Jacksonville-Buying a Home. (Orange Park: rental market, condo, mortgage broker)

[wimlyn]

Hi. I was wondering if anyone could help me out with something. My husband, myself, and our 2 year old daughter are looking to move to the Jacksonville area next Summer (2008). We are currently living in the Philadelphia area and are hoping to buy our first home down there. I am a teacher and my husband works in retail so we do not feel that finding jobs will be a problem. My main question is in applying for a home loan before I get my first pay check, will they not turn me down since my current paychecks are not enough to own a home? My credit is good, my husbands, due to medical bills, it terrible. I am hoping to get the home in my name with my good credit. But I am worried that since I won't start teaching until the end of August, and we hope to move at the end of July, things in the way of owning a home will not line up. We are open to renting for the first few months, but would rather not. We have considered renting a home, but hate the idea of all that money going down the drain and having nothing to show for it. We are looking at Orange Park and Southside Jacksonville depending on where I can get a teaching job. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

[FLPL75]

wimlyn
What part of philly are you in ? I grew up in Montgomery County As a matter of fact my sister just brought me 10 boxes of Tastykakes

Usually mortgage companies will not have a problem if you are staying in the same line of work and have a job offer letter from the new school district.
I have a friend that is a mortgage broker I will see if I can get some more specifics from her.

Both oragne park and southside are nice areas I have family in flemming island & we live on the southside.
One of the nice things about the southside is you have the avenues mall and the new St Johns Towne center so this may offer more options for retail employment for your husband .

karla

[wimlyn]

Thanks so much for the reply. Man, you're quick. We live in Delaware County now. I attended St. Joseph's Univ. in Philly and worked several nanny jobs in Bala Cynwyd. My husband works at King of Prussia Mall currently. Philly is okay, just need a change. I saw in another post that you said you were moving, but how do you like Jacksonville? How was the transition from PA to FL? We have very little support with our decision to relocate, but are going for it anyway. We think it will be good for us. We are an interracial family and want a nice diverse (warm) area to raise our daughter.

[mawipafl]

You know, although I'm not generally a fan of renting if homeownership is a goal, but there are benefits to renting, especially when moving to a new locale, and especially when it's a place as large and diverse as the Jacksonville area is.

Rent money isn't always money down the drain with nothing to show for it. Consider it, in some instances, as "tuition" towards an "education". The four months' rent my husband paid while he was here and we were still up north selling our house was money well-spent. He was living on the southside, and as nice as the area was (is), he found the commute to the westside longer than desired.

During his time in his temporary home he was able to do pretend commutes from lots of different areas, to shop and stroll in the different communities and counties, to read newspapers and watch local TV stations. When we were ready to buy, we already knew the areas that would fit our lifestyle. That education wouldn't have happened without his renting.

[FLPL75]

Originally Posted by wimlyn

Thanks so much for the reply. Man, you're quick. We live in Delaware County now. I attended St. Joseph's Univ. in Philly and worked several nanny jobs in Bala Cynwyd. My husband works at King of Prussia Mall currently. Philly is okay, just need a change. I saw in another post that you said you were moving, but how do you like Jackonville? How was the transition from PA to FL? We have very little support with our decision to relocate, but are going for it anyway. We think it will be good for us. We are an interracial family and want a nice diverse (warm) area to raise our daughter.

I know the area well I always travel the blue route when I come home so much faster to get to Doylestown.

We thought we were moving last year due to a job transfer but thankfully we are now staying.

I moved here from NJ 15years ago but have been coming down for 25 years

I love it ,sure there are some things I miss cheesesteaks,bagels, diners but when I go home I just get my fill

There is nothing like mid december when it is 70 degrees you will hear a lot of "yup this is why Imoved here "

mawipafl brings up a good point where you decide to work will influence where you would want to live.

The southside will have you closer to the beach I am not a big beach person but this is important to many folks moving down here.

What grade do you teach ?
You might want to put feelers out to some of the school districts remember Duval county is huge. You can reference the maps in the sticky at the top of the thread to get an idea of the areas

karla

[David in JAX]

I can probably answer this question fairly well since we are going through the process of applying for a mortgage right now. The lending business has really tightened up over the last few months. My wife and I had to prove both of our incomes using pay stubs and employer statements, we both had to have a credit score over a certain amount, and we also had to prove that we had at least 10% down + money for fees in an account. I don’t think they will allow you to finance a home with the situation you described. A year ago things were different, but now things are fairly tight. But, things are changing so rapidly that it may be an entirely different situation in late 2008.

I would really suggest renting for a year. Renting will allow you to get a good feel for the city and where you would like to live. Also, you won’t have “money going down the drain and having nothing to show for it”. The rental market is very soft right now in Jacksonville and it actually makes more financial sense to rent in many cases. With home prices going down and people renting out homes for less than their carrying costs, renting a home for a year makes a lot of sense. I will use our situation as an example. In our case, we have rented for two years. We could have bought a home immediately when we moved here, but we decided to rent for the above reasons. Renting has given us a good feel for the city and where we want to live. It also saved us about $70k compared to owning the same condo since we moved in (rent less than carrying costs & depreciation). It probably still doesn’t make financial sense for us to buy, but we are doing it for non-financial reasons.

[riveree]

I have to agree with the above posters about renting for a year first - especially with this being the first home you and your husband will buy.

Settling into a new state and a new job will be big transitions, and once you arrive here and see the area, you'll see just how big it is here - there is just sooooo much to choose from, I think you'll want a good amount of time to check it all out .

The 2 areas you mentioned - Orange Park and the Southside of Jacksonville - are in 2 different counties and across the river from each other, so you'll definitely want to know which county you'll be working in so you can factor your commute into your house decision.

Orange Park = Clay county
Jacksonville = Duval county

[titaniummd]

Originally Posted by Karla with a K

One of the nice things about the southside is you have the avenues mall and the new St Johns Towne center so this may offer more options for retail employment for your husband .

karla

AMEN to that! I love to shop.

If I only knew how good it was on that side of the water (from Fleming Island).

However, I just realized how close St Augustine's outlet mall is in relation to me (compared to St John's Towne Center). AND it has a Woodchuck's (furniture).

[jrmutley]

Originally Posted by Karla with a K

One of the nice things about the southside is you have the avenues mall and the new St Johns Towne center so this may offer more options for retail employment for your husband .

With Oakleaf Town Center, that is true of the Orange Park area too. Granted, it's not as big as SJTC. But, most of OTC will be opening between now and early next year. Good timing for a family lookin' to move!

[joninclay]

When I moved here five years ago, I was buying a house though I hadn't started working yet. The lender required an offer letter from my employer, and took into account that I was (a) working in a high-demand industry (info technology); and (b) had no gaps of any kind in employment in the last 10 years.

Granted, the lending industry has changed in the last five years, but I think it would be worth asking potential lenders before you even begin the application process. If your situation as you described it causes a problem, then I'd say that David's and mawipafl's suggestion to rent for a year would be a good one.