A recently opened community is adding new permanent residences to a popular Florida vacation destination.
Sales have started for Waypoint by Traton Homes, a 72-unit townhouse community in Panama City Beach on the Florida Panhandle.
Every home in Waypoint features the builder’s 1,695-square-foot, two-story Sunbrook floor plan in three-bedroom and four-bedroom varieties. Each townhouse has three bathrooms.
The development is off Front Beach Road, less than a mile to Saint Andrew Bay and three miles from the Gulf Coast. Panama City Beach is known for its white sand beaches.
Other nearby amenities include Pier Park, a shopping center with amusement rides including the SkyWheel ferris wheel that World Choice Investments, the operating partner of Dolly Parton's dinner theaters, just bought.
Collins Pace, Florida division president for Marietta, Georgia-based Traton, said the site was chosen for its “visibility, accessibility and proximity.”
“If someone works across the Hathaway Bridge in downtown Panama City Beach, it’s a hop skip and a jump there. And you’re down there in the beach corridor,” Pace told Homes.com.
Homes in Waypoint start at $299,900, well below the median home price in the market, which was $365,000 in June, up 4.29% year-over-year, according to Homes.com research. When housing is broken out by class, the price still beats the area's median price of an attached home of $316,900.
Panama City Beach has wrestled with housing costs, as the market saw a 30% drop in affordability in the third quarter of 2024, according to Homes.com.
“The housing market in Panama City is among the strongest in Florida, with a much faster pace of trailing year price appreciation than the national average,” said analytics director Lisa McNatt at Homes.com. “The market’s consistent economic growth, appeal as a tourism destination and ongoing infrastructure projects have kept buyer interest healthy. One of the biggest hurdles is limited inventory, which often leads to multiple offers and creates challenges for affordability.”
Pace said Traton wasn’t targeting any particular class of buyers with the price, though he said it has garnered attention from first-time buyers.
“It’s definitely fair to say that, when you look at new homes in the area, not very many check that box for affordable or attainable," he said.
Other buyers have been what Pace calls “mom and pop investors” or second-home owners. “They aren’t trying to buy a million-dollar beach house, but they like the idea of having somewhere they can stay at and maybe rent out a couple weeks a year," he said.