Best community to live St. Johns County (Jacksonville: 2015, renting)

[dkaier]

I searched and found an old thread from 2010 but since it's now 7 years later I thought I would ask the question again. We are a family of 5 with a 14yr. old and two 3 year old twins. We have been looking A LOT through St. Johns county. We have seen almost every community there is; Julian Creek, TPC, WGV, Nocatee, Palencia, Durbin Crossing, White Lock, etc. etc.

Schools are important but I haven't seen a "bad" school in St. Johns county as it looks like Creekside, Ponte Vedra, Bratram Trail, Nease are all good schools.

I would just like to get input on things that I might not be aware of being from out of state about these communities and the schools. I'm aware of the CDD fee's which in some places seem to be insane. Taxes are also higher in some areas like palenica etc.

Any guidance would be great.

[Gromicide]

I would suggest visiting/re-visiting these communities if you have not done so already. Spend some time in each one and drive the area. Do you want to be right next to everything or ok to drive 15-20 minutes to get to Home Depot or other places like that?

[Debg1]

We moved here in 2013 and I agree that all four of the high schools you listed have great reviews. Our son is at Nease and we are very pleased with the school!

There are a lot of communities to look at! You may consider renting for a year before buying. Some things I suggest looking at are commute times to work as 95 into Jacksonville can be crowded during rush hour. Other things to consider are proximity to shopping and entertainment, there is new retail coming to the area next year in Durbin but we currently have to drive a half hour each way to get to a Target or Lowes. Other item to consider are community amenities and the HOA/CDD fees. If your family may use the amenities it may be less costly and more convenient to have them in walking distance rather than needing to join a YMCA for instance.

Best of luck with your search!

[dkaier]

Thank you for the replies. I think her biggest question right now are the taxes? When I go to the St. Johns County tax assessor website and punch in the purchase price of a home and use their millage rate per city I always seem to come up with a different amount than what homes for pain especially in Nacotee and Palencia. Even our realtor seems baffled. For example a $750,000 home in Nacotee shows on the county website at roughly 10,000 a year for taxes but the home is paying 14,000 a year for taxes when the home is assessed at 718K!?? It's very bizarre.

[Ivan Putski]

Originally Posted by dkaier

Thank you for the replies. I think her biggest question right now are the taxes? When I go to the St. Johns County tax assessor website and punch in the purchase price of a home and use their millage rate per city I always seem to come up with a different amount than what homes for pain especially in Nacotee and Palencia. Even our realtor seems baffled. For example a $750,000 home in Nacotee shows on the county website at roughly 10,000 a year for taxes but the home is paying 14,000 a year for taxes when the home is assessed at 718K!?? It's very bizarre.

You have to be careful when you use the county tax estimator. It does not take into account the CDD fees. You may already know this but they do spot assessments in Florida which means that after a sale, the home gets reassessed. Generally speaking (for PVB anyway), the reassessed value is 75% - 80% of the purchase price. In addition, the homeowner can take a $50,000 homestead exemption if the purchased home is going to be used as a primary residence.

The other key point is the CDD fee I mentioned earlier. If you take any address in Nocatee and look up their property taxes, it always breaks out the property tax and CDD fees as separate line items and then you see the aggregate at the bottom.

For example, I see a home that sold in Nocatee for $598k on 5/1/2015. The county's spot assessment for 2016 came back at $449,000 (approx 75% of the purchase price). This must be their 2nd home so the homestead exemption did not apply. Their total property taxes for 2016 came in at $9,500 = Property tax of $6,600 using millage code 312 (Tolomato CDD) + CDD fee of $2,900.

In your example, that extra $4k is likely the CDD fee.

[sithlord72]

Originally Posted by Ivan Putski

You have to be careful when you use the county tax estimator. It does not take into account the CDD fees. You may already know this but they do spot assessments in Florida which means that after a sale, the home gets reassessed. Generally speaking (for PVB anyway), the reassessed value is 75% - 80% of the purchase price. In addition, the homeowner can take a $50,000 homestead exemption if the purchased home is going to be used as a primary residence.

The other key point is the CDD fee I mentioned earlier. If you take any address in Nocatee and look up their property taxes, it always breaks out the property tax and CDD fees as separate line items and then you see the aggregate at the bottom.

For example, I see a home that sold in Nocatee for $598k on 5/1/2015. The county's spot assessment for 2016 came back at $449,000 (approx 75% of the purchase price). This must be their 2nd home so the homestead exemption did not apply. Their total property taxes for 2016 came in at $9,500 = Property tax of $6,600 using millage code 312 (Tolomato CDD) + CDD fee of $2,900.

In your example, that extra $4k is likely the CDD fee.

What community would have an annual CDD fee of $4,000?

[Ivan Putski]

Originally Posted by sithlord72

What community would have an annual CDD fee of $4,000?

I've seen many homes with CDD fees of $3,600+ in Nocatee so $4k isn't out of the realm of possibility.