Living in MIRAMAR FLORIDA will be HELL - unless you can handle these 10 FACTS!

So, you're considering moving out to Miramar Beach. You're wondering, what do I need to know about this area, about Florida prior to making this decision? Well, in this video, living in Miramar Beach could be hell, unless you can handle these 10 facts that I'm about to go over. And, you want to stick around to the very last one because number 10, it's probably the one that you're not thinking about that can make or break your decision.

All right, let's get into it. Let's talk about Miramar Beach. Now, if you haven't been here, maybe vacation here before or you've heard your friends doing it, or you saw one of my videos, it is a really nice place. It's located just east of Destin and west of Santa Rosa Beach. And, if you're not familiar with that area, that's our 30A region where we have a lot of the really ritzy step of by seaside water colors, Rosemary Beach, all that stuff. This area isn't highly populated or densely populated. It's only around 8,356. Now, depending on where you come from, that could be more or less.

All right. So, let's get into the top 10 things.

1. HEAT AND HUMIDITY

First things first is the heat and humidity. Now, at the recording of this video, we're just getting through September and it's still ugly hot. Now, it's not the heat that gets you here, it's the humidity. So, I am an avid runner, and I run a marathon once a year because I'm crazy apparently. And, when I do so, I wake up early, early morning to get into the coolest part of the day. Now, the coolest part of the day is about 81 degrees and about 90 something degree or percent humidity. That's pretty intense, the heat index is pretty high up there. So, during the hot parts of the Florida, summer into the fall or spring, which we have two seasons here, it's pretty intense. So, know that coming into it, not only that, it does get cool up here on the panhandle of Florida. So, we could be in a pretty consistent, 45 to 55 degrees during the winter time. It doesn't sound like it's going to be that cold. But, let me tell you something, back in my military career, I took a time where I was traveling to the coldest places on Earth. Which were in Antarctica and upwards in Greenland, Northwest territory places like that, and in Canada. Pretty much the Arctic and Antarctic Circle. I was flying missions back and forth with a unit up from Schenectady, New York, and we did a lot of missions ther in Antarctica. Now, that's one of those continents which is covered with snow, but the humidity is pretty low, relatively speaking. So, you can go out there and like a negative 20 and you'd be fine. I know that sounds crazy. But if you've ever been in a place like that, it seems okay. Now, I remember going up to place called Cambridge Bay and it was negative 20 out there. And dresses the way I normally would, skin expose, your face was still out there. Just walked around the aircraft which was a C-130, came back inside and my face would bit red. Why? The humidity up there was significantly higher, and man, that made that cold so much colder. Now, obviously I got done with that job and said, no more cold for me and I moved here to Florida. But yes, even in the colder times that humidity does have an impact.

2. TROPICAL STORMS AND HURRICANES

We have tropical storms and hurricanes that come through here. That's part of the price that you pay when you live here in Paradise, all right? Now, they don't happen or come through here that often. We're actually very lucky here on the Emerald Coast where things don't necessarily go through here. They either shoot up Central Florida or they go out towards Louisiana and out that way. So, this Corridor, even though it is, has a potential rather, for tropical storms and hurricanes to come through here, doesn't really happen that often. Now, don't worry too much about that. Most of the structures and everything here, especially homes, have been built up to the standards to withstand a lot of the hurricane or hurricane damage if it does come in. Most things aren't built in a flood or surge zones. You'll know that prior to purchasing a house providing that the realtor will tell you. So, you're pretty protected here. Most people don't freak out unless it's above a category 3 hurricane. And, obviously tropical storm is a tropical storm. So, that's one other thing.

3. COST OF LIVING

We have our cost of living out in Miramar Beach, Florida. Now, it's a little bit higher than the national average. Now, if you think about this, if you haven't seen our cost of living video for this area, please go ahead and check it out, shameless plug on our YouTube channel. Other than that, I could tell you that right now here in 2021, the cost of living is about 121.8 on the scale. Now, that scale goes from 0 to 100 and above, obviously we're 100 is the average across the continental United States for cost of living. So, it's a little bit higher and it's because of the area.

4. HOME PRICES

Home prices are rather expensive here. It's a little bit more affluent than certain parts of Destin. So, because of that, and you're just on your way into getting into the 30A, which is very, very ritzy part of town. The home prices are quite a bit higher. Now, what's that look like? A median price for a single family home in the Miramar Beach area, is going to be around $787,000. Now, that's a high all the way up to $11.7 million. Whoo, I think it's like a castle. And, a low of about $320,000. So, you can still get something reasonable here. Just know that, because of the way that it's kind of locked between the bay and the gulf, that there's not a whole lot of real estate that is available there. All right, so maybe you're not looking for a single-family home. You're like, I want to live the condo life, that's awesome. Now, the condos for a median, for that price here in 2021 is $425,000. Now, that's a high all the way up to $3.2 million, which are the penthouse suites and then of course a low all the way down to $167,000. Now, obviously, that one's not going to be gulf view, water view or anything like that. But of course, you could still get into the area with that.

5. HIGHER HOA

The HOA's are going to be a little bit higher than the neighboring Destin, Fort Walton Beach area. Mainly because, a lot of these communities are gated off or that they are in a condo. And, the closer that we get towards the 30A area in Santa Rosa Beach, it's just becomes more and more and it's a little bit more costly. So, expect higher HOA's in these areas before you invest in those. Make sure that you do check that out, because what we just mentioned before, how the condo prices were significantly lower. Well, to make up for that, we do have a significant HOA fee that will go with that. So, make sure that you do get a cost of ownership estimate prior to making that purchase.

6. GATED COMMUNITIES

Yes, I said it already. There's lots of gated communities throughout there. Now, this is really good for those residents who want to stay in there and not be bothered by everything else, and all the tourism and traffic and everything else that comes through this area. So, there are a lot of gated communities that could be a little bit more tough as your trap, traversing to your friend's house, or whatever, but because of that, that could be a negative thing for you. 

7. TOURIST

Well, there's a ton of Tourism. People love coming to Miramar Beach. They love the feeling of it, they like the fact that it's close to Destin. There's tons to do, the outlet malls, all the restaurants, all those things. People are flocking into the Miramar Beach area, mostly through spring all the way to fall. And, we get about, I don't know, maybe 2-3 months, where the locals get it back and then we give it right back to the tourist coming here. But tourism is a huge, huge part of this community, it brings in a lot of money. And, because of that, we have lots of great restaurants and shops all throughout the area. But, expect that you're going to be sharing this community.

8. TRAFFIC

Traffic is nuts out here, and it feels like they've been doing construction down Highway 98 for like, seven years. I have no idea. I know it hasn't been that long. But, every time I go down there, they're always trying to widen it out and then, as soon as they get it done, they put more stuff in there. I don't know. And because of that, the traffic already was pretty terrible, add construction on top of it, it gets pretty rough. So, if you are living or planning on living in this area, a lot enough time to get through the traffic throughout here. Now, the traffic here isn't like it's bad as LA in Los Angeles, that's the worst I've ever seen in the states. The worst in the world, I think was Thailand, that was pretty awful. But anyway, the traffic here is pretty tough, as long as you account for that, you should be fine. One of my favorite friends, especially as a real estate agent, is Google Maps, its got some live traffic or Waze, whatever you want to use. That way, you can kind of plan that out and not perpetually late.

 All right, getting pretty close here to the end.

9. FLORIDA BUGS

Well, we do have Florida bugs here. If you haven't heard of them yet, you're about to hear about them now. Now, in our area specifically, the closer that you get to the ocean, the less of a factor it is. It could be because of the wind, or the heat or whatever. But, there is a part of the day when the sun starts to go down where swarms of bugs just come out of nowhere. And, they got all different types of mosquitoes, noseeums. I don't know we call them that, big old like cockroach looking things, but they're not cockroaches. You ask me, I think it's a cockroach. There's all sorts of bugs that are going to be out in the Miramar Beach area all across the the Emerald Coast. So, if you're a little bit adverse to that and can't handle it, well, maybe this wouldn't be the best place.

10. WHITE SAND

All right. I've got the last one here that you may not be anticipating. What is it that could make this place hell if you do move down here? The thing I'm going to tell you is that what actually attracts most people to this area, which is that beautiful, beautiful white sand that people go out to the beach for. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome. But everything else is out here is built on sand, okay. And, even though that there's soil and stuff on top, there's sand under it. And because of it, it gets in everything, everything. And, you'd be like, I didn't even go to the beach today and you walk into your house and then there's sand everywhere, it's that really fine sand constantly. Our little iRobot has lots of fun in our house just tracking down that thing. There's always tons of sand everywhere. And because it's built on sand, it's kind of hard to get away from. So, yes, as long as you're okay with sandy toes, even in your house, I think you'd be all right.

All right, well, that's all that I have for you for the living in Miramar, Florida this place would be hell unless you can handle these 10 facts. That's what I got for you there. If you have any questions about anything that I have went over, please feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com