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Okaloosa county, in the Panhandle (and the Central Time Zone), is primarily a tourism community, with the military coming a close second. The primary source of revenue from the area is the annual tourism trade. We seem to get more of the family vacationers, rather than the party crowd. Income from military-related jobs (defense contractors), military support jobs (working in the base exchange), and military and retiree pay also provide a lot of $$$ to the community. The area is home to two Air Force bases, an AF Reserve base, an Army camp, and a Naval airfield. A little further east is Naval Air Station Pensacola. Contrary to national news reports, there were lots of people that stayed in line to vote during the 2000 elections, after it was reported the polls were closed, because we weren't listening to national news reports, we were too busy voting, then listening to LOCAL news reports that got it right.

The tourism industry is centered on the beautiful beaches in this area. The sand is sugar white, and the water is emerald green. Most of the tourism industry is located on Okaloosa Island, which is between Fort Walton Beach (FWB) and Destin. This is where you find your condos, restaurants, family attractions, beach industry (parasailing, charter boats, jet skis, etc).

Eglin AFB is the largest military installation in the world. Check it out on a map, if you can find one that shows the base property outline. Stretches from Pensacola to Panama City. Most of its land area is set aside for nature preserve, because it's mainly used for its air space over land and the Gulf of Mexico. Within the Eglin complex is Hurlburt Field, home to Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), and Duke Field, home of the 919 Special Operations Wing, the Reserve component of AFSOC.

You mentioned in a post your business was communication-based. The local phone service provider is Sprint. I pick up the phone, it works. Calling from FWB to Navarre (Santa Rosa County) is an in-state long distance call. Calling from FWB to Crestview is a flat 20-cent call, whether you talk for one minute (to an answering machine), or 100 minutes. Cell phone service providers are AT&T, Alltel, Sprint, Cingular, Cellular South, Nextel, and Southern Link. There are several local ISPs, as well as the usual suspects (AOL, Earthlink/Mindspring, AT&T, etc). My area is serviced by Cox Communications for cable TV and ISP. I have had both for a few years with no problems. I had DSS, but reception was too often affected by the regular thunderstorms. The local sales tax is 6%. Not being a business owner, I don't have any info on business-related taxes.

You may hear horror stories about hurricanes in this area. They're all true -- JUST KIDDING !! Being originally from Jacksonville, and living in NW FL for the past eight years, I've been through several hurricanes. The primary danger doesn't come from the hurricane itself, but the tornados it spins off. If the proper precautions are taken, you may experience some discomfort, some property damage, but overall you'll be fine. You sound too young to move to south FL. One keeps hearing of people retiring there, but no one leaving. S. FL's dirty little secret is that every seven years a tidal wave washes across it and thousands of retirees disappear. This is something you won't hear about on the news, or from anyone in S. FL either. The people in the 16 blue counties tend to stick around because they're floaters. ;->

Do a Google search using <"emerald coast" +florida>. There's too many good hits to list here.

Now, after all this, do you REALLY want to move to south Florida? I didn't think so.