Family of 6 moving to Florida from NH (Jacksonville, University: HOA, houses)

[okemo]

Greetings from NH!

Advice on a family of 6 moving to Florida. I have two children, and also caring for my elderly parents.My husband has been transferred back to FL, and I am an RN finishing up my advanced degree in nursing. Personally, I do not want to live back in SW FL since I have the opportunity now to live in the NE of FL.

At a first glance, I fell in love with the Ponte Veda and St. Augustine communities. However, my first vibe, I am not loving the HOA type communities, as they remind me of the TV show Wayward Pines. Apologize in advanced to those that are fans, yet concerned with all the restrictions that go with HOA communities. Here in New England HOA are not common, though when I was in the Ft. Myers area they had many restrictions that did not allow for instance to park a boat on your property, have a trampoline etc.

First,I would consider a community neighborhood, but where? Most I looked at were wildly expensive which was surprising. We are very expensive here in NH, I am going to sell my home at about $750k however, thought homes comparable would be in high $400k. Suggestions?

Second question, currently I have an upcoming high schooler and 7th grader. What schools public or private are recommended?
I am leaning towards private however opened to what others think?

Third question, since I will be finishing my advanced degree soon, what hospitals have the best to offer for RN's and also for MSN opportunities?

Thank you in advance any help with so many questions.

Thank you for any advice.

[rs1n]

Regarding HOA, their main purpose is to ensure that your neighborhood is well-maintained (and in effect, your property value does not drop). In my neighborhood, our HOA is responsible for the upkeep of the common areas (pool, dock, flowers at the entrance, etc.). There are some restrictions but mostly they are for safety (e.g. no parking RVs in the road in front of your home since it restricts the driving space of neighbors and can possibly block your view). Some HOAs are more restrictive (some you've already noted, though usually many do not care as long as it is out of view) in order to maintain a certain look-and-feel to the neighborhood.

You should also read up on CDDs as they seem to be popular where newer communities are built. A CDD is to a collection of neighboring communities as an HOA is to a collection of neighboring houses. These fees would be in addition to your HOA. Some are quite expensive.

There are plenty of nice homes for $400k or less (what exactly were you looking for in terms of BR and square footage?). Have you tried using sites like zillow.com? The St. Johns County school district is fairly strong and is ranked near the top of the list of FL school districts.

Jacksonville has a good number of hospitals and healthcare and finance are two large industries here.

[jwolfer]

Obviously farther away from the beach the price point is lower. There are some non HOA communities in PVB but they tend to be older neighborhoods. If you are going to use the pool, workout facilities etc it can be worth the price. the nicer the ammenties, like pool, water park etc the fees can be more than taxes.

Where is your husband working? Jax has the Mayo Clinic near the beaches. There are number of hospitals in the downtown area( Baptist, UF Health, St Vincents) all those hospitals have locations in different parts of town.

What area of nursing are you/will you be in? UFHealth is the teaching hospital for University of Florida. MD Anderson Cancer center is near Baptist downtown. Nemours and Wolfson Children's hospital are in the same general area if Pediatrics is your area.

If either one of you is working on the Northside the commute from the beach would be long... some people will trade that to live near the beach

[Robyn55]

I guess the first question is where will your husband be working (assuming he has a fixed place of business)?

Second question is what will your specialty area be when you finish your training? We have a lot of hospitals/doctors' offices/etc. here in the metro area. And the metro area is really big.

Third question is will your parents be living with you? Also - how old are they - and what kinds of infrastructure do they need (doctors/drivers/whatever)?

The reason we have lots of HOAs here is because the area - especially in St. Johns County - is pretty new. And it took a lot of $$$ to put in the infrastructure. Like water and sewer. As for the CDDs - they came later - after the HOAs. When the developers decided for the most part that they didn't care to front the money for the infrastructure costs. I'm not a fan of CDDs - but that's a personal preference. Robyn