Fort Walton Beach, FL

The affordability dashboard for Fort Walton Beach, FL aggregates Census ACS 5-Year Estimates across 2 ZIP codes covering 51,828 residents, then layers in county-level federal data to produce an overall grade of D (46/100). The headline inputs are median household income of $68,707, median home value of $321,263, median rent of $1,512 per month, and 29.6% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher. These four metrics alone explain most of the variance between city dashboards.

Cross-agency feeds widen the picture beyond Census demographics. HUD publishes a Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom in this county at $1,785 per month (studio $1,362, 1BR $1,581, 3BR $2,448, 4BR $2,979). Department of Labor data lists infant center-based childcare at $11,700 per year, consuming 17% of the local median household income.

Reading the overall grade requires reading all seven dimensions together. The score weights Income 20%, Safety 20%, Housing 15%, Rent 15%, Education 10%, Commute 10%, and Childcare 10%, with each sub-score benchmarked against national percentiles rather than state averages, so the grade is genuinely comparable across any city in the country. Pressure points are housing. Unemployment currently reads 3.1% and poverty 14.0% - numbers worth keeping alongside the headline grade.