Moving to Fort Walton Beach Florida – obstacles and options you must consider

So, you're considering moving here to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. And you're curious, what are some of the obstacles and options that I'm going to have to consider prior to moving out this way. Well, lucky for you, that's exactly what's going to be in this video here today. We're going to go over some reasons why people are moving here, the obstacles and options and things that you'll need to know.

So, let's talk about Fort Walton Beach. Where the heck is it? Well, it's actually located right between Pensacola and Panama City Beach. It's kind of right there in Northwest Florida. Now it's got a population of about 22,084 from the last census, I'm sure there's a bit more than that now.

WHY PEOPLE MOVE TO FORT WALTON BEACH, FL?

But first thing first, why do people move to Fort Walton Beach? Well, it's right next to Destin. So, that's most of their destination. Sorry for the bad pun. Destination place for vacations and more than likely people are moving here because of work. What is in Fort Walton Beach is Eglin Air Force Base, which is actually one of the biggest Air Force Bases here in the continental United States. Now, it could be that your active-duty military, retired, or contractor. A lot of people are attracted to this base. And on Eglin, are other installations throughout to include Hurlburt Field, Duke Field, and of course, the Seventh Group Army Special Operations Force there. So, if you're moving to this area, that's typically why people are coming our area.

BEACHES

The beaches. Some of those beautiful beaches in the world are here in the Fort Walton Beach area. When people come down and they think about the beaches of Destin, they're actually referring to the untouched beaches in Fort Walton Beach from Okaloosa Island. Absolutely gorgeous. And of course, you do have access to those things I mentioned before, which is Destin where people want to go and party and bring their families, have a great time. There are tons of stuff to do. You've got the medium sized city of Pensacola and Panama City Beach, which we all know what it's known for. Alright.

GREAT MIXED OF PEOPLE

Another reason people are coming down here, and they may not know it, but it is the community and people. That's a great mix. I mean, I've personally been all around the world. And, the people that live here are just something unique. And, when I got here, I felt like it was home. The reason being is that most people that are here or have, had some sort of background with the military which makes this area uniquely diverse. Not only that, but you have just north of us, which is Alabama and Georgia, and those areas kind of bring a bit of southern hospitality with it. Right? And, we also have Florida people. And if you haven't looked up Florida man before, you should. Pretty funny stories there. But you get this big just mix of people and it's just awesome. If you've ever lived in a place where people vacation, they're the most upbeat people ever. And, even if it's people from out of town, they’re not there because they're forced to be there, for the most part. They're there to vacation party and have a good time. And that being said, there's tons of stuff to do here. Whether it's on the water or off the water, there's tons of things to do all throughout the Emerald Coast.

OBSTACLES

Okay. So, let's get into some of the obstacles that you're going to have to face. Here's just a couple that I could think of, and my team of course.

FINDING A RENTAL OR A HOME

First is finding a rental or a home. Goodness. The time of this recording is the end of 2021, and we just went through that big old boom with a housing and just the appreciation of housing values in this past year nationwide went up 12%, my goodness. Quarter over quarter, we were seeing something like 22%. Bring it up, that's ridiculous. That's amazing for you as a homeowner. But seeing that appreciation go up, that means there was such a high demand for homes. And, it didn't help or it does help, that the interest rates to purchase a home were super low. So, a lot of people were trying to get into that. I mean, it was pretty much free money. And, not to say that it isn't at this point, interest rates are starting to rise, but we're starting to see appreciation start to slow, the rate of appreciation starts to slow. And, just for you numbered nerds just like me, the regular appreciation year over year is about 3 to 4%. So, when we see 12% a year, we're like, what? Okay. So, even when I moved here as a young airman, well, I guess staff sergeant. When I came to this area in 2012, it was tough to find a rental. And, moving back to this area, it hadn't changed, and it's just because of the way that Fort Walton Beach is because it's surrounded by two different bases, four different bases if you want to think about it. And, it's just tough to get into some place. So, the solution is to plan ahead. Way ahead. Alright. You want to be able before, like thirty days before you're about to move into a place. You want to have secured a rental place. And a lot of people in the past year have been coming in sight unseen just to take a look at some of them. If you want some rental resources, go ahead and say, hey Tim, send me your rental resources, and I'll go ahead and throw them here in the comments below. If you want to talk to me personally or anybody on my team, we'd be happy to help you and point you in the right direction. If you are trying to rent when you do come down here, we don't solely do rentals, but we can put you in the right direction, at least as far as sites to go to.

Now, if you're coming down here and you want to capitalize on moving here, now I've got a lot of military folks like myself, when they move to this area, should've bought a home, especially back in 2012. You're going to be saying the same thing five years from now when you look back and go, wow, appreciation finally came down to 3 to 4%. But in five years, it went up over 30%. You're going to be smacking yourself like I did going, why the heck didn't I buy a house back then? Especially with the VA and the zero down options and all different things. Right? But, I would consider what that looks like in the investments moving forward. If you're a military veteran, especially if you're a disabled veteran, please, please, please give me a call or a text. I'd love to share with you some of the strategies that you can use to build wealth while you're still in the military through real estate. So, something that you should hear about and sit down with me or anybody on our team for 30 to 45 minutes to get that info you needed. Even if you're not going to work with us or purchase a home, we want to give you that info. Okay. So, plan ahead is going to be that thing. If you are going to purchase a home, make sure that at least, at least three months prior to when you want to be moved into that home, that you reach out to your real estate professional or reach out to us.

TRAFFIC

Okay. Next one moving on is going to be traffic. That's a big obstacle here. During the season somewhere or like, right around where the holiday season starts. Right? So, the mid to late November, all the way until about spring break time, we get Fort Walton Beach back to ourselves. It's nice because you can get places in a timely manner. You can actually get to Destin and not have to worry about, hey, is it going to take me 30 minutes or is it going to take me an hour and a half? Those sort of things. Why is traffic so bad? Because we are actually surrounded by different bayou's, bays, and all different parts of water. So, it's not like as the crow flies, you could get some place pretty darn quickly, right? Well, in this area, that's not so much the case because you have to go around everything, and so does everybody else. So; there may be two different routes for you to get to places. One of the things I loved about Fort Walton Beach was there were multiple ways to get around things. Because you could actually cut across different places to get to where you need to go versus going all the way up to I-10 to go back down if there was an accident. Fort Walton Beach is very, very good for that because one of the reasons why I personally live in that area. But the solution is just going to be trying to live in that area where you do have multiple routes to get to the places that you're going to go. And what's important to you? Do you want to be around things? Do you want a quick route to get to work? All these different things drive people to get into Fort Walton Beach, definitely for that traffic.

COMPETITIVE JOB MARKET

Another thing to consider when moving here is the job market is competitive. Right? It is very competitive if you're moving down here trying to get a job from the previous place that you're going. Now it depends on the industry. Some of them is very easy to get into any service related job. It's very very easy to get into here because we have a ton of tourism. Besides the military input to this community, we have a ton of tourism down here, which brings a lot of great restaurants with a lot of service related jobs. Anything like that, that's going to be easy. But if you're going to be looking to get into one of the more sought out positions, especially if you're going to try to be working or affiliated with the base or any part of the military. My suggestion to you as a solution to this, is to apply for multiple jobs. Make sure you get that resume looking, A-okay. And, if it is the military, if you don't already know this, check out usajobs.gov. Also, check out indeed.com and any of those other big websites to see which ones that are posted and available. And be really, leaning forward with this when you are looking for work. Because, if you're trying to move down here in a timely manner, then you want to secure your job prior to starting to look for housing or rent. Mainly, for housing if you are looking to purchase. Because if you're applying for a loan to purchase a home, you're going to need to have a secured job here before they're going to give you a loan and some sort of letter stating that.

HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS

Okay. Last obstacle that I want to tell you about is probably you're thinking about going to Florida, what is it? It could be the weather. And, what I mean by that are tropical storms and even hurricanes. There is a probability for those that do come through here. I don't know where it is, but there's something about this area specifically in the Fort Walton - Destin area, that when hurricanes start to come up through the gulf, they either shoot up the main part of Florida, like in the central part of Florida or they go out to Louisiana. We rarely ever get anything that comes in here. The closest thing that we had was Hurricane Michael that came through a few years ago from the date of this video. But prior to that, the biggest hurricane that came through was in 2005. There was another one Hurricane Ivan in 2001. And prior to that, it was in the 1980's. So, the storms that come in here are far in few between. One thing that you can do is just make sure that you get into a place that's not in a flood zone. That you have a plan when you move here. If you are in a close to flood plain, just get the additional flood insurance. Make sure that you know when you do purchase or rent a home how to board that place up, and just be ready if something does come through. As you become a Floridian and you see Hurricanes come through, and if it's a category three or below, we're all just hunkering in and have a little hurricane party. That's why they say Floridian's are a little crazy.

OPTIONS

Okay. What are some options that you have coming down here from your obstacles options, what do you got?

WHERE TO LIVE AND WHY?

Well, first is where to live and why you want to live there. We talked about a little about this earlier, but where do you want to live? If you are trying to work or be around the Fort Walton Beach area, there's different places that people decide to come to. So, a lot of the times, especially with our team, we see people that are moving here for an affiliation with the military of some sort. Whether they're active duty, reserve, or some sort of contractor. When they ask that and they're like, hey Tim, we're moving to Eglin, where should we go? Well, here are some key places that you can consider. And, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to list these from where you get the newest houses, the biggest lots for the lowest price.

So, first things first is we have Crestview. If you work in an Eglin Air Force Base, it could be somewhere between a 20 to 30 minute drive, at least for southern part of Crestview. It's a really developing area, but you get the newest house for the biggest lot, and that's going to be up in Crestview. It's a little bit far away from everything, but it is growing and does have a lot of shopping and it's got a Walmart, so it's a real town. Somebody told me that back in the day when I was in the military, if it's got a Walmart, then it's a real town. Okay. So, you do have that area.

Next place that people do live is in Navarre, and Navarre is just out there to the west of Eglin Air Force Base off of Highway 98. Again, bigger houses, newer, bigger newer houses on a larger lots.

The next most affordable place is Mary Esther, and that's in between Fort Walton Beach and Navarre. And then, of course, there is Fort Walton Beach where I like to consider our happy medium. As far as price and everything like that, most of this area, especially in Fort Walton Beach and Mary Easter is kind of eclectic. What I mean by that is that you typically have a million plus dollar property on the water, across the street from, like, a two, three hundred thousand dollar home, that could be three to six blocks away from a trailer park, and you'd never know. There's no zoning when they put this place together. So, it's a little bit, it's kind of hard to find out.

Alright. So, the next place that's affordable or kind of down the list as we go is Valparaiso, which is just north of Eglin Air Force Base. And then, you do have just north of that, which is Niceville. Yes, we have a town here called Niceville, and it is fairly nice.

Beyond that, we also have Destin, which is probably one of the more expensive places, but that's where everything's at. And, the other places that we put and have people move to is Miramar Beach, which by far is the most expensive and the smaller places because of where it's at. So, there you have it.

TO BUY OR TO RENT?

Next option is to buy or to rent. It is really tough to get things to rent and for what you can get for your money here versus purchasing a property. If you can afford it, I almost always say that it's probably better to go ahead and purchase a property at least in this area. As long as you're going to be in here, at least two years, you know, you'll be able to get out of that property or get it as a rental because this area is phenomenal for rentals. If you're not looking for a rental and you're renting it out, this is a great place. So, if it's the other way around and you're looking for a place to rent. So, if you can buy a property and at least stick around in two years, then you should have enough equity to sell it and get a couple extra thousand dollars. Of course, build your credit up quite a bit, or keep it as a rental property as you move on to your next place. So, buy or rent, that's going to be completely up to you. I wish when I first PCS here as a staff sergeant, when I was flying with the C-130 squadron out of Eglin at the time. I wish I would have bought something, and I totally could have, but I thought, well, I'll get a rent because of this and that,  it wasn't true. So again, please, please let us know so we can talk to you about that strategy if you're a military guy.

CONDO OR SINGLE-FAMILY HOME?

Okay. Alright. Next part is maybe condo or single family home. One of the big things that you're going to want to know about purchasing a condo out here, which sounds awesome, right? Because you get that beachfront, you get all these amenities, you don't have to worry about the lawn or nothing like that, that sounds amazing, right? Well, one thing that you are going to have to consider are, well, they call HOA fees, Homeowners Association Fees. Now, some neighborhoods for single family homes might have them, but they won't be that much. As you get into nicer buildings where you don't have to do much of anything, even if you're looking to purchase, well, this would mainly be if you were going to purchase. Those condo fees are going to be quite high. Now, I'm talking somewhere between three to six hundred dollars a month that goes to nothing, right? It doesn't pay off your principal or anything like that, but you are just paying that to maintain the facility that is around your condo. Some places are closer to eight thousand dollars per month as you get closer into Destin and the Miramar Beach area. So, condo life can be fun. It can be interesting if you like to be around vacationers and upbeat people all the time, it might be the right thing for you. However, if you're looking for a more solid place for you and your family or just as an investment, a single family home might be up your alley. But if you have other questions obviously, leave it here in the comments below or give us a call/text. I'd love to chat with you. Alright.

WHERE TO DO YOUR DAY-TO-DAY SHOPPING

Other options, is where to do your day to day shopping. If you're moving from anywhere besides here in the South Eastern part of the United States, we do have a couple of different grocery stores that are pretty predominant through our specific area. The ones that we do have are Publix and we have a Winn Dixie. The Publix is a little bit more expensive, but it appears that most of the time it has a little bit more fresher vegetables and things of that nature than our Winn Dixie does, which is a little bit more of the affordable option. That being said, you also have a couple of other kind of boutiques. We do have a whole foods, but that's actually going to be out in Destin, if you want to go out there. But there are some parts of Fort Walton Beach that they'll actually deliver whole foods to you. So, you don't actually have to live in Destin to go out there, it actually deliver food. One great thing that came from COVID.

SCHOOLS

Alright. Last but not least, you also have schools. A school is in Fort Walton Beach, there's two main different options that you're going to have. You have Choctawhatchee or Choctaw High School that's out here. And, you also have Fort Walton Beach High School, which is on the southern part of Fort Walton Beach. And each one kind of has its own different education institutions. There's also a bunch of different elementary schools all throughout the area, private schools. My best suggestion for you, if you're researching this and you want to find the best school, I wouldn't definitely go off the ratings that you necessarily see. Most of the time, the ratings that I give you from this channel are from niche.com, N I C H E dot com. Go in there and check out the comments because that's going to be the biggest influence on how people, how parents really like that school for their children. So, definitely check those out and to go ahead and get the best determination of where you think is right for your kiddos.

Alright. Well, that's all that I have for you guys for the obstacles and options to consider when moving to the Fort Wall Beach area. If you have any questions of anything that I mentioned here, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com