Walton County · North of Choctawhatchee Bay
Freeport
Twenty minutes from 30A and less than half the price per square foot — 560 properties for sale, and a hundred of them on the water.
Over the 331 Bridge
The closest thing to 30A that most people can afford
Freeport sits at the top of Choctawhatchee Bay, straight up Highway 331 from Santa Rosa Beach. The drive to the sand is about twenty-five minutes. The price is $213 a square foot against roughly $545 on the coast.
That gap is why Freeport has been the fastest-growing town in Walton County for years, and why 127 of the 560 listings here are new construction. It is not a beach town pretending otherwise — it is a place people live, with the beach as a weekend rather than a front door.
for sale now
asking price
under contract
short-term rental
The Part People Miss
A hundred and five waterfront listings
Freeport is on the bay, and the bayous that feed it — Lagrange, Fourmile, Black Creek. 105 of the 560 properties listed here are waterfront. On 30A that would be unthinkable at these numbers. Here it buys a dock, a boat and a view of open water for less than a condo costs eight miles south.
Where People Actually Buy
Hammock Bay, and everything around it
Hammock Bay is the biggest single community up here — 74 homes listed today, averaging about $651,000, with its own amenities and a Bird Song section adding 18 more. Windswept Estates has 28, Natureview 16, Ashton Park 14. And at the other end, Owl’s Head runs to an average near $2.5 million on acreage. Freeport is not one market either; it is a planned-community market and a land market sitting next to each other.
What the Numbers Say
Freeport sells faster than the beach does
last 12 months
to sell
average sale
asking price
Seven hundred and sixty-six sales in a year, closing in an average of 132 days at 94.8% of the original asking price. Compare that with Miramar Beach at 314 days and 92.4%, or Destin at 155 and 90.9%.
Inland sells faster and holds its price better. That runs against what most people assume, and it is worth knowing in both directions — buyers have less room to negotiate here than on the coast, and sellers should not be talked into a coastal-length timeline.
Emerald Coast MLS, sales closed in the twelve months to August 2026, outliers excluded.
One Honest Caveat
You almost certainly cannot rent it out
Only 8 of the 560 listings in Freeport permit short-term rental — about 1%. If income from weekly rentals is part of your plan, this is the wrong town and we would rather say so on the page than after the drive. Look at Miramar Beach at 67%, or the Panama City Beach condo buildings, where several run at 100%.
Freeport Real Estate
Worth a look before you rule out the area
A lot of people arrive certain they want the beach and leave owning something twenty minutes north with a dock on it. Tell us the budget and what the week actually looks like, and we will show you both.