Bay County, Florida: A Local Guide for Home Buyers and Homeowners

Panama City

Panama City is the county seat, with county government at 840 W. 11th Street and the Property Appraiser a block over at 860 W. 11th Street. Two hospitals are here: Ascension Sacred Heart Bay at 615 N. Bonita Avenue, with 24/7 emergency care, and HCA Florida Gulf Coast Hospital at 449 W. 23rd Street, which has labor and delivery, a pediatric ICU and a Level III NICU.

Panama City has a spot in legal history too. Gideon v. Wainwright, the 1963 right-to-counsel case, started here.

Panama City Beach

Panama City Beach markets 27 miles of beaches, and Pier Park is its shopping and dining district. You can fish the Gulf from two piers, Russell-Fields City Pier and M.B. Miller County Pier, and Frank Brown Park hosts the big outdoor festivals. The Tax Collector has a service center at 10520 Hutchison Blvd., and the Property Appraiser keeps a beach office at 301 Richard Jackson Blvd.

Lynn Haven

Lynn Haven has its own Tax Collector driver license and tag office at 700 Florida Ave., so a tag renewal there doesn’t mean a trip to the county seat.

Callaway

Callaway is an incorporated city, and the Tax Collector runs a service center there at 805 S. Tyndall Pkwy for driver licenses and tags.

Mexico Beach

Mexico Beach sat at the center of Hurricane Michael’s landfall in 2018. The National Weather Service documented 9 to 14 feet of storm surge from Mexico Beach to Indian Pass, and waves destroyed the second stories of multiple buildings. Anyone buying here should read the storm section below before touring.

Upper and Lower Grand Lagoon

Upper Grand Lagoon and Lower Grand Lagoon take their names from Grand Lagoon, the water that St. Andrews State Park’s beaches face along with the Gulf. Upper Grand Lagoon is an unincorporated census-designated place, so county offices, not a city hall, handle its permits and services.

Southport

Southport, an unincorporated community, is where Gulf Coast State College runs its North Bay Campus, including the Public Safety/EOC Building at 700 Highway 2300. Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative keeps an office here too, which is a hint that power in this part of the county can come from the cooperative rather than FPL.

Springfield and Parker

Springfield and Parker are both incorporated cities with their own city governments. When you look at a house in either one, ask the seller who supplies water and sewer, since a city system and the county system bill differently.

Bay County SHIP Purchase Assistance

Bay County’s SHIP program lends first-time buyers money for the down payment, closing costs and small repairs on a new or existing home. It’s a 0% deferred loan that the county forgives in steps over the years you keep living in the home, and it’s for households that meet the county’s income rules. You’ll need a HUD-approved homebuyer class and a first mortgage pre-approval, and the county sets a maximum purchase price for SHIP-assisted homes.

Bay County Housing Services lays the process out in order: take the SHIP homebuyer education class through UF/IFAS Extension, get pre-approved by a lender, finish the first-time homebuyer packet with a county case manager, and wait for the award letter that sets your maximum purchase price. Housing Services: 850-215-2479.

Housing Services sets the award, the price cap and each funding round, and any of those can shift partway through the year. Before you write an offer in Panama City or Callaway, call 888-601-8344 and we’ll confirm with the county what SHIP pays and whether it’s taking applications for that address.

Bay County SHIP plan

Bay County SHIP Impact Fee Assistance

Bay County’s SHIP plan also helps very low, low and moderate income buyers with impact fees, the one-time charges that come with a newly built home. It’s a 0% deferred loan forgiven at the end of its term, so it does the most good on new construction.

If the house you like is new construction anywhere from Southport to Panama City Beach, call or text us at 954-816-8820 and we’ll ask Housing Services whether impact fee money is open for that lot before you sign the builder’s contract.

Bay County SHIP plan

Bay County SHIP help for current owners

Bay County’s SHIP plan covers people who already own, too: emergency repairs, foreclosure prevention, a grant toward homeowners insurance and property taxes for extremely low to low income owners, and disaster assistance after a declared emergency.

Which of those is funded depends on the county plan and the money left in it, so if you own in Bay and need repair or insurance help, call 888-601-8344 and we’ll point you to the right case manager at Housing Services.

Bay County SHIP plan

Florida Hometown Heroes (statewide)

Florida Hometown Heroes is a Florida Housing purchase program that pairs a 30-year fixed first mortgage with a down payment and closing cost second. The second is 0% and deferred with no monthly payment, and you repay it when you sell, refinance or pay off the home, or stop living in it. It isn’t forgiven.

At least one buyer has to work full time for an eligible Florida-based employer in health care, K-12 schools, first response, public safety, the courts or licensed child care, so a nurse at Sacred Heart Bay or a Bay District Schools employee qualifies. With Tyndall and NSA Panama City here, the military rule matters: active-duty members qualify whoever they work for, and veterans, Reservists and Guard members qualify with full-time work at any Florida-based employer. A remote job, a part-time job or an offer letter won’t count.

You can use Florida Housing assistance once in a lifetime, so use it on the right home with the right lender. Funds are reserved loan by loan and income and price limits vary by county, so call 888-601-8344 before you offer on a Bay County home and we’ll confirm the program is reserving and that your income and price both qualify.

Official program page

FL Assist, HLP and HFA Advantage PLUS (statewide)

FL Assist is a Florida Housing down payment and closing cost second mortgage at 0%, deferred with no monthly payment, repaid when you sell, refinance, transfer the home or move out. It sits behind a Florida Housing first mortgage: FHA, VA, USDA or Conventional through HFA Preferred or HFA Advantage. Florida Housing also offers the HLP second, which has a small fixed monthly payment over 30 years, and HFA Advantage PLUS, a Freddie Mac Conventional loan whose second is forgiven over 5 years while you live in the home.

You apply for any of these through a participating lender or broker, never directly with Florida Housing. Which second pairs best with a Bay SHIP award depends on the program rules in force when you apply, so call or text us at 954-816-8820 and we’ll lay the options side by side for the house you want.

Official program page

Schools and colleges

Public schools are run by Bay District Schools.

Gulf Coast State College has its main campus at 5230 W. Hwy 98 in Panama City, the North Bay Campus in Southport and the Tyndall Education Center on base. Florida State University Panama City, at 4750 Collegiate Drive, offers undergraduate and graduate programs.

Getting around

No interstate crosses Bay County. US 231 is the main road north, reaching I-10 near Cottondale in Jackson County and continuing on toward I-65, and State Road 20 cuts across the northern part of the county past Econfina Creek.

Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (ECP) opened for commercial flights in 2010 and handles the county’s airline service. Bay Line Railroad carries freight from the port to CSX and Norfolk Southern.

St. Andrews State Park and Shell Island

St. Andrews State Park was a military reservation before it became a park, and it now has more than 1.5 miles of beaches on the Gulf and Grand Lagoon. People camp, glamp, snorkel and fish at 4607 State Park Lane. From here a shuttle runs to Shell Island, an undeveloped barrier island, and Shell Island Adventures rents boats.

Camp Helen State Park

Camp Helen covers 180 acres at 23937 Panama City Beach Pkwy, bordered on three sides by the Gulf and Lake Powell, which the park calls the largest coastal dune lake in Florida. Its 1930s lodge and cottages served as an Avondale Mills company resort from 1945 to 1987, and prehistoric middens show people lived here more than 4,000 years ago.

Spring on the beach

The Gulf Coast Salute Air Show centers on Russell-Fields City Pier each April. In late May, Gulf Coast Jam, a four-day country music festival, takes over Frank Brown Park.

Fall and winter

October brings the Thunder Beach Fall Motorcycle Rally and Oktoberfest at Aaron Bessant Park. IRONMAN Florida comes to Panama City Beach in November, the Panama City Beach Marathon runs in December, and the year closes with the New Year’s Eve Beach Ball Drop.

Buying a home

FHA is the loan most of our Bay County buyers use: 3.5% down, flexible credit guidelines, and it pairs with the SHIP and statewide programs above. With Tyndall and Naval Support Activity Panama City in the county, VA loans matter here too, with no down payment for eligible veterans and service members. We also do Conventional loans, Hometown Heroes, DSCR loans for rentals, and FHA 100% financing.

AAA Capital Funding has been a licensed Florida mortgage broker since 1997 and lends statewide in all 67 Florida counties, so the team that closes your house in Lynn Haven can close the next one in Pensacola or Miami. We shop your loan with multiple wholesale lenders, and you’ll know your number before you start touring in Panama City Beach.

Refinancing the home you have

On a Bay County home you already own, a refinance can lower your monthly payment, take cash out for a remodel or a new roof, pay off higher-interest debt, or buy out someone else’s share of the home.

Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll price it out: new payment, cash at closing and costs, all on one page for your Bay County home.