Acting as your own contractor

I think SoWal is about as diverse as a pen full of white sheep.

:floor: Bahhhhh Bahhhhh

and I hate the narrow minded crap I'm surrounded by here. I want to raise my children in a fairly diverse environment where there are proactive, intelligent people. I've met several of them in SOWAL.

There are several open-minded people here; I think I've met all eight of them. Have you ever read the "letters to the editor" in our local newspapers? Wow, they represent some VERY narrow minded views that are, to me, quite scary. I agree with SJ, about as diverse as a pen of white sheep. Nice place if one can afford to live here, but don't kid yourself about open-minded diversity in the Florida Panhandle.

Sounds not much better than where I live. Tolerance level here is low. At least you don't have to see Fred Phelps on the corner every day, though I did see a sign in Freeport last summer.

Guess the divide there is much wider than I thought. Eight huh? I've already met that many - my social circle is pretty open though. I don't know of any place that is perfect. Not everyone has $$$ down there. I'm just as comfortable hanging out with a doctor as I am a housekeeper - and have never had a problem with who approves or disapproves of the company I keep. Not everyone loses sight of where there money came from or how lucky they are to have it. Many who regularly post on this board were 'middle class' not so many years ago.

On the other hand, the Panhandle's a bigger place than just SoWal alone, and for the most part, people tend to be pretty live and let live. Pensacola manages to be home to one of the most conservative Christian colleges in the country while at the same time, Pensacola Beach is one of the big gay beaches in the Southeast. The military towns near Eglin and Tyndall are pretty conservative on the surface, but those same conservatives have lived in a lot of different places in the world, and tend to be a lot more open-minded than you might first think. The military also seems to do a better job of squashing racism than the civilian world does a lot of the time. I seem like I know a lot more interracial military couples than interracial civilian couples. And then there are a ton of odd little high tech clusters in various places between Tallahassee and the state line.

As for the newspaper letters, I don't see them as particularly indicative of the average person here. They're pretty much the fringes on either side of any given issue.

Things a bit looser in the Niceville/Bluewater areas? The schools sure get my vote. Beachmouse - I know in the past you have highly recommended the area. Is the market adjusting here or still same as last summer? Maybe I should be looking at lots here...

East Niceville/Bluewater is one of those odd tech clusters. Lots of officers, GS-13s, and civilian engineers that work in missle development. (aka. the neighborhood rocket scientists) The land that's in play right now is mostly built out, though there are a couple new developments around Rocky Bayou CC in the works, and scattered vacant lots in other areas. The Ruckel family allegedly has some plans in the works for a huge development in the SR 285 area by the wee airstrip, but no one knows the timeframe on it right now other than it's after they build out Swift Creek.

Market is softening a little right now, but single family is probably going to be pretty sticky downwards because a lot of people would rather pull the property off the market and wait to see if BRAC drives prices up again (Eglin AFB was a big gainer in base realignment) when the new people start showing up in 2008-2009 instead of selling at what they see as too much of a discount. The same goes for Ft. Walton/Mary Esther/Shalimar in terms of sticky downward- pretty much built out, and waiting to see where the new people head.


It's a little less than a half hour from my front door to Grayton Beach if we take SR 20 to the 331 bridge, so easy to spend the weekends mucking around the 30-A area, and you get easy access to the Destin Commons shopping area without having to get onto US 98 with the Mid Bay Bridge. Every Saturday and Sunday afternoon is a vacation for us.

Plus, a good chunk of the area is 20-30' above mean sea level, which is comforting when the storms come in.

We drove around Bluewater last summer. Some great homes on larger lots. Really liked the area. We'll spend more time looking in July. Would it be hard to find a year-long rental (large home) that we could live in if we were to build? Would want to start the kids in the same schools they would attend.

There's actually a fair number of long term rental properties in that area. It's relatively common for military families to buy a single family home, then rent it out for 10 years or so when they get orders elsewhere because they intend to come back to metro FWB when they retire. Though I'm not sure how quickly homes are renting these days, or how hard it would be something to find that was acceptable.