Pros and Cons of Living on Okaloosa Island Fort Walton Beach Florida

So, you're moving here to the Destin Fort Walton Beach area, and you're considering moving to Okaloosa Island. And you're wondering, what the pros are and what the cons are for living in this particular area? Well, in this video, my team and I came up with the top five pros and top five cons for living on Okaloosa Island.

So, let's get into it. Let's talk about Okaloosa Island. First things first, where is it? Well, it's actually that Island right South of Fort Walton that actually touches the gulf, right? It's the most beautiful part of Fort Walton Beach, in my opinion.

CONS

So, let's get to the cons. Let's just knock them out. Alright, top five cons.

5. Lots Are Small

The Lots there on Okaloosa Island are a little bit smaller, it's a little bit closer quarters. Mainly because there's just not a whole lot of land that you can build out there. Because there's an Air Force Base just north of Okaloosa Island that doesn't allow anything else to be built out there.

4. Parking

Unless you have a designated spot in your condo complex or you've got plenty of driveway space in your single-family home. Parking can be a little rough and mainly because when the weather's really good, the locals and everybody else and all the tourists are going to come out. They're going to try to get to the beaches there, right? And they can't always park in the condo complexes. So, the public parking gets filled up like that. And next thing you know, you are driving all around just trying to find a place that you can park. So, as long as you have designated parking, that shouldn't be too big of an issue.

3. Cold During Winter

Even though we are in Florida, it still gets cold around here. It can get as cold as 20 degrees. Which seems to happen every four years. Which just happened this year, as the date of this video. So, you might be in the clear.

2. Very Touristy

It is very touristy during the Spring to the fall time. Well, people are just flocking down here to see the beauty that you get to live in every single day. So yes, it's going to get a little bit busier when the weather turns great. So, spring break all the way until kids go back to school, yes, it's going to be very touristy. But again, it's part of the things that you have to worry about when you live here in just a piece of Paradise.

1. Traffic

You can probably guess what it is, traffic. Yes, it's traffic. During the holidays, just during peak tourist season, like at the beginning and the end of the season, it's pretty terrible. But, if you live on Okaloosa Island, you can get around that or just plan accordingly. You're really halfway through the traffic at that point. It is really just gets bogged down on Destin Bridge and Brooks bridge. And after that, it's not so so terrible. But if you're already there in your destination is where you live, which is on the beach, it's all right, right?

PROS

Okay. So, let's get into the pros, Ready? Top 5 Pros.

5. Home Condo Prices

The affordability for the homes and condos on the island in comparison to everywhere else in this proximity of the water, right? Your single-family home, the median price as of the date of this video is $430,000. That's not bad for a detached single-family. That's a high all the way up to eight $865,000 and a low of $266,000. Not bad at all. If you're looking for condos, it's a great place to invest into a condo. You've got a median price of around $370,000 with a high of just over a million and a low of $108,333. I don't know why it was 333 but, whatever. So, to invest, if you're looking for a short-term vacation rental in this area or just trying to get your little piece of the pie of paradise out here. What a great opportunity to find something affordable that is still within proximity of everything else. Comparatively, to like Destin, Miramar Beach places like that.

4. Access To The Marina

Yes, you are right there where it's just a short drive or even a walk depending on where you're at to a handful of marina's are right there by Brooks Bridge. So, you can hop on the boat and get some of the best boating that you're going to find out here in Florida, and this guy's opinion.

3. Walking Distance

You're walking distance from pretty much anything you want to do right there on the island. Just for an example, you've got the Gulf restaurant. Which is really, really cool outdoor venue, which got all different types of seating. Most of the places are old storage containers that they converted into structures. It's just really, really cool to go check out. Right next door to that, you do have the public park to go out to. Of course, you're a short distance from Publix for shopping. You've got the Boardwalk on the island. You've got great Seafood, Fubar Pizza, which is one of my favorites and so much more, But, it's right there and just within walking distance, depending on well, how long you want to walk, right?

2. Quick Access

Alright, speaking of that, that brings me up to number two, which is quick access to downtown Fort Walton Beach and Destin. You're in the middle of, well, it's close to the middle of these you can possibly be. From the action in downtown Fort Walton Beach, in downtown Destin. So, you're right there and it's just a short drive either which way.

1. Beaches And View Of The Gulf

Can you guess? Oh yeah, the beaches and the gulf view right there. That's right. You wake up every single day. You can smell the sea salt. If you're lucky enough to have a gulf view, you can look right out there and just see the waves crashing with that beautiful emerald water. Just absolutely wonderful. Not only that, if you like the plain untouched beach, there are six miles of untouched beach that you can go walk down and just meditate, do whatever that you need to do to enjoy. You not only have the activities at the boardwalk, but you have that as well to enjoy, alter yourself if you really, really wanted to go do that. And, take solace in the fact that they're not going to build anything out there because of that Air Force Base. That's right on the approach of some of their runways that they have out there. So lucky, you're only going to have what's built up now, maybe a little bit more but not much from where we are now.

So, that's all that we have for you for the pros and cons of living on Okaloosa Island. If you have any questions about anything we mentioned here, feel free to call/text us at 850.320.7757 or email us at Admin@WhittemoreGroupRE.com