BJ Smiley's Blog - Billy Joe Smiley

Homestead, Portability, and Florida's 2026 Residency Date

Should you establish Florida residency before December 31, 2026?

If the property tax amendment on the November 3, 2026 ballot passes, people who are permanent Florida residents as of December 31, 2026 would be eligible for the larger homestead exemption starting in 2027. Someone who establishes Florida residency on or after January 1, 2027 would begin at a $50,000 exemption and reach the larger amount only after maintaining a Florida homestead for four years. Nothing changes unless at least 60 percent of voters approve it. If a move here was already on your list, though, the calendar is worth understanding now rather than in January.

By Billy Joe Smiley | October 7, 2026

A good share of the people I sell to here start out as part-timers.…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | September 28–October 4, 2026 | Port Realty Group

A Frightfully Good Week on the Forgotten Coast: 20 Closings and a $3 Million Island Sale

October is the month for ghost stories, and this part of Florida comes by its share honestly. Port St. Joe grew up beside the bones of old St. Joseph, the boomtown that hosted Florida's constitutional convention in 1838 and then all but vanished within a few years, emptied out by yellow fever and finished off by a hurricane. Walk the bay shoreline at first light this time of year, when the fog sits low over the water and the marsh goes quiet, and you'll understand why folks around here still like a good haunted tale.

The market had nothing spooky about it this week. Twenty homes closed on the Forgotten Coast between September 28 and October 4, up from 13 the…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | September 21–27, 2026 | Port Realty Group

The Beach Corridor Carries the Week While the Pipeline Takes a Breath

Fall showed up on the calendar this week, and out here you could tell without looking. Mornings on Reid Avenue came in a few degrees cooler, the bay went still enough to see the redfish pushing bait along the grass flats, and the traffic heading to the Cape on a Saturday was mostly trucks with fishing rods sticking out the back.

The market kept its footing through the change of seasons. Thirteen homes closed on the Forgotten Coast between September 21 and 27, one fewer than last week, on $9.02 million of volume. The stretch between St. Joe Beach and Mexico Beach did the heavy lifting with 7 of the 13 closings, including a $2,425,000 sale that was the biggest of the week…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | September 14–20, 2026 | Port Realty Group

The Coast Snaps Back, and St. George Island Sets the Ceiling

Last week I had to report four closings and explain why that was a holiday artifact and not a market. This week the coast handed me the other half of the argument.

Fourteen homes closed on the Forgotten Coast between September 14 and 20, three and a half times the prior week's count, on $13.08 million of volume against $2.93 million the week before. That is the heaviest dollar week of the last month out here. And St. George Island, which had closed nothing at all seven days earlier, put 5 homes on the board including a $2,900,000 sale that is the largest residential closing in the four weeks behind this report.

What is the Forgotten Coast real estate market doing this week?

For…

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CCCL Permits on the Forgotten Coast: What Gulf Front Buyers Should Know

Do you need a CCCL permit to build or remodel on a Gulf front lot on the Forgotten Coast?

If your work sits seaward of the Coastal Construction Control Line, you generally need a permit from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, though several categories of work are exempt outright. The control line is a jurisdictional boundary, not a building prohibition. New homes, additions, remodels, and repairs are all allowed seaward of it, and a general permit offers a streamlined path for a single family house sited landward of the mapped general permit line.

By Billy Joe Smiley | September 17, 2026

A buyer called me last spring about a Gulf front lot on Cape San Blas. Beautiful parcel, good dune, the right side of the road. Then…

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106 Hidden Ridge Rd: A 3-Bedroom Home Between Port St. Joe and Mexico Beach

What Does 106 Hidden Ridge Rd Offer at $499,900?

106 Hidden Ridge Rd is a 3-bedroom, 2-bath home with 2,004 sq ft of heated/cooled living space, listed at $499,900 in the Palm Ridge subdivision of St. Joe Beach. Built in 2006 on a 0.33-acre lot, the property features a spring-fed pond, a screened Florida room with French doors, vaulted ceilings in the great room, and a bonus room sized for a real office or studio. There's no HOA, all utilities are connected, and the location sits roughly midway between Port St. Joe and Mexico Beach, with Gulf access a short drive in either direction.

By Billy Joe Smiley | September 11, 2026

106 Hidden Ridge Rd is a three-bedroom, two-bath home on a third of an acre in the Palm Ridge subdivision of St. Joe…

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Custom Gulf-Front Living on Indian Pass: Inside 172 Red Hawk Lane

By Billy Joe Smiley | August 2026

There are properties you evaluate, and there are properties that stop you.

172 Red Hawk Lane is the second kind.

It sits on a 0.72-acre Gulf-front homesite in Indian Pass Shores, a small community on one of the last stretches of undeveloped Old Florida beach on this coast. The home was built in 2024, fully custom from the foundation to the pecan wood cabinetry and designed the way serious Gulf-front homes rarely are: for the people who will actually live in it. Six bedrooms. Five and a half baths. A private heated Gunite pool facing open water. An elevator. And from the main living level, an unbroken view of the Gulf that runs to the horizon without a roofline, a utility pole, or another house interrupting…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | September 7–13, 2026 | Port Realty Group

Vacant Land Outsold Houses on a Quiet Labor Day Week

The week opened on Labor Day, and the coast did what it always does once that last long weekend burns off. Traffic thinned on 98, and the closing calendar, which had been running hot since the first week of August, went nearly silent.

Four homes closed on the Forgotten Coast between September 7 and 13. Four. After three straight weeks of fifteen, seventeen, and seventeen, that reads like somebody unplugged the market. The vacant land side, though, kept right on working, and for the first time in a month it closed more deals than the houses did.

What is the Forgotten Coast real estate market doing this week?

For the week of September 7–13, 2026, the Forgotten Coast recorded 4…

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Can You Sell a Forgotten Coast Home That Already Has Vacation Rental Bookings?

Can I sell my Forgotten Coast home if it already has vacation rental bookings on the calendar?

Yes, and on this coast it happens constantly. Florida's standard purchase contract handles it directly in Paragraph 6(b), which covers a property that will still be subject to a lease or occupancy agreement after closing. The buyer reviews the booking schedule, deposits for post-closing stays are credited to the buyer at the table, and the guests keep their vacation. For an investor buyer, a full calendar is usually an asset rather than an obstacle, because they are purchasing income that begins the day they take title.

By Billy Joe Smiley | September 10, 2026

This question comes up almost every time an owner of a rental property on Cape San…

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Forgotten Coast Real Estate Market Report | August 31–September 6, 2026 | Port Realty Group

Seventeen More Closings, and a Pipeline That Went Quiet

Labor Day weekend on this coast has a particular feel to it. One last surge of traffic on 98, coolers coming off boats at the ramp, and everybody knowing that by Tuesday the beach belongs to the people who live here again. School is well underway and the rentals are turning over more slowly. You can just feel the difference in the mornings.

The closing table did not slow down for any of it. 17 homes closed across the Forgotten Coast for a second straight week, holding the pace they set to close out August. What changed is what they cost. Not a single sale crossed $1.6 million, and that has not happened in seven weeks.

What is the Forgotten Coast real estate market doing this week?
For…

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