Why is NW Florida Unique

Considering moving to Northwest Florida, that's right, the panhandle of Florida and you're wondering, what makes this place different? What makes it unique? Well, in this video, we're going to go and answer that question. So, stick around.

Alright. So, let's talk about why Northwest Florida is unique. Well, when we talk about this, like I said before, we are talking about panhandle of Florida. Specifically, what I'm going to reference is the Emerald Coast. So, we'd say the Emerald Coast is from Pensacola to around the Panama City Beach, Panama City area. Right. So, what kind of sets this apart? What makes it unique? So, couple of things.

CULTURE

First things first will be the culture that's here. I can tell you from living in all different parts of the world that culture makes a big thing and you could feel it as soon as you get out and about around people. Now, I personally grew up in upstate New York. And, the feeling that's been in New York compared to down here in the south or in Northwest Florida is strikingly different. Why? Here's a couple of examples. If you've ever been in the northeast or that's where you grew up or that's where you're watching this video from, and somebody waves at you from the car or from the street, you're wondering what the heck is wrong with that person. Why would they do that? That seems weird. Are they casing me? What's happening? Right? Here, this is normal. If you're from the south, you're like, oh, or somebody didn't wave back to you you're like, what's wrong with that person? Completely different. Right? It's a different culture. But, people are so darn nice here. It was a culture shock when I first moved down to Florida. But what's it like here? Well, there's a mix of what I'm going to call Florida vibes, because we're here in Florida. Right? And it's got a bit of the southern Alabama sort of sprinkled in with the military community. There's a ton of that here because there's like five or six military posts and bases all spread throughout this area. And a lot of us, to include myself, ended up staying here after were done with our service. And because of that, it has a very respectful sort of culture throughout here. And, it's pretty good when you can take that and you're in a destination place, no pun intended, like Destin. And, people are on vacation. How many angry vacationers have you really run into? Most people are happy on vacation. So, you get all those sorts of things and the culture that mixes in with this is just awesome. And the people that live here absolutely, go ahead and make sure that that's what everybody feels.

EMERALD COLORED WATER

Alright. So, what else do we have that makes this area unique? Well, we have the Emerald colored water. Yes. It actually does look that way like you see in the videos or in the pictures. It does. Not all the time, but most of the time it does. So, why is it even look that way? What makes it that color? Well, strangely enough with the Mississippi River as it comes down and through Louisiana, it dumps a ton of all that soot and everything into the ocean. And when that does that, all the oceans, it's all cloudy, but it starts to move up the coast. And as it moves up the coast, it starts cleaning the water. As that water continues to go, the algae that's in it starts well, feeding, and it gives off the certain glow that makes it the emerald color water that we see. So, that's why that we typically see the emerald colors. Interestingly enough. Yeah.

WHITE SAND BEACHES

Other thing that makes us we'll talk about beaches is the white sand beaches. There's really no other sand like this around. I've got on vacations and gone on cruises and things like that we go out to the beaches and I became a beach knob. It's like nobody's, my beach is way better than this one. Why did I travel and spend all this money? But it's right here the entire time. No. It's absolutely great. It's actually, if you walk on this beach, you can kind of hear it creaking. As you can go across it because it's such a fine sand. And, there's a ton of open beach for you to for public access all throughout this area. And a lot of it is undeveloped as well. So, you'll have not just that, but trees and forest behind it. It's very, very unique and very awesome for this area. Speaking of, there are a lot of undeveloped areas. This is actually home to the Apalachicola (One day, I'll be able to pronounce that) National Forest. It's actually one of the largest in the country, the national forest that they have here. And with that forest, you also have the military bases like Eglin Air Force base that consumes a large part of the area here in Northwest Florida. So, actually a lot of developers can't even purchase and build land on that. So, it's a very undeveloped with the beach in all these different areas in comparison to say Central Florida or South Florida, which really makes it when it is.

LOWER HURRICANE PROBABILITY

Now, this next one, it's going to be hard to really prove this, but it has much of a lower hurricane probability. Sort of. The amount of times that a hurricane comes through our area in the Panhandle is pretty low. Although the spaghetti models, if you know what I'm talking about, you see it on the news, all the way through the screen, usually go through our area. But, I don't know what it is, but they always seem to miss us. And even when they do, it takes somewhere around 15-20 years before we see the next one. The last one that came through was Hurricane Michael and that was in 2018 and that was a CAT-5. That really messed things up. But the good news is you probably got another 15-20 years for you guys to worry about another one. So, just keep that in mind. I don't know why this area is like it is, but it's lower than say Central Florida.

30A

Other unique area is the area we call 30a. 30a is the actual route that goes down towards the beach in Santa Rosa Beach. Right? And it's one of the most affluent areas. You've got all sorts of celebrities that have houses down there. And each little village is so unique in its own. You have, like, Alys Beach that kind of looks like something out of the Mediterranean. You know, down the street you have Rosemary Beach, which looks like some sort of European town center that they just put in somewhere. You've got Seaside that is interesting as well, that's got, like, an amphitheater and everything that's just right off the beach. There's just so much thing. There's so much culture, upscale dining, all sorts of just great great things, art in this community that really, really makes it unique. And it's beach town luxury. Well, that's the best way I can put it.

MILITARY BASES

Next would be the military bases. There's a bunch, mostly air force, but there's navy, a couple army posts, all throughout this area. And again, it plays into the community because there's a lot of military people, active duty support and also contractors. So, it brings in a lot of jobs, like government contractor jobs for this area. And also, like, it's not uncommon that you'd be driving down the street or be it a store and there's a bunch of people in uniform all around you. It's just one of the unique places that you're going to come and find us.

NOT CONDO CITY

The next one if you've been to South Florida, you've been out to Tampa or any of those areas and you try to find where the water is, all you got to do is find the tall condos because they're probably on the other side of it. Right? Here, there's not a whole lot of it. It's not condo city necessarily. Okay? It has couple of them. There's places that are close to the base that can't build above six stories because of, you know, air traffic and things like that. Granted, there's some more, especially when you get them more to Panama City, Panama City Beach area. It's going to be a little bit more clustered like that. But by and large, if you take that entire cost, it's really, really not a whole lot of that.

CONSERVATIVE AREA

Now, one thing to note as well is that this entire area is very, very conservative, politically, very conservative. There's a lot of conservative values throughout this way. If you do any research, if that's something that's important to you, then this will be the good area for you to move into. And it also gives it's community and one of those other things that make it very unique.

NATURAL SPRINGS

Speaking of, you think of Florida, you think of the beaches, but actually there's a ton of natural springs. There's natural springs here in Florida too. There's just an abundance of these places, and I'll give you a few just to kind of go with to look up if you want to. But Morrison Springs, you have Vortex Springs, Jackson Blue Springs, Madison Blue Springs, and a bunch of others. But, if you look those up, you can get some pictures online, which you could probably do while you're watching this video and take a look at it. There's diving, there's all sorts of stuff. It's just these clear pristine springs, the water is in springs. It's just absolutely cool. And I say cool, because you go there in the summer and it feels like it's ninety degrees out with the humidity. And, you're about to jump into some water that's like seventy two degrees, which is cold, by the way, especially for us Floridians that's very cold. Because normally, the water that we're going into is like eighty four degrees that's up around the ocean side. So, just keep that in mind.

LOTS OF DOLPHINS

Also, last but not least, if you do end up out here and you go to Destin or any of the surrounding areas and you do some boating, it's very, very, very easy to find dolphins all over the place. Okay? There's a lot of great Dolphin viewing, dolphin watching, all throughout the Destin area. And, you know, sometimes we will go out and rent a pontoon boat or something and be out on the water and then just bunch of dolphins just, just going around you. I'm also personally a triathlete, so I've, will swim in the open water. And I've definitely seen those in there. Kind of thought it was going to have a heart attack because I thought it was shark, but it was actually some dolphins playing off in the distance. And without water being as clear as it is, you can see everything. So, if that freaks you out, don't do the craziness that I do.

Alright. So, that should sum up why Northwest Florida is unique. I just gave you some ideas. Obviously, there's a lot more than that. If you have any comments or anything that I mentioned here, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com