The Most Affordable Places To Live On The Emerald Coast

So, you're considering moving down here to the Emerald Coast. If you're not sure where the Emerald Coast is, we're talking about the area all the way from Panama City Beach all the way to Pensacola. Mainly this channel is the Destin Fort Walton Beach area, and you're probably wondering, where's the cheapest place to live? Well, in this video we're going to take all 10 neighborhoods, and we're going to rack and stack them so you'll know which ones are the cheapest and best for you. So stick around.

Okay, so when we think about the Emerald Coast, when you come down to this area, most people think of Destin. Heck, it could be Pensacola, it could be Panama City Beach. Well, you're not wrong. All that area is considered the Emerald Coast, why? Well, it's clear because it is the emerald-colored water that we do have out here in the beautiful, beautiful beaches that we do enjoy as we live in this area. Now, why do people generally want to move to our area? Well, first, it is the beaches. There are miles and miles of untouched beach. 6 miles in fact, on the Okaloosa Island, which is in Fort Walton Beach, which is right next to Destin. And, they're not building any time soon on there, mainly because it's on the approach path to the Eglin Air Force Base out there. So, if you want that untouched beach sort of feel to it, well, you're in luck right there. Not only that but there's a great diverse community in our area. Mainly because there are four different military installations around here. It's also a great tourist area. So we just get a melting pot of different cultures in here and it's absolutely fantastic. Not only that, people will move here because of well, the weather, that's right. Do we get tons and tons of sunshine. We are in the Sunshine State and you're going to enjoy really warm weather. So if you don't like the warm weather, well, you may not want to come up here. We do get a little bit of the colder weather, anytime between December and all the way up into maybe April. However, it's not that cold dip comparably to wherever you're coming from. I mean, cold to us Floridians are probably like, I don't know, 50 degrees. Alright, the other reason that people are moving to this area is there are tons of things to do. People come down here to Vacation. You not only have the great beaches but all the attractions that Destin has to offer. Of course, you also have all the attractions in Panama City, Panama City Beach, and Pensacola. Is just a great area to come down and just experience. And there are just tons of things to do if you're willing to go out there and find it. So let's talk about affordability in these areas. This is Real Estate Channel. So we are going to talk about the affordable based on housing. We're going to talk about housing as purchasing a single-family home. Now, most of these homes that I am going to be talking about or somewhere around a three-bedroom,two-bath, and the average square footage in this home is going to be somewhere between 1600 to 2500 square feet.

1. CRESTVIEW

The cheapest one on our Emerald Coast in our area is Crestview. Crestview, if you're not familiar is located north of Destin. It's probably a good 45-minute drive, depending on where you're coming from and well, the season because of the traffic. And it is right there where I-10 kind of intersects in that area. Now your median home price is around $240,000. That's a high all the way up to $665,000 and a low of $23,000. Now that 23,000, please don't believe that you're going to buy an actual functioning home for 23,000 in Crestview. I imagine that this thing was just a mess and it was falling in on itself and somebody probably came in there and flip that property, but it's still considered a single-family home.

2. MARY ESTHER

Mary Esther is technically part of Fort Walton Beach. It is actually located just to the west of Fort Walton Beach. It's right there in split by Hurlburt Field, which again is another Air Force military installation. Now, it goes pretty far out almost to the Navarre area. And of course, it's cut off right there at the beginning of Fort Walton Beach if you're heading to the east. Now, in Mary Esther, your median home price is around $620,000. That's a high all the way up to 1.4 million, and that thing's beautiful sitting right there on the Intercoastal Waterway. And of course a low of $85,000. Probably in the same sort of Market that I had spoken about before in Crestview.

3. FORT WALTON BEACH

Fort Walton Beach is located, just south of Eglin Air Force Base and it is actually just to the west of Destin. Now Fort Walton Beach has a median home price for a single-family home of $270,000. That's a high all the way up to 1.7 million and a low of $65,000. Fort Walton. Beach is really nice. It's what I tell everybody that's moving to this area. That's kind of your happy. Median when you come in. That's personally where I live or my family stays and it is, it is really nice. There are a lot of things to do in there. It's a little eclectic, but you're going to find that everywhere. Now, Tim what do you mean by eclectic? Well, if you come to this area, zoning wasn't quite a thing when they started building these places up. So now we have this sort of cluster of homes where we have a 1.7 million dollar home sitting there on Choctaw bay, right across the street from a three hundred thousand dollar home and about six blocks away from a trailer park. Yep, that does exist here. Now, we are actually clearing a lot of those. Those trailer parks up in their building, more single-family homes, and we're just seeing a bigger boom and newer housing. However, I did want to let you know that that does exist throughout our community.

4. VALPARAISO

Valparaiso is just North of Eglin Air Force Base, just right outside the gate there. And, it's a small little community, but it's pretty nice and it does have access to the Niceville school system for the kids. So, that's one of the most sought-after school systems here in our area. So, one of the reasons that people like to go to Val P as we call it. Now, your median home price in this area is $282,000. That's a high all the way up to 1.5 million and a low of $95,000.

5. NAVARRE

Now, Navarre is just further west of Mary Esther Fort Walton Beach Destin area. However, it is on the Eastern side of Gulf Breeze and of course Pensacola. Now, Navarre has a Navarre beach as well as the regular part of Navarre. So, you hit that Intercoastal Waterway, this kind of separated between the two. Navarre Beach is actually been voted one of the most relaxing beaches in the entire State of Florida. And, it is actually really nice. There are some good restaurants on there, there are some good drinking holes. Juanas is out there that I like as well, kind of a sandbar as you walkthrough, volleyball courts, things like that. And, Navarre is building up. It's got a lot of bigger houses, larger lots and it's just growing and growing as time moves on. There's more and more stuff going up. The heck, they've even got different breweries out there for you to go check out if that's your thing. I know it's mine, well, anyway. Alright, Navarre's median home price is $305,000. It's high all the way up to 1.8 million and a low of $42,500.

6. FREEPORT

Freeport is located more on the Eastern side of the Destin Fort Walton Beach area. It's actually on the northern part of Choctaw Bay, and it's just north of Santa Rosa Beach. Now, Freeport is one of those developing areas. There's some really nice developments that are going on in there, and there are some older homes. But it's pretty spread out and it's a nice little quaint place and you can get something sitting on the water at a very, very affordable price. Now, in Freeport, our median home price is $314,000. That's a high all the way up to 1.3 million and a low of $30,000.

7. SHALIMAR

Again, Shalimar is part, technically part of Fort Walton Beach. However, that one is located just south of Eglin Air Force Base and just north of Fort Walton Beach. It's right there,  right by that, I would call the southern gate. They don't necessarily call that at the gate, but it is pointing South. Your median home price in this area is $378,000. It's got a high all the way up to 1.7 million and a low of $135,000

8. NICEVILLE

Now, Niceville, people reason, what they want to move here is well, it's nice! Not only that but it's got the highest-ranked school system in our area. It's rated A+ according to Niche.com. Not only that, but some of the communities have this very, very affluent feel to it. It's kind of tucked off away from everything so you don't get a ton of that holiday traffic or vacationers coming through. It's got a lot of great amenities. It's kind of sitting off by itself and you still have great access to the things that you need to get to. Say, if you're going to the biggest employer in our area, which is Eglin Air Force Base, it's right there. If you're heading into Destin, want to get into the Destin Commons, which is as big outdoor mall. Well, you can get there pretty easily through the toll bridge, which goes right over Choctaw bay. Niceville also has one of the more popular neighborhoods, which is Blue Water Bay. And, that one's got all the nice amenities, it's got people out walking all the time, waving to you, it's a southern thing. It's just a great place to go. Now, Niceville's median home price is $382,500. It's got a high all the way up to 1.9 million and a low of $70,000.

9. DESTIN

Okay, moving right along. The next most expensive area is going to be Destin. Destin is well, you should know where Destin is if you jump on this channel. Destin is kind of the focal point of our area between Panama City Beach and Pensacola. This is where most of the vacations come through. This is where you see that big condo complex, the Immigrant. It's got the harbor walk. Everybody that lives in this area tries to get to Destin to do the things that they want to do, even us locals. So, Destin is going to be a little bit higher of a price point because of that, traffic's a little rough, especially during the peak times of our tourist season. But, it is absolutely gorgeous, definitely very affluent. As you get furthermore to the east, we have more of those affluent communities. The most affluent, which is the most expensive is going to be Holiday Aisle, which is that southern part. That's right off at Noriega point. Just a quick thing about that, Noriega Point actually was wiped away in 2001 during Hurricane Ivan. Well, because of that oil spill that they got, they were able to dredge a lot of that extra sand that got blown away and built that Peninsula right back out. Now, it's a natural park for the area. It's absolutely gorgeous. Definitely go check that out if you haven't over the last couple of years. Anyway, getting back into real estate. We're going to talk about the median home price for Destin, which is going to be around $679,000. That's the median price. That's a high all the way up to 8.8 million, and a low of $175,000.

10. MIRAMAR BEACH

Miramar Beach is just to the east of Destin. It's median home price is $695,000 and it has a high all the way up to 8 million and a low of $225,000. And, just to throw in a little extra bonus on here because we did mention the Emerald Coast. Why don't we mention what Pensacola has and all the way up to Panama City, Panama City Beach area. Well, let's talk about Pensacola. Pensacola's median home price is a really affordable $215,000. It's a high all the way up to 2.9 million and a low of $25,000. Okay, Panama City. Let's talk about Panama City. That median home price for a single-family home is only $300,000. It's a high all the way up to 3.3 mil and a low of $49,000. Now, you're probably wondering, what are the most expensive ones out in this area? Well, the most expensive area that we have here is an area we call 30A. And 30A or Old Scenic 30A, if you're going to check that out on the old Google Maps, you can follow it all the way down. And this is where the rich of the rich end up staying. And this is why want to know how much it is for a single-family home? Your median home price in the 30A area is 1.1 million. That's a high all the way up to, can you guess? 16.9 million and a low of $295,000. Good luck trying to find something at that price range.

Well, that's all we have for the most affordable places to live on the Emerald Coast. If you have any questions about anything we had mentioned here, please call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com