Hi Leonie,

My husband is interviewing for a job in the Ft. Walton Beach area in about 10 days. We currently live in Austin, TX, but we lived in Boca Raton from 1987-1991. We know that the two areas are extremely different, although we've never been to Ft. Walton. We also know that home insurance is probably much higher than when we lived in Boca.

We bought a newly constructed house in Boca, and then also bought a new house when we moved from Boca to North Carolina. We also bought a new house when we moved here to Austin seven years ago.

We don't want to leave Austin, but we may have no choice. Unfortunately I can't accompany him on the interview, and he'll have only a few hours to explore by himself. In order to decide if this could be a realistic move, we really need to know about the insurance costs and property taxes. Our property taxes here are very high. In North Carolina properrty taxes were much less, but they were more than offset by the state income tax.

I've looked at several real estate sites, and I don't see any new construction, and this is what we would prefer. I'm also at a loss as to exactly where we should consider living. He would be working for Jacobs Technology at Eglin Air Force Base.

We have a house in Austin that is brick and Hardie plank with a kitchen that has granite counters, travertine floors in the kitchen and foyer, hardwood on the rest of the first floor, three bedrooms, a dining room, a living room, and a family room. it is just under 3000 square feet, and we believe it would sell for about $325,000.

We would be looking for a house with similar quality finishes, and no smaller than 2500 square feet. I don't know what the salary range is for this position, so, for now, we would probably be looking at properties no higher than $325,000. The Austin market has been unfazed largely by this mortgage mess, but it's still not entirely a cakewalk either.

Any answers or advice would be helpful. If you have time, maybe you could meet with my husband when he comes for the interview.

Thanks so much,
Marsha Wilson