Is Destin Florida Safe to live

So, you're considering moving to the Destin Fort Walton Beach area and you're curious, is Destin a safe place to live? Well, in this video, we're going to go over not just the crime statistics, but we're going to talk about what makes an area safe. So, if this is for you, stick around.

So, let's talk about Destin. What is Destin most known for? And, why would you want to move out here? Well, Destin is actually known as the Luckiest Fishing Village because, well, that was really it. And then, we had a big influx of tourism and just a ton of things and money came in here. Of course, Eglin Air Force Base grew out, so there was a ton of money that came into this area and made Destin blow up big. We also have some of the most beautiful beaches if you asked me and maybe I'm a little biased. But that's also flanked by some lush forest that's all throughout there. So, if you want to see that white sand and have lots of trees everywhere, well, this is the place for you. There's some of the best boating here in the United States, right here in the Destin - Fort Walton Beach area. Some of the best boating clubs are actually there in Destin. There's a great community here in Destin. You just have this relaxed beach community feel all throughout just living here. It's got a good mix of, let's say, southern hospitality, since we're just below Alabama and Georgia. But, it's also got a good mix of Floridians and well, you kind of know what that is. Destin has tons of things to do. Even if you're not living directly in Destin, a lot of the people and locals like myself will travel into Destin, just to do the things that we want to do. But there is such a big influx of tourism, meaning that there's tons of activities for you to do for you and for the whole family, not just going to the beautiful beaches, but that's definitely on the itinerary. And of course, you have tourism. And, with tourism comes traffic, and traffic. Now, comparatively where you're coming from, it may not be so bad but we kind of as locals get the city back right around the fall time to just about the end of the winter. And then, of course, spring break comes back around and it's good time again. But that's just something you have to consider when you do move to this area.

WHAT MAKES THIS AREA SAFE?

What makes an area safe aside from the crime statistics? Well, our last poll that we did, we found that it was good lighting at night. There's plenty of lights on the streets, in the common areas, parking lots, things like that. Also, are there sidewalks? Are there biking lanes throughout? Fire stations, are they nearby? Are there fire hydrants that are close to homes? Are the schools good? And here's a kicker, I didn't think that was going to be on this list, but are the parks clean? You know, or they dirty with lots of litter, homeless thrown throughout. What's going to make this area safe? So, as you go through different parts of Destin, each one's going to be a little bit different. Because you have a variety of different places from East Destin, where it's kind of old Destin. And then, you have towards the west that are going to be the more affluent areas where you have Kelly Plantation, Regatta Bay, all these gated communities, they have their own parks and different things inside of them. But by and large, you're going to find that there's really good lighting throughout a lot of these areas even if it's not controlled by the HOA. Sidewalks and biking lanes, that's been something that's been growing over time. But, you're going to see a lot more of that, if you get in a little bit of the older Destin area, you won't find as much. But, it's still significantly better than other areas around the Destin area. There are good fire hydrants and you do have fire stations that are nearby. And of course, you also have the ones coming from Okaloosa Island that's only six mile stretch into Destin through Okaloosa, through nothing, I guess, off of 98 to get there. And, of course, you do have Niceville that's able to take the toll bridge down there as well, aside from just the Destin Fire Department. Schools, Destin also just went ahead and built a brand new high school. And we haven't seen the ratings on that yet, but we can imagine that they're probably going to be pretty high. Destin schools already were ranked around A according to niche.com. And the parks, again, nice parks.

CRIME

Alright. Well, let's get to it. You're probably wondering, alright Tim, let's hear the numbers. Alright. We got you. So, let's talk about crime. There's a couple of different things that we're going to talk about. We're gonna talk about violent crime, property crimes and, well, just the total crime numbers, and then we'll go ahead and line that up for the national average. So, what's violent crime? You probably imagine that it's murder, rape, robbery, assault. Those are violent crimes. Just saying them seems like they're violent. Property crime, well, that's the other things. You've got burglary, theft, vehicle theft, all these things are what we're going to get ratings from online. Our best resource that we have found was from areavibes.com. So, if you want to see what the current values are for these different statistics in the areas, please go ahead and check that out. Right now at the time of this video, we're at the end of 2021. So, here's what we got so far.

First things first, let's talk about violent crimes. The national average across the United States was 388 per a hundred thousand people. Right? So, Florida is the whole state is 384 per a 100k. And then, Destin itself is estimated because we don't actually have the exact numbers, but estimate around a 160 per 100k. So, significantly lower. Right? Let's talk about property crime. The national average for property crime is about 1,958 per 100,000. And then, in the state of Florida, it is 1,769 per 100,000. And Destin, where is Destin stack up. It's estimated somewhere around 736. That's pretty low for 100,000 of course.

Alright. So, total crime. Let's go ahead and put that together, national average is 2,346 per 100,000. In the state of Florida, it's 2,153 per 100,000. And of course, in Destin, it's estimated to be 895 per 100,000. So, pretty darn good. What is the overall rating for Destin for crime? It is actually an A plus. That's right, right on the top. So, total crime is about %62 below the national average. You also have violent crime, which is %59 below the national average. And of course, property crime is %62 below the national average.

So, is Destin safe for you and your family? Well, only you can decide. If you want some more information about this area or about moving to this area, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com