Shores of Panama

Fla’s Housing Market Shows Positive Trends in March

jcarter — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:50:51 +0000

PCB, Fla. – April 19, 2012 – Florida’s housing market had increased pending sales, higher median prices and a reduced inventory of homes for sale in March, according to Florida Realtors® latest housing data.
“With the continued steep decline of inventory, historically low interest rates and buyers no longer willing to wait on the sidelines, Florida’s real estate market continues on its road to recovery,” says 2012 Florida Realtors President Summer Greene, regional manager of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Florida 1st in Fort Lauderdale. “The latest numbers show that pending sales are up almost 30 percent for single-family homes and almost 20 percent for townhomes and condos.”
Pending sales refer to contracts that are signed but not yet completed or closed; closed sales typically occur 30 to 90 days after sales contracts are written.
The statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes in March was $139,000, up 10.3 percent from the year-ago figure, according to data from Florida Realtors Industry Data and Analysis department, and vendor partner 10K Research and Marketing. The statewide median for townhome-condo properties was $105,000, up 20.8 percent over March 2011.
The national median sales price for existing single-family homes in February 2012 was $157,100, which is slightly higher than the previous year, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). In California, the statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes in February was $266,660; in Massachusetts, it was $255,000; in New York, it was $220,000; and in Maryland, it was $212,301.
The median is the midpoint; half the homes sold for more, half for less. Housing industry analysts note that sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties continue to downwardly distort the median price because they generally sell at a discount relative to traditional homes.
Statewide sales of existing single-family homes totaled 18,370 in March, down 5.7 percent compared to the year-ago figure. Looking at Florida’s year-to-year comparison for sales of townhomes/condos, a total of 10,012 units sold statewide last month, down 12.4 percent from those sold in March 2011. NAR reported the national median existing condo price in February 2012 was $153,000.
In March, there was a 5.9-month supply of single-family homes in inventory and a 6.0-month supply for townhomes/condos, according to Florida Realtors.
“The encouraging trends we’ve seen in the Florida housing market are continuing, with very strong pending sales and decreasing inventory,” said Florida Realtors Chief Economist Dr. John Tuccillo. “The large jump in median sales prices for both single-family homes and condos is a sign that buyers are now looking at higher priced properties, while it’s becoming tougher to find properties at the lower end of the market.”
The interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.95 percent in March 2012, down from the 4.84 percent average during the same month a year earlier, according to Freddie Mac.
To download the full statewide housing activity report, go to the Research page of floridarealtors.org at http://www.floridarealtors.org/Research/index.cfm and look under the header “New statewide housing reports.”
© 2012 Florida Realtors®

Seabreeze Jazz Festival® at Pier Park in Panama City Beach April 19-22

jcarter — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:57:27 +0000

The 14th Annual Seabreeze Jazz Festival returns to Panama City Beach April 19th-22nd at the Pier Park Amphitheater ( Aaron Beasant Park ) for another star-packed weekend of stellar performances. For more information visit www.seabreezejazzfestival.com

Shores of Panama is the place to be for Spring Break 2012!

jcarter — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 21:34:25 +0000

For a full list of local events during your stay with us visit:

http://www.visitpanamacitybeach.com/events/

Rekindle the Romance Special

jcarter — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:40:02 +0000

Valentines Day Weekend, February 9-12, 2012

For more information visit:

http://oaseasresorts.com/events/rekindle-romance.html

Emerald Coast Cruizin This Week

jcarter — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:08:38 +0000

The Emerald Coast Cruizin features Streetrods, Musclecars, and Classics. There is also a swap meet. The show is happening all week long thru Saturday, November 13th, 2010. Lots of events going on all week long including the 8am-5pm Show and Shine at Frank Brown Park. For more information go to www.EmeraldCoastCruizin.com See you there!!

Don't Miss the Emerald Coast Cruizin Car Show, Auction, Swap Meet and More.

CNN Features New Airport and No Oil

jcarter — Mon, 24 May 2010 21:05:03 +0000

The new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport officially opened yesterday amid much fanfare. The new Panama City Beach Airport promises to open this beautiful area up to many large markets, including Baltimore Washington, New York, Chicago, Nashville, Houston and others. While many are concerned with the BP oil spill in the Gulf, you can see here that NO OIL HAS REACHED OUR BEACHES to date and none is currently projected to come here. The Shores of Panama are just as pristine as they have always been. So come on down and enjoy with us.

New Southwest Airlines Commercial Features Panama City Beach

jcarter — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:51:26 +0000

As reported by PCBDaily.com. Southwest’s new commercial featuring a runway traffic director and our lovable gulf coast dolphins is a big hit. See it Here

Pier Park New Year’s Event Poised to be ‘SOOO’ Huge

jcarter — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:29:53 +0000

We’ve been poking around Pier Park’s Facebook Fan Page and came across the full event schedule for the New Year’s Eve Beach Ball Drop event. Reading their updates, it seems apparent that there will be a large dedicated stage for the headliner band, Vertical Horizon and tons of fun things to do for the family.

Per the event listing:

5:30 pm to 8:30 pm – Family Celebration: Bands including The Barry Fish Band, bounce houses, stilt walkers, balloon artists, face painting, funnel cakes, tons of fun for the kids including 7,000 beach balls being dropped at 8:30 (right now there are lines going across the main Boardwalk area, could this be for the beach balls?) and fireworks off the pier.

8:30 pm to whenever – Countdown celebration: Nothing Short of Pure Band at 9:00 pm, Headliner Band is VERTICAL HORIZON will go on at 10:45pm, funnel cakes, beer and liquor tents, tons of fun for all including a countdown and grand firework display off the pier at midnight!

140+ prizes being given away including 12 Southwest Airlines tickets to ANYWHERE in their network.

VERTICAL HORIZON Hits include “You’re a God” and “Everything You Want” with their latest album including the single “Save Me From Myself.” Visit www.verticalhorizon.com for more info on them.

Three of the things that seem to stand out this year that are different from last year:

7,000 inflated beach balls being dropped at 8:30 pm for the kids. This looks and sounds very cool. I can only imagine how this will play out, but I keep imagining tons of beach balls bouncing all over the streets and tons of kids smiling.
Vertical Horizon playing. Now having some experience seeing how the back end of these types of operations work (thank you seafood festival!), I know it’s no small task bringing in a “big” band and getting everything set up for them the way they want. These bands have requirements for everything from stage set up to lights to the access people have behind stage (which is why it is so hard to get back stage passes, etc.) I also know that Vertical Horizon was a band that I listened to quite a bit back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, and they had a few hit songs that most of you have probably heard of. I thought this was cool because Panama City Beach was getting another semi-big name band coming in (like Styx). Check www.verticalhorizon.com to listen to some music.
Southwest Airlines is the presenting sponsor. I know last year Margaritaville was the presenting sponsor. I’m not sure how much it costs to be a “presenting” sponsor, but I do know that it is a big title and certainly a great thing that our new tourism “partner” is supporting this event and having a dominant presence. This is very fitting, especially since there are bound to be thousands of out of state tourists here that will be glad to know that they very well may be able to fly here low-cost next year. This is a cool evolution for the area. Last year was the first event at our new shopping meca, Pier Park, this year we announce that next year you can fly here for way cheaper than you ever could before – NON-STOP in many cases!

Panama City Beach Beach New Year’s Eve Beach Ball Drop from Jason Koertge on Vimeo.

Southwest Airline’s New Flight Destinations Welcomed by All

jcarter — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:00:11 +0000

Bob Montgomery, Southwest Airlines vice president of properties announced on Wednesday the new destinations from the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. While disclosing the much awaited news he told that there would be non stop flights to and from the new airport to Orlando, Baltimore, Houston, and Nashville. The announcement of the key destinations would eventually help tourists and regular travelers to get direct or connecting flights to other 58 Southwest gateway cities.

“We’ve tried to pick our finest,” Montgomery said. The new flights would serve about 2000 travelers per day. According to Christi Day, a spokeswoman of Southwest, the four destinations were chosen to draw visitors from those areas who were less frequent visitors to Panama City Beach. Further the new cities would open new markets to North Florida. According to the Airport Authority, the one goal of the new $318 million airport was to market Florida to more vacationers.

Airport board member Rick Koehnemann said that travelers would be able to fly direct, without changing the flights to Chicago through Nashville (BNA), New York through Baltimore, and Dallas through Houston (HOU) and Ft. Lauderdale through Orlando. It would take three hours to fly between Chicago and Panama City with a short stop in Nashville. “You get four direct flights and four semi-direct flights,”Mr.Rick Koehnemann said.

Sonny Mares, executive director of the Beaches of South Walton Tourist Development Council, also welcomed the new announcements from Southwest Airlines. According to her, Baltimore was a great location for conventions and meetings and as such would help to increase group meeting business.

According to Tom Neubauer, the President of Bay Defense Alliance, a Baltimore-Washington route would be beneficial to the defense contractors who travel frequently from Washington to Baltimore.

Meanwhile, the Bay Country Tourism Development Council (TDC) has begun its public relations campaign through press releases, photos, video and other material about Panama City Beach. The TDC’s findings indicate that there are more than 3 million households in the four cities chosen by Southwest as potential markets for bringing business to Panama City Beach.

Relax at the Full Service Spa at Shores of Panama

jcarter — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:27:37 +0000

Soothingly nestled at the quiet end of Shores of Panama is a full service spa that rivals many one-off spas in Panama City Beach. The Spa at Shores of Panama has it all from a multitude of massages to facials to an aromatherapy steam room that’s available to all owners and guests free of charge.

Now, we can go through and list all the things you can do at this spa including a menu of services (and we’ll do that!), but what’s so fascinating is having a resource so close at your fingertips when you are on vacation.

Having a full service spa on location is reminiscent of a high-end experience, only to be found at the world’s higher-end resorts. In many cases, the notion of having an onsite spa staffed with therapy professionals is what connotates the designation of a full-service resort. Think about this for a second. Consider why you take a vacation. To relax, right?

Panama City Beach plays host to some of the world’s most beautiful beaches. Now, I know what you are saying. If you’re not familiar with our beaches, you may think that there must be tons more exotic places in the world that have beaches that rival Panama City Beach’s. Now, while this may be true, they are surely few in number. Take today for instance: the water is crystal clear with absolutely no waves the surf is smooth as glass. The emerald green waters are outlined from east to west by the snow-white sand that defines our area.

Tens of thousands if not millions dream every day of laying on beaches like ours. They envision themselves breathing in the salt air, not thinking about work and what else? They are relaxing, or they would like to be, except that knot in their upper back, between their shoulder blade and their spine that sends a sharp pain right to the nerve if they lift their arm up a little too high. Or, the tension in their shoulders is enough to make them feel like they are posing in a permanent shrugging position.

When you come to the beach, you want to relax, kick all your worries away and focus on yourself and your family. What better way to start off your vacation if not with a soothing 50 minute massage right after you check in. You’ll sleep great that night and your first full day of vacation the next day will be whole. That $85 you spend on the Swedish Massage will be the best money you ever spent, trust me. The best part is that you never have to leave the resort. Check in, get settled, unwind with a massage and lounge around the resort. Sounds like heaven, right?

The best part if that the Spa at Shores of Panama knows how to treat the owners. If you own a condo at Shores of Panama, you can count on a permanent 20% off across the board on all services offered now and in the future. All of a sudden that $85 Swedish Massage is now $68. Or, the popular Exotic Stone message that normally is priced at $105 now comes in at $84.

When you walk in the door, you’re invited in by warm colors and soothing smells of Lavender and Eucalyptus. Some of the other treatments The Spa offers are a Deep Tissue Massage, a Body Butter Massage and a Prenatal Massage. Every Wednesday they do a Total Renew Wednesday which includes the Island Renewal Facial for $50 (normally $90).

The bottom line is that having a spa onsite at the resort you vacation at sets the tone for a relaxing vacation. To say that the Spa at Shores of Panama is one of the many amenities at Shores would be an understatement. I won’t go so far as to say that the Spa defines Shores of Panama (have you seen the pool?!?), but it is more than fair to say that having a full service spa on site goes fathoms in setting the Shores of Panama resort a part from the rest of the concrete cereal boxes that line the beaches of Panama City Beach.