Top 9 PROS and CONS of living in NICEVILLE FL 2023

So, you're considering moving to the Niceville area in Florida, and you're wondering what the pros and what the cons are for this area. Well, in this video, we're going to go over the top nine. That's right, top nine pros and cons. And, you want to stick around to the end because the last two may actually surprise you.

So, where is Niceville? Sounds pretty nice. It is, yeah. So, it is right here smack dab in the middle of the Emerald Coast. If you're not sure where that is, that's that area between Pensacola all the way to Panama City Beach, right? And right in the middle of it is Destin and if you just look north of Destin across the bay, that's that beautiful place called Niceville. And that Niceville is right above Eglin Airforce Base and it's a good old population of about 15,619 according to niche.com. Alright. So, we got, I told you, we're going to do pros and cons, so let's do that. I'm a big proponent of doing cons first, and then we'll finish up with the pros. So, let's do the cons first.

CONS

1. JET NOISE

Yeah. It's part of Eglin Air Force Base or just north of it. And, it's actually kind of surrounded by it. If you don't know anything about Eglin, it's one of the biggest military installations as far as size here in the United States. And, because of that, you know, we do have different communities that are kind of within that area. But, Niceville is kind of tucked away. It's almost like it's on an island, it's what somebody from Niceville told me. It's because you have the bay, the water on one side, and the other side is Eglin Air Force Base, which you can't get access to. Alright? So, it's kind of just its own little area there. But because of that, you're going to hear the noise from the base. You're going to hear the jet noise. You're going to hear other, because there's commercial traffic that goes over there. You're going to get that jet noise and not only that, if you look off to the eastern side of Niceville, you also have the EOD range which deals a lot with explosives and explosives training. So, you will hear a bunch of that every once in a while. Now, most residents there, you get used to it. It's just like living by anything that's noisy or living in a city, getting used to the, just the city noise. It's kind of the same. And most of us that live in this area have gotten really used to it. However, it's something to consider.

2. IT CAN BE A BIT OF A DRIVE

Is really it can be a drive. If you got to go anywhere outside of Niceville. Why? Because I told you it's like being on an island. If you are going to go somewhere like you want to go to Fort Walton Beach or, you know, other than the base like Fort Walton Beach or you want to get down to Destin, especially during holiday or, you know, peak times like in July. It's going to take you at least thirty minutes to get to where you need to go. So, it can be a bit of a drive one way or the other, but Niceville still, you know, nice.

3. THE COMMUNITY CAN BE A LITTLE ECLECTIC

The community can be a little eclectic, right? That can be said about a lot of communities here. But, it wasn't really zoned that well. It wasn't really zoned at all, quite frankly. But you're going to have a lot of homes that were built like the 70's and the 80's all throughout there and you might have some older places. But, they're just kind of pick in randomly in places. So, there wasn't any zoning or anything like that when they put that in. Now, they were trying to build it up. Especially in older parts of Niceville where they've torn those down, put newer homes in. But it's kind of hit or miss as you go. However, there are other newer communities that are in their, gated communities where everything's kind of kept as the same and you even have new constructions. You might find a couple of communities with maybe 20 houses in it or something that you kind of go and be like, oh, these are all brand new homes. And then go out of course, there's a bunch of homes from the 50's and maybe a trailer and an old Niceville. So, just anticipate that.

4. TOLL BRIDGE

There's a toll bridge that gets you into Destin. The only other way to get into Destin is to go all the way through Freeport and down or to go back through Fort Walton Beach. So, it's probably worth, you know, the three and a half to four bucks to get over it. But, it cost you that each way if you're going into Destin or not. Now, if you are a resident of Niceville, I heard I haven't ever done this personally, but I've heard that you can file for a tax exemption for the bridge and get that back at the end of the year. Something to consider. Okay.

5. HOUSING CAN BE A LITTLE BIT EXPENSIVE

Housing can be a little bit more expensive compared to other communities like Fort Walton Beach and Shalimar, you know, if you're working close to the base or a military contractor. The median price as of the beginning of 2023 is $475,000 for a single family home. Now, that's a low of about $195,000. Good luck finding those that have working electric. And a high all the way up to $2 million. 2 million, that seems to be quite the range. Yes, I know. And it's because we have new homes, we have places that are sitting on the water. And, there's a big demand for Niceville because what we're about to get into here in a little bit, okay. We also have cost of living, you know, for number six.

6. COST OF LIVING

Cost of living is a little bit higher. But it's really not that much higher. If you ever look at cost of living, it's based on an index. That index is average of about 100, right? And then go plus or minus. This one rated on 109.1. So, that only means that it's 9.1% higher than the national average. Realistically being as close to the water or being on the water, isn't really that bad, but still could be a con.

7. NOT A WHOLE LOT OF NIGHTLIFE

If you're somebody that likes to go out, there's not a whole lot of nightlife. There's a couple of places, but there's really not a whole lot of nightlife. If you want to do anything that's a little bit more active and a lot more activities, you're going to have to go to Destin. Or, you're going to have to go to Fort Walton Beach, more likely you'll go to Destin. That's where everything is at. That's where all the tourist go, right? So, that's the action, but there's really no night life.

8. TRAFFIC

Well, summer traffic in the Destin is terrible. If you look at a map from Niceville into Destin, you'll notice where that toll bridge is, and then there's an on ramp. And, there's been many times where I got onto that on ramp and it was like a parking lot trying to get through that toll. And then, you have that one bridge that takes you into Destin, and then you're finally there. But, it can take forever with that traffic, and it can get pretty frustrating. However, you can plan ahead, just know this ahead of time. But still, in the summer peak, even if you're working in there, you still got to deal with the tourist traffic getting in there.

9. NOT A LOT OF AREAS FOR YOU TO GO TO

Last but not the least for the cons, you have to travel to get to popular retail shops. There's not a lot of those areas for you to go in Niceville. You're going to have to go to Fort Walton Beach or you're going to have to go to Destin to go to those boutique and nice shopping, well, malls or even those big box stores. Because even hardware and things like that, there's not a whole lot of it. Yeah, you got Walmart up in there. But there's really not much else to go to into Niceville. So, you're going to have to travel 30 minutes either way to go to those different places. One of the people or locals had told me, it's like Niceville's nice, but it's still not Destin. Which is true. If you want to get all that, you'll pay for a little extra to live into the Destin.

Okay. So, let's go on to the Pros.

PROS

1. GREAT SCHOOL SYSTEMS

Great school systems, it's actually one of the top school systems here in the state of Florida. That's high school and most other schools around there are rated A. Niceville high school and their sports programs, it's where everybody comes into. So, that's number one.

2. A SMALL TOWN FRIDAY NIGHT FEEL

It's a small town Friday night feel. If you've ever been in the south or been in another place that's kind of like that, friday night football games. There's activities downtown, there's tons of stuff, family oriented things for you to do, and people love it. Right?

3. LIGHT TRAFFIC

The light traffic, kind of. Because Highway 20 that goes in between there is kind of, you know, like, there's only one way in. It's like a main artery for that. As long as you can kind of time it, it's usually okay. However, light traffic is mostly due to that people have to drive and will drive around Niceville to get to Destin. So, if they're going through Crestview or Fort Walton Beach, they're not going to go through Niceville. They're going to go another direction or round it in order to get there due to the highway systems that they do have, which leads me to number four.

4. EASY ACCESS TO THE AIRPORT

You have easy access to the airport, the interstate in Eglin Air Force Base. You have your own gate coming into there. You have Highway20 that goes to the airport. Right? You have highway 293 that's going to head you into Destin. Obviously, it's going to hit that toll. And 85 highway or Route 85 goes up to Crestview. And, Crestview gets you to I ten, which gets you all across all the state of Florida. Right? So, easy access there.

5. EASY ACCESS TO WATER ACTIVITIES

You have easy access to water activities as well, which is pretty nice. Because you have a bunch of boat launches. You've got marinas, you got docks, you got everything you need to do to get into Blue Water Bay.

6. 3rd PLANET

Alright! It's third planet. One of my favorite things. It's one of the things I'll typically travel out for. It's really, really nice. And here in 2023, it has expanded since the last time I did any sort of video for Niceville. Now, it's got a huge outdoors, it's got food trucks. It usually has live music. You see people bringing kids. It's got dogs that are out there too. Great beer as well. It's just a really happening spot. There's not a whole lot of happening spots in Niceville, but if there was one, this is it. Especially if you like some delicious libations, that's a place for you to be. Alright.

7. SHORT RIDE TO DESTIN

It's usually just a short boat ride or car ride just to get to Destin. Alright. Depending on where you're at, it could be 10-20 minute drive. Right? And it really depends on where you're going in the season. Right? If you can time it right, probably 10-20 minutes. It's also the same amount by boat. If you've got a boat, you just skip across the, or down through the bay and you get right into Crab Island and all the wonderful things that you got down in Destin. But again, it's going to depend upon what sort of boat you have. Alright.

8. GREAT RESTAURANTS

There's lots of great restaurants. Now, there isn't a plethora of restaurants out there, but what they do have is actually pretty good. You can get anything from Schnitzel. They've got a great Hawaiian place out there. Sushi, seafood, there's a good Mexican restaurant out there. Seafood, some of which are sitting there right on the bay, and it's actually really, really good. Pretty much you've got a good variety, which you need right there. But, if you want a bigger variety or not too far from that as well.

9. MILITARY PRESENCE

Last but not least, the pro is that, there's a large military presence in the area. Mainly because it's right next to Eglin Air Force Base, you're going to get a lot of vets, you're going to get a lot of active duty, you're going to get a lot of military contractors all throughout that area. Now, that could be a pro, it could be a con. In this case, we're going to call it a pro. And because of that, it kind of shifts a little bit more of a conservative values to it. You also have the Floridians and Southern alike because we're in lower Alabama. It kind of creates this sort of community. What that really means is that, you have a very respectful community that's looking after everybody. Niceville kind of looks after Niceville to make sure that, you know, everything's copacetic.

That's all I do have before you for the pros and cons of the Niceville. You got anything else you want to throw in there or any additional questions, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com

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