Relocating to Destin Florida

So, you're considering moving here or relocating here to the Destin Fort Walton Beach area and specifically here in Destin. And you're wondering, what are all these different points that I need to know about moving to the Destin area? Well, in this video, we're going to cover all the main points that you need to know prior to relocating here.

So, let's talk about Destin. If you haven't been here to Destin, maybe you've seen some of our videos, maybe you got a friend that vacation down here. Destin's actually up in the Panhandle. It's smack dab, right in the middle of what we consider the Emerald Coast. Now, what's the Emerald Coast? That's an area from Pensacola all the way down to Panama City Beach. We call it the Emerald Coast and it's mainly because of the water, certain times of the year are this beautiful emerald green. And, you can see almost all the way down to it in certain areas. It's just absolutely gorgeous out here. And of course, the white sand beaches, it just looks amazing.

So, Destin is located right in the middle of that, surrounded by the Miramar Beach area, Fort Walton Beach. The main point why this area is pretty popular is because of fishing. Destin's actually noted as one of the luckiest fishing villages, but it is also right next to Eglin Air Force Base, which is one of the biggest Air Force bases here in our country. The population isn't all that big. It's surrounded mostly by water in all directions. So, it's not quite an island, its Peninsula, but the population here on this peninsula will call it around 13,702 as of the date of this video in 2021.

So, why are people moving to this area and why you should consider relocating here to the Destin area?

1. FRIENDLY PEOPLE

I would say, this is the most prominent reason, but maybe it's number two, would be the really friendly people and just the overall environment. One interesting thing about the Emerald Coast and specifically here in the Destin Fort Walton Beach area, is we get a good mix of just people that move to Florida. So, we do have those Floridian sort of feel that beachy kind of relaxed, there's tons of stuff to do, you feel like you're vacationing, you go out when you're just going out on your free time. It's just an awesome place like that. However, this area is just south of Alabama and Georgia area, which kind of seeps in the southern hospitality. That's really, really cool. And, having that whole mix, plus having the military base here, which mix in all sorts of diverse types of people. It is just one of the most relaxed, diverse place that I personally have ever lived in, I was in the military for 14 years. I've been all around the globe, I've been to the top and to the bottom. Yes, that does include Antarctica, and this was my favorite place so far. So, I'm a transplant, probably like you're thinking about becoming and I haven't looked back, but this area is phenomenal.

2. TONS OF THINGS TO DO

The second reason would be, there are lots of things to do here, there's tons of stuff to do. If you don't like going to the beach, there's still stuff to do. But, that's one of the big reasons, that's why I said that first one might not be number one. There's so much to do here to just go out and go do. So, Destin specific, even us people that don't necessarily live in the city of Destin, we all travel out to that area to do things on our free time. Destin has, of course the HarborWalk, they've got a little zip line down there. There are tons of bars. There are little concerts, there's live music. They've got fishing tours, they've got boat trips. We can go out and see dolphins, snorkeling, and scuba. I could go on and on. If that's not your Forte, there's tons of shopping. You've got the Destin Commons, which is this beautiful outdoor mall, and of course, we're in Florida, so you're outdoor most of the time. And, you're not going to freeze or anything like that. We've got Outlet Malls, though it's technically in Miramar Beach. But there are tons of things to do all around here for you and the family.

3. HOUSING

So, housing. People like to move here because it gets to live either close to or even on the beach depending on the price point that you're looking at. So, let's talk a little about housing here at the end of 2021, your median house price. Now, I usually separate this between single-family homes, townhomes, and condos. But, I've just put them all together. Here's your overall median price with all the different ones I just mentioned, is around $485,000. Now, this is in a seller's market right now, which we've been in for at least a year at this point. So, that's still right there on an escalating market, not too bad. The lowest that we've seen in the last year or so, has been about $99,000. Now, that is an exception. Although you can find condos around that price, of course, it's not going to be right on the water. And of course, we have a high up of $5.75 million, which was this brand new, beautiful, just on the beach condo that they did build and it was one of the penthouse suites that they did put in there. Absolutely gorgeous on Scenic Highway 98. You can look that up in your local real estate channel or realtor.com or anything like that, and see what these beautiful beautiful homes have sold for out here. But, that's the big range, right?

4. COST OF LIVING

And then, of course, we can go to our next thing which is the cost of living. So, the cost of living, you think being in Florida, we think about Miami, is got to be like crazy. Right? Well, no. Not here in the Destin area, not here on the Emerald Coast, depending on where you're moving from. If you're from moving out west in a big city or New York City, this really isn't going to seem that bad. The cost of living, according to areavibes.com, is about %14 above the national average. That's it, that's only %14 above the national average. What they do, and if you haven't seen our cost of living video, go ahead and check it out on this channel, and you can see the difference, and how this all breaks down. However, it is on a scale and index rather up to 100, right? Where 100 is the average across the continental United States. So, a little bit above and below, this one did rate 114, so 14 percent above.

5. WHITE SAND BEACHES

And of course, another reason to move to this area is those white sand beaches. Yes, it's absolutely gorgeous, untouched beaches. If you move, go down to Okaloosa Island, which is just past Destin into Fort Walton Beach, or just go down to the beach in Destin. Henderson Beach State Park here in the Destin area, it's just absolutely gorgeous. It's just probably some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and I can attest to some of that. Going on cruises, I realized that I'm a beach knob now because I've been so spoiled living here. The beaches are awesome. There's always access out there, and it's just absolutely gorgeous place to live.

WHAT'S THE PROCESS?

Okay, so, if those just sold you or they help you sell to relocate here, what's the process? What do I need to know? Well, I've got a few steps for you to get the main things that you need to understand.

1. SCOPE OUT EMPLOYMENT

So, the first one is, well, scope out the employment out in the Destin area. Where do people mostly work. Where you work? Where would you fit in? Well, this is the end of 2021, and we realized that a lot of people that are moving here have negotiated with their employer to work virtually, which is pretty amazing. That they don't have to be in the physical area or just travel back and forth, but they're able to work on their computer regardless of whatever that they're doing. Now, if you're in a service-based industry or a server or something like that, there are tons and tons of opportunities because this is a huge tourist area. And it's not just the locals, but everybody is coming down here to Florida, and the amounts of potential money that could be made in the serving and service industry here, is just astronomical. It is absolutely amazing. However, another huge employer here of course is the military. So, the Air Force, military contracts and things like that, you can check out those online to see if any of those jobs might be something that you be interested in. And of course, Health Care is big anywhere that you go and all sorts of different things. So, definitely check that out before you move here so that you'll have something to do and support yourself when you do. All right!

2. SCOPE OUT SCHOOL

If you've got some kiddos, you got your kids things, you want to do, is just scope out the schools that are here. Now, the schools aren't the best in the country, but they're not the worst either. There's still a Florida school, so, definitely check out those areas. Now, in Destin, they typically, for years, would send anybody to go into high school, they would go to Fort Walton Beach High School. So, they bust them all the way out there. Well, as of this year in 2021, we do now have a Destin High School. So now, all of the kids will be able to stay in the Destin area, from elementary all the way up into high school. So, fantastic for that. There hasn't been any ratings on it. But if you want to look out school ratings, go to niche.com or niche.com, depending on where you're from here in the United States, and just go ahead and see what the rated at. Those seem to be the best ones, they have reviews and all sorts of things to see which school would be best.

3. WHERE TO LIVE

Next, is to find out where you're going to live. So, there's a lot of people they're like, yes, I want to move to Destin and then they look at Destin prices like, I don't know if I want to move to Destin. Well, there are plenty of different places around here that you can still go to with access to Destin, right? Even myself doesn't live actually in Destin, I live right around it and it is still great to be living in this area. So, what do we have? You have certain areas in Destin that you may want to move to. Obviously, the eastern, north eastern part of Destin, seems to be the best value, will call it, as long as you're not on the water. So, the cheaper homes will call, it's going to be in that area. But by far, they're not cheap. And then, as you move a little bit further east, as you get into Kelly Plantation and other different neighborhoods up in that area and even south of 98, there are very high price points in there. But, of course, you're getting gated communities, you're getting access to the beach, all sorts of different things. So, figure out where you want to go. Just to let you know, the best bang for your buck in this area of the Emerald Coast, is going to be up in Crestview, which is a very fast-growing area. And you're about 30 minutes from the beach or just up north, and there's really no beaches up there. So, you're going to have to travel to it, but it still gets you here.

All right, so, when you're picking out these areas that you want to go to, what's important to you? That's the biggest thing. And, if you talk to me or any of my agents here with the Whittemore group at exp, we're going to ask you upfront, what's important to you when you move to this area? Is it going to be proximity to work? Is it going to be proximity to things, proximity to schools? Is it going to be how big and how new the house is? Is it just going to be, I need to be, buy something? Those are the things that you got to figure out first. What's important to you? What's the biggest thing, right?

Next, you want to figure out is, what type of living do you want? Do you want the Gated Community? Do you want to live in, where everything's at here in Destin? Do you want to live the condo life? Do you want to find an apartment? Is that good enough for you? As long as you're there, the living doesn't matter because I'm going to be out most of the time, right? I don't care about moving into a condo because you know, I'm going to be surrounded by vacationers and that's how I want to live my life. Right? So, think about what type of living that you want to specify in which area you're going to go to.

And of course, the biggest thing out of all the things I mentioned here, is what can I afford? Whether you're renting or whether you're purchasing, you need to figure out what you can afford, first and foremost. So, if you are looking to purchase, make sure that you go ahead and get with a lender. Whether it's locally where you're at or here. If you need some local lender suggestions, please reach out to my team or more than happy to give you the ones that have worked really, really well for all of our people that have moved to, well, the beautiful Emerald Coast. If you are thinking about renting, figure out your budget and what you're going to be able to afford based on what that new jobs going to be when you move out here, if you're not teleworking, right? So, figure out what you can afford, that's really going to dictate where your end up going to move.

RENTING AND BUYING PROCESS

Now, if you're going to start this process and you figure it out, let's start that renting and buying process.

First of all, let's talk about rentals. Now, if you're from a big city, you may be able to reach out to a real estate agent, you're just as rentals, and will show you different rentals to go to and you know, that's their job. Well here, that's not so much of a thing. Because of the base and because of the amount of housing here, we don't have specific buyer rental agents. Now, we get those calls all the time. And unfortunately, we're like, hey, we'd love to help but there's really no inventory for me to show you. The best way to do that is to reach out to us. We can give you some rental resources in order for you to go to specific people that have these rentals off more often, and get on the list to get into a certain complex. Or, sign up for something, an email drip to let you know when these things are coming on. And of course, your normal ones like your realtor.com and your Zillow, are going to have different ones that pop up, even apartments.com was a big one in here for a while, Facebook Marketplace and so on and so forth. Figure that out because these rentals go so darn quick. They just do and it's year-round and that hasn't changed since I first got here back in 2012. Rentals go so quickly and there pretty much inflated because of it, and it's because of the large military presence, this constantly moving in and out of this area.

If you're considering buying, the first thing I would tell you is find a realtor. And, I'm not just saying that because we're realtors here, I'm saying it because that's the best thing for you to do when you get out here. Why? Because here in the State of Florida, if you choose a real estate professional, whether it's us or anybody, that, it's not going to cost you anything to you to use them. 99% of the time, it will not cost you anything. We are free representation to you. You do not pay for us when you purchase a house. Now, the seller pays for all the commissions, whether the person listing and brings the fire. So, you don't have to pay any commissions to your real estate agent. So, just make sure you like them and you trust them. One thing I would tell you is, to find one that actually does a consult. If somebody's just going to jump up and show you houses and not listen to anything that you told them and don't know your needs, that's not a good person to work with. Find somebody that's going to either virtually sit down with you via a platform like FaceTime or zoom and actually does a consult. Tells you about, what's in this area, what's what's this market doing, what's the process of purchasing a home in Florida. Because it could be way different than California, and it is, it totally is. So, make sure you figure out those nuances, whether this is your first or 20th house in different parts of the state, or parts of the country for that matter. Knowing this area is huge and what's important to you. And, the biggest thing is that they're listening to you. If they're not doing what we would call in the industry, a needs analysis and figuring out, how many bedrooms you want? How many people are coming here? What are you looking for? What realistically can you afford? Could I find a $200,000 single-family home right on the beach? Absolutely not, that does not exist here. Somebody tells you that, they are lying to you. It does not exist here. Okay, so make sure that you find a professional that you like and trust. And then, that way you'll be able to get to and purchase a home in the most amicable fashion possible.

Once you get this process and you get it going, there are so many different ways that you can do it. You can find it virtually where somebody gets a camera and as a virtual walkthrough, gotta love technology right now, or schedule house hunting trip and come out and take a look. Just know that it takes somewhere around 30 to 45 days close, I hope. So, once you get all that stuff going, then let's start planning that move. The move is one of the most frustrating parts about moving out here. So, whether you're going across country or if you're in the military, most of the time, the military takes care of that for you or maybe your company's taking care of it for you. But planning out that whole move in the logistics of it, don't wait until the last minute, schedule this out. Right now, in our country, moving as costs have gone up astronomically. So, make sure that you figure this out at the beginning of this process. Once you do that and you come in and you sign your lease or you come in and sign and purchase a property here, the last step I have for you, start living it up as a Floridian. Yes, It is absolutely gorgeous out here. It is one of the most respectful places that I've ever lived in. I have no intention of ever leaving, and when you get here, you probably won't either.

So, hopefully, this has been really good information for you of what you need to know about relocating here to Destin, Florida area. If you have any questions about anything we mentioned here, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com