Your Guide to Buying a Home in Panama City, FL

Buying a Home in Panama City, Florida

Find a Home in Panama City, FL Homes101 has a real estate agent waiting to help you find your next home in Panama City right now! Expect: Fast response from a local real estate agent Special access to our Moving Handbook Find a Home in Panama City

Free Panama City Relocation Packet Get details on everything from neighborhoods, schools and the local housing market to the area's hotspots, best restaurants, shopping and recreation. Each packet is prepared by a real estate professional who lives, works and is active in the local Panama City community. Get Your Panama City Relocation Packet

Panama City is located in Bay County

Population: 34,378 With access to the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, the North Pacific Ocean and the Panama Canal, water remains a vital part of the area’s economy. Its 27 miles of coastline offer ample sites for fishing, swimming, boating, diving and snorkeling.

Panama City has earned the reputation as one of the premier diving locations in the south. There are 50 artificial reefs and several sunken ships teeming with marine life including small corals, colorful sponges, mantas, crustacean of all kinds, and seemingly endless schools of baitfish. Natural reefs, three to eight feet high, stand no more than 110 feet offshore offering the perfect spot to view native fish and other sea creatures.

Known as the “Ship Wreck Capital,” the waters off Panama City also offer an abundance of wreck sites for diving including the SS Tarpon, 95-foot cargo ship; the Gray Ghost, a 110-foot tug boat; the Chickasaw, a 60-foot tug boat; and the Chippewa, a fully intact, 95-foot Navy tug. Empire Mica, a 465-foot British tanker, is perhaps the most famous shipwreck. Torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1942, it now rests in 110 feet of water 20 miles off Cape San Blas, just south of Panama City.

For novice divers, the shallow waters around St. Andrew’s jetties are the perfect jumping off point for beginners. The best time for diving in the waters off Panama City is April through September. The warm gulf waters can be enjoyed well into the cooler fall and even winter months.

For those few who are content to stay on land, the Travel Channel and Southern Living Magazine have designated the white sand beaches of Panama City as some of the best in the world.

Panama City is also home to Tyndall Air Force Base and the Air Education and Training Command. The 325th Fighter Wing is responsible for training F-15 and F/A-22 pilots, along with air traffic and weapons controllers. The 20,000-acre military base employs more than 6,700 military and civilian personnel. The nearby Coastal Systems Station, one of the major research, development, test and evaluation laboratories of the U.S. Navy, employs an additional 2,200.

Information provided by Panama City Chamber of Commerce