Where to live in Fort Walton Beach

You're thinking about moving out here to Fort Walton Beach and you're wondering, where the heck should I live? Well, in this video, we are going to talk about the different places that people have been really wanting to move for different reasons. So, stick around.

Alright. So, let's get into it. Let's talk about Fort Walton Beach. First and foremost, where is it? If you haven't ever been down here or maybe you have down here to the Emerald Coast, the Emerald Coast is that area between Pensacola all the way out here to Panama City, kind of right in the middle. We are just west of Destin. So, if you come down here, waterfront you know, this area, that's where it's at. So, what is Fort Walton Beach best known for? It's the access to Eglin Air Force Base, one of the biggest air force bases here in the continental United States. And of course, access to Hurlburt Field, which is also another asset on the Eglin field or Eglin Air Force Base. You also have the vacation spot, which is Okaloosa Island and all the wonderful beach access, accesses throughout that amount of area. A bunch of untouched beaches, thanks to the Air Force Base. There's six miles of untouched beach that you could just walk that won't probably never be developed. Just wonderful area that you can go to. It's got some of the most affordable housing in this area in comparison to everything else with this much proximity to the beach, which is nice. And of course, it's close to stuff. Right? You know, like, if you want to go to a restaurant, if you want to go to Sam's Club, Walmart, those sorts of things. Of course, having that proximity to water. And of course, there's a great community here. It's kind of eclectic, but if that's what you like, then you're in the right spot. It's got a touch of people that are from Florida mixed with that southern hospitality that we have here in Northwest Florida. And then a good mix of people like myself that were in the military that just came down and was like, I love this place and just decided to live. So, you get a good mix, very diverse amount of people, very respectful people here in our community. So, if you look at a map, if you're brand new to this area or have only visited a couple of times. If you're looking at a map to us locals, we consider just, if you Google Fort Walton Beach, you'll see it's like splitting the two different areas. Really four areas that this route here, but you'll see the Fort Walton Beach is on the southern half of that. Well, if you look above it, there's some other areas such as Ocean City and Wright. And to us, and to the post office, honestly, we all put Fort Walton Beach as the place that we actually live. So, Wright, Ocean City, Fort Walton Beach all kind of encompassed into one. As far as people in real estate, if you're saying that, hey, I'm also looking at these other towns, such as Shalimar and Mary Esther, those are all encompassed into one that we call the Greater Fort Walton Beach area. Now, if you're from here locally, you're probably like, Tim, that doesn't make any sense. I know it doesn't. That's what the realtor's taught us when we got into this. So, don't blame me. Alright? But yes, for Fort Walton Beach, that's what you're looking at, and we'll mostly talk about those areas. So, a couple of things that I'm going to talk about is the most affordable area, the highly sought after areas, the best for beach access, and of course, the overall most desired. Now, this is just based on myself and my colleagues who have helped people move to specific areas for whatever reason.

MOST AFFORDABLE

Alright. So, let's get into that first one. We have the most affordable. Most affordable is an area called Green Acres. And that's in Northwest Fort Walton Beach up in that kind of Wright area, if you will. In that specific area, it also has quick access to Hurlburt Field and Eglin Air Force Base, which is really nice for people coming to this area that are working in those areas. It's also right next to one of the expanded campuses for northwest Florida college that's here. You also have just a lot of different houses that are kind of smaller, that are in smaller lots, but great for first time homebuyers that want to move into this area. And -- Yeah. -- typically, great prices in comparison to be able to get into here. So, Green Acres is definitely your most affordable that people are looking for.

HIGHLY SOUGHT AFTER PLACES

Moving on, some of the highly sought after places, kind of middle ground that we're looking at is the Ferry Park kind of Brooke Street, which also turns into Bay Street. And that's down in southeastern part of Fort Walton Beach. People typically like this area. This has a great access to downtown. If you got all that stuff that you can go access, you know, all the restaurants. Quick access to Highway 98, all the different things that you may want to do. Great places to go get some delicious libations for the nightlife and of course, a quick access down to Destin. Not only that, but if you happen to be close enough on that bay side of Choctaw or Choctawhatchee (I'm sure I'm saying that wrong) bay that's there. You also have great views like the sunrise. So, I'm an athlete, I do a lot of my running and stuff through there because it's a gorgeous neighborhood. But we'll get through there in the morning and you just see the sun coming up. It's very rare that you get to be in this part of Florida and watch the sunrise over what looks like the water or water on the horizon. So, absolutely gorgeous, especially if you're looking for waterfront property. One of the really good things to look into, to have that just gorgeous view, especially in the morning. Although this community is a little bit older, it's really nicely kept up in those neighborhoods. Nothing feels like it's unsafe. Most of Fort Walton is going to be like that anyway, but just really, really nice that people want to go to and there's a lot, well, there's a lot of money, especially the closer you get to downtown Fort Walton.

BEST FOR BEACH ACCESS

Alright. For best for the beach access, is going to obviously be the furthest south that you get, which is on Okaloosa Island. Now Okaloosa Island, it's south of Fort Walton Beach, and it's kind of to the east. If you're looking where people are living, it's going to be off of Santa Rosa Boulevard. You got a good mix of single-family homes, townhomes, and of course, the big condo complexes. Well, you're looking to invest in a property to do shorter rentals and live their part time or just be a full-time resident, there's a lot of different options that you're going to have down there. This is one of my favorite areas for a lot of investors because it's, you know, it's pretty much water access. Right? And you're close to things to include Destin, you're a quick shot down that way. And, the taxes are relatively low in comparison to say, Miramar Beach or Destin or something like that. So, it really seems to be a good spot for people to want to get into. Nice part about this too, especially when it gets a little bit to the off season, there's not a lot of traffic. The only people going down center is a boulevard are the people that are renting there and the people that actually live there. So, the further you get down, better off. Why? Because it terminates, because the rest of that road turns into part of the Eglin Air Force Base range. So, how many people going? There's no through traffic when it goes on to that road. There's also really good restaurants, there's different places to access. If you want to rent a boat, there's a boat club that's down there. There's a ton of different destination points that you can have. But the biggest thing that I think is most advantageous for being there is, once you're at that spot, there's two main choke points. For traveling off of Highway 98, which is the main part that that connects Fort Walton Beach into the Destin that goes into Miramar, so on and so forth, is that you kind of get to cut half of that off. So, if you want to go into Fort Walton Beach, you only have one choke point. Which is going over Brooks Bridge. And then, if you're going into Destin, you get to miss the Brooks Bridge traffic and just head right into Destin or have to deal with Destin Bridge traffic, which is awesome. So, it's cutting off half your commute half the time when you're going around during the busy season for whatever you do it.

OVERALL MOST DESIRED

Alright. And then finally, the last one I have for you is the overall most desirable, desired rather from the people that are moving this way. And the big one is Kenwood. Kenwood is in kind of the northeastern part of Fort Walton Beach. Now, this is an older more developed community. It's close to Choctawhatchee. (I think I got it right that time, I don't know) Most of the people that have moved here are locals, we're call it, Choctaw. Right? But that's the high school that's right there, right across the street. You also have the middle school and inside the Kenwood area, you also have Kenwood Elementary. So, if you're looking for a place for the family, this seems to be a really nice area. I always when I go through there, I'm traveling through maybe showing homes or what have you. I always see people out walking their dogs you know, families going around just taking walks. It's actually pretty active, pretty nice community. Even though most of those homes in there were built in the 70's and 80's, and you see a couple of different ones. A lot of them have been either upgraded or just well maintained. Their sidewalks throughout this community as something that's been just sometimes nonexistent here in this area of northwest Florida, but this one has a ton of them. There's a good mix of things with that are in there. They also have two parks, one of which is on the northern side of it. Which has some pickleball courts that they just converted from your regular tennis court. I think there's still one tennis court there. But it's also next to the Fort Walton Beach golf club, just nice. So, not only that, but you could be in Kenwood and have gulf front type property as well. But they do have those two parks. You do have waterfront homes as well. There's a whole line of waterfront homes that you could go into. And. it's kind of nice because this community is also central to Fort Walton Beach. So. anywhere you want to go, you're probably within 15-20 minutes of where you need to be. So. quick access to just about everything. So, this is what makes it one of the most desirable places.

But that's all I have for you for, where to live here on Fort Walton Beach. If you have any questions about anything that I mentioned here, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com