Mary Esther Florida Pros and Cons 2022

You're considering moving here to the Emerald Coast and you're thinking, hey, Mary Esther's looking pretty good. Well, you're not alone. In this video, we're going to give you the updated pros and cons of moving to Mary Esther. Now, this is updated as to the later part of 2022. So, you want to stick around for those key points.

So, let's get into, let's talk about Mary Esther. So, where is Mary Esther? If you are moving to the area, maybe a part of the military complement that goes with the Hurlburt field, it's actually right there. It's kind of split into two different areas. If you looked at Hurlburt field, it's just to the east we're a little bit all the way to Mary Esther cut off, and it goes all the way out west off of 98, you know where it kind of goes in with the base, all the way until you hit Navarre. So, it's not that big of an area that it necessarily covers and is mainly because of the Eglin Air Force base which encompasses that huge area just north of it. So, population here isn't that big. It's only 4,370 people according to the last census.

Okay. So, Pros, Cons. Let's talk about it. Alright? I like to get the cons out of the way first, so let's hit in on that now.

CONS

1. HIGH HOME INSURANCE COSTS

So, Cons. Well, right now in 2022, it's the high home insurance cost. Now, I have no idea why everybody just thinks that Mary Esther, you don't want to insure anything there. And it could not be in a flood zone. It could be a newer home, so much of a newer home. But, anything that wasn't built in the past three to five years, the insurance rates are just through the roof. And I just don't know why, but that's the biggest con of moving out to this area, is just ridiculous home insurance quote. So, make sure if you are moving here and you've got a real estate professional or if you're doing it on your own that you do check those insurance rates prior to putting an offer on a place because your mortgage payment may be a lot different than what you think.

2. HIGHWAY 98 AND TOURIST TRAFFIC

Next Con, con number two is the Highway 98 traffic. Now, that Highway 98 traffic goes all the way through Mary Esther on the southern part then. Now, you can't get from one end of Mary Esther to the other without going through Highway 98. Alright? So, there's only that limited amount of travel. Now, because of that, it also has where the base goes in and out of and, you know, thanks to not having manning that the military really wants right now, they do gate closures which only allow that front gate to get most of the traffic, which is really, really frustrating as you're trying to get home or get back with all that traffic. Now, if you're living out in Navarre, this is a really long wait. If you're living in somewhere in Mary Esther, and getting off the base, it's really not that bad. It's actually only a couple extra minutes. So, yeah, then highway 98 based traffic can be rough. Not only that, but we also have tourism that does like to peak anytime between spring break all the way until the kids go back to school, on the fall. Right? So, if there are any accidents with out of town drivers, which we get a lot of, that could just shut that entire highway down for several hours, which would have taken you 50 minutes or 15 minutes may now take you upwards of an hour just to get home because there's really no alternative routes now, really. And that's really leads me into number three.

3. LIMITED ALTERNATE ROUTES OF TRAVEL

There's really limited alternative routes of travel as you're in Mary Esther, now depending on where you're in. If you're in the eastern part of Mary Esther, you do have that different parts through Fort Walton Beach that you're able to get around and that's pretty nice. But if you're on the west side, not that great. You only really have one or two choices and that's coming from the west or coming from the east. That's all you get, unfortunately.

4. AIR TRAFFIC NOISE FROM THE AIR BASE

And, last but not least for the cons is, well, you're right next to an air force base. Air traffic noise from the air base, you're going to hear it. Even in certain parts of Fort Walton, you can still hear the C-130's and everybody else with doing their engine tests. You can still hear those, those props spinning and those engines roaring even throughout the day and sometimes into the night. Now, they do a lot of night ops out there, but it's not that noticeable and kind of get used to it. But if you've never been around air traffic before, you're going to be right next to an active based,  yeah, it's going to be there.

PROS

1. HOUSING IS AFFORDABLE

Alright, Pros. Alright, we got a lot of pros so let's go into this. One thing I do love about Mary Esther is the housing affordability. It's kind of that nice little happy medium there. So, if you're moving to this area, looking for single family home, maybe a townhome, condo, they got a couple of those throughout there. This is a great area, okay? So, let's talk about it. The median home price for a single family home out there in Mary Esther, is $316,800 as of the time of this video. Now, that's a high all the way up to 2.2 million. Those are really, really nice homes that are sitting right there on the intercoast of waterway. And, a low of $85,000 which is probably a cardboard box sitting on the side street, just kidding, it's not that. But it was probably definitely run down. Alright. So, you kind of get that sort of feel about that. Now, rents. Maybe you just want to move to this area and rent for a little bit. Totally get it. Median rent price out in Mary Esther, $1,800 per month as of the time of this video. Now, I do want to let our viewers know that it is, if you're watching this after this year that we are going to see just steady increases of rent over time as we catch up to the ridiculous market that we got from 2020 and 2021. Alright? And at the beginning of this year in 2022. So, watch for these rental prices to go higher and higher, and it's only going to get worse and worse. So, it may actually be better to purchase. Again, talk to a real estate professional, a financial advisor to see which one's going to be best for you. But again, rental rates could go as high as $4,000 per month and as low as $600 per month depending upon where you're going and what your looking.

2. CLOSE TO BASE, FWB, AND NAVARRE BEACH

Pro number two, you are close to base. If you're in the military or military contractor, man, you are in a premier spot because you were right there right next to work. You're also next to Fort Walton Beach and Navarre Beach. So, if you want to kind of figure out the different places that you want to go where you're going to hang out, these are some good options for you kind of right sitting right there.

3. GREAT COMMUNITY

Now, there is a great community. There are different neighborhoods that are all throughout here. They're a little bit older, more developed communities, but there's a great sense of community. We've got a good mix of Floridians, people that are renting and working over there at the base, and just a lot of people that retired here, including myself, that just absolutely love this area. So, you get a good mix and diverse amount of people that are around you.

4. CLOSE TO SHOPS AND RESTAURANTS

Now, you're also close to shops and restaurants, so are some in Mary Esther. You do have Mary Esther Cut Off, which has a ton of different stuff. It's got the Santa Rosa Mall right there. There's tons of great things for you as well.

5. CRIME RATES ARE VERY LOW

Now, the crime rate's super low. That's going across the board for most of our area. As a matter of fact, I couldn't find any data that supported anything that wasn't, that we could give you some sort of metric to go with it because there's just not a whole lot reported. Now, when we talk about crime, just know that Mary Esther is incorporated. So, it does have the county sheriff that has it. So, there's no city police or anything like that in that area.

6. SCHOOLS ARE RATED "A"

Also, the public and private schools that are in this area are all rated A, according to niche.com, so that's good for you and the family.

Well, that's all I have for Mary Esther for the pros and for the cons updated here for 2022. 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