Moving to Fort Walton Beach Florida

So, consider moving out to Fort Walton Beach here in Florida, and you're wondering, what do I need to know about this area? Well, in this video, we're going to give you a quick rundown some of the 15 key things that you need to know about this and a little bit more about the area to help you when you're moving here. So, stick around.

Alright. Let's get into Fort Walton Beach, first and foremost, where is it? Most of the people coming to Fort Walton Beach or thinking about Destin, they kind of have to travel through it when they landed VPS, which is the airport that's also part military base, which is also part military base. And, it's a really nice area of kind of in between. It's kind of that happy medium, if you will, where people decide where on the Emerald Coast they want to move to. So, where is it? Well, it's just south of Niceville. It is just west of Destin, if you want to look there, and it's just not quite out to Navarre. Just go ahead and look back, right back east and there it is. It's not in the ocean, I promise.

Alright. So, what is this area known for? It's known for the beautiful beaches there. We have Okaloosa Island, where most people get access to the beach. And on that beach, there are six miles of untouched, undeveloped area. Then, of course, you can go walk if you want to. But because of the air force base, nobody's going to be building on that thing either. So, you have this sort of feeling, or you have this kind of lush sort of forest behind you, not so much condo city. You don't have the huge condos there are some, but there's not that many there. And then you have this just pristine Emerald colored water with the white fine sand out there is just undeniably beautiful out there. So, yes, it's one of the things that they're known for. Obviously, access to Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt field, that's how I got to know this area. I didn't even know it existed until I got stationed in this area a while ago. And then the community's amazing too. You have a great diverse community. Why? Because you have a lot of people that have come here through the military or military support personnel or you've come down here to vacation and people just love the area. So, we get just a bunch of different people from all over the place. It's just this melting pot of awesomeness. Not only that, you also get a good mix of southern hospitality that comes in from, you know, we're pretty much in lower Alabama where we're at or Georgia. And then, of course, the floridisms of people, we get a good mix of that. So, it's pretty awesome to be here. And it's also known for a lot of the festivals, Billy Bowlegs being one of them, that people come down to check out.

So, what do you need to know about this area? Alright. So, let's go. I got 15 that we're going to go through. Alright.

1. Wright, Ocean City, Okaloosa Island, FWB are all considered Fort Walton Beach

First, if you're looking at Google Maps and you're trying to figure out where Fort Walton Beach is. What I would do is take those little ones that they point out as Wright Ocean City, Okaloosa Island, Fort Walton Beach. We all call that Fort Walton Beach. That's all called that. Alright. So, that's the actual Fort Walton Beach area. Okay?

2. TRAFFIC

Unlike the other cities around here where you are on one highway. The only way to get routed is to go all the way around the Eglin Air Force Base, like the entire base. That could take an extra 45 minutes to an hour to get around, you actually have alternative routes. So, if there's car accident somewhere or something happens, where it kind of blocks traffic, or it's just really congested, you have alternate routes to get around. Which is amazing because there's a lot of places like Destin that don't really have that, especially in Navarre.

3. THE HOUSING IS VERY ECLECTIC

Housing here is kind of eclectic. Why? There was no zoning when this all happened. They had an air force base here. It was cheap land they put it out there. They had military housing that was mostly trailers. Right? And then they just started building off of that and then, started buying up that land. Because when they did, they started having these different housing developments, not real actual developments, but kind of a one z, two z's around here. And because of that, we've got a $1.7 million house sitting on the water on the bay. Across the street from a $400,000 house and six blocks from a trailer park. It is where it is. It's Fort Walton Beach. But, it's really, really nice. Okay?

4. HOUSING PRICES

Our housing prices are pretty good at the right in the middle of what you would anticipate in any market. Kind of the happy medium when we look at that. We have the cheapest areas in the surrounding area from Crestview. The most expensive being out in Destin and Miramar Beach and in the middle is kind of Fort Walton Beach. You can see the average single family home price around here to be $278,000 or more depending upon what you're looking for. Alright.

5. SCHOOLS

So, we have a couple of high schools and middle schools and things like that that you want to go to. The main thing that people look here are typically the high schools. You have Fort Walton Beach High School, which also services for the public school for Destin, as well as a public school for Mary Esther. And you also have Choctawhachee High School, or Choctaw. That surfaces the northern part of Fort Walton Beach and Shalimar in that area. Out of the two, if you want to look at the rankings between the two, it's Fort Worth Beach is actually ranked a little bit better than Choctaw. But, if you read the reviews like niche.com or you ask any of the locals is kind of a toss-up. Alright.

6. ALL MAJOR SHOPPING IS CLOSE

That's great. You want to go to Sam's Club, you need to go to Walmart, you need to go to some boutique places, it's all right there, which is really nice and you have alternative routes to get to where you need to go.

7&8. LOTS OF RESTAURANTS & LOTS OF SHOPS

Now, there are a lot of restaurants in Fort Walton Beach. There's a good amount in the downtown area north towards Highway 98, but you also have them up in the shopping center called Uptown Station. There's a plenty of those in there, again, small boutique shops as well that we just mentioned before. There's a lot of really good restaurants all throughout here. They've got everything from Italian to, there's tons of Thai, tons of Thai, just awesome. You've got Indian food, you've got whole sorts of things that are actually really, really good all throughout the area. If you want some tips of something specific that you're looking for, leave them in the comments below, I'm happy to help. Alright. Again, there's lots of shops. We've got downtown, Uptown Station, Mary Esther cut off. You know, part of it's Mary Esther. It's still right there with a lot of different shops, theaters, stuff like that. Movie theaters. Okay. Alright.

9. NO BAD AREA

There's really no bad areas in Fort Walton Beach. Lived in a lot of areas, especially in my military career, and there's always some sort of, quote unquote, ghetto somewhere. And it's usually right outside the base, base gate. Those of you that have been in the military know what I'm talking about. But there's really not a really bad area around Fort Walton Beach. You're pretty safe where you go. Depending upon what sort of environment that you want to live in, you may want to talk to a local real estate agent, something like that. They'll be able to give you some one on one advice on where you necessarily want to go. But there's really nothing terribly, terribly bad. Alright.

10. DIVERSE AREA AND FILLED WITH MILITARY

The area is diverse filled with military, military sport, veterans, and vacationers. And they all get her along really, really well. Why? Because most of this, it's like being on vacation. When military people would come here on temporary duty, they loved coming here because they had the beach access and all the other vacationer activities and everything else that is out there. There's a lot of people that have come here, been stationed here, come back here, stayed here, myself included, and it's just a great community because of that. But don't be surprised that you see a lot of uniformed personnel driving around, going into shops, go at lunch, whatever. Alright.

11. RENTALS ARE IN HIGH DEMAND

Rentals are in high demand. And it's always been that way, at least from a decade ago. They were always in high demand because of a lot of the military people that are in here. And some of them just don't want that commitment. They have to get up and go in a year. All these different things that may want people want to rent. Because of that, they're in very high demand. So, if you are moving down here, even if you're in the military, please make some due diligence to get that. If you are moving down here and you aren't going to rent, give yourself at least three months, contact a real estate professional, have them guide you through this process so that you know and could be prepared for the entire thing moving forward. Contact us, we'd love it. Alright.

12. HIGHWAY 98 TRAFFIC SUCKS

Highway 98 traffic. Well, it sucks. There's no better way to put that. They are fixing, this is 2022, so they are fixing the, what they call, Brooks Bridge that gets into Okaloosa Island. But that's just going to be, when it's done, it's going to be amazing. But, I believe that's a five-year project. So, in the meantime, it's going to be a little rough getting back and forth and it already was. Because we have a ton of people there going to the Highway 98 and to get in into Destin and all these different areas and vacationers, that's how they get from one area to the other. It's a mess. It's only going to get worse. However, if you were staying in Fort Walton Beach, it's not so much of a problem. But just know, give yourself some extra time if you're going to be taking that scenic highway 98 or highway 98 throughout the Fort Walton. Good news is that, again, there are some alternative routes to get around that traffic. Just not if you're trying to get on to the island. Alright.

13. THE COMMUNITY HAS A SOUTHERN FEEL

The community has a southern feel with a solid Floridian base. AKA is super fun. Right? So, if you come from an area like I did in the northeast and you're driving in somebody waved at you, you're like, did I know this person? Or what's up? You got a problem with me? Here, it's totally normal. They just even wave randomly at people. It's a southern sort of thing that I've adopted and actually really enjoy. So, that's one thing to anticipate here. People are super friendly. Most of them are on vacation. So, it just kind of gets into the community that vacation vibe is pretty awesome. Alright.

14. The weather is warm and humid most of the time

However, it does get cold. Okay. Come into from December all the way into about March is kind of our cold season. And depending upon where you're coming from, if you're in the Dakotas or something like that, it seems like a summer breeze when it's 45 or 55 degrees out. For here, for us, it's cold. It's got the humidity that comes with it. Now during the winter, humidity does go down a little bit, but it's still a humid cold, so it makes it colder. Alright? But it does get cold, so do anticipate that if you're going to be a permanent resident down here or just come in the summertime, Spring to fall, like everybody else.

15. IF MOVING HERE, CHAT WITH A LOCAL REAL ESTATE AGENT

Alright. Last but not the least, if you are moving here, please take the time to chat with a local real estate agent to get the current state of the market. You want to determine whether it's going to be better for you to rent or it's going to be better for you to purchase. Over the long run, it's always going to be if you can afford it, it's always better for you to purchase in this area, only because it's always in high demand. Even if you had to rent it out, you're going to get somebody that's going to be in there and probably still paying you a premium. The values of this because military continues to move in. There's always people buy and there's always people selling. So, it's a pretty consistent market as well. For the long-term play, whether you're using your VA benefit, if you're military, or what have you. It's a really a great place. So, please contact us, contact an agent if we're not the pick for you and make sure that you get the details on this so you don't miss out. I wish I would've when I first got here in 2011, when I first arrived here, I wish I would have purchased as a young staff sergeant here. Of course, the market is only appreciated and I can't tell you how many tens of thousands of dollars that I lost out on because of that. So, please learn vicariously from me. Talk to somebody to see if it's right for you.

Alright. Well, that's all that I do have for you for moving to Fort Walton Beach, Florida what you need to know. Do you have any questions about what I mentioned here, want to add something positive, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com