Another beautiful weekend in paradise! For me, May and September are by far the best months to be on the Emerald Coast. Moderate temperatures, yet warm enough to enjoy the beach, go fishing, kite surf on Okaloosa Island, or just sit outside and enjoy an evening concert.

It’s interesting that much of the conversation among us “locals” was about the current impact of the oil spill. For us in real estate, these are the rental cancellations and contract cancellations. I keep hearing about the vacation rental cancellations, but the traffic sure isn’t slacking off. I spent Saturday afternoon in bumper to bumper traffic. Traffic that I’m used to seeing in the summer, but not in May. I was also quite impressed by all the people out walking along Scenic Hwy 98 the other morning when I drove into work. In fact, I saw a couple walking along stop at one of the listings in Frangista Beach and grab a flyer. People are still curious about real estate on the beach!

More and more information is coming out about the oil spill and the recovery efforts. I’ve tried to gather links to the best sites and I’m posting them here.

The Governor’s Commission: http://www.volunteerfloridadisaster.org/

Walton County Sheriff’s office for local volunteer info: http://www.waltonso.org/

Florida CFO Alex Sink has directed the Department of Financial Services to open a Consumber HelpLine at 1-877-My-FL-CFO (1-877-693-5236) to assist business owners impacted by the oil spill. Specialists are available from 8.00am to 5.30pm Monday thru Friday. More information is available at http://www.MyFloridaCFO.com.

The vultures are circling. Beware of the scammers trying to take advantage of this. If you have a legal question or think you need legal council, go to the Florida Bar for info. Make sure a lawyer is eligible to practice in this state. You can check someone out at http://www.floridabar.org and use the “Find a Lawyer” function. You can also check someone out by calling the Florida Bar directly at 1-866-854-5050.

EPA’s Monitoring Efforts: http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/

Stay informed and please share any other information or links that I’ve not included.

Here’s to another great week in paradise, oil spill or no oil spill!