Panama City Beach is one of the larger of the University "Spring Break" destinations in Florida with more than 100,000 college and high school students making a visit in March and April each year. A good part of the draw are the unique sugar-white sandy beaches.

For many years Panama City Beach existed in the shadow of its much larger neighbor Panama City, then came a construction boom in the early and mid-2000's that replaced many older homes and downtrodden motels with upscale high-rise condo towers and luxury homes. As much as this construction raised local property values (and taxes) it also removed unobstructed low-rise beach views and affordable waterfront properties from the menu. The real estate crash of 2007 brought some of the effects under control but Panama City Beach is still a bit pricey, although not so bad when compared with places like Destin...

The population of Panama City Beach is up more than 56% since 2000.