St. George Island Oyster Spat Festival
Date: October 9 - 10
Location: St. George Island on the beach
For more information, please call 850-653-8678

Panama City Beach Seafood, Wine & Music Festival Date: October 9 - 11 Location: Frank Brown Park For more info: 850-233-5070 or panamacitybeachfest.com
33rd Annual Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival
Date: October 16 - 18
Location: Mullet Festival Grounds, Niceville, FL
Admission - $10 per person
Children 11 and under free

Heart Walk for American Heart Association Date: October 16 Time: 5:30pm Location: Pier Park For more info: 850-769-3070

Jazz By the Bay Festival Date: October 16 - 17 Time: 6:00pm Location: Oaks By the Bay Park, St. Andrew For more info: 850-872-7208

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk Date: October 17 Location: McKenzie Park, Downtown, PC For more info: 850-785-9205

11th Annual Mexico Beach Art & Wine Festival Date: October 17 Location: Driftwood Inn, Hwy 98 For more info: www.mexicobeach.com

2009 Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Great Strides Walk Date: October 17 Time: Registration - 8:30; Begins - 9:00 Location: St. Andrews State Park

Boo at the Beach Date: October 24 Time: 11:00am until 2:00pm Location: Pier Park, Promo/Green Grass area

Malloween at Pier Park Date: October 31 Time: 6:00pm until 8:00pm Location: Pier Park

Loooking for a great condo on the gulf? Wanting more than JUST a tower?

Edgewater is it!

Edgewater Beach & Golf Resort offers 110 acres of golf, tennis, shuffleboard, spa, fitness center, aerobics room, 11 swimming pools, 4 whirlpool spas and more. Although everything is in walking distance, we offer a complimentary shuttle to zip you easily around the entire property.

Call or e-mail me today for a list of all properties for sale in Edgewater or any complex for that matter :)

They now start in the low 100s.....Why wait.....your home away from home is waiting...for you to call or e-mail me today....

Alisa@TheBeachPeach.com

Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Douglas Sams Staff Writer

St. Joe Co. is planning several more waves of development in the Florida Panhandle - a potential building boom spurred by the region's new international airport.

St. Joe, one of the Panhandle's largest developers, has several projects in the works around Panama City-Bay County International Airport, which is being built on a 4,000-acre site in western Bay County.

St. Joe donated land to the Panama City/Bay County Airport and Industrial District.

Construction on the airport began in late 2007.

St. Joe has land entitlements near the airport for at least 4 million square feet of commercial and industrial development and at least 5,800 residential units.

The Panhandle is one of the most popular summer vacation destinations for Atlantans and the location many choose for second homes.

But, the expansion of the airport gives cities such as Atlanta - about a five-hour drive from the Panhandle - greater connectivity to the Bay County region, economic development officials say.

St. Joe is banking on that connection to spur residential and commercial real estate demand not just from Atlanta but from across the South.

"Within this area we have a lot of residential projects in development, and the dirt is turning on those lots," said Jerry Ray, a spokesman with St. Joe (NYSE: JOE).

"Some of those sites are ready for development," he said. "In some cases houses are already there and builder programs are in place."

In recent months, St. Joe Co. met with officials from Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL).

The meetings focused on the potential for more routes between the expanded Panama City airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Ray said.

"Here is the advantage the airport gives us," Ray said. "We were always a drive-in market. But, once we have the new airport, it's going to give us a chance to broaden our market and move from a regional destination to reach a much broader part of the country."

The Panhandle is Florida's second-largest tourism market behind Orlando.

With the airport's planned opening in May 2010, Bay County officials think it might be enough of an economic engine to pull the residential market out of its slide.

Florida has one of the hardest-hit housing markets of any state.

"It's going to be a catalyst," said Janet Watermeier, director of economic development for the Bay County Chamber of Commerce.

"The airport is getting national media attention," she said. "We're getting calls from people with business interests in our region from as far away as California and Texas as well as the usual states, such as Mississippi and Georgia."

The airport is one of the largest planned mixed-use developments in the United States.

St. Joe owns all of the land surrounding the airport, or about 71,000 acres. More than half of that is dedicated to preservation.

FHA-approved lenders received the go-ahead to develop bridge-loan products that enable first-time buyers to use the benefits of the federal tax credit upfront, according to eagerly awaited guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on so-called home buyer tax credit loans that was released today.

Under the guidance, FHA-approved lenders can develop bridge loans that home buyers can use to help cover their closing costs, buy down their interest rate, or put down more than the minimum 3.5 percent.

The loans can't be used to cover the minimum 3.5 percent, senior HUD officials told reporters on a conference call Friday morning.

Thus, buyers applying for FHA-backed financing with an FHA-approved lender that offers a bridge-loan program can get a bridge loan to bring down the upfront costs of buying a home significantly but would still have to come up with the minimum 3.5 percent downpayment.

There remain many sources of assistance for buyers needing help with the 3.5 percent downpayment, including many state and local government instrumentalities and nonprofit lenders.

In addition, some state housing finance agencies have developed their own tax credit bridge loan programs, so buyers in states whose HFAs offer such programs can monetize the tax credit upfront to cover all or part of their downpayment. These programs are separate from what HUD announced today.

The first-time homebuyer tax credit was enacted last year--and improved upon earlier this year--to help encourage households to enter the housing market while interest rates are low and affordability is high. The credit is worth up to $8,000 and is available to households that haven't owned a home in at least three years. The credit does not have to be repaid, and is fully reimbursable, so households can get their credit returned to them in the form of a payment.

Learn more about the credit, including how to apply for it this year even if you've already filed your taxes, at REALTOR.org.

Source: Robert Freedman, REALTOR® Magazine Online

The summer concert series Thusday nights at Aaron Bessant Park at Pier Park in Panama City Beach.

If you are looking for an awesome way to spend some outdoors time with your family, this is the place to go. From 7 to 9 pm every Thursday, bands from Reggae to Blues to New Grass to R&B will be lighting up the stage and filling the air with sweet music.

The first of the twelve series shows will be on June 4th and carry through the summer to August 20th. Don't forget to bring your picnic blanket, picnic dinner and coolers!

Schedule:

De Lions of Jah - Raggae - June 4th

Eric Lindell - Blues/Rock - June 11th

Rollin in the Hay - New Grass - June 18th

Cyril Neville (of the Neville Brothers) - R&B/Rock - June 25th

The Lee Griffin Band - R&B/Rock - July 2nd

PBS - New Orleans Fund - July 9th

The Legendary JC's - Soul/R&B - July 16th

King Cotton Blues Band - Blues - July 23rd

The Donnie Sundal Project - Variety - July 30th

Beachmice - Eclectic Acoustic - August 6th

Heat and the Zydeco Gents - Zydeco - August 13th

Geneva - 80's Rock - August 20