Why are  People Moving to Destin?

You're thinking about moving to the Destin area, and you're probably curious, why are people moving here now? What is the reason that people are moving here and why during this time of 2021, 2022? Well, in this video, we're going to go over not just why people are moving to Destin, but why people are moving here now, so stick around.

Alright. Well, let's get into it. Why are people moving to Destin? Well, let's talk about Destin. Where is it? Just looking into this place and you haven't been here yet, you're going to, if you're looking on a map of Florida, we're up in the northwest corner, and pick out Pensacola and Panama City Beach, and we're pretty much right in the middle there, right sitting there on the gulf. It's not that big of an area. It's got 13,702 for its population.

But the reason people typically move out to this area is, well, first and foremost, the beaches. That white sand beach with an emerald-colored water sitting right behind it, and most of which is untouched. You go to certain places, like, you may go down to Tampa and down that part of Central Florida, and it's pretty much condo city all around. So, you come here and there's a lot of spaces where it's just the old golf booms and nothing else but trees and white sand, it's absolutely gorgeous.

Of course, the weather plays a part in this too. And it's not just devastatingly hot all the time like you're going to find down there in Miami. Here we actually have a little bit of season. So, yeah, it does get hot and humid in the July, August, even September time frame. But most of the other times, very, very comfortable, really nice, it is a bit humid. I mean, right by the ocean. But, we do get down to about 45, 50 degrees for about four months of the year, so still pretty comfortable.

Other reasons is, we still have world class boating and fishing all throughout this area. Destin is actually known as one of the luckiest fishing villages it turned into what it is here today.

And of course, I can't say this enough, just the great community that they have here in this area. I mean, we get a little bit of everything. We've got a little bit of that southern hospitality since we're just below Alabama and Georgia. We've got a bit of Florida relaxed, you know, wearing sandals and shorts every day, sort of feel.

And of course, we're surrounded by four military installations, which brings a ton of diversity and respect just all around this community. And it's just, it's great. And of course, there's tons, tons of dew young and old all throughout this area. You've got the parks, beachparks, like Henderson Beachparks. You've got Norriego Point that's out there. There's tons of shopping, the Destin Commons, Premium Outlets. There's a Big Kahunas water park for the kids. Pretty much anything on the water we got in here. Great restaurant seafood. Right? Bars are awesome if that's your thing and the HarborWalk. There's tons of stuff. Ther's zipline, rock climbing wall. They got Margaritaville that they just put in there. And course, some of the old favorites, if you like, a slice and a little libations. You can head down to Jester's and get yourself a little treat there.

And of course, last but not least, people are moving here because of the golf, golfing year round. If you are looking to get out there and just work on your game or just enjoy it, there's tons of golf courses around here. Really, really nice, nicely designed ones all throughout the Destin area into Fort Walton Beach, Miramar. They're all around here and they're open year round.

Okay. So, why are people moving here as of lately here at the very beginning of 2022? Mainly, it's because of a couple of things. We have the cost of living, housing in this area, the COVID restriction or rather the lack thereof, and of course, a growing job market that does exist down here.

COST OF LIVING

So, let's revisit number one, cost of living. So, we typically look at cost of living on a scale to a hundred. Where a hundred is the absolute average in the continental United States. Anything above or below is going to dictate whether it's better or worse comparatively to the average. So, let's get into it. Goods and services is ranked 95, which means that it's 5% below the national average. Look at groceries, groceries are sitting at a 97, which means again, it's 3% below the national average. Healthcare? Healthcare sits at a 93, 7% below the national average. Housing? Well, everybody's trying to move down here lately, so we're going to take that at 148. So, that's 48% above the national average. One thing I want to let you know about housing here in the Destin, in the city of Destin, is it's actually one of the most expensive places to purchase a home. But if you still want to experience Destin, you can look at other surrounding communities. Niceville, you have Fort Walton Beach, you have Shalimar, Mary Esther, even out to Navarre, Crestview if you want to take a little bit of a drive up north. All these areas have a lot to offer and you can get it a much more affordable price than you would in the city of Destin. But, it's still here. Alright! Let's keep going. Transportation ranks at 97, which again is 3% below the national average. For your average utility, actually, it rates 121, 21% above the national average. Think about it, we run AC and heat while we're here. And I know that's not much different, but it does get pretty hot here and the AC seems to cost us a bit more. So overall, our actual cost of living is 114, so a 14% above the national average. Now compare that to some places that in California, New York, and a lot of people that are already moving down here, this is still a significant jump down in cost of living. Now, of course, all these numbers can be verified if you want to go to areavibes.com, to go ahead and check them out. And of course, they're constantly changing. So, if you want to see what it currently is now, please go ahead and check that out.

HOUSING

Let's move on the housing. So, housing in the Destin area has significantly moved up. Now, nationally, our total appreciation for homes was about 11.2%. In the state of Florida, it actually went up 20.84%. That's ridiculous. Alright. So, if you bought back in 2020, man, you're happy now. But of course, it's different across the state and of course, up here in Northwest Florida. So, in 2021, our total appreciation in the median price or value was 9.6%. Now, if you want to look at what it was back in 2021, our median price for a home was $517,000. Now, that's for a single family home. It's a high all the way up to 6.1 million, which was sitting there over on the gulf and it was gorgeous, for a low all the way down to $117,500. Which of course was something that you couldn't have financed and then needed to be bought cash and probably pull those to the ground. In any case, those are our numbers from last year. Now, what happened with the housing market? Well, it was still a great time to buy despite the things that we just talked about. Interest rates were still low. So, if you're looking to hold on to this asset for any amount of time, having a lower interest rate is going to save you so much money as you start to pay this thing off over time. And with the appreciation that it is, you gain equity super super quick. Now the demand for the houses was also very high. So, trying to get into one of these houses really required a lot of, well, negotiations and different tactics because a lot of what homes that were priced right and they were dressed right, had went very, very quickly. So, our job of course as real estate agents is to get you the best possible price with the best possible terms. However, we had to start paying above or offering above list price, even to a point to where we had to start. What are the tactics we were using was to have an appraisal gap, meaning that I know the house appraised to this value and that, the market says, is it's worth this amount. But we're going to pay up to $7,000 over that to cross the appraisal gap from what we ended up offering you to what we could actually borrow. So, there is a lot of different things and it continues to evolve. But with the low interest rates of the way that they are and the way that the market is moving, if you can afford it depending on your personal situation, it's silly not to move on a piece of real estate at this time.

COVID RELATED RESTRICTIONS

Okay. So, going on number three, one of the big reasons people are moving here is the lack of COVID related restrictions. Now, personally, I just got back from running the Hawaii marathon and it was grossly different over there than it was here in our hometown here in Destin. If you live in a place where you have to wear a mask inside, outside, have to show a vaccine card or proof that you had a negative test within the last 48 hours or any of that, that doesn't exist here. And, it hasn't for a while. Our current governor, Governor DeSantis, has really put kind of the next on everything here for everybody else's choice. Whether you are on one side or the other, that's kind of dependent upon whether you will like being in this area or not. It has been that we've seen a lot of tourist and people coming here to kind of escape with their current state restrictions are and actually enjoy a bit of a vacation. So, the lack of COVID related restrictions, whether it be in the schools or just normal day to day, has driven a lot of people to move here to Florida, move out to Texas, and other places. Idaho, I think, was another one. But that's why they were coming here.

JOB MARKET

Number four was the growing job market. The military, both army and air force, has expanded in this area with different commands that are coming in in different units. They're still projected to be coming into this area. That being said, if you're not in the military, there's a lot of support that comes with that, that are military contractors. So, we not just get the influx of military people, but we're also getting the support people for different programs and things that they do here. And, another big thing is that, because of 2020 and 2021, a lot of businesses have relied on teleworking in order to get things done. And some people have been negotiating with their bosses to go, hey, I can be just as effective at home than I can, you know, at the office. Why is there any reason for me to be there? So, the geolocation of those people has changed vastly. So now you can go in and pick up your computer and instead of being in, I don't know anywhere in New England and being sucked in with the snow. You can pick it up and come on down here to Florida to live and live where you vacation.

So, that's kind of been yet, why people are moving to Destin. If you have any questions about anything that I did mention here, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com