florida, it's pretty mild.

2. FESTIVALS AND EVENTS

Some of the great things as well is number two is going to be our festivals and events. Most of the time, what we'll see is in the springtime and even starting in April, more or less May and June, you're going to see a lot of these spring festivals when the weather starts to improve, and it's not, well, Florida cold over here. But we'll have a lot of festivals and towns coming there. And then, of course, the summer hits, and it's a big tourist time. So, we don't have just as many, but, of course, you have 4th of July. The July weekend is the biggest thing here, especially in the Destin area. So, you see a lot of traffic and different things coming through that, but the festivals and events there all throughout the summer, there's a lot of free events that you can go to, such as concerts down in Destin off of the Harbor. Harborwalk or different areas that you can go to, which are free. And then in the fall, there's a lot more, a little bit past Destin and Sandestin, and the, Wharf over in Sandestin, and you can definitely check out some events in there. Some of my personal favorites that happen in the fall, there's actually, like a craft beerathon thing that they do out there, which we're always there for. In the spring, they do the tacos in tequila. That goes on in, I believe April or May. That's got to be May, right, around May fifth. So, there are there are tons of different things that are happening all over the place, so you definitely got to come check them out.

3. BEACHES

Man, why wasn't that number one? Yeah, I left it number three this time. Now, the beaches, it's fantastic. It's got the, it's got that really fine white sand that's out here. You have the Emerald colored Waters, which is pretty much that same color, almost year-round. But it really will depend upon what the weather brings into depending upon what that looks like, but it's almost clear. So, if you like to go out and hang out at the beach or go do some water activities, the visibility in the water is phenomenal. So definitely something to go. Fishing. Destin's known as one of the lucky fishing villages, so just the atmosphere around it, deep sea shore fishing is going to be a good time.

4. FALL FOLIAGE

Number four, we're talking about the fall before. The nice part about this area is it's not what other people consider condo city. Where Southern McC condos, you go down to like Fort, Fort Lauderdale or down there towards Miami, and it's just skyscrapers everywhere banked by the water. Right? There's really not a lot there. It's just condo after condo. Here, you don't have that. You have more of like the forest that goes up into where the water meets, and then you have the sand and the dunes and everything else in it. It's really pretty. And because of that lush forest, you also get, when our fall time does, you do get some of the foliage that comes with that. And you want to talk about something absolutely breathtaking, you got to come down here in the fall to check that out. Now, it isn't the same foliage that you're going to see in the northeast. Personally, grew up in upstate New York, and that was a big thing when the leaves changed, and it was really nice there. But this has its own serene sort of scenery that you're going to see when you come down here.

5. FAMILY TIME

And number five, we got to talk about family time. There are all sorts of different activities that you can do. It is a test destination place here in Northwest Florida. There are, thanks for the pun. There are so many different things for the whole family to enjoy, and it is kind of designed like that. With all the different restaurants, there's water parks, it's a heck come in the fall, you have the pumpkin patches, hay rides, family game nights, all sorts of different things all throughout this different area. Because it's just a big mix, and I know what kind of trading more on the Destin area, but because it's a big mix of a whole community, that's a little, that's more in the country kind of farming side, all the way down to the beach side. There's just a ton of things to do. And if you want to be kind of part of a little bit more of an urban environment or not at all, you do have all those options here.

Reasons Not to Move to Florida

So, let's go into a little bit more some reasons, not necessarily moved to Florida because I know we're talking about good. So, what are some things I should probably, at least be a little concerned about?

HURRICANES

Well, first things first, is we do have hurricanes. It's possibility. Okay? They don't come all the time, but are there threats all the time? Sure. They get those spaghetti charts that go everywhere, and we never know what anything's happening. But it's not as big as a deal as you think because of Floridian, we're just like, okay, what sort of category is it going to be? And if it's anything that's more than a three, then we'll get out of town. But other than that, we just kind of hang out. We just accept that it could be a fact. We get a lot of rain all at one time. And kind of floods for a minute, dissipates. Good to go. Alright.

HUMIDITY

There is high humidity. If you can't handle the humidity, this is not the place for you. In the summertime, because I grew up in the northeast, in the wintertime, it was cold, so we just run from when he did element to the next. Right, house to house, house to car, whatever, right? When it gets really, really hot and you're not dressed for it or you just address for it. We pretty much just run to the AC. Okay. But the humidity is just, it can get pretty rough. And that's not just in the summertime. The humidity with the heat really makes it pronounced, but we also get humidity, during the winner. So, forty-five degrees feels really cold because of all of the humidity in the air.

TOURIST CROWDS

Now you are going to get two to crowds when you move down to this way. And even if you're not right down where everything is with the traffic, you still have people coming off of the main traffic like I-ten and places like that where people are coming into Northwest Florida. You're still going to get traffic on those main roads for people going to destination places. Now, typically us as locals, we give the town back to the tourists sometime in mid to late March, and then we regain it back, usually in, November time frame, sometime around September, November, we'll end up getting it back and traffic isn't so bad for a few months. But know that it does exist, it's the price to live in paradise.

COST OF LIVING

The cost of living, typically in a tourist town, it is a little bit higher. That's just what you're going to have. Depending upon where you're moved to, it could be pretty affordable. Right, when you are moving to certain places. However, if you're going to go where all the action is happening, you're going to pay a pretty penny for housing, and pretty much everything else. But is it really that big? Actually, across to the national average, other than housing cost, everything else is pretty much right around where it is naturally. So, you should be good to go there.

TRAFFIC

And last but not least in here, we have traffic. The traffic can be rough, as I've mentioned before. With the tourist crowds also comes the traffic, right? So just plan accordingly, that's all I can say, is use your ways, use your Google Maps and get live traffic updates. It's a great place where we are. Here in 2023 where we get all these updates and we don't just have to guess, right? But you just have a realistic expectation of how long it's going to take and there are idiots on the road, and there's idiots on the streets. So be careful.

Distinct Styles of Living in NW Florida

Alright. So, there are a couple other styles I kind of want to hit up on the different styles here in Northwest, Florida. And what sort of life that you want to have when you go here?

BEACH LIFE

So of course, my favorite is beach life. That sandals shorts, pretty much year-round, laid-back Floridian beach life. That is available throughout here. Just know that as far as living in certain places, it's going to be some of the most expensive. Now, you also have country living. There's plenty of country and farm as soon as you get around crap. View in north of that, you know, if you're kind of concentrating from the Emerald coast and concentrating the center from Destin North, you're going to see that there's going to be a lot of open places there. Now you also have Eglin Air Force Base, which is a huge area where they do a lot of the testing and things that are undeveloped, so you're going to get more of that country feel as you go into the outskirts and sub towns.

COUNTRY OR URBAN LIVING

Now, urban living versus suburban living, you can pick where you want to go depending upon, you know, which what is important to. Do you want to be way away from people? Do you want to be really close to things? Do you want somewhere in between? They do have a lot of those different areas.

RETIREMENT COMMUNITIES

Now in Northwest Florida, we don't have a whole lot of retirement communities, much like Central Florida does, not even close to the same amount. But there are some new ones coming up in the 30A in like Watercolors area, that is another retirement community very similar to what they have over on the East Coast and Central Florida. And, there are some more popping up, so definitely talk to your real estate agent or somebody else or us to kind of point you in those directions.

MILITARY COMMUNITIES

Now, one big thing here in Northwest Florida is we have like five military, six military installations, all throughout this area. So, there are a lot of military communities. Specifically in the area that we are in the Destin Fort Walton Beach area, there's a lot of us that are prior service, me included, where there's a lot of veterans, and we also have other people that work on the base, and then there's also a ton of support people that support the base. And of course, you also have, you know, all the tourist attractions, and that, that basically encompasses this entire area. But it's a big, big employer. And because of that, military friendly, yes, you're going to find that all throughout Northwest, Florida.

Actually, that's, all I do have for you, 5 reasons family love to move to Northwest Florida. If you have any questions about anything I mentioned here, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com

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