[dana1003]

my husband and i have two small girls and have been currently renting for 13 years( yes, i know) but we have no choice-the price of homes in this area is ridiculous. we are considering a move to fort walton area where his entire family is. of course when i mention to my mom she had a breakdown, doesnt want us to take the girls away, we'll hate it blah blah blah. main reason for moving would be to purchase a house and finally put our $ into an investment.we visited and liked it..much slower paced thatn what we'reused too but with how stressful itis here i think we will enjoy it. has anyone done the family with their family and if so, do they enjoy it? my mom doesnt make the decision any easier but this is a new year and as much as it would hurt to take the girls away, i think its something we must do. any feedback would be appreciated!

[On-da-Beach]

I don't think this is so much about moving as it is about your relationship with your mom. You are allowing your mother to control your lives. She had a breakdown?? Oh, please... If she loves you, she would be happy for you to move your lives in a positive direction. Would you treat your children this way? Sure, she'll miss you and the girls but you aren't dying and she will have the opportunity to see you again. It could actually make a nice vacation for her.

If she isn't in the equation, is the decision easier?

Having family in Ft. Walton will certainly make the transition easier.

[mgb]

If you move, rent for awhile to make sure you're happy there. That way you won't be stuck if you want to move back.

[DailyJournalist]

Have you put any thought into what jobs you will get when you arrive in the Panhandle and what your wages may be?

[beachmouse]

The job situation here is pretty quirky- lots of very high skill, high wage jobs in a handful of specialist positions (IT, programming, aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, medical fields) a ton of service industry positions, and very few non-tech white collar jobs which can pay very little because they'll get 50-100 applicants for each of those kinds of jobs. The senior administrative assistant position that pays $60-$80K in NYC will get you $30K if you're lucky; lots of other middle management professional jobs pay decidedly under $50K. It's an Air Force retiree town, and employers can get away with assuming you're drawing military retirement pay in addition to your relatively low wages at your current job.

Though if you can make the job situation work, it's a good place for a family. Okaloosa County schools are consistently rated first or second in the state, (Best within the district would be Destin, Niceville, or the north side of FWB in the Shalimar-Kenwood-Poquito Bayou area) there are a lot of very good youth athletic and performing arts options available for an area this size, and there's just enough going on to keep teenagers busy and mostly out of trouble.

[Floridaherbgirl]

Hello - just a thought - I am from Fl, lived in the Midwest (all over) for 20 years and just returned little over a year ago to come home. There are many NY and NJ people here and the only thing is...remember if you are coming down here because it is too stressful up there, please convert to the FL mentality...think Jimmy Buffet, Pina Coladas and Southern Hospitality. The people from your neck of the woods has really ramped up the area with tension, impatience, criticism of people working in Paneras, the grocery store etc. As soon as I mention I am a Floridian, if there is another Floridian, they vent how stressful it is with all the NY'ers here. Just keep it in mind. My thought...convert....take it easy. It might take longer to get that coffee but you'll get it with a smile and people will bend over to help you out if they are treated right.

As far as areas, if you are talking schools I would look at Destin/SanDestin/Niceville....we are considering a move from Central FL to there this next summer. Crestview is less expensive and I have friends there, you can get alot of a house (especially in this market) for the price but I am not impressed with the schools in Crestview.

Best of luck!

[beachmouse]

Antioch Elementary has a pretty good reputation, but I agree with you on the rest of the Crestview schools. As for Crestview itself, there are some fairly self-contained people who are happy up there, but most of the people I know who live/have lived there tend to fall into two camps: the ones who have a honeymoon period for a couple of months because they love the big new house they got for cheap and then get sick of how far away they are from the neat beach, restaurants, and shopping that make the area unique and how there's nothing to do up there for entertainment because you can only mock the freak parade at Crestview Walmart so many times without feeling gulty or dirty about it. And the people who want to live in the country and maybe have a couple of horses and who see that Crestview is headed toward suburban sprawl hell in ten years and who are moving or planning to move further out to Baker, Laurel Hill or Mossy Head because you can still get five acres there for something resembling a reasonable price.

[southernnaturelover]

Worth noting, the panhandle is a conservative area with lots of military families, if you consider yourself a "liberal" you will most likely not be happy in this area.

[Floridaherbgirl]

beachmouse..you are right. my friends in Crestview have been there for 14 years and love it. they have a great property and a great house and don't live in a subdivision with any restraints. they don't mind the small town living and dont mind the drive for shopping and restaurants and when they do go. they warned me that it is more expensive to live in niceville but i think what i would save in gas would make it a wash. we live in a 'quiet' area and i drive forever to do anything, 30 minutes to work out, 100 miles a DAY to take the kids to and from school the multiple times they need to go and so on.

southernaturelover....conservative, militarry....sounds good to me! :-) i don't like the ignorant hick attitude which is popular where we live here, and alot of bad decisioins are made by people who are in positions because their families owned farm land in the area a hundred years ago but i do appreciate conservative and military communities and i am in no way a liberal so that should be a good fit. :-) more of a moderate conservative.

[beachmouse]

I see the area as conservative but intellectually curious. The military folks tend to bring that kind of tone: they appreciate the good things they saw in the country when they were stationed in Germany, but they wouldn't want to live there full time because they want to start a business after they leave the service because the labor laws make it too hard to do so there; they're glad they got to be in Japan or Korea or Alaska for a time but it was never going to feel like home in any of those places; and nothing make you appreciate American democracy and economic development like a winter spent in an insulated tent in Uzbekistan.

The weapons development people are also like that. If you're working on ways to better blow stuff for a living then chances are that you're not going to be a traditional liberal, but if you've also got a PhD in physics or chemistry or engineering then you've got to have an interest in academic exploration at some level.

I'm a left wing bleeding heart type by local standards, and as long as we don't talk politics, I get along well with neighbors and coworkers.