Moving to Ft Walton Beach FL

Are you preparing to move to the Fort Walton Beach, Florida area and you want to know more information to help you be more comfortable with the transition? Whether you're familiar with the area or not, you just want to make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. Well, today, I'm going to talk about a few things that would involve moving into Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

So, moving to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. So, a few things to talk about.

HOUSING

First, let's talk about housing. There are a variety of housing options in the area. The homes here, there are homes that were built in as early as the late 40's, I believe, maybe longer. And of course, there's a lot of new construction as well. So, if you're looking for something newer, there's tons available out there. Or, if you're okay with an older home that's been updated or maybe need some work because you don't mind doing some of your own upgrades, plenty of that around as well. As far as pricing, you know, everyone has different budgets, so,there's different prices too. There's homes that can be as low $200,000 maybe less if it's a townhome and or maybe something that needs work. And then, of course, you have homes that go well into the million dollar range, especially those ones that are our waterfront or maybe have, you know, swimming pool or on boat dock with a boat lift, all the extras like that. Of course, it's going to bring the value of the property up. So, there's a home out there for everyone's budget.

PARKS

There's something out there for everyone. So, if you are also looking for a neighborhood that has neighborhood parks, there are several of those as well. I would say the most popular neighborhood park in the Fort Walton Beach area is Ferry Park. Ferry Park is huge. There's a nice little walking trail, there's basketball courts, tennis court. There's a multipurpose sports field, there's playground, of course picnic areas and restrooms. There's disc golf as well. So, Ferry Park includes all of the above. It's a great place to get out on a nice day in the neighborhood. But again, there are several parks around Fort and Beach. So, if that's something that you prefer to have close by within walking distance from your home, feel free to reach out to us to help you narrow down those areas just in case you might be looking on other websites that may not disclose the neighborhood parks. There isn't even any around that's walking distance from a property that you might be interested in, so we can definitely look into that for you. Or if you're more curious about public parks, there's a few good ones too. There's Liza Jackson Park over there at Miracle Strip Parkway. It's right on the center of the sound, and there's a dog beach there as well. I go there pretty often with my pups. So, there's also playgrounds there and oh, in the dog park, by the way. there's two separate fenced areas, one for bigger dogs, and one for smaller dogs to include the dog beach. And, there's a trail out there too. There's a lot of people that just go out there for a nice little stroll. I myself like to hop on my roller blades and skate around the park too. And then, another park is little further down the road, downtown Fort Walton Beach there's the Fort Walton Beach Landing. That's also on the sound as well. There's lots of events and festivals that'll happen out there throughout the year. There's also restaurants and bars, little retail stores along the way too, across from the Fort Walton Beach Landing for you to shop and maybe grab coffee or drinks or little treats to take with you out to the park. And it is pet friendly as well, so you can bring your pets out there. It's just not, it's not a dog park, I would say. Definitely have to keep your pets on a leash. There's no caged areas for your pets to run free at the Fort Walton Beach Landing. But, that's a very -- it's still very a nice spot to go. Especially fourth of July. They have fireworks out there. Perfect view because you can sit out on the lawn and just have a perfect view of the fireworks and there's boats out there too. But, you'll be able to see. And, if you are looking for another park where just kind of want to go for a walk. You're not really worried about a water view or playgrounds or anything. There's Oak Tree Nature Park in Marry Esther. It's just a little trail where you can walk through kind of like you're walking through the woods. I know this is Fort Walton Beach, yes we do have beautiful beach, but if you're more into nature, you know, trees and just hearing the birds. I just want to just catch some fresh air, Oak Tree Nature Park is another option as well.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Now, as far as job opportunities at Fort Walton Beach, again, just like housing, there's something out there for everyone. I do see a lot of places that are hiring. So, it just really depends on what you're looking for if you were needing to make, if your salary needs to be within a certain range for you to have a decent living. Or, if you just want something part time as you're doing something else. Maybe you already have another job, but you just want to find something to supplement. There's a lot of opportunities around Fort Walton Beach. Whether you are looking for entry level or if you do have some formal training or degree that'll help you get something a little bit higher. There's lots to be on the lookout for in the Fort Walton Beach area. And even if it's not for Walton, there's still the surrounding areas too that you can commute to, with no problem as far as employment. There's Niceville, Destin, Miramar Beach, there's Navarre. There are some people that would go as far as Pensacola. But depending on what it is, there are some people that might work remotely part time and have to head into the office occasionally as Pensacola wouldn't be that bad. I mean, it's probably depending on where in Pensacola and the time of day you're traveling, it could be up to an hour to get there from Fort Walton Beach. But again, it's another option if you're looking for the right job opportunity for you and different fields of work. I mean, there's retail, there's restaurants, there's health care, and there's a lot of local businesses too. So, if you're looking to even start up your own business, Fort Walton Beach is a great place to do that at because there's a lot of us, you know, a lot of locals love to support local business owners. So, if you're looking to get started on something, just look into that too and see if it's a good fit, see if you would have a competition out here in the Fort Walton Beach area before you look at starting a business here.

And, you probably already know because it's a well-known fact that there are a couple of military bases around for Walton Beach, Florida. There's Hurlburt Field Air Force Base and there's Eglin Air Force Base as well. So, there's a strong military presence here. So, if you are a military family or maybe you're a retiree, this is a great area to be able to, you know, feel right at home. You know, it's a military that brought my family here back in 1994. My father was in the Air Force. So, we moved here and this is where we settled. And I did leave for a little while after high school, but of course, I circled right back around. I'm here to stay, it's such a great area. So there's a lot of people that do ask us about the military bases because they want to live somewhere that's close by, close to military base. That way, they can still utilize their benefits. A lot of people still like to shop at the commissary or even use the facilities on base. And, there's people that like to shop at the exchange as well. So, you do have those two options here in the Fort Walton Beach area, Hurlburt Field and Eglin Air Force Base. And, of course, if you want to go out on Pensacola, there's a navy base out there as well.

BEACH

Now, as far as the beach, I know a lot of people love the area because of the easy access to the beach. That's just the biggest thing here too. There's Okaloosa Island where lots of the beach goers would go to. They don't want to go all the way out to Destin. Santa Rosa Boulevard, there's seven public beach access points. So, you know, it's a little parking area, unlimited parking, and they do have restrooms and showers for you to use before leaving the beach and taking all those sand into your vehicle. And then there's the Boardwalk as well. The Boardwalk is awesome. I mean, it's grown so much since we first moved here in the 90's. But there's restaurants and you know, little retails and ice creams stores at the Boardwalk. And there's a playground out on the sand as well, volleyball nets. There's just lots of things to do out there at the Boardwalk instead of just, unless you're just wanting to actually just go and sit on the beach. You can do that as well, of course. And there's John Beasley Park as well. Just a little further past the Boardwalk. That's another public beach that you would be able to head out to. It's a bigger parking area. I think there's over two hundred parking spots there last I read up on. But again, there are so many options as far as getting to the beach out in Fort Walton if you are not wanting to head all the way out to Destin or there's even Navarre beach close by or Pensacola Beach too.

MEDICAL CARE FACILITIES

Another thing that a lot of people ask about too before moving here, they want to ask about medical care facilities. Because, you know, there are some people, unfortunately, that do have health issues, and they want to make sure that they're moving to an area where they can still continue to get the care that they need. So, there are a lot of facilities in the Fort Walton Beach area, specifically on the Mar Walt Drive area, there's the hospital, the main hospital. Another facilities along that same road, but even throughout town, there's special care facilities around. And, if there isn't a specific place that you need, then the doctors would refer you out to the closest one nearby. Most likely, Pensacola. I know there's big hospitals out there, like, West Florida, and there is Sacred Heart as well and same thing at Destin. There's medical care facilities out there as well. But if there's anything specific that you're looking for, let us know. That way, we can look into that for you and just try and help you find where those locations are and make sure that when you're choosing an area to move into, that you are still within a close distance to the medical care that you're going to need.

And there's also assisted living facilities too. So, if you're needing assisted living care or if you have a lot one that needs nursing assistance, there's the Meridian that's right across the street from the main hospital. It's assisted living and independent living in the same building. And there's Brickwood, senior living as well. There are a couple I can't think of right at the top of my head. Should have did the research first, I know. But that's just another thing that people ask about as well as far as the needs for assisted living for loved ones.

And there are a lot of people that ask about the 55 and up communities too. I know there is a nice one out in the Panama City Beach area that's up and growing. It's called Latitude Margaritaville. That's an awesome 55 plus community, but there's not really too many options here around the Fort Walton Beach area.

Well, that's some of the information that I wanted to share with you today as far as moving to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. If you have any questions or want to know specifically more on certain things that I may have discussed or it's maybe something that I missed, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com

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