callaway/panama city

TiffyRN, BSN, PhD · Jan 3, 2005

That's my old stomping grounds!!! I lived in Panama City for 10 years and still have family there. I'm pretty sure you can find a home in that price range. You said your boyfriend is already there? He can scout out neighborhoods and see which ones has the right feel. There are some older neighborhoods that are well established and worth dealing with older construction (the Cove, parts of St. Andrews). The neighborhood my aunt lives in has very expensive homes, doctors living there but she was able to afford a home there as a single mom because her home is not on the water and the others were. Use http://www.realtor.com as a starting place, it's not a perfect website but can be very useful.

When I worked there the two major hospitals were Bay Medical Center and Gulf Coast Hospital. Gulf Coast has generally been private-for-profit and has been owned by folks like HCA & Columbia (not my favorite). BMC used to be a public hospital but is now private-not-for-profit associated with Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. I haven't worked there in a while so I missed that whole merger but I hear it was a good deal. There is a military hospital close-by (Tyndall AFB) but I don't know much about it.

One word of caution; They say once you get that sugar-white sand between your toes you are destined (cursed?) to always return. My husband and I will probably retire there or somewhere along the Emerald Coast.

PHM · Jan 3, 2005

Hi riley,

I've lived in Callaway for about 12 years and am a new nurse working at Bay Medical Center in Panama City. BMC is still the "county" hospital and takes most of the indigent care, but has expanded to include a state of the art cardiac center, new ER, etc. Gulf Coast Med Ctr is still an HCA hospital and doesn't have quite the patient load BMC has. There are two smaller rehab hospitals (Healthsouth and Emerald Coast)and several nursing homes, if that's your thing. Tyndall AFB hospital has been reduced to an outpatient clinic only, but a nice remodeled one at that. Minimum opportunites exist there for RNs as I'm retired USAF and have checked often.

I should think you would be able to find something for less than $100K, but the housing market has changed here dramatically in the past two years. For example, the median price of a home here in 1997 was $87K and in 2004 it's now a whopping $225K. Much of that is driven by the out-of-control condo building on Panama City Beach which has leveled most, if not all, of the Spring-Break type mom and pop motels to build these 22 story behemoths. St Andrews and the Cove are indeed the older type neighborhoods but even there home prices have skyrocketed. My wife and I have wanted to sell our home and move to a less vulnerable part of town and build a new home (we were flooded by Opal in '95), but we couldn't even find a decent lot to build on. Some were available a pretty good distance from here and the prices were exhorbitant. Building costs pretty much selling prices and are running about $85-$150 a square foot nowadays. As much as I hate to say it, we're thinking of moving elsewhere in Florida.

Wish you the best of luck and hope it all works out for both of you.

Phil

riley108 · Jan 3, 2005

Thank ya'll so much for your help.He sometimes has to work on the weekends.Then he comes up here if he's off.He hasn't had much time to look.I went ahead and bought a house here bcse I got a grant.He should know in about 2 months if the job is permanent.The company is also trying to get in on that airport renovation project coming up down there.