Living in Pensacola – Pros and Cons

If you have Pensacola, Florida on your radar, you're getting ready to move here or thinking about it or just want to invest in property here, maybe live in the area part time. Then you may want to know what the pros and cons are of living in Pensacola. So, let's talk about that for a few.

Alright. So, living in Pensacola, what are the PROS and CONS?

Let me go ahead and start with the PROS.

AFFORDABLE LIVING

So first, there is an affordable living according to some of the stats that I was able to pull. The average sales price for a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom home in Pensacola, during the last quarter of 2022 is $321,777. It's not the cheapest, but it's also not insane either. Most people are saying it is affordable that might be why they chose to live in the Pensacola area compared to maybe Miramar Beach or 30A, Panama City. They just felt like Pensacola had a better price range and the area just more so fit their needs or their families' needs.

ACCESS TO THE BEACH

There's also another PRO is that you have great access to the beach, especially Pensacola Beach. But, you can either relax in the beach or enjoy the water sports such as water skiing, jet skiing, or go on certain sunset cruises, charters, or you can not necessarily go out in the golf, you can fish out in the bay as well. So, if you like fishing, of course, the Panhandle is awesome place for fishing anyway. But Pensacola definitely will provide you with great fishing opportunities.

GREAT EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Another pro for living in Pensacola is that there are great employment opportunities. So, whether you have a specific set of skills or you have no formal training whatsoever, there is something out there for everyone. Whether it's construction, electricians, HVAC techs, healthcare, hospitality, retail, or food service, there is something out there for everyone. There's lots of businesses in need of extra hands. Now, when I say in construction or electrician, HVAC techs, of course, you know, especially being in real estate, we're going to come across a lot of buyers and sellers that are going to need these services if they're getting ready to buy or sell, things need to be get done, repaired before a homeowner can even sell. But, that's definitely a great line of work if you are good with your hands and of course, know what you're doing. If you are good with construction, you can help re model a lot of homes, lots of handyman that are definitely something that a lot of people are looking for, someone that does a great job with bathroom remodels, kitchen remodels, even the exterior of a home, or placing siding, working on the roofs, getting electricians, make a great amount of money as well. We all know they're not cheap, but they're always in great need as well especially for remodels. People are having on additions to their homes or relocating outlets, adding additional outlets, HVAC techs, of course. We do have lots of issues, especially when the seasons change and people are switching from AC to heat or heat to AC. That kind of seems to be the time when these systems will seem to fail us. So, that really keeps HVAC techs busy on the go. In the hospitality, there's, you know, there's a great area to visit, there's lots of hotels and condos. So, if you know, want to work at a hotel at front desk or maybe housekeeping, management, food service, there's opportunities there as well. And again, there's lots of restaurants and retail be able to work in. Now, even if you're living in Pace or Milton or Gulf Breeze surrounding Pensacola, you're going to want to kind of find your way into Pensacola anyway for more options as far as shopping and probably even dining as well.

FUN EVENTS

Another pro with living in Pensacola is that there are tons of fun events throughout the year, especially downtown. You can watch Broadway shows and concerts at Saenger Theatre. There's parades and festivals during Christmas, Mardi Gras, fourth of July and much more. And there's also, if you enjoy nightlife, there's civil quarters where they have seven different rooms of entertainment. There's great food, drinks and music, of course wouldn't be a nightlife if you didn't have music going. There's also the Pensacola Bay Center that is a very big host of a lot of events in Pensacola. There's music concerts, comedians that will come and put on a good show. Expos, there's monster jam, there's ice skating, and Pensacola's own hockey team, which is the Ice Flyers. And so, there's lots to do when you go to the Pensacola Bay Center. So, just make sure you check out the calendar of events and find something that you or your family would definitely love to enjoy.

CONS

INCLEMENT WEATHER

Alright. So, the cons of living in Pensacola, well, we are on the Gulf Coast, so we are prone to inclement weather. Including hurricanes, of course. But, that doesn't necessarily mean that Pensacola is always going to take a direct hit when there's something brewing out there in the gulf. But, even if we don't take the direct hit, we'll definitely feel the effects of a storm such as strong winds, heavy rains, some flooding in certain areas. Now, the summertime, it's also very hot and humid. A lot of people think you'd go further south or it's actually true. Earth south, is warmer but up here in Northwest Florida it does get pretty hot and scorching as well. Humidity is a big thing in Florida overall. Right now, it's still, at the time of this video, it's still wintertime in Florida, but is actually humid outside. So, if I was to step outside, if my hair was straight, it would probably turn into this anyway. That's how humid it is right now during the wintertime. So, definitely the summer, spring and summer months can definitely feel a lot stickier than what you'll be comfortable with. But the hottest months would be June through August. So, if you do not like extreme heat, you might want to avoid those months. But if you are living here, then you're just going to have to find activities that you like to enjoy indoors in the AC if you don't like being outside.

TOURISM

The next con is actually tourism. Now, that's not for everybody. So, if you, I mean, it could be a problem depending on your level of patience. You know, where you live and what you do for a living, you're going to be surrounded by a lot of tourist, unfamiliar faces. There are some residents that actually will purchase their own piece of paradise and will actually, you know, buy property right there in a hotspot for tourists. So, of course, they're going to definitely know what they're getting themselves into. But if you do not like to be around all the tourists and people visiting the area, then you may want to make sure you do the research in the neighborhoods, find something that has a lot less traffic for the unfamiliar faces. Now if you live or work, in a hot spot with the tourists, then you're going to run into a lot of a much bigger crowd during the peak season, which would usually be, you know, between spring break and sometime after Labor Day in September. So, you're going to have to deal with more traffic, trying to get to places if you live or if you live or work an area where there's a larger crowd. So, you're just going to have to plan accordingly during certain times of the year to make sure you get to where you need to go in time. If you work in the entertainment or food or hospitality services, then you can expect to be very busy during the tourist season. Maybe June, July, August, summer months when people tend to visit more. You definitely have your days, like, oh, your shifts would go by very quickly because you're just going to stay busy and making sure that you keep everyone happy, everyone that's coming to visit the area.

AREA SEEMS TO BE OVERPOPULATED

Another con is that, the area of Pensacola seems to be getting a little overpopulated. From what people are saying, people that live there, especially after hurricane Katrina, you know, destroyed many areas around the Gulf coast and we're seeing displaced families to relocate many of them who came to the Pensacola area. So, there's a lot of people that are relocated to the area beacuse they're military, there's military base out in Pensacola or just for certain job opportunities they're relocating to Pensacola. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, there's a lower cost of living. It's more affordable for some families to live inside the Pensacola area. So, with that being said, it's just the population just seems to be increasing throughout time, which again plays into the tourism as well. Some people that are visiting the area they realize, you know, that it is actually a gray area to live in, especially those that never even heard of it and they kind of came across Pensacola Beach, saw how beautiful it is, how great it is, and surrounding areas. Lots of things to do to keep them busy throughout the year, jobs, the job opportunities. So, even tourism can bring a lot of people actually relocating to the area. So, yes, a lot of people are a bit concerned with the amount of people that are crowding up Pensacola, but can't really blame them. It's a great place to live.

TRAFFIC

And of course, with the overpopulation and the tourists come the traffic. There are certain areas where traffic can just be a bit of a mess. Of course, there's certain times a day, as usual, the rush hour where traffic will be worse than other times. But, just with, especially if you are in the downtown area or I believe it's nine-mile area where there's a lot more going on, the traffic is going to be much worse, much heavier. So, if you do not care for that type of scene, then make sure, again, research the area where you want to live or where you're going to be working at just to make sure you're not going to run to the headache of all the heavy traffic.

Well, those were just a few of the pros and cons of living in Pensacola. If you have any questions or would like to know more about the Pensacola area, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com

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