[leaving colorado]

So I have been thinking of moving to Fort Walton Beach.Im so sick of the snow in Colorado.FWB seems nice enough.We have savings but wouldn't have jobs.My husband has a carpet cleaning business that he would just move there.I am a home health care aide,but will do whatever I can to pay my bills.Are jobs still hard to come by in that part of the world? Where we live now is super expensive,its nice to think we could actually buy a home in Florida here soon as opposed to just renting in Colorado.Opinions please. Oh and schools I have a 8 and 6 yr old.My oldest would be in Silver Sands so Im not concerned with that,but my youngest would go to public school.How are those?

[beachmouse]

Public schools run average to good. (Best would be Destin, the east side of the Niceville area, and the Shalimar-Poquito Bayou-Kenwood parts of Ft. Walton Beach) There are usually a number of open home health aide positions, but you're talking about $10/hour with some benefits. (maybe $11 if you've got a CNA license you can transfer down here) If your husband wants to supplement his business as he's getting clients, I'd try to get involved in working 'deep cleaning' for some of the condo management companies.

Housing here can be expensive by central/north Florida standards. You can find safe and secure housing for below $200K, but you're going to be making compromises in terms of home size, lot size, or location. The Air Force owns most of the 'good' land in the county, and a lot of the rest is built out, driving prices up. The Green Berets (about 1500 families) are relocating this summer as well, driving housing demand further upward. You can get more for your money in the Navarre area to the west, but if you're working in Ft. Walton Beach or Destin, the traffic can be bad.

Job market is still very hourglass- easy to find entry level retail and tourism jobs, easy to find rocket scientist jobs, hard to find white collar jobs in the middle unless you have connections.

[Memphis1979]

Originally Posted by leaving colorado

So I have been thinking of moving to Fort Walton Beach.Im so sick of the snow in Colorado.FWB seems nice enough.We have savings but wouldn't have jobs.My husband has a carpet cleaning business that he would just move there.I am a home health care aide,but will do whatever I can to pay my bills.Are jobs still hard to come by in that part of the world? Where we live now is super expensive,its nice to think we could actually buy a home in Florida here soon as opposed to just renting in Colorado.Opinions please. Oh and schools I have a 8 and 6 yr old.My oldest would be in Silver Sands so Im not concerned with that,but my youngest would go to public school.How are those?

You can find housing in FWB for a reasonable amount, if you don't mind military neighborhoods, and if you don't want to live within 5 miles of the beach.

Fort Waltons schools are good, East side of Niceville and Destin are better. You can forget finding a house for under 150K in good shape in blue water (east of niceville).

Jobs, forget it. There are all kinds of carpet cleaning jobs here. Your husband would have to learn hard and fast about sand, as thats the number one carpet dirtier.

I always tell people, if you want to move here you need a steady job first, then you can think about moving.

[leaving colorado]

Beachmouse thanks for the info.Im judging real estate by realtor.com.They are showing moderate homes in the 90-120K range.Is that accurate? Some of the homes look nice enough,but its hard to tell me not knowing anything about the location of them.Fort Collins where we live now is extremely expensive.You can buy a piece of junk that needs numerous repairs for around 150k,and anything nicer will be up in the 200's which Im not willing to pay.I do have a CNA license that will transfer,and I only make 13 an hr now.I am figuring we made 78k this yr as a fam,but the cost of living is really crazy.I would rather move to a beach town making 40k a yr and being able to at least own a nice home,which is not gonna happen here.

[beachmouse]

The $90K-$120K homes tend to be pretty far from the beach (figure 45 minutes minimum from a Crestview zip code to the nearest beach access point) in one of the handful of bad neighborhoods in south Okaloosa, or short sale/foreclosures that are going to be difficult to get to closing. Above that to about $225K, you'll still make some compromises- small yards, 1950s block construction that needs a little love, 1980s home with original lighting fixtures, long commute, small heated & cooled space, etc. The upside is that if you're handy and willing to put some sweat equity in, you can make something quite nice out of the 1950s-1980s home with a big for the area yard.

Property taxes are generally low here, but you should check the property insurance situation before making a final offer on a place-which side of the street you're on can make a difference in terms of paying $1200/year or more than $3K per year for a similar home.

It really is a weird real estate market and area in some ways, and if you can find a rental that fits your needs, it really helps to rent for a year before buying in order to figure out what's important and not important when it comes to making the right decision for your family.

[leaving colorado]

What exactly does a military neighborhood mean? If anything it sounds like a good thing,and I keep hearing FWB is ghetto.Ghetto how exactly? I have a cousin that lives in Destin and she loves it there but she's also single with no kids.We couldnt afford Destin tho.That would be pretty comparable to here.

[beachmouse]

Most of the military types we have around here seem to be married/married with kids and are generally pretty quiet around the neighborhood. Normally good neighbors, and if they happen to be the rare military bad neighbors, you can actually make a complaint with their CO about the inappropriate behavior.

The one thing you have to worry about right now in terms of Air Force isn't people, it's jet noise. No one's quite sure exactly how loud the F-35 training mission is going to be once they're fully operational, only that the 'sound of freedom' is going to be pretty significant. There are some preliminary noise maps out, and a good realtor should be able to give you an idea of where the areas of greatest impact will be.

There are good and bad parts of Ft. Walton Beach, sometimes right next to each other, and you can't always tell one from the other just by looking. Example- Elliott Point east of Eglin Pkwy is a nice area with everything from well kept blue collar block homes to million dollar homes on the bay. Nice community park, kids can safely walk to school. But go a few blocks west of that area and you're talking Windham&Carson streets, which does have drug and crime issues. Or what's seen as the worst part of FWB (Sylvania Heights) being essentially adjacent to some of the nicer parts of FWB/Mary Esther.


You even get that on the west side of Destin where there's a trailer court of decaying singlewides adjacent to someone's 5,000 square foot bayfront home with dual boatlifts. (I used to have a job that took me all over the south part of the county, and saw a lot of neighborhoods that most people don't know exist) It's just the nature of the area because of the lack of land for the usual urban sprawl.

As for crime in general in the area, my usual disclaimer for the area is that you usually have to be actively looking for violent crime to find it and that it doesn't usually bleed over into nicer areas, property crime does happen, but on the scale that locking house and car doors is generally sufficient to keep possessions safe.

[Memphis1979]

Originally Posted by leaving colorado

What exactly does a military neighborhood mean? If anything it sounds like a good thing,and I keep hearing FWB is ghetto.Ghetto how exactly? I have a cousin that lives in Destin and she loves it there but she's also single with no kids.We couldnt afford Destin tho.That would be pretty comparable to here.

Well it depends.

Do you like being in neighborhoods where houses are being sold constantly?

Do you like living on a street with 20 homes, and only 10 of them are currently occupied because they are TDY?

FWB isn't a ghetto, although there are parts of it that are trailer park subdivisions. Destin is a whole lot more expensive than Fort Walton, night life is better though, if you like having fun with total strangers. Usually the local service industry workers are out after 1AM.

[nwc07]

Originally Posted by Memphis1979

Well it depends.
Do you like living on a street with 20 homes, and only 10 of them are currently occupied because they are TDY?

Most military are here with their families who remain in the homes while they are TDY. Where is this street ????

[leaving colorado]

You know I honestly dont think I would mind having half the block for sale.You guys dont understand how overly expensive CO is.I will never be able to own a home here simple because I refuse to have a 1300 dollar a month mortgage starring me in the face.So Im not fancy.Your average 3 bed 2 ba home is good enough for me.So do these homes exist in the price range I want?100k is my max.Im from West TN,and you can buy a home for that all day every day there,Im hoping Northern FLorida is the same.My husband has did flooring for 10 yrs so a little TLC is nothing for us,and we would have to live in FWB cause my oldest would go to Silver Sands school.Im just do fed up with freezing in the winter.