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Old 07-01-2016, 05:07 PM
 
11 posts, read 17,894 times
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My wife and I are considering moving from Northern California to Florida with our 2 kids, aged 2.5 and 5. St. Augustine looks very interesting, and before making a final decision we do plan on taking a trip out. We're drawn to the combination of history, beach access, and schools. From what I have learned researching the town, you can live/play/work in a variety of areas: urbanized/historic, suburbia, coastal - with varying types of architecture. This is very appealing to us, with the only thing concerning us being the size of St. Augustine. According to Wikipedia, St. Augustin's city population was ~13k and the wider urban area was ~69k. Now I don't know how accurate those are, but it gives us an idea and certainly is a much smaller community than where we live now. We're not looking for a retirement area, but an area that has a good small-to-medium sized town, friendly feeling, but that still has a cosmopolitan feel. We're hoping to find a place with a variety of activities, colors; where it is not difficult to make new friends. We'll be moving out there not knowing anyone. I work from home, so I could be located anywhere in the country.

With us being in our 30's, we're not necessarily looking to party, but we are looking for cultural diversity (big priority), spice, vibrancy, lots of good dining options, parks, beaches (also a big priority for us!), with activities for parents as well as kids to partake in. We're not into commenting 45 minutes to go do something, so Jacksonville aside, what are the chances of us getting bored of life in St. Augustine?

Additionally, I would like any opinions on neighborhoods to buy in. Our criteria is simple, and since we're coming from California our expectation on housing costs are likely different than those native to Florida. We're looking for a neighborhood that has no HOA, no/few cookie-cutter houses, not rundown, walkable, not too far from the beach (doesn't have to be beach-front property, but I'm open to it!), friendly people open to making new friends who've got kids. We've visited some cities on the West Coast where dogs were more appreciated than kids.

Last edited by charlino; 07-01-2016 at 05:35 PM..
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Old 07-01-2016, 05:34 PM
 
Location: Ponte Vedra Beach FL
14,617 posts, read 21,374,227 times
Reputation: 6793
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlino View Post
My wife and I are considering moving from Northern California to Florida with our 2 kids, aged 2.5 and 5. St. Augustine looks very interesting, and before making a final decision we do plan on taking a trip out. We're drawn to the combination of history, beach access, and schools. From what I have learned researching the town, you can live/play/work in a variety of areas: urbanized/historic, suburbia, coastal - with varying types of architecture. This is very appealing to us, with the only thing concerning us being the size of St. Augustine. According to Wikipedia, St. Augustin's city population was ~13k and the wider urban area was ~69k. Now I don't know how accurate those are, but it gives us an idea and certainly is a much smaller community than where we live now. We're not looking for a retirement area, but an area that has a good small-to-medium sized town, friendly feeling, but that still has a cosmopolitan feel. We're hoping to find a place with a variety of activities, colors; where it is not difficult to make new friends. We'll be moving out there not knowing anyone. I work from home, so I could be located anywhere in the country.

With us being in our 30's, we're not necessarily looking to party, but we are looking for cultural diversity (big priority), spice, vibrancy, lots of good dining options, parks, beaches (also a big priority for us!), with activities for parents as well as kids to partake in. We're not into commenting 45 minutes to go do something, so Jacksonville aside, what are the chances of us getting bored of life in St. Augustine?

Additionally, I would like any opinions on neighborhoods. Our criteria is simple, and since we're coming from California our expectation on housing costs are likely different than those native to Florida. We're looking for a neighborhood that has no HOA, no/few cookie-cutter houses, not rundown, walkable, not too far from the beach (doesn't have to be beach-front property), friendly people open to making new friends who've got kids. We've visited some cities on the West Coast where dogs were more appreciated than kids.
I would suggest taking at least a couple of trips before relocating from one end of the country to the other. Robyn
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Old 07-01-2016, 05:37 PM
 
11 posts, read 17,894 times
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Originally Posted by Robyn55 View Post
I would suggest taking at least a couple of trips before relocating from one end of the country to the other. Robyn
That is a good idea. We've visited Miami once before.
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Old 07-01-2016, 06:04 PM
 
Location: Ponte Vedra Beach FL
14,617 posts, read 21,374,227 times
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Originally Posted by charlino View Post
That is a good idea. We've visited Miami once before.
My husband and I moved here 20 years ago after living in Miami for 20+ years. The JAX metro area is very different than the Miami metro area.

St. Johns County (where St. Augustine is) is for the most part these days cookie-cutter HOA neighborhoods. With some exceptions on the high end - and the low end. And our county isn't very large in terms of population. It's only about 200k - spread around a pretty large geographical area.

The services overall are adequate. The recreational opportunities are good ---> excellent (depending on what you want to do). The restaurants are mediocre for the most part (lots of chain restaurants). OTOH - the school district is the best in Florida (although the schools in the city of St. Augustine proper - as opposed to the St. Augustine zip code and a lot of the rest of the county - are among the worst in the county - don't move there).

It is not a "diverse and vibrant" place in the sense that you left coast people use that phrase. OTOH - it is - in many parts - a nice suburban place to live and raise a family. A place where you don't have to wait until you're 50 to save enough money to make a down payment on a house and afford to live in one.

IOW - if you're looking for a mini-Bay Area for cheap - this ain't it. But we do have other things to offer. For people who are interested in just having nice comfortable relatively easy to afford suburban lifestyles. Robyn
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Old 07-01-2016, 08:36 PM
 
Location: Jacksonville, Florida
237 posts, read 493,578 times
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St. Augustine gets a lot of tourist so it can have heavy traffic especially going over the bridge. But because it has so many tourists I think you will find more around there than a typical city of 13,000. For example there are some huge outlet malls near I-95 and lots of restaurants. Also you are close to Jacksonville, so you can take advantage of those activities for the kids. Though you said you do not want to drive 45 minutes to go to activities. Does that mean driving 45 minutes to take the kids to the zoo or an event at the Jacksonville Convention Center is out of the question?
Maybe come up North a bit to Nocatee, but that would really blow out the no HOA part.

“what are the chances of us getting bored of life in St. Augustine?”

It depends on you and want you enjoy doing. There is the beach, golf, tennis, shopping and etc. Maybe if you like people you get a part time job showing tourist around.

“We're looking for a neighborhood that has no HOA, no/few cookie-cutter houses, not rundown, walk-able, not too far from the beach.”

When I first move here I moved to St. Augustine Zip code not the city and it was everything not on your list. Walk-able is the last thing I would have called it, unless you mean walking around the block. Riverside is walk-able. Unless you move to St. Augustine the city I doubt much is walk-able. If you cross the bridge to be closer to the beach, I do not think that would be considered a walk-able area. In fact even for St. Augustine city I think I would call in more bike able. So yes I think you could find something in St. Augustine city that would be bike able, not cookie cutter, not rundown, no CCDs and probably no HOA. Might have some historic restriction. Heck, you might pick up a B&B if you want to do that.

As Robyn stated a lot of St. Johns is cookie cutter HOA communities. You might think about going South of St. Augustine towards Palm Coast. You definitely going to have to come and check out the areas before you buy anything.
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Old 07-01-2016, 11:26 PM
 
Location: Taipei
7,773 posts, read 10,059,682 times
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I think you will likely get bored. It's far more interesting and exciting than a typical town of 13,000, but that said it really isnt that large an area physically or by population (unless you drive 45-ish minutes up to Jax) so there won't be much left to discover after a week or so.
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Old 07-02-2016, 12:14 AM
 
Location: Jacksonville, Florida
237 posts, read 493,578 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by projectmaximus View Post
I think you will likely get bored. It's far more interesting and exciting than a typical town of 13,000, but that said it really isnt that large an area physically or by population (unless you drive 45-ish minutes up to Jax) so there won't be much left to discover after a week or so.
This is the problem. When I lived in MD. I lived near Baltimore City, but I did not live in the city instead I lived about the distance St. Augustine is to Jacksonville. If he really does not want to drive 45 minutes then I think he might look closer to Jacksonville. But hard to get walk-able and close to the beach and no HOA and no cookie cutter.

I think you have to define what you really want to be able to walk to. Like for me, where I live in Mandarin it is borderline walk-able or bike-able. If you think of San Jose as main street, I could walk to a lot of things I like such as whole foods, targets, public, Walmart, church or synagogue, the gym, restaurants, smoothie place, a bowling alley and even a park. But seldom do I do it as it is a 100 degrees outside. But I can not walk to a movie theater, museum, the beach and some other features of a walk-able city.

In fact I think St. Augustine city might be the closest I can think you can get for what he wants. Where does this walk-able, variety of activities, close to the beach no HOA and no cookie cutter, culture diversity exits around here?
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Old 07-02-2016, 01:10 AM
 
Location: Jupiter, FL
2,005 posts, read 3,293,079 times
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Originally Posted by charlino View Post
we are looking for cultural diversity (big priority), spice, vibrancy, lots of good dining options
That rules out St. Augustine, Jacksonville, and most of Florida. If you have money, Miami might work for you.
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Old 07-02-2016, 06:22 AM
 
Location: Ponte Vedra Beach FL
14,617 posts, read 21,374,227 times
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Originally Posted by roadtrip75 View Post
That rules out St. Augustine, Jacksonville, and most of Florida. If you have money, Miami might work for you.
Slight correction. If you have money (enough to send kids to private schools) - speak Spanish - and don't mind crime and horrible traffic - Miami might work. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed living in Miami - up to a point. My husband and I had enough money to live well there. In a high rise condo on an island (so we didn't have to worry too much about crime). Didn't have kids (so we didn't have to worry about schools). And we speak Spanish. But - eventually - the traffic/congestion got to us. Drives that used to take 20 minutes started to take an hour or more. Also - there really isn't much in the Miami area that's "walkabale". This tool isn't perfect. But it will give people a general idea:

https://www.walkscore.com/

Robyn
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Old 07-02-2016, 07:21 AM
 
9,952 posts, read 6,565,849 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by roadtrip75 View Post
That rules out St. Augustine, Jacksonville, and most of Florida. If you have money, Miami might work for you.
The Tampa area could work as well- maybe the Historic Old Northeast area of St. Pete? The Tampa area is generally more diverse, and since there are historic homes you won't be seeing any cookie cutter. It is a more expensive part of town, but you can walk/bike to the downtown area, there's a beach right there, there are tons of cultural activities- basically everything you could want. It's also going to be much cheaper than Miami, but the homes will probably still run you about $400-500K.
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