[goshenretire]

My wife and I are retired, and living in WV. We are considering retiring to the South in search of a milder climate, and are looking at North Florida locations, one of which is St Augustine. Our interests are gardening, arts, music, nature, hiking, woods, reading, movies. We want to live in a quiet area but still want reasonable access to the city facilities (health, shopping, arts, etc.). We will be going to Florida later this year for at least one week to see for ourselves. In the meantime I am interested in comments by current residents as to:
(1) Is St Augustine a good area for retirement?
(2) Would you recommend buying a house in St Augustine or one of the communities West of the city?
(3) If we live West of the city, what is traffic like into St Augustine?
(4) Flooding and storms - we are storm shy and really do not want to deal with hurricanes and storm surges. Would we better off living West of St Augustine or perhaps in the Jacksonville area? Or given our personalities (storm shy), should we stay away from a coastal area like St Augustine?
(5) What is the medical care like in St Augustine. From perusing the web there seems to be good quality care in the area. Do you agree?
(6) Housing quality? We will purchase either a single family house or a condo.
(7) Any other thoughts as to retirement in St Augustine?

Thank you!!!

[Hawaii4evr]

Hurricanes and tropical storms rarely reach St. Augustine, or any point north of it. I don't think you'll have to worry about that. However, monsoon season is during the summertime, so it'll be hot, muggy and thunderstorms happen almost everyday for about 30 minutes. Jacksonville is on the coast as well, so you wouldn't have a "better chance" or avoiding hurricanes there, as opposed to St. Augustine. I would recommend St. Augustine for retiring. It's a nice, quiet, charming area with a relaxed Southern feel. I saw a lot of old folks down there, so I assume it's a big retiree area. It's also quite cheap from what I hear. St. Augustine is close to forests, wetlands and nice beaches, so you're interests in nature are covered there. However, in terms of arts and museums, Jacksonville is better for that. It's about 45 minutes away, so you can easily take a day trip there for that kind of stuff. St. Augustine has lots of history, and old forts. It's definitely a good area for that kinda stuff, and it's also very walkable-neat little shops and good restaurants (this good Greek restaurant there comes to mind). It's absolutely beautiful there and I love it. The beaches are nice too-the water is warm 9 out of 12 months there, waves are good, and although the water isn't clear, it's still nice. Beautiful sand dunes with palm trees and wild grasses, shells everywhere, and orange sand! So pretty. Hope this helped a bit!

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by goshenretire

My wife and I are retired, and living in WV. We are considering retiring to the South in search of a milder climate, and are looking at North Florida locations, one of which is St Augustine. Our interests are gardening, arts, music, nature, hiking, woods, reading, movies. We want to live in a quiet area but still want reasonable access to the city facilities (health, shopping, arts, etc.). We will be going to Florida later this year for at least one week to see for ourselves. In the meantime I am interested in comments by current residents as to:
(1) Is St Augustine a good area for retirement?
(2) Would you recommend buying a house in St Augustine or one of the communities West of the city?
(3) If we live West of the city, what is traffic like into St Augustine?
(4) Flooding and storms - we are storm shy and really do not want to deal with hurricanes and storm surges. Would we better off living West of St Augustine or perhaps in the Jacksonville area? Or given our personalities (storm shy), should we stay away from a coastal area like St Augustine?
(5) What is the medical care like in St Augustine. From perusing the web there seems to be good quality care in the area. Do you agree?
(6) Housing quality? We will purchase either a single family house or a condo.
(7) Any other thoughts as to retirement in St Augustine?

Thank you!!!

Storms are a fact of life in Florida, if you are "storm wary" I don't advise St. Augustine or any other coastal city. Hurricanes and storms can go inland as well, but at least you don't worry about the "storm surge." I think you might want to take a look at some of the smaller inland towns for what you are looking for, there could be many that might suit your needs.

[kyle19125]

I agree with pretty much everything Hawaii4evr said above. St Augustine is a great place to live, and not just for retirees. It's a fairly mixed population age-wise, with more families on the north end closer to Jacksonville. Another consideration I would suggest is the Fernandina Beach/Yulee area, which is north of Jacksonville. It's quieter than St Augustine in that it doesn't have the same number of tourists, yet much the same feel and equal proximity to big city amenities plus as Gypsychic pointed out in terms of storms less concern as it sits in from the Atlantic despite being on/near the coast.