About Washington County, FL

The voters of Washington County, Florida turned out in masses on Jan 31st to vote on allowing slot machines at the Ebro Dog Track in a planned 300 million dollar expansion. 57% of the voters that turned out approved the referendum to allow slots only at this facility.

There remains however a very tough battle to get the State of Florida to grant a license for the slot machines.

There is a very good possibility that Washington County, Florida could get slot machines in the near future. At the request of the Ebro Greyhound Park, the Washington County Board of County Commissioneers have agreed to place a countywide voter referendum concerning slot machines on the January 31st Republican presidential primary ballot. All registered voters, regardless of party, will have the chance to decide if the Ebro Greyhound Park will be allowed to add slot machines to it's facility.

Addition of the slot machines would allow the greyhound park to move forward with it's plans for a full-scale family resort and entertainment facility. The facility would include, but not be limited to, hotel and spa and entertainment facilities.

Owners of the Ebro dog track estimate that this will create approximately 1200 jobs and an additional 2 million dollars in additional income.

Washington County Kennel Club, doing business as Ebro Greyhound Park, has been in existence since 1955 and currently features greyhound racing and a very popular poker room. Ebro Greyhound Park currently employs 225 people with an annual payroll of $1.2 million and more than $5 million in local spending.

Located at HWY 79 and HWY 20, Ebro is only about a 15 minute drive to the beaches at Panama City Beach and to the new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. HWY 79 is a heavily traveled road by tourists heading to the beaches and is currently being 4 laned through Washington County.

In my role as President of the Washington County Firefighters Association, I met with two of the owners of the Greyhound Park yesterday to discuss the ramifications to our Fire Services here in Washington County. The owners seem to be very committed to making sure that the Fire Services and EMS services benefit from the additional monies that should be generated. They verbally said that they are willing to make sure that income is designated and utilized by Fire and EMS to improve our services Countywide and in the immediate area around Ebro.

Regardless of where a person may stand on the issue of gambling, I feel that this is an opportunity that the citizens of Washington County cannot afford to let slip through our fingers.

If you are a resident of Washington County, Florida, I would urge you to support this effort, and stop losing money to other areas that offer this type of entertainment.

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Washington County Florida residential sales for the 3rd quarter of 2011. The sales of residential properties here have certainly slowed down considering the results from the 2nd quarter. There were 31 sales during the 2nd quarter and only 15 sales during the 3rd quarter. Although the numbers make it look disturbing, I have found that this is somewhat of a normal trend at this time of the year. We also saw during this quarter a lot of low priced foreclosures snapped up which will help to reduce the inventory.Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about homes or land in the Washington County Florida area.

MLS#	Area	S	Cat	Address	Typ	SqFt	BR	Bth	YrBlt	Price	Office	LAName
245097	12	S	RES	1295 MORRIS AVENUE	DSF	913	2	1/0	1956	$3,200	C967	Robbins
	DOM: SP: $3,200 SD: 09/27/2011 $/Sqft: $3.50 SA: CBR2754
244599	12	S	RES	1294 MORRIS AVENUE	DSF	850	2	1/0	1936	$9,900	C967	Birge
	DOM: 6 SP: $9,900 SD: 09/26/2011 $/Sqft: $11.65 SA: CBR2754
242061	12	S	RES	1598 SOUTH BLVD	DSF	1,220	2	2/0	1921	$28,500	C943	Carroll
	DOM: 293 SP: $15,000 SD: 09/29/2011 $/Sqft: $12.30 SA: CBR102312
240968	12	S	RES	605 7TH ST	DSF	1,056	3	1/0	1955	$21,900	C967	Robbins
	DOM: 288 SP: $17,500 SD: 07/08/2011 $/Sqft: $16.57 SA: CBR2754
243748	12	S	RES	2635 FINCH CIR	MOB	1,718	3	2/0	1999	$38,000	C854	WELLS
	DOM: 87 SP: $26,500 SD: 09/09/2011 $/Sqft: $15.42 SA: CBR2944
243142	12	S	RES	2420 FINCH CIR	MOB	900	2	2/0	1996	$49,900	C985	Hall
	DOM: 108 SP: $30,000 SD: 07/25/2011 $/Sqft: $33.33 SA: CBR2502
243689	12	S	RES	704 MAIN ST	DSF	1,644	3	2/0	1940	$39,900	C985	Martin
	DOM: 6 SP: $38,500 SD: 08/22/2011 $/Sqft: $23.42 SA: CBR2881
240161	12	S	RES	3677 PIONEER RD	DSF	1,408	3	2/0	1975	$69,000	C967	Birge
	DOM: 396 SP: $55,000 SD: 08/15/2011 $/Sqft: $39.06 SA: CBR9999
244959	12	S	RES	3228 LAKESHORE DR	MOB	1,092	2	2/0	1999	$59,900	186	NONMEMBER
	DOM: SP: $55,000 SD: 09/16/2011 $/Sqft: $54.85 SA: CBR2258
243850	12	S	RES	1349 JULIE LN	MOB	2,040	3	3/0	2003	$64,900	C854	WELLS
	DOM: 15 SP: $60,000 SD: 07/15/2011 $/Sqft: $29.41 SA: CBR2939
243107	12	S	RES	678 3RD ST	DSF	1,276	2	1/	1953	$69,900	C985	Cloud
	DOM: 133 SP: $60,000 SD: 08/05/2011 $/Sqft: $47.02 SA: CBR2297
242044	12	S	RES	1242 COGGINS AVE	DSF	1,375	3	1/1	1983	$64,900	C967	Robbins
	DOM: 147 SP: $64,900 SD: 07/29/2011 $/Sqft: $47.20 SA: CBR2355
244696	12	S	RES	1802 ULMER LN	DSF	1,700	4	2/0	1972	$89,900	C967	Birge
	DOM: 5 SP: $85,000 SD: 09/14/2011 $/Sqft: $50.00 SA: CBR2250
244929	12	S	RES	1988 CLAYTON RD	DSF	2,528	5	3/1	1974	$90,000	C1007	Mundy
	DOM: SP: $90,000 SD: 09/09/2011 $/Sqft: $35.60 SA: CBR2981
242976	12	S	RES	1421 GAINER RD	DSF	2,399	3	2/1	1999	$219,900	C942	Raney
	DOM: 171 SP: $190,000 SD: 08/30/2011 $/Sqft: $79.20 SA: CBR2626

Status	Total	Avg Price	Avg $ Per Sqft	Median	Low	High	Avg DOM
ACT/CNT	0	$0	$0.00	$0	$0	$0	0
PND	0	$0	$0.00	$0	$0	$0	0
SLD/RNT/LSE	15	$53,367	$32.94	$55,000	$3,200	$190,000	110
WTH	0	$0	$0.00	$0	$0	$0	0
EXP	0	$0	$0.00	$0	$0	$0	0
Total	15	$53,367	$32.94	$55,000	$3,200	$190,000	110

--Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed--Copyright: 2011 by the Chipola Area Board of REALTORS®, Inc.
Prepared by Jim Palmer of ERA Chipola Realty, Chipley Office on 10/1/2011 7:38:00 AM

Here in the Florida Panhandle on Labor Day we are experiencing a wet and soggy day as the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee continue to bring much needed rainfall to the area. Yesterday we had a couple of Tornado watches issued as the conditions were very good for tornado activity. Luckily we did not experience any actual tornado, but I can tell you that it is not a good feeling to hear the weather radio alert go off.

Been reflecting a bit also about the general year to date of my Real Estate business here in Washington County. I have been fortunate so far this year with a lot more activity and sales than we had last year. The market is still extremely slow, but the year has been a tremendous improvement over last years numbers.

So far this year I have managed 20 transaction sides with an even amount of Listing sides sales and Selling side sales. I have closed 6 homes so far this year for a total production of $751200.00 and I have two more homes under contract that should be closing in the next two weeks. These two closings will put me very close to the Million dollar production number. I figure that doing a million dollars in these uncertain times is pretty darn good for our rural market place!

Even with 20 years in this business, I believe that these are the toughest times I have ever experienced, but also the best of times to take advantage of the market conditions. Those of us that have managed to hang in there, and are working daily at our business plan, stand to prosper and come out of this even stronger.

I hope that every one is having a great Labor Day and I wish all a prosperous finish to this year!

I hope also that on 9/11/2011 every one will say a prayer for the heroes that gave their lives on a day that will never be forgotten.