Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 41% of the 379 measured US metros.

Employment fell 1.3% over the past year, to 138,239 employed residents.

35% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 80% of measured US metros.

Prices for everything a household buys run about 2% below the national average — the Bureau of Economic Analysis index reads 98.4, against 100 for the nation. Housing drives most of that difference.

A new two-bedroom lease runs about $1,785, some 9% above the $1,633 tenants already here pay — the market has moved faster than sitting tenancies have.

Median rent of $1,633 takes 24% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home at $364,100 costs 4.4 times the median household income of $81,993, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 91°F and January a low of 45°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 55.4 inches.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Some things people look for are not on this page, and each is absent for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime

Offenses reported to police are published by department rather than by town, so AreaProfile shows a rate only on city profiles, and only where that city’s department submitted every month of a year. Any cities listed on this page carry their own figure where their department reported a full year. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.

Taxes

Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.

Anything about a specific address

Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighborhood all vary within the places measured here.

Put Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin side by side with a similar place.

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.