[jersey2286]

Hello, I am looking to possibly maybe make a move to the Destin AREA. We are visiting in April. We come from the "Jersey Shore" where you can ride your bike around town and there are plenty of bars, places to ear, stores and fun things to do on the beach. As well as family friendly.

NJ is a bit expensive so I was wondering if anyone has any advice. We are a young family 29 and 31 and a 7 month old. We want something we can ride our bike around, good family location, bars and places for adult daytime fun. Good schools. Houses that aren't over 400k as well.

Pros and cons please

Advice is greatly appreciated.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by jersey2286

Hello, I am looking to possibly maybe make a move to the Destin AREA. We are visiting in April. We come from the "Jersey Shore" where you can ride your bike around town and there are plenty of bars, places to ear, stores and fun things to do on the beach. As well as family friendly.

NJ is a bit expensive so I was wondering if anyone has any advice. We are a young family 29 and 31 and a 7 month old. We want something we can ride our bike around, good family location, bars and places for adult daytime fun. Good schools. Houses that aren't over 400k as well.

Pros and cons please

Advice is greatly appreciated.

Destin is a tourist area. Once out of the city area not much to do. Some other communities between there and Pensacola may work. $400,000.00 is not much for anything decent in Destin now, but you might find something further West. My wife and I looked to over there once, but chose the East Coast and Central FL for our home. Very nice home in a nice area and well under your budget. Brand new home being built right now.

[beachmouse]

When we looked to buy a house years back, two of our big criteria were pedestrian-friendly and a neighborhood where people lived year round (was near short term rentals when we rented at the beach for a few years and got sick of the loud parties late at night when we had to be up at 6:00am the next day at work, and also didn't want a 'ghost neighborhood' where only 15-20% of the homes were occupied in the off season)

Most of Destin proper is not great from a pedestrian and bike standpoint, though it's better than it used to be. The Crystal Beach/Miramar Beach area has a nice bike and walking path but is largely vacation homes and short term rentals. There are a few more year round areas in the Beaches of South Walton area, but they tend to be fairly inland and even then $400K doesn't get you much these days.

We ended up in buying in the Bluewater Bay community the other side of the Mid Bay bridge from Destin. It met the main criteria of being very pedestrian-friendly as well as year-round and the Spousal Unit is only a ten minute drive from work. While it's less than ten minutes from a lot of the amenities of Destin, we're careful about how often we go down there because the $6 round trip bridge fare (Sunpass discount rate) adds up. It's also more pine tree and live oak suburbia than what people think of as beachy, but then most of the area isn't 'beachy' once you get more than a block or two from the beach proper.

Do we like where we live? Yes, quite a bit. It's a great area for active people and we're zoned for well-regarded schools and all. Would we move across the country to specifically live here? Probably not; we're here because Spousal Unit has a good job here and since it makes sense for him to be here for the long run, we've found a suburblet where we enjoy being within a reasonable commute for him.