It’s Just Business

Okaloosa County 

▪ Destin Commons recently announced that national retailers Charming Charlie and Icing by Claire’s will open this summer as part of a 100,000-square-foot expansion currently under construction. Charming Charlie will occupy over 6,000 square feet adjacent to Uncle Buck’s on the south end of the expansion near the corner of U.S. Highway 98 and Danny Wuerffel Way (Mid-Bay Bridge Road). Icing by Claire’s, a second brand by parent company Claire’s, will occupy nearly 2,000 square feet near H&M at the expansion’s northeast corner.

▪ Longtime Destin residents and real estate duo Chad and Jen Knaepple have launched Taylor Allen Properties, a real estate agency specializing in residential, commercial and investment sales in the 30A area.

Bay & Escambia Counties 

▪ FedEx Ground has opened a nearly 60,000-square-foot package distribution facility on the Port Panama City Intermodal Park. When fully operational, it should be able to process about 3,000 packages an hour.

▪ North Lagoon Partners of Panama City Beach has kicked off the Pirate’s Cove Marina Generation II expansion project. The new 120,000-square-foot facility will offer state-of-the-art indoor, secure dry storage for 440 boats up to 45 feet in length.
▪ Lighthouse Marina in Panama City Beach can now boast Bud & Alley’s Waterfront Restaurant & Marina Club. The original Bud & Alley’s, on 30A in Seaside, is South Walton County’s longest established restaurant. The menu embraces the seafood of the North Florida coastal lowlands, serving only the freshest locally available ingredients.  ec

Facts and Stats

All statistics listed below pertain to sales in November 2013 and are provided by the Emerald Coast Association

of Realtors, Florida Realtor and the National Association of Realtors.

Local

On average, Okaloosa County’s closed single family home sales received 93.5% of their original list price.

Walton County closed 145 single family home sales — 53 of which were paid in cash. 132 were traditional sales, 15 were foreclosures and 13 were short sales.

State

The median sale price for single family homes in Florida was $169,900 — a 13.3% increase over last November.  

Townhouse and condo inventory (active listings) in Florida increased by 1.3% between November 2012 and 2013.

National

Nationally, total housing inventories are 1.2% below the 4.96 million-unit pace in November 2012. 

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $196,300 in November, up 9.4% from November 2012.