Pensacola Panhandle Home Page

Blessed with 40 miles of sugar white beaches and aquamarine water, a low cost of living, affordable housing and good jobs, Pensacola has a promising future

Pensacola is often referred to as, “Old Florida”, but it’s also very much the Gateway City to the Sunshine State, offering the visitor, homebuyer, or investor many opportunities that are similar to the rest of the State.

Regardless of what you call it, Pensacola and it’s neighboring Panhandle communities of Ft Walton Beach, Panama City and the numerous other beach communities lying along more than 100 miles of northern Gulf of Mexico coastline between the Alabama border and Apalachicola comprise a vibrant and growing linear coastal community.

Inland there are large tracts of farm and forest land up along the Blackwater River, as well as the developing communities of Crestview and De Funiak Springs. Eglin Air Force Base also calls this area home. At the eastern end of the Panhandle, just beyond the area we are concerned with here, is the State Capitol of Tallahassee.  Not far to the West along I-10 is Mobile Bay, the casinos, and coastal Mississippi.
But it is really the beaches that bring people here from all over the Southeast, the rest of Florida, and around the world.  Beaches in the rest of Florida are sand-colored, just what you would expect, but here in the Panhandle they are white and wide and picture postcard perfect.  Places like Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Seaside,  Ft. Walton Beach and Pensacola Beach, and Gulf Islands National Seashore have come to define this beautiful area to the outside world. Lots of sun and great weather.

Regions:
The Pensacola area is divided into several diverse regions — from historic areas like old town, to the beach communities, and from urban living to beachside to the Northern farm country. Cotton, corn and cattle are a few of the crops and livestock that reside in the hills around this northwestern Florida community
General Information.

• Located in the northwest corner of Florida, 196 miles west of Tallahassee and 453 miles NW of Orlando.
• Pensacola is ranked 122^nd in metropolitan areas in the country and in the top 100 fastest growing cities.
• Population 400,000 plus
• Area in Square Miles 1679
• Average High Temperature 77°F
• Average Low Temperature 60°F
• 340 days of sunshine
• Average home cost-June 2005-$169,000
• Cost of Living index of 97.1
• Median age-25-44 years old or on average 38

Major Jobs Employment By Industry in order of numbers

• Educational, health and social services
• Retail Trade
• Leisure and hospitality
• Professional and business services
• Construction
• Manufacturing
• Public administration

Hurricanes
Pensacola and its wider area have tended over the past 30 years to be hit more frequently than the rest of Florida by major hurricanes, but in the 30-40 years prior to that the situation was exactly reversed: Pensacola was less frequently hit than peninsular Florida. Or to put it a different way, the area has been “hit” by just 6 storms Category 3 or higher since 1940, and peninsular Florida suffered 10 such storms during that same period

So, if you’re interested in life in a Medium size town, with growth possibilities mixed in with great weather, you should check out Pensacola.

For more specifics see the links to the left.

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Port St Lucie
Port St Lucie is approximately 120 miles southeast of Orlando and 120 miles north of Miami, along the Atlantic coast. A convenient highway network–including Interstate 95, the Florida Turnpike and State Road 70–makes it easy to travel throughout Florida.
To the east of the city lies the attractive Atlantic Ocean barrier island and beaches known as Hutchinson Island (bridges at Jensen Beach and Stuart, both a few miles east and south). To the west lies the Lake Okeechobee area, and its recreational options.  The area offers plenty of golf and other outdoor recreation, as well as significant arts and cultural resources.

The area shares advantages of both the small scale of some of its Old Florida smaller surrounding towns and its own larger scale as a rapidly growing mid-sized city.  Add to this its ready access to the metropolitan areas – the Palm Beaches, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami – of the rest of Southeast Florida, and you have a recipe for an attractive relocation possibility.
Some quick facts
The Port St. Lucie (and by extension Ft. Pierce and Stuart) area has recently become a significant growth area in Florida, for both new permanent and snowbird residents, and for business owners and investors.

There are many reasons for people to relocate to Port St. Lucie, including climate, modern amenities, affordable prices, transportation convenience and accessibility to South Florida’s urban centers, and attractive business incentives.
For example:

• The year-round climate makes for great living and working conditions.  The average annual temperature is 73.2 degrees, with a drop of only 16.7 degrees between the extremes of winter and summer temperatures.
• Port St. Lucie is a young city, incorporated in 1961; and it’s a young city in terms of its residents too, having a median age of just 42 years old.
• Port St. Lucie, Fla., had the nation’s fastest growth rate among large cities (100,000 or more population) between July 1, 2003, and July 1, 2004, according to new U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.
• More than 125,000 residents make up Port St. Lucie, ranking it as the 15th largest city in the Sunshine State.  Projections for the county’s population, currently 214,000 are 314,000 by 2010

Transportation

• As noted above, major highways criss-cross this area, making north-south and east-west travel convenient for both personal and business distribution purposes
• Airport travel, considering the advantages of Port St. Lucie’s location outside South Florida’s metroplex, is relatively convenient.  St. Lucie County International Airport’s commercial commuter service is rapidly expanding. Other nearby airports include: Vero Beach Municipal Airport, some 20 miles north of St. Lucie County, with round-trip daily flights to Miami; Palm Beach International Airport, 60 miles south, with 80 scheduled departures daily; and, Melbourne International Airport, 55 miles north, serviced by Delta with connecting flights through Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York.

Education

• Extensive information about the schools in this area is online at the state’s Department of Education (http://www.firn.edu/doe/doehome.htm)

Business Incentives

• In its continuing efforts to provide an atmosphere that supports business, the St. Lucie County Board of County Commissioners assists companies with expansion or relocation expenses through its Job Growth Incentive Grant Program.
• The Commissioners may issue grants ranging from a minimum of $1,000 to $2,000 per new job created in St. Lucie County. A minimum of five or more new jobs must be created in order to be eligible, with a minimum average county wage of $10.88.
• Bonuses are also offered for companies that exceed the minimum requirements. For example, if: 75% of the new employees hired live in St. Lucie County; the company is a St. Lucie County “Targeted” industry; the company’s average salary is 115%, 125% or 150% of the St. Lucie County average.
• A grant to an individual company may not exceed $500,000.00 For more detailed information, go to http://www.stluciecd.org/BusIncentives.asp

Employment

The local economy is heavily services oriented, and the top 10 employers in St. Lucie County are:

• St. Lucie County School District
• St. Lucie County
• Liberty Medical Supply
• Indian River Community College
• Wal-Mart Stores (includes Sam’s Club)
• State Government
• Lawnwood Regional Medical Center
• City of Port St. Lucie
• QVC   975
• Publix Super Markets

For more information, please see:
http://www.edcstlucie.org/relocation.html
In conclusion
If you like a modern way of life without all the crowding but at the same time don’t want too small of a town, Port St Lucie could be the place.  It has some of the benefits of its smaller surrounding towns and yet has the advantages, for many people, of a place of somewhat larger scale.

To see additional information about the area go to (on this Website) the Stuart info links, and to the general information on Ft. Pierce, whose cultural life, parks, and ease of access to outdoor recreational choices Port St. Lucie shares.  For a good general site on St Lucie county on line, go tohttp://www.stlucieco.gov

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Ft. Myers is a complex area, even more than the rest of Florida, because it encompasses such a wide variety of towns and natural areas.  Even first impressions depend on where you are.  Let’s say you fly into Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW), which serves Naples-Marco Island as well as Greater Ft. Myers.  RSW is a beautiful, modern, busy facility, excelently sited at the intersection of I-75 and Ft. Myers’ Daniels Parkway.  From here it’s but a short drive to anywhere in Southwest Florida.  Downtown Ft. Myers is a half hour away; Sanibel-Captiva or Bonita Springs about 30-40 minutes; and Naples about 50 minutes.  Your first impressions will be how easy everything is.  Infrastructure appears to be excelent, even though you realize you’re in at least a medium-sized metropolitan area.  It’s no problem finding your way around, it’s clean, streets are wide and well-groomed.  There seem to be parks everywhere.

And in fact, to hear some people, you’ve just stumbled onto the perfect city.  Though summers can be hot, the rest of the year is mild, warm, and sunny; and much of the year it hardly rains, other than late afternoons (a Florida standard).  There are lots of beaches serving the public’s need to escape, there are lots of canals for those buyers who want to live waterside, and there’s lots of green spaces and watery preserves in the Big Cypress area that defines the inland section beyond residential LeHigh Acres.

Ft. Myers, an early fort and commercial center in colonial Florida, has emerged as one of the State’s foremost centers, with a proud array of financial, educational, cultural, and medical facilities that have made it a favorite for both retirees and an increasingly youthful population.  And housing ranges from old Florida through every kind of modern; there is something for everybody.

The greater Ft. Myers region consists of several distinct areas:  Ft. Myers itself; Sanibel and Captiva Islands;  Ft. Myers Beach; Bonita Springs and its beaches; Cape Coral and adjacent Pine Island; and nearby, more rural areas extending north (Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, and up towards Arcadia; and east along Rte 80 and the Coloosahatchee River towards La Belle).  Here’s a few of them:

Quick statistics-2005

• Population-530,000
• Ft Meyers pop-58,000
• Ft Myers beach-6900
• Average home price $281,000 (June 2005)
• Price index-100.25 or 10^th in the state (100 is average statewide and nationally)

About Ft Myers:

Fort Meyers and its neighboring areas offer up a great mix of culture, business, and lifestyles. Enjoy water sports, museums, walks on the beach, loys of sun, golfing, tennis, shopping till you drop, baseball spring training, restaurants, world class resorts and much more-almost too much to list.

From the modern business environment of Fort Meyers, to the laid back atmosphere of Sanibel or the neighboring Pine Island (reminiscent of small fishing villages in New England) to the incredibly fast expanding Cape Coral area, there is something here for every lifestyle and pocketbook.

A few endorsements

• Inc Magazine ranked Fort Meyers 9^th among the top 25 medium metropolitan cities for entrepreneurs.(2005

• US Housing markets ranked Ft Meyers Cape Coral as the number one housing market in a metropolitan market in the US for the 2^nd year in a row. (2004)

• Expansion magazine named Lee County a four-star community in its annual quality of life scorecard for 2003.

• Money magazine ranked Fort Myers-Cape Coral as one of the “Best Place to Live in America.”

• Self magazine ranked the Fort Myers-Cape Coral metropolitan area “No. 1 in the nation for working women.” (2003)

• Forbes magazine ranked the Fort Myers-Cape Coral metro area 37th among the top 200 best metro areas for business and careers

There’s definitely a reason this area is expanding and booming.. and the reason is simple—people want to live here!

So, If you think palm trees, sun and beaches should be in your future, you have to check Ft Meyers/Lee County out.

See the links to the left for more specific information. See the google map of the areas to the right

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Naples is a unique area in Paradise. Imagine, a small town atmosphere with elegant stores, art galleries and first class restaurants – all fronting one of the nicest, old residential beaches in Florida.  To the South a few miles lies the unique Marco Island, Florida’s Venice at the gateway to the fabled 10,000 Islands fishing and recreation area.

As a collection of beautiful places, Naples-Marco-Vanderbilt Beach offer some of the nicest beaches in all of Florida, including Tigertail on Marco and Delnor-Wiggins Pass to the north.  But what really sets this area apart from all of the rest of Florida is its easy access by boat to one of the world’s great Mangrove estuaries, stretching all the way to the remote Shark River in Everglades National Park on Florida’s far southwest coast.  There’s fishing, exploring, secret rivers, dolphin, rays, incredible bird life, eagles – you name it.  Few places in America can rival this.
If boating is not your thing, there’s world class golf, tennis, or trail walking.  Or swimming in your pool.

And then, as I’ve mentioned, you come home at the end of the day to a sophisticated – you can go formal or informal – late afternoon of shopping, antiqueing, gallery hopping, dining out, and perhaps a concert or play.  Naples, as the center of this Collier County southwest Florida area, is rivaled by few other places in Florida for these upscale activities, not even by the bigger metropolitan cities.

Yes, it is an expensive area, in fact it’s rated cost of living index is 104.8 or number one in the state. However compared to New York with a CGI of 364 it is affordable, especially if you’d like to be in an area of soft ocean breezes and palm trees, perhaps with your own boat moored at your back door.  And for those who covet this life style, there are wonderful neighborhoods and condominium complexes to choose among.

There are definitely a couple of drawbacks, as there are everywhere.  The road infrastructure is still struggling to catch up with the area’s explosive growth, and can be problematic during snowbird and tourist season (the winter months).  And there aren’t a lot of options for inexpensive living; even inland several miles homes, condos, and apartments  can be expensive.  Public beach parking is also limited in most areas, not nearly as user-friendly as Lee County to the north.

General Information.

• Located in the southwest portion of Collier County, 102 miles west of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, and 165 miles southwest of Orlando. Florida’s lower east coast is easily accessible, not even a two hour drive.
• 2025 square miles
• Average Temperature 75°F-lots of sun and great weather
• Average Annual Precipitation 51 in
• Average Rain Days 131
• Population projection 2005 -251,000-Collier County
• Naples population-25,000
• Average home cost-June 2005-$491,000
• Cost of Living-almost 105-1st in the state
• Median age-44 for Collier county and 60 years old for Naples.
• It has good health and education options in nearby Ft Myers.

Major jobs Employment By Industry in order of numbers

• Trade, transportation and utilities
• Education, Health, Social Services
• Leisure and hospitality
• Construction
• Professional and business service
• Natural resources
• Financing

What this list suggests is that even if you’re not a retiree, the Collier county area has something to offer you. Homes in the outlying areas and north towards Ft. Myers are significantly less money and the available skilled labor jobs can pay very well.  Nevertheless, there is a big difference between the coastal and other areas, and it’s important to be aware of this if you are considering a move to Naples.

For specifics in general categories please see the links to the left. See the google map to the upper right.

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