Moving to NW FLORIDA  --  What to expect when living here?

So, you're moving here or thinking about moving to Northwest Florida or the Panhandle of Florida, and you're wondering, what can I expect when finally making the move and coming down here to the Sunshine State and what I can expect here in the Panhandle when living?  Well, in this video, my team and I came up with 12 points you really want to know about prior to making this move. And, you'll want to stick around to the very last one because even though it's a big surprise, it can make or break your decision.

Okay. So, let's get into it, moving to Northwest Florida. The area that we specialize here are more so, is going to be from the Pensacola to the Panama City Beach area which we call the Emerald Coast. Although the Panhandle does go all the way past Tallahassee down that way, but this is all kind of encompassing but with an emphasis on the Emerald Coast.

1. HEAT AND HUMIDITY

So, number one on our list as you might expect, is the heat, the heat, and humidity, it gets hot. That combination even though you're looking down, it's like, yeah, it's 88 or 90 degrees. You had that with 90-plus-degree humidity. (Oh my goodness) This gets so hot and in that humidity makes a big difference. Now, it's not that bad most of the time throughout the year at least in Northwest Florida. You're down in Central, Southern Florida is just muggy and hot all the time. But up here, we only get it really really bad for probably about four months. When you wake up, it's 81 degrees Fahrenheit and 95 degrees or 95% humidity out there and that's the coolest part of the day. If you like the heat and you're going to love it. As a runner, doing marathon training, I do heat training as well and it's not because I have a choice. However, it does also get cold here and cold is a relative term of course, as Floridians down here will consider anywhere between 45 to 55, which is what we get in the winter as cold. Now, it does have that humidity behind it. And it does feel a lot colder than it would if it was a dry 45, 55 degrees. So, if you're coming from one of those places as big as not going to be that bad, well just get climb into here and you're going to see, yes, it does have a little bit of a crispness to it here in our wintertime.

2. STORMS AND HURRICANES

We do have tropical storms. We do have the potential for hurricanes that can come through this area. Now, what do you forecast specifically where we're at, is we have a good history of storms just missing the Emerald Coast. They either shoot off to Louisiana and out that way, or they stay in hug up the central part of Florida. And, that's nice for us because we really typically don't get it. And if they do, they typically slow down before they get here and it's really not that bad. I say that as a Floridian, it's really not that bad. So well, what do us Floridians kind of freak out about when we start to see hurricanes coming our way? When is it they start putting boards and stuff on the windows and start vacating? Well, up to about a category three, nobody's really freaking out. They're actually putting supplies in there, you know filling up the bathtub, having plenty of drinking water, making sure that the generators if you have one, has some gas in it, those sort of things. And, we're just going to sit out and do a little hurricane party, so to speak. And then, just wait for the power to come back on if it ever even goes out. Now, once we get up to categories 4 & 5, that's when everybody's getting the heck out of here. We did have hurricane Michael that came through just a few years ago and did some terrible devastating work down there to the Panama City area. And, once we see those sort of things, that's when we get up and go. But it doesn't happen that often. And of course, here in housing, everything that's been built up lately has had to be up to code for certain things like hurricane clips on roofs and things of that nature to make sure that it can withstand some unusual winds.

3. A BIT OF COUNTRY

If you're going to be up here in Northwest, Florida, there's a bit of country out here. Now, not everything is going to be Condos and Beachfront and Metropolis, there's really not a whole lot of that around here, actually. And, because of our specific area, there's a big base called Eglin Air Force Base, which is one of the biggest military bases. And, it's not the fact that the base is huge, but the area that it controls and where they go out and do different exercises is enormous., So, we really don't have access to it as civilians to be able to get up and around there. Now. If you get around to the northern central part of the Panhandle, you're going to see that there's plenty of countries out here. There's plenty of farms, there are lots of fields. And, once you get a little bit closer to the water, you're going to see that, it's kind of goes ahead and gets a little bit more commercialized, more residential, because I mean that's what people are coming down here for. But, do expect that.

4. FLORIDA NORMS

Well, when you do end up moving here, you're going to feel a lot of the Florida Norms that we do have here, but it's got just a little bit of a southern feel to it. Mainly, because we got Alabama and Georgia just north of us. So, that really does kind of sneak it's way down here. And, when I say we got Florida Norms, I mean you could be going out and even as a realtor back when I had my license in New York or Ohio, you'd go out typically and maybe, nice jeans and a sports jacket and things like that. But, I know other fellow realtors that go out in a T-shirt, flip-flops, and shorts and sell multimillion-dollar properties. That's the way that it is out here. It's very, very relaxed, it's got that beach atmosphere to it. And, because of the Southern influence, and of course, the military influence around this area, people are super respectful, very kind, formal, sort of, and its own Floridian way. But, it's a really nice and unique place to be.

5. HIGHER HOME PRICES

The home prices are going to be a little bit higher than the national average. Now, currently as of the date of this video in 2021, our housing market started to go up quite a bit. But the national average was around $270,500 that's across the continental United States. Here in Florida, is going to be significantly higher. Now, if you're looking for, we'll just pick somewhere in the middle, like Fort Walton Beach. Fort Walton Beach average for a single-family home or rather. Median, was around $280,000. Now, if you move up a little bit further north towards Crestview and Baker, you're going to see that go down probably about 30 to 50,000 for the median price. Now, the farther you get away from things, the lower the price points going to be. But, expect as you get to more affluent areas that things are going to be up. And, they're just going to be more than the average because there's a higher demand for people moving here. Especially, in 2021 as politics have been driving people here to the Sunshine State and all sorts of other regulations have had people flooding into the state, and we're happy to have them.

Okay, moving on.

6. COST OF LIVING

The cost of living. Well, it's a bit higher as well. This is a tourist town. There's not a whole lot of land really for people to get in here. And because of that, because of the high demand, it does drive your cost of living. Now, if you check out our Channel, we have tons of cost of living for all different places from Destin to Miramar, Fort Walton Beach, and Navarre, check out those videos to figure out the specifics for that area. But, if you look on places like areavibes.com, Niche.com, or anything like that, you'll find with the current cost of living is. Now, I want you to be wary of that, mainly because the cost of living that they have is going to be based upon the average price point for homes in that specific area. That does not get updated as much as you would like it to. So, it's probably about six months behind, so doesn't quite give that full picture. So, definitely ask your local real estate agent if you are considering moving to this area. And, ask them what the average home prices so you can get a really good look at what that average cost of living is. However, if you do look at it, it's on a scale from 1 to 100. Where 100 is where the median is. And, if it goes a little bit above or below, so, I guess it's not quite up to 100. Anyway, this area is anywhere between 10 to 20 points above with that national average is, depending on where you're moving to specifically, so anticipate that.

7. LOTS OF TOURISM

There's a lot of Tourism, people love to come here. And, because of that, people will want to move here to live where they vacation. So, there's a ton of tourism, it's a very big moneymaker in our area. And, we have people flocked down here during the spring to just about when school starts in the fall, and a little bit after that. Those are going to be the big tourist time, so people are going to be coming in, and it's really good for our economy down here. But, expect that you are going to be sharing the area with people trying to escape their normal day-to-day lives.

8. TRAFFIC CAN BE ROUGH

Traffic can be a little bit rough. Now, it's not just because of the vacationers, obviously, the congestion will start because of that. But, we locals here, we get it, we know when that's going to happen. But, we're also trying to mitigate that and the local municipalities have been doing a lot of road construction, which of course, backs up even more. And, as soon as they're done with that road construction, they just go on to building something else. So, it seems like it just forever is going on. So, vacationers, constructions, and here's just the thing, it's just the way that this area is really laid out, is that there are big bodies of water. Now, if you could go and get on a boat and then hop one way, probably take you really no time to get somewhere. However, that's not necessarily an option. So, you're going to have to drive around bays, you're going to have to go certain places where there are only one or two roads to get to somewhere. Because of that, that adds to that amount of traffic. So, just be wary of that.

9. TONS OF THINGS TO DO

Well, there are tons of things to do, because people are here all the time to vacation. So you get to enjoy that. There's going to be great restaurants, and tons of activity. Of course, the gorgeous, gorgeous beaches that we do have out here. The emerald color water that we have during most of the season, boating. It's just so much to do here and you don't have to travel far to do it.

10. POLITICS

Politics as we meant, we had mentioned before are a bit more conservative at least at the moment here in 2021, and it has actually been that way for quite some time. Now, for the other things I mentioned before, the military bases, there's a lot of retirees and people that have separated military just like myself and having that kind of Southern influence makes a lot of people very respectful. So, it's not in your face, so much, but do expect that there are a lot of conservative values that are in the panhandle of Florida. But people are going to be very respectful for the most part, you always have those ones or twos that will just go nuts. Then both sides, I'm sure. But for the most part, they're going to be fine. Some examples of that is even with the mask mandates that we did have with covid-19, a lot of businesses and just people in general just weren't wearing them. And, as far as getting the vaccines and things like that, there were a lot more kinds of pros choosing which one that you want to do. So, just anticipate that moving here.

11. IT'S NOT QUITE "ISLAND TIME"

It's not quite Island time, but be prepared to wait when you go to places. If you've been to any like the islands or vacation certain places where you like, I ordered a sandwich and it's been an hour, like, what's going on here. And especially somebody like myself that grew up in Upstate New York, like everything was like this minute had to happen. But here, and it's not quite that bad, but do anticipate that people are kind of taking their time a little bit more moseying in certain places. So, be prepared to be patient if you can handle it.

Alright, the last thing that I do have for you.

12. SAND

I told you to wait, it's gonna be worth it, is the sand. Yes, everything here is built on a certain layer of sand, and it gets everywhere. Right? So, get tracks into your shoes, tracks into the house, it gets in the vehicle, it gets in your clothes, it gets in absolutely everything. That very fine white sand that we do have here is everywhere. So, when you consider purchasing a home or deciding to rent somewhere, try to get someplace that doesn't necessarily have a whole lot of carpet because that's going to track it in there. Same thing when you look at condos. Try to get something that's not going to withstand and keep all that stuff. And of course, with the humanity doesn't make it that much better. So, make sure and understand that you're going to be living around just a whole bunch of sand. And, if you're a kind of OCD or a neat freak, you may want to invest in one of them, a little robot vacuum that might just help keep your sanity.

All right. Well, that's all that we do have for moving to Northwest Florida and what do we anticipate when moving here. 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