$1200 monthly CDC Fees in Nocatee? (loan, relocation, hoa fees)

[HIF]

Switzerland is one of the most beautiful places around here....I think I will buy some lotto tixs tonight...then schedule a showing with you tomorrow!

Where will you be moving?

Originally Posted by wacahootaman

Lots of those new developments in Northern St Johns County have those CDD fees. Most of them are located in flat poorly drained pine woods and they bring in the dozers and track hoes and dig canals and "lakes" using the fill from the lake to build up other areas a foot or so on which they build these cookie cutter houses only 50 feet or so apart.

This will work ok for some until you get 10 inches of rain in a day like we had around here the other day. Lots of the areas in Julington Creek Plantation flooded I hear. Dont know if any homes flooded, but plenty of roads flooded.

I live in Switzerland along the river. I have a 4/2 waterfront home for sale for 550K. It is on a beautifully wooded 1.7 acre, high and dry, private lot and is so well drained that there was no standing water on the long dirt driveway during that flood. It has no CDD fees, HOA fees or water bills as I have a deep artesian well.

It is priced 125K below recent appraisal. It is a rare opportunity and a much better deal than some comparible priced home in those Nocatee type developments.

[wacahootaman]

Originally Posted by HIF

Where will you be moving?

Buealand, sweet Buealand.

I got me a new doublewide!

[HIF]

Wow- I was going to guess Lake County, Marion is nearby. I grew up inbetween Eustis and Umatilla and love that country- big oaks, palmettos, palms. I had acres of cow pasture at my back door and played in the woods every day. Had special climbing trees that we had secret names for and a couple lakes way in the back that we would swim in.

You gonna have a C-D pig pickin once you get established?

Any pix of the house I will be buying tomorrow?

[wacahootaman]

Good guess HIF. It is in Marion County.

Here is the house in Switz:


Iggys House: Multimedia

[HIF]

Originally Posted by wacahootaman

Good guess HIF. It is in Marion County.

Here is the house in Switz:


Iggys House: Multimedia

I love it. Only an hour and ten minutes to go until my numbers hit!

[backtofla]

love the house. "old fla" at it's finest!!! i wouldnt want to leave that house if it were me!!!

[riveree]

Originally Posted by wacahootaman

Lots of those new developments in Northern St Johns County have those CDD fees. Most of them are located in flat poorly drained pine woods and they bring in the dozers and track hoes and dig canals and "lakes" using the fill from the lake to build up other areas a foot or so on which they build these cookie cutter houses only 50 feet or so apart.

This will work ok for some until you get 10 inches of rain in a day like we had around here the other day. Lots of the areas in Julington Creek Plantation flooded I hear. Dont know if any homes flooded, but plenty of roads flooded.

That's the truth. We're at a point now, that much of the land left to be developed was left for last for a reason - because it's not really the best land to build on . Northside too - a lot of that land is very susceptible to flooding.

There was at least one house in Julington Creek Plantation that was flooded badly, there was a news report that showed the damage.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by David in JAX

Real estate developer here. CDD fees of $1200 a month are not unheard of. What these "bond" and "infrastructure" fees actually are is a means for the developer to make a higher return on their investment. The buyer thinks they are paying for the money going into building infrastructure such as road, sewers, water lines, etc. and that this money was required for the development of the community. What they are actually doing is paying for development expenses that should have been paid by the developer. This is very common in upper middle class designed communities where buyers probably don’t understand how communities are developed and can’t afford someone to do the homework and negotiations for them. These fees rarely occur on the very high and low end communities because wealthy people don’t fall for this bs and poor people can’t afford them. On the high end and the low end, the developer takes out a loan and pays it off with the “pre-construction pricing” sales. If you have ever wondered why developers push “pre-construction pricing”, which is also complete bs, this is why. If Nocatee would have started moving forward five years earlier, the lots would have sold quickly and the infrastructure expenses would have been relieved. Now that the local RE market is in freefall mode, the carrying costs of the development have got to be killing the developers. I would be very wary of that area because you will be forced to pay fees for infrastructure that may never be built.

Thanks David, great explaination, it really says it all.

Sure, $1200 a year, or even a month, is not unheard of, but does it really make it right? I don't think so.

I know we're at a point in society where maybe we need the structure of a Homeowners Association because we just don't know how to deal with each other on a human level anymore (really.....isn't that what they're there for?), but when is enough enough?

Do people really need built-in friendships via developers now? Sadly, it seems many do. When I was a kid, my world was as far as my bike would take me, I guess it's now limited to the "walls" of the development? I guess that's where we're at .

It just seems like a big dupe to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker too - I'm in an HOA development right now because, let's face it, if you want to buy a new or newer home, you're going to have an HOA 99% of the time. I'm still not sold on the idea though. I see some limited benefits, but I see even bigger faults with it. To open yourself up to a large HOA/CDD fee seems very risky to me.

[David in JAX]

Originally Posted by riveree

It just seems like a big dupe to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker too - I'm in an HOA development right now because, let's face it, if you want to buy a new or newer home, you're going to have an HOA 99% of the time. I'm still not sold on the idea though. I see some limited benefits, but I see even bigger faults with it. To open yourself up to a large HOA/CDD fee seems very risky to me.

The CDD's or comunity development fees are exactly that, one big dupe. The land isn't any less developable or in worse shape. The land all around NE Florida (with the exception of the salt marshes) is about the same and this entire area floods without proper drainage / retention. These fees were introduced during the local RE bubble because people were willing to pay them. People just figured they would make endless profits on buying and selling new homes. Watch these CDD fees go away over the next few years as developers figure out that people just won't pay for junk fees when buying a home when there is a large amount of competition. Most local developers don't charge these already. It's the large national developers who figured out people would pay anything over the last ten or so years.

But, HOA fees can be very good if the HOA is run properly. I will give you an example. My last home was in a historic district in another city. This historic district had the largest collection of original tudor homes in the world. Adjacent to this neighborhood was a commercial area that had the largest collection of art deco architecture in the world. For an optional $30.00 a year, the HOA would keep up all of the pocket parks and plant seasonal plants / flowers to really keep the neighborhood looking nice. No overbearing rules, no rediculous association board, no meetings for no reason, etc. So they can be good. The problem is that most are run like a small system of government where the people who want to be on the board or board officers are people of the beurocratic mindset who just want to tell people what to do.

[cricketfan]

Originally Posted by David in JAX

The CDD's or comunity development fees are exactly that, one big dupe.

But isn't there some kind of governmental oversight? Don't these CDD budgets have to be pre-approved annually by local authorities? What is the makeup of these boards? Is there not a requirement that homeowners sit on the board and participate in budget hearings? Maybe we need to investigate the local body that may be in cahoots with the developers to rubber stamp these outlandish numbers. Who knows what kind of corruption we might uncover?