St. Johns county neighborhood recommendations, up to 350k, no CDDs/low HOAs out there? (Panama City: HOA, house)

[daisies76]

Originally Posted by Diversion

Maybe I am not understanding how CDD works?

You can pay them off? I was expecting a CDD to be an additional yearly fee..

For example, there's a home in World Golf Village I really like, it's listed as having a $3250 CDD.

Is this just a one time thing? I'd gladly pay it once and get rid of it. The HOA in addition to the CDD was $70 annually or something.. seemed very small in comparison.

Well, I found an article explaining how CDDs work.. It sounds like if your CDD is $3000, it would be $3000 every year for the duration of your loan (in the very least). This is not desireable at all; i'm astonished people will buy a house and be okay with paying an extra $300 a month to CDDs and then the HOA fee on top of that.

CDD's are generally a 20 year bond. So if the neighborhood has for example a 2k annual CDD, that is annually for 20 years (or 40k) Builders are offering to pay off the bond, (the entire 20 years) but you have to choose between them paying it off or do you want the added upgrades they throw in. Plus there is always a portion they do not pay...

[Shannon4426]

Originally Posted by daisies76

No, the CDD portion of your tax bill is actually NOT tax deductible because it is considered a local benefit. If it came down to an audit, it would be disallowed. The real estate tax portion itself is deductible, but not anything that is considered a local benefit such as the building of schools, construction of streets/sidewalks, water or sewer lines, etc. They are not deductible because these added benefits tend to increase the value of your home. (IRS Publication 530, page 3) I had this explained to me from the IRS when I called on this very topic.

If in doubt, read the publication or call the IRS. Going through an audit is NOT FUN!

Wow, that stinks. We were misled about that, unless the builder didn't actually understand it.

[daisies76]

Originally Posted by Shannon4426

Wow, that stinks. We were misled about that, unless the builder didn't actually understand it.

We were too. The builders will say anything to get the sale.

[Diversion]

We visited World Golf Village, King & Bear section over the past weekend.. We really enjoyed this area and liked the gated communited with 24/7 (I think) guard on duty and no CDD. The 400+ quarterly for HOA equates to around $1700 a year and at least you can justify a good portion of that money to having the added safety of a real guard/gate at all entrances. The rest because you live in a golf course community and has nice amenities.

Does anybody have any thoughts on Standard Pacific homes? We really felt the quality seemed top notch for the price.. They are very close to $100/per sqft but there's definately a higher quality feel to the homes we visited.

They can build inside the King & Bear right now as they have a fair amount of lots available.

[ctown83]

I do not know much about Standard Pacific outside of the fact that a friend of mine built with them about 1.5 years ago and has been very happy with his home. You could go to Cappero Drive in Murabella and talk with a few of the homeowners as I believe many of the homes on that street were built by Standard Pacific.

[grayrunner]

Interesting:
This is the exact quote! Go back and check!

'Well, basic fact is be warned to be skeptical of people
advocating a certain HOA (especially things like Nocatee)
because realtors pimp this board heavily looking for the
ideal client (IE one who doesn't know the score locally)'

and this is what you thought I wrote:

donisanasfan

tell us wise grayrunner ...what is the score?

"beware of pimps in Nocatee , hovering over the those
who do not know the score....."

My conclusion is it's going to be very hard to ever
know the score without mastering reading comprehension.
And I really wish that anyone pushing a particular housing or product
would identify themselves as having a vested interest.

I'm just a retiree myself. I have a FL RE license but no time
or interest to practice, rather go fishing.

[donisanasfan]

I paraphrased your words for effect..... I actually did you a favor. I don't think someone writing the following....

'Well, basic fact is be warned to be skeptical of people
advocating a certain HOA (especially things like Nocatee)
because realtors pimp this board heavily looking for the
ideal client (IE one who doesn't know the score locally)'

should even bring up the subject of reading comprehension. You might learn how to write ,before concerning yourself with comprehension. Walk before you run grayrunner.
final score 2-1 .... game over.

[dasemtch]

Julington Creek Plantation Advice

You are wise to avoid CDD's and HOA's. We hesitated, but bought anyway. We didn't want the neighborhood getting too run down over the years; but we are paying the piper now. The Realtor swore the HOA was only for our good and they weren't like Nazi's or anything! Suckers, we were! This will be the next big scam. Yes, Hoa's can serve the purpose of keeping a neighborhood free of neglectful owners and renters, BUT there is a lot of wasted money and homeowner's have very little say in what rules are enacted.

In JCP, facilities are great, but in addition to cdd fees and HOA fees, remember classes and kid's sports are far from free.Even the schools here charge for everything they can. If you can't pay for a band class during school hours, you can't take band, etc... It's great if you are financially very comfortable, but your kids might feel deprived if they don't have the latest iwhatever and can't join the expensive middle and High School activities available. They can be quite expensive, especially with a couple of kids.

There are pretty much additional fees for the use of everything, except to swim in the pool - and it IS a nice pool. BUT, and this is a huge BUT, the HOA is horrible, as is May Management. They are the property police. We all understand that buying into an HOA means following rules, ie: no cars up on bricks on the driveway, no parking on the lawn, no lime green house, keep your yard neat, etc....BUT the HOA here adds new rules without most people realizing anyone would institute such petty changes. WATCH OUT! There are many, many rules! Our new rule is: ANY change must first be approved by the Architectural Review Committee for a charge of 45.00. If you change ANYTHING (read: plant a tree, add flowers, enlarge a mulch bed, add a birdbath, stepping stones, paint the same color, change your mailbox etc...), you will be fined an additional 100 dollars. And the law in Florida is the HOA can charge you attorney costs and put a lien on your house if you do not pay these silly fines. You can actually lose your home if they access fees to your fines.Hey, those kids will toughen up living under that bridge anyway! Wake up other JCP people. It's funny, individually, people are nice - but as a group, JCP is a bit apathetic when it comes down to the issues.

JCP HOA here has given violation notices on people re-painting the numbers on their mailbox the same color. I kid you not. It's bad for some people. Our home no longer feels like our home. We feel like we are not even renters with nice landlords. Being unable to dig in your own yard without permission may not be something you want. Think hard on that one. Oh, and since only poor people hang clothes on a line to dry - don't even think of doing that in your own backyard here! What would people think! We don't want to attract the 'wrong kind ' of people. Status Quo is here for good I'm afraid. If you want strict standards, that are unequally enforced, please buy in JCP. BTW, wanna buy a house? LOL BE VERY CAREFUL. careful

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by grayrunner

...St John's county, without any neighborhood ordinance, allows for 35 ft height without a zoning variance. That could be a big house on an average lot, and construction is really cheap right now if you are your own general contractor, and I wouldn't use anybody else...

I think that is pretty terrible advice - to be your own GC when building a house. Unless you are at least somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to building in general - and building here in particular. Any person doing that would also have to know all the legal aspects (from mechanic's lien law to all the workers' comp rules) - not to mention the insurance implications. Any particular reason you gave that advice? Robyn

[jbean1234]

Another St Johns County community with no CDD Bond Fees is Sandy Creek near the intersection of I-95 and CR-210. Seda Homes builds in there; I don't know if there are any other builders or not. Also don't know if there are any amenities in there currently or any plans for amenities. There was a write-up about them in yesterdays Times-Union.