Saint Augustine info needed (St. Augustine, St. Augustine South: insurance, violent crime, how much)

[Cougar31]

relocating to St augustine, need the following:
1) any area(s) to avoid because of crime, flood.
2) where can I find a home(2006 and newer) around 200k
3) is home insurance hard to get?
4) what minimum income would you suggest for a household of 2?
5) any other tips/advices are very welcomed.

Thanks!

[sunrico90]

Originally Posted by Cougar31

relocating to St augustine, need the following:
1) any area(s) to avoid because of crime, flood.
2) where can I find a home(2006 and newer) around 200k
3) is home insurance hard to get?
4) what minimum income would you suggest for a household of 2?
5) any other tips/advices are very welcomed.

Thanks!

Cougar,

I'm moving the thread to Jville, you will get more replies from this area...

[LM1]

Originally Posted by Cougar31

relocating to St augustine, need the following:
1) any area(s) to avoid because of crime, flood.
2) where can I find a home(2006 and newer) around 200k
3) is home insurance hard to get?
4) what minimum income would you suggest for a household of 2?
5) any other tips/advices are very welcomed.

Thanks!

1) For crime- West King Street area; any area in St. Augustine where there are higher incidences of violent crime, property crime, etc (basically, the same as everyplace else). Still, even in the "bad" areas, crime in St. Augustine is still very low compared to other places. Lincolnville is a crapshoot. Certain areas of it are gentrifying quickly due to its killer location in proximity to the historic district, but there are still crime.

For flood, the historic district streets flood pretty regularly- including a lot of the shops, etc, but under $200K, you aren't going to be able to afford anything down there. Most everyplace else isn't particularly prone to flooding, save for extreme circumstances (hurricanes, tropical storms, 100 year storms, etc).

2) 2006 and newer under $200K, there are actually plenty of options opening up that two years ago wouldn't have been possible (the area saw a huge building boom and there are a lot of empty "new" subdivisions with the cooling of the speculative market) but for under $200K, these places are some of the ugliest, close-quarters, crappily built, least desirable cookie-cutter communities I've ever seen in my life.
If you can tolerate an older home, look in St. Augustine Shores/St. Augustine South. You can still get in the door there for under $200K, and it's quite nice. It's always wiser to buy the neighborhood rather than the "house". Those are both very good areas with nice houses- solidly middle to upper-middle income folks (plus high income people on the waterfront), retirees, people take care of their homes, say hi to their neighbors. It's a good place, and it's still affordable.

3) Insurance is very difficult to get in most areas of Anastasia Island/St. Augustine Beach, however, under $200K, you aren't going to be buying anything on Anastasia Island or in St. Augustine Beach barring lucking into the deal of the decade. If you're willing to step up your price threshold to the $250-$300 range, you can probably get in the door on Anastasia Island or the interior portions of St. Aug beach.

4) Conventional income multipliers are in play in NEFL, however, bear in mind that the key issue here isn't "how much should I be making" - it's more along the lines of "how in gods name am I going to make *THAT* in St. Augustine" where the lions share of the job base is low paying service industry with a smattering of medium-low cubicle zombie stuff.
If you don't already have a job pinned down, you're taking a huge risk moving here.
I don't give a rats ass what theories or abstract statistics say- Florida is in a recession right now. The job market is brutal.

A friend of mine owns a hotel- whenever they put out "Now Hiring" signs, they get 25 applications in a day, whereas they used to be lucky if they got that many in two or three weeks. Their departments that used to have very high turnover (housekeeping, groundsman, night audit, etc) are now unusually solid, since none of the workers are quitting due to the difficulties getting job elsewhere. You about have to hire a hitman to get rid of a day or evening front desk person... It's bad...
If I were to pick one single job that was the best barometer of the economy at large, it would be hotel housekeeper. That's a job that is near impossible to staff, pays next to nothing, demands long hours and hard work and because of this, the turnover is usually constant. When you find people begging to get jobs as housekeepers and the housekeepers you have are staying on because there isn't anything better available, that's a very scary sign.

[Cougar31]

Originally Posted by LM1

1) For crime- West King Street area; any area in St. Augustine where there are higher incidences of violent crime, property crime, etc (basically, the same as everyplace else). Still, even in the "bad" areas, crime in St. Augustine is still very low compared to other places. Lincolnville is a crapshoot. Certain areas of it are gentrifying quickly due to its killer location in proximity to the historic district, but there are still crime.

For flood, the historic district streets flood pretty regularly- including a lot of the shops, etc, but under $200K, you aren't going to be able to afford anything down there. Most everyplace else isn't particularly prone to flooding, save for extreme circumstances (hurricanes, tropical storms, 100 year storms, etc).

2) 2006 and newer under $200K, there are actually plenty of options opening up that two years ago wouldn't have been possible (the area saw a huge building boom and there are a lot of empty "new" subdivisions with the cooling of the speculative market) but for under $200K, these places are some of the ugliest, close-quarters, crappily built, least desirable cookie-cutter communities I've ever seen in my life.
If you can tolerate an older home, look in St. Augustine Shores/St. Augustine South. You can still get in the door there for under $200K, and it's quite nice. It's always wiser to buy the neighborhood rather than the "house". Those are both very good areas with nice houses- solidly middle to upper-middle income folks (plus high income people on the waterfront), retirees, people take care of their homes, say hi to their neighbors. It's a good place, and it's still affordable.

3) Insurance is very difficult to get in most areas of Anastasia Island/St. Augustine Beach, however, under $200K, you aren't going to be buying anything on Anastasia Island or in St. Augustine Beach barring lucking into the deal of the decade. If you're willing to step up your price threshold to the $250-$300 range, you can probably get in the door on Anastasia Island or the interior portions of St. Aug beach.

4) Conventional income multipliers are in play in NEFL, however, bear in mind that the key issue here isn't "how much should I be making" - it's more along the lines of "how in gods name am I going to make *THAT* in St. Augustine" where the lions share of the job base is low paying service industry with a smattering of medium-low cubicle zombie stuff.
If you don't already have a job pinned down, you're taking a huge risk moving here.
I don't give a rats ass what theories or abstract statistics say- Florida is in a recession right now. The job market is brutal.

A friend of mine owns a hotel- whenever they put out "Now Hiring" signs, they get 25 applications in a day, whereas they used to be lucky if they got that many in two or three weeks. Their departments that used to have very high turnover (housekeeping, groundsman, night audit, etc) are now unusually solid, since none of the workers are quitting due to the difficulties getting job elsewhere. You about have to hire a hitman to get rid of a day or evening front desk person... It's bad...
If I were to pick one single job that was the best barometer of the economy at large, it would be hotel housekeeper. That's a job that is near impossible to staff, pays next to nothing, demands long hours and hard work and because of this, the turnover is usually constant. When you find people begging to get jobs as housekeepers and the housekeepers you have are staying on because there isn't anything better available, that's a very scary sign.

Great info!
Thanks.

[Cougar31]

where can I find listings for "the shores"?
Thanks

[clouds]

the shores is in 32086

[ssclulow]

The Shores is a great area to look for a good buy in housing. The poster who steered you has great info and is very accurate. Heed his guidance about not moving here unless you have employment. It's a great place to live but not for the unemployed and homeless.