$1200 monthly CDC Fees in Nocatee? (Plantation: loan, relocate, real estate)

[VSICCA]

After visiting the Jax area this past weekend, we talked with a realtor in the PVB area. She stated that the Nocatee developement will have a CDD, not CDC fee (I guess kinda like an association fee) of around $1200 per month or $14000 per year. The fees were being waved right now while they build up the community but will be assessed in the near future. How could that be good for a homeowner trying to sell their property and disclosing a $14k a year fee? We loved the area but this seemed extreme. Any insight to this being true? Thanks.

[vpdianne]

Run as fast as you can from a community that is a CCD. I live in one now. Biggest mistake of my life. I am paying close to 10K a year with property taxes. It might be different if the CCD Board did anything, they just spend, spend, spend and when they run short of cash they just reaccess the homeowner for more and since the CCD is attached to you property tax you either pay or loose your house. Take if from one unhappy homeowner. I had no problem with the fee when I moved in, however, I expected the development to be well managed and kept in pristine condition. These builders promise a lot until they have your money, then it is like WHO ARE YOU. And don't believe everything your realtor says either. Do your own research. My advice is to look for your new home in an established neighborhood and stay a way from new developments. Newer is not always better.

[Karla with a K]

Ouch
$14k sounds high, I had heard they had the CDD fees but thought it was in the $4k range.
For the house prices I have heard the builders are asking, you could probably get something that is actually over the intracostal.
My main concern is that because Nocatee is such a long term project what if you relocate in 5 years you would have to compete with the new construction that will be going on for years.
There are many really nice established neighborhoods in the area.

[backtofla]

1200 per month??? are you friggin kidding me??? for that i could live in fla and own another home in nc/sc!!! are they nutso???

[LM1]

Good lord, that is horrendous...

I wouldn't ever live in one of those prefab, soulless cookie-cutter communities to begin with, no matter how "prestigious" they purport themselves to be, but I absolutely cannot fathom how people could seriously leak away that kind of money on "dues". I guess there's a natural confluence between keeping the riff-raff out and sucking the idiots in.

[mawipafl]

Are you sure she didn't mean $1200 per year? $1200/month is totally out of whack!

The way CDD fees work depends on the community actually. Eagle Harbor's has two parts: the operating and maintenance, and the bond purchase. The former can be variable since the O&M budget can annually be different depending on what community projects are scheduled, but the bond purchase part is pretty much stable year to year.

Eagle Harbor owns its water system, so we pay an extra fee to the utility company (Clay County Utility Authority) to cover the bond that was purchased to install the system. I don't quite understand the benefit yet of owning the system, but I'm told that down the road it'll be a good thing.

We have a HOA, but we have no HOA fees. The CDD fees covers homeowners assoc. things.

Hey LM1, yes, I live in a cookie-cutter community, but it is FAR from soulless let me tell you! :-)

[riveree]

Absolutely insane.

Whether Nocatee wants $1200/mo or $1200/yr I think that's too much. And of course, that is only a starting point. How long will it take them to go from $1200 to $2400? Probably not long at all.

What could they possibly provide that would be worth that much money?

[riveree]

Originally Posted by LM1

Good lord, that is horrendous...

I wouldn't ever live in one of those prefab, soulless cookie-cutter communities to begin with, no matter how "prestigious" they purport themselves to be, but I absolutely cannot fathom how people could seriously leak away that kind of money on "dues". I guess there's a natural confluence between keeping the riff-raff out and sucking the idiots in.

Nocatee prestigious? I don't think so. Sadly, the ones who may be tricked into thinking so will be coming from out-of-area .

[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.

[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.