7 THINGS You Need to Know Prior to MOVING to DESTIN FL

So, you're considering moving to Destin, Florida and you want to know the things you need know prior to coming to here. Well, in this video, we're going to give you the 7 things that you need to know prior to moving to Destin.

But let's talk about Destin. That's why you're here. Alright. So, where is Destin? Destin is here on the Emerald Coast on the Panhandle of Florida. You've never been here before. If you look at a map, it's right there, the Emerald Coast is where you see Pensacola all the way to Panama City, where smack dab right in the middle of it. It is a destination place for a lot of tourism, for boating, fishing, all sorts of fun stuff. Population here, this peninsula is 14,482.

Alright. So, let's get into the 7 things you need to know about Destin.

1. TOURISM

Tourism is a big business here. Right? Tourism is huge. Because of that, lots of crowd, seasonal crowds, and traffic. So, if you are coming down here sometime between the spring and kind of September time frame, make sure that you have your updated Waze app or your Google Maps to check traffic to give yourself realistic times and where to get to each places. If you're not a big fan of crowds, may not be the best time to come down here during our summertime, which is the peak time, which is June, July, and August. There are big times that people are coming down here. But the good news is, because of tourism, there's tons of stuff to do. Oh, there's so much stuff to do, especially water activities. You want to go out and fish, you want to go out and get rent a pontoon boat and jet skis. Whatever the heck you want to do, dolphin tours, tons of dolphins here. Grab a boat and head out to Crab Island if you've never been to Crab Island. It's not really an island, but it's kind of like a, where all the boats just kind of park together. It's about waist deep, knee deep, depending on how tall you are in the tide. But, it's pretty much a big old party that happens out there. There's food, there's little dinghies going around selling stuff that's it's pretty awesome to go out and check out. It's good for the family, it's good for young adults. It's just a heck of a time. Right? But there is just so much to do on the water. But not all set, not only that, but you also have Destin Harbor. You've got all these great restaurants that are all throughout here with great shopping, access to everything as well. It's just, just a great, great place to go. Lots of locals that don't live in Destin necessarily. That's where we travel to if we want to do something. Alright.

2. LOTS OF CONSTRUCTION

Number two that you need to know. Alright? There's lots of construction. And, it's because this area is growing. And when they built out this area, not a lot of it zoned, especially eastern older in Destin. And because of that, we're seeing a lot of the older homes get taken down with newer homes, put in it's place. And the infrastructure is struggling, and it has ever since I've been here over ten years ago. Struggling to keep up with the demand for people that want to go through their especially downtown until you get to about airport road, and they have changed that now out to three lanes. And that goes all the way through Destin to hit Miramar and even Miramar Beach is actually starting to get its relanes going all the way out past the Silver Sand Outlet mall. Which is great because it can finally handle that traffic. But once it bottle next in, it can be like a slow moving parking lot. But there is construction, expect that. They're redoing, this is 2023, so I'll give you update for that. They're redoing some of the medians. They're putting sprinkler systems in and doing some updates as well with the drainage. So, expect that there are going to be some combs out everywhere as people are starting to move around that. But expect construction as the area continues to grow. Once they're done with this big project to go, six lanes, I'll pass that. Who knows what the next one is. They've been talking about doing a Destin bypass for flow through traffic to go through there. I have no idea how they're going to do that. They've had different plans. Or people that are about to get bought out for their homes. And then they're like, man, we're not going to do that, what's going on here. But hopefully, they'll be able to fix that. Alright.

3. IT DOES GET HOT

It's Florida. Right? You figure is going to get hot, but it does get cold. Now, cold is relative to you. Okay? When we talk about hot, it's hot and humid. Right? We're talking like, it feels like 102% humidity. It's not possible. But it feels that way. Right? And so even if it's eighty something degrees, which it normally is 80 to 88 degrees is pretty normal. Although we've seen 90's and you've got that humidity pack behind it, it just feels a little hotter. Oh my god. It feels like you're melting. But, just think about it this way. If you're from the north and it got cold, normally, if it's freezing cold, you just run from building to building to get to the heat. Well, in the peak of summer, sometimes we run from building to building to get into the AC. Alright? But, that's kind of the things, it doesn't typically get that bad. However, it does get cold. Even recently, this is the beginning of 2023, we did have a little bit of a cold spell. Work got that in the 20s, which is not normal. We see this every two to four years that we see these colder temperatures. But normally, they'd be here for about a week and then bumps back up to 55, 70's heck we even see spurts work gets into the 80's in January and February. But most of the time, you're going to see around 55, 45 is what you're going to see in our winter time. Which is usually December, January, February, and maybe a bit into March.

4. HOUSING CAN BE EXPENSIVE

Housing can be expensive and some of it may require flood insurance, which is also going to increase what you're going to have to pay for your mortgage if you're purchasing a home. So, in Destin, the median single family home price from a year ago in 2022 was $950,000. For a single family home, that's a median price. Now, that range was somewhere between $232,000 all the way up to 10.2 mil. Right? So, it depends on what you're looking for. Obviously, that10.2 mil was sitting there on the gulf and the $232,000 was probably a trailer that got bought up. But it's all over the place. Okay? When you look at condos, maybe condos your style. We want to go out and look at the view every day not spend 10.2 million. Totally get it. So, if you're going after that, your median condo price was $536,500. And that's a range from $127,000 which is on the bayside, all the way to 3.2 mil. Which is pet house on the gulf. Okay.

5. DESTIN HIGH SCHOOL IS A CHARTER SCHOOL

If you have kids, Destin High School is a charter school. It's not a public school, It's a charter school. If you don't want to pay for the charter school, the public school of Fort Walton Beach High School, we'll be able to accommodate. And that's what they've actually been doing because that charter school just opened up in August of 2021. So, it's still kind of working its bugs out and things like that, but it looks really, really nice. We've got a lot of really good reviews from it so far. So, if you're looking for a place for your kiddos, for high school, it's good. Now, it used to be that you had elementary school, you had middle school, and that was all in Destin, once I get to high school, go to Fort Walton. But that's not so much the case anymore, if you wish for it. Alright.

6. LARGE MILITARY PRESENCE

There's a large military presence here. Okay? You've got active duty people, you've got veterans. I'm a veteran, wife's still in the military. But, there's a lot of that. You're going to get that a mix between that and a lot of southern values because we're right below Alabama. So, we get this good mix of southern and military alike. And it creates a very diverse community. This very respectful, tend to be a little bit more conservative. And this could be a pro or con depending upon where you align, but everybody's very respectful regardless. If it freaks you out because I had a past client come in here and saw people with military uniforms walking around anywhere going to Walmart and all these other things and kind of freak them out. We have a ton of that here. And it's because we're surrounded by, like, four or five military bases all throughout this area from Pensacola to Panama City Beach. And Panama City rather. So, all of that's going to be there, and you should probably know about it. With that, we'll also come some jet noise from, you know, the fighter jets and things like that. There's a lot of tests, places around there. So, you're going to hear that noise. And number seven, last but not least.

7. PLAN AHEAD PRIOR TO COMING INTO TOWN

This is really important for you to do so. Why? Because if you're coming down here to rent first, rentals are in such highs demand. And it's because of that military presence. People are constantly coming in and leaving. And because of that, there's always just high demand for those rentals. And rental prices will be much higher than some other places. Me, as a young military person, when I first got here, I was really wanting to be around where all the action was. So, with Destin, know that that seemed going to be a higher demand as well. And even if you're looking to come in here to buy, despite the market, real estate moves very quickly. Especially if something is priced right and dressed right. So my suggestion, you can reach out to us or reach out to the professional of your choosing, but reach out to a real estate agent to make sure that you're taken care of. You're on the a timeline. If you're within three months, definitely reach out after this video. But anytime between six to three months out, please give us a call. And let's set up a time to talk about this process and to get you on the right track or whomever you're going. With. Alright, shameless plug. Right?

Alright. That's all I do have for you for the 7 things you're going to need know prior to moving to Destin, Florida. If you got 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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