Pensacola and Gulf Breeze

Published

Hey everyone!!! I was hoping to get a few questions answered that I had about the Pensacola area....

My husband and I are planning on moving to Gulf Breeze in the near future. Currently, we live in Mississippi approx. 3hrs away and visit all the time. I will hopefully begin Nursing school in Fall 07' or Spring 08'. While I wait I'll be finishing my pre-req's.

Anyway, here are my questions.....

Is Gulf Breeze a nice community??? We live in a small and very safe town and I love that! I was wondering what "real life" was like here?

Are there alot of Nursing Schools in the area, and are they hard to get into?

How is the housing market in Gulf Breeze? Is it possible to live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood for $150,000-$250,000???

Also, I have read MANY posts about the starting salary for RN's being around $16.50hr. ***!!!!!!!! In Mississippi it is around $18.50 and I thought this was the lowest paying state in the US! Why is it so little in Florida???

(BTW, the pay is not why I'm going into this field of work and I think waking up and being a few miles from the beach is much better than being near the chicken house, therefore, the lower pay is fine with me.)

On that salary is it hard to live in the Pensacola area where the market has risen???

Thanks for any answers you can give me!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Neuro ICU.

I am from that area and am looking forward to getting back there when my hubby retires from the AF in June.

Our families are still there and what we have been told is that housing is beginning to come back down. Demand and hurricanes have caused a decrease in $$ for housing. But house insurance will be outrageous. my mother's house insurance increased by 3 times and she lives in the north end of the county. Our house insurance for our place in Navarre located on the sound side and 2 minutes from Navarre bridge increased by 50% and we were fortunate and had no hurricane damage where many neighbors all around lost parts of and all of their houses.

Real life is waht you make of it. Taking time to enjoy the area is best. There are bike trails and hiking around the area. The water as you know is beautiful and you can make a whole extracurricular life around that. We would do a lot of boating and scuba. Fishing in the gulf, from the piers and rivers. There is nothing like the panhandle!

As you know it is still coming back from the hurricanes and there is blue roof alley from all the tarps on the roofs but it is still alive with the love for the area.

Housing for 150-250K. Think townhouse etc for the low range and higher range you will find 3B2B houses.

I have heard of some pay being 20$ and up. Maybe consider agency or travel in the local area. If you and your partner work you should be fine.

The area is beautiful and quaint and usually does not have much trouble. Summers are busy and hustle and bustle with the tourist trade and traffic is tough. Especially with the bridge to get into P'cola. There is a fairly new access and bridge that has been built from gulf breeze that goes more into the north side of P'cola that helps on traffic to.

Plenty of schools in Pcola and also OWC has expanded their nursing in Niceville and FWB.

Check out Okaloosa Walton college web site for FWB. Look into University of West Florida or Pensacola Junior College for Pensacola area.

Good luck!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thank you so much for your reply!!!

I think it may be after Nursing school before we can move, but I can't wait. My husband and I are outdoor enthusiast and the panhandle is sooooo BEAUTIFUL!

Maybe the insurance will come down a bit before we get there!!!! Here's to several years of mild hurricanes!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

LOL.....let me rephrase NO HURRICANES!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion