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First, thanks so much for the feedback. We just got back from a 3 day trip there to look at housing/schools/churches/possible jobs and I wish I had thought to post before we left! We will go again and be sure to look east of A1A near Solana. Thanks so much for giving such specific areas - that's what we needed when we were there! As far as not wanting a gated community, they typically come with lots of restrictions and fees and bylaws that must be followed and DH also just does not like the idea of having to go through a gate every time he comes home. Something we could probably compromise on if need be, but just not what we prefer. The monthly fees aren't what bothered us about the club communities, more the inititaion fee. Plantation was $40k and the others were 30,25,25...crazy in my mind. I know they are gorgeous and the fees serve a point, but just can't stomach a home listing at $425k only to find out that it is really $465k to get in it! I'd rather spend the extra $40k on a non-club property, such as the one simms describes around Solana. Will have to be sure to check into L'Atrium as well. We drove by it and I clearly remember it, but we thought it was part of Sawgrass, I believe.
I guess we can't make a decision based on a 3 day trip. I really, really appreciate the feedback. In the end, we may have to choose one of the other beaches I originally mentioned...we are pretty laid back people and are average "joe's" - it may not be the place for us...it is so beautiful there though and we loved the schools! We thought it would be a happy, safe, memorable place to raise our kids and provide them with opportunity...which it is still, but I think from the feedback we may just need to look elsewhere. Ho Hum Thanks again!
What price range are you looking in? Are the schools your primary interest? If so - you have a wide choice of places. If you're looking at the $400k range or so - you *can* buy in a place like Sawgrass or Marsh Landing or old Ponte Vedra. But you'll be looking at older smaller dated houses in any of these communities. Might make for an ok place to rent - but I wouldn't advise buying one of those. You'd be better off in one of the newer communities in the Palm Valley area (and I wouldn't advise spending $400k in any of those - $300k max). You'll have a lot more to choose from in a pricer community in the $500-600k range - including a lot of pre-foreclosures and short sales.
There really isn't much on Solana Road in terms of houses. Some older ones (like L'Atrium - not anyone's idea of upper middle class IMO - you can look up the houses - with pics - on a website like Trulia or Realtor.com or Zillow or RealtyTrac) - one smaller/newer one block development with bigger nicer houses. A couple of office condos. A residential condo (or maybe it's apartments). A shopping center. Some vacant lots. The back of a golf course. (I drive that road to get to A1A many times a week.) Certainly not my cup of tea.
If you're not familiar with the area - I seriously recommend renting for at least 6 months to a year when you move here. Explore PVB - and the other neighborhoods that are of interest to you in the metro area. Get a feel for the area in general - and specific neighborhoods. The housing market in all of Florida is miserable - and we're no exception. And - if anything - things are getting worse - not better. So I don't think there's any urgency (quite the contrary - and I would wait until the end of hurricane season to do anything no matter what).
As for living in a gated community - Florida has crime. We have less here in PVB than in a lot of other areas. But crime - more or less - is simply a fact of life in Florida. One reason gated communities are nice. The gates aren't a big deal. We have bar code decals - never have to wait. It is true that HOAs have rules. But you'll find the opposite on a road like Roscoe Blvd. (running along the intracoastal waterway). You have to do a lot of detective work about the zoning in the area when you're looking there. Otherwise - you can wind up with a restaurant/church/mulch place next door or across the street from you - even if you're living in a $2 million house. And I've been waiting for 15 years for Roscoe to have sewers. Am not holding my breath these days.
Anyway - would be glad to answer any questions you have. Robyn
P.S. I'm a 62 year old retired lawyer who moved here from Miami 15 years ago - have been in Florida 35+ years now.
Wow! You guys are SO helpful! If I can pick your brain a moment AliciaMaria, the club joining you speak of....I am confused because we looked at a house in The Plantation and were told that you paid $40k up front, non-negotiable, plus the cost of the home. That put it out of reach for us. Then we looked at something in Sawgrass, but they have an initiation fee of $30k. Again, over our limit when we add the price of the home itself. Is there an initiation fee at Marsh? Is the one at Sawgrass mandatory? I know the one at Plantatin is, but perhaps the others are not... I am trying first and foremost to find out where lots of kids/families live. I don't want to drag my kids down there and stick them in the middle of a neighborhood full of older adults! I looked into the schools and there are so many, but we really didnlt see lots of kids around. There are 400+ kids at PCA, pvpv/rawlings, ocean palms, landrum, the list goes on and on....thousands. Where were they all? Do most of th PCA kids live in the clubs? The only info we got that was helpful while we were there was a vague, "not across the bridge," which I am assuming meant the intercoastal bridge over to Nocatee. Fantastic idea, but just not good timing...sad.
So thankful for your help. I wish we could come down again now! Our home here will likely sell quickly, so we just need to find a spot down there and get it done.
Thanks so much!
Hi, Robyn55. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your insight. I am finding one very important thing...upper middle class in PVB does not mean the same thing as it does where we are coming from. We currently have 2 nice cars, a 4 bedroom home with an acre of land and an in-groundpool (listing at $400k) and our children attend good schools and nice summer camps. Here, we are upper middle for sure. We are trying to find something comparable there (I know, minus the land, which we will miss terribly!) and are finding that it is not possible in our range. The homes that compare are listed at prices that would be found in the rather exclusive parts of where we are now ($550k+). I am trying to avoid putting my kids in school and living in an area where we are at the bottom financially. We are modest people and not into keeping up with the Jones' but I also don't want to be at the bottom of the lot so to speak. We thought about renting, but feel that it would compound an already stressful move for the kids. We want them to know that wherever we go, that is home and we can make it our home and I can't imagine having to pack them up and move a second time. It is such a huge decision on so many levels!
I loved PVB, really did, and I knew that it was a very wealthy part of St John's, but I guess I underestimated just how much wealth there was!
Your info about crime is appreciated very much! It is a little scary, I have to admit. Do you mean crime like Detroit/Baltimore/Chicago? egads!
Thanks so much again. It is nice to have some info from people who really know and don't just want to sell us a house!
Wow! You guys are SO helpful! If I can pick your brain a moment AliciaMaria, the club joining you speak of....I am confused because we looked at a house in The Plantation and were told that you paid $40k up front, non-negotiable, plus the cost of the home. That put it out of reach for us. Then we looked at something in Sawgrass, but they have an initiation fee of $30k. Again, over our limit when we add the price of the home itself. Is there an initiation fee at Marsh? Is the one at Sawgrass mandatory? I know the one at Plantatin is, but perhaps the others are not... I am trying first and foremost to find out where lots of kids/families live. I don't want to drag my kids down there and stick them in the middle of a neighborhood full of older adults! I looked into the schools and there are so many, but we really didnlt see lots of kids around. There are 400+ kids at PCA, pvpv/rawlings, ocean palms, landrum, the list goes on and on....thousands. Where were they all? Do most of th PCA kids live in the clubs? The only info we got that was helpful while we were there was a vague, "not across the bridge," which I am assuming meant the intercoastal bridge over to Nocatee. Fantastic idea, but just not good timing...sad.
So thankful for your help. I wish we could come down again now! Our home here will likely sell quickly, so we just need to find a spot down there and get it done.
Thanks so much!
The only gated community in PVB that requires a club membership is the Plantation.
I can tell you where we all go in August - inside! It's hot as blazes. Robyn
If you look at the communities without golf courses, the homes and hoa fees are usually less money. For example: Odoms Mill, Seaside, Sawmill Lakes, Woodlands, Plantation Oaks, etc.
Hi, Robyn55. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your insight. I am finding one very important thing...upper middle class in PVB does not mean the same thing as it does where we are coming from. We currently have 2 nice cars, a 4 bedroom home with an acre of land and an in-groundpool (listing at $400k) and our children attend good schools and nice summer camps. Here, we are upper middle for sure. We are trying to find something comparable there (I know, minus the land, which we will miss terribly!) and are finding that it is not possible in our range. The homes that compare are listed at prices that would be found in the rather exclusive parts of where we are now ($550k+). I am trying to avoid putting my kids in school and living in an area where we are at the bottom financially. We are modest people and not into keeping up with the Jones' but I also don't want to be at the bottom of the lot so to speak. We thought about renting, but feel that it would compound an already stressful move for the kids. We want them to know that wherever we go, that is home and we can make it our home and I can't imagine having to pack them up and move a second time. It is such a huge decision on so many levels!
I loved PVB, really did, and I knew that it was a very wealthy part of St John's, but I guess I underestimated just how much wealth there was!
Your info about crime is appreciated very much! It is a little scary, I have to admit. Do you mean crime like Detroit/Baltimore/Chicago? egads!
Thanks so much again. It is nice to have some info from people who really know and don't just want to sell us a house!
You have to know some general things about Florida real estate. The price of a house is no indication that the people who own it can afford it. Anywhere. That's especially true after the kind of huge real estate boom that we had. Now there *are* people living within their means - and beneath their means - but a whole lot of people in Florida tend to get caught up in real estate manias and buy places they really can't afford.
Also - it's hard to get a handle on what things are really worth today because sales volume is very low. There are a fair number of short sales and foreclosures. You're dealing with really motivated sellers there. Then there are totally non-motivated sellers trying to sell at pre-bust prices. And sellers in between the extremes. To give you an idea how crazy things are - the Zillow estimates of the low and high values of my house today are $470k and $619k. That's quite a spread! And the peak "value" was $796k 3 years ago. IOW - I don't have a clue what my house is worth - and neither would a potential buyer if my house were up for sale.
That's one reason I recommend renting to people. Ponte Vedra is kind of a small town real estate-wise - and it's good to be here and be in the middle of all the local news and gossip if you're looking to buy.
Another reason I've been recommending renting is I don't think we've hit bottom yet in the real estate market. The fed has started quantitative easing again - the 2 year treasury note is at .5% - and "official unemployment" is almost 10%. I probably wouldn't buy until the fed has stopped its QE for at least 6 months - and it changes its language on interest rates after its meetings. Unless I were getting a super good deal on a distressed property today (someone like me being forced to sell on the low end of my Zillow scale - $470k - as opposed to being stuck on the high end of $600k+ plus). And I was sure the neighborhood around me was pretty stable. I'm pretty business-like about this stuff - but note that YMMV.
FWIW - our crime is nothing like Detroit and the like. But we're not 1950's Mayberry either. Mostly petty property crime. E.g., I wouldn't leave my car unlocked in my driveway with anything valuable in it. Robyn
P.S. We bought a little less than an acre of land here in 1995 for $95k. You'll find a lot of newer houses on small lots - but there are a fair number of larger lots in the area (which can have anything on them ranging from multi-million dollar mansions to doublewides).
We are trying to relocate from an upper middle class family neighborhood in Northern Baltimore County to the northeastern part of Florida. We want to be close to the beach. We looked at Jacksonville Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach and St. Augustine Beach. Of all of these areas we liked Pnte Vedra best, however, we couldn't find any normal family homes. By normal, I mean a neighborhood street that is not part of an exclusive gated country club sitting right on a golf course. We found one street called Neck Road that was like this, but no others. There are many schools within the 32082 zip code that are NOT expensive private schools, but where the heck do those normal families live? We don't need a mansion, just a nice 4 bedroom home. Please give feedback. We do NOT want to live in Nocatee and were not impressed with JAX beach...maybe we missed somehting?
Thanks so very much!
When buying real estate it boils down to wants and needs. Have kids? Schools important? Do not want to pay for private schools? St. Johns county is tops in the state in this week's school report. Do not have link handy though.
Ponte Vedra avg price home is around 350-400K, you can find a good home for that price, but it might not have sq. footage your family needs. If you need sq. footage for bigger family look into NW St. Johns county. You will have a 20-30 minute drive to the beach, but able to buy a nice home now for your 400K.
Concerning renting, most places will only do one year. I have seen some month to month, but it will be at "tourist" prices for vacations. Never seen 6 months listed.
One other thing is youth sports are a big deal in St. Johns county, all the programs are pretty good.
we live in Cypress Creek (W A1A Sawgrass) Cost about $100 a month dues. We have lots of Kids in our hood, couple of 10 year olds live right next door to me & they seem normal.
We have no kids, so we're not normal but as I said cypress creek is worth a drive through.
There is even a Masters winner living here. (golf)
Hello again, folks. OK, so I have thought about many things and am now wondering....we like the "traditional" neighborhood style of Old Plam Valley and the fact that there are lots of big trees still remaining and it seems low-key. However, we also are looking into Sawmill Lakes, more for the social aspect for our kids than anything else. It seems like the houses are much more crammed together than Old Palm, but would we be better off moving into Sawmill lakes from a social standpoint (more activity for the kids to do) or is there just as much available to them in Old Palm? We have found houses that we like in both, but for instance, if all the kids live in and gather at the community pools after school, then they'd feel left out. We aren;t basing our decision solely on what the kids will like, but it is an importnat factor. Thanks again for your thoughts.
I can't address the social stuff - but most of old Palm Valley doesn't have sewers or storm drainage systems (which is why the properties have those big sewer mounds and drainage ditches in front). Most of the area is lacking in other amenities as well (like sidewalks). Which makes it very dangerous to do things like running - bike riding - etc.
When you're looking at big trees - look closely and ask yourself how old they are. Most trees in Florida have pretty short lives compared to those elsewhere in the country. And - by the time they're really big - they're old and fragile. Not anything I'd want close to my house.
No matter where you live in PVB - you're close to the Winston Y. It's an excellent facility for adults and kids. We're members. Take a look. Robyn
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