Palm Valley (St. Augustine, Sawgrass, St. Augustine Beach: oceanfront, 2015, HOA)

[Seabeacon]

HI. Looking for places to retire and want to visit Palm Valley. Please tell me what it is like living there. Thanks!

[Jax2PVB]

Palm Valley is beautiful! It is part of Ponte Vedra beach, basically west of A1A, but east of the Nocatee bridge, between Palm Valley Road and Roscoe is the true Palm Valley area. Do not be fooled because they just named the new Nocatee school Palm Valley Academy - it is not Palm Valley. It is off Palm Valley Road, which is county 210, and does run through Nocatee, hence them naming it after the street.

The actual Palm Valley area is somewhat historic and quite beautiful. (we live here and would not move anywhere else if given the choice.)

If you are looking for a single family home, the Palm Valley area offers smaller homes from about 2000sf to mini mansions of all sizes. Depending on what your are looking for I can give you a general idea of pricing and if you were interested in Nocatee at all they do have a 55+ area called Del Webb that has great options, and beautiful amenities if that was what you are looking for - it just is not point vedra beach or palm valley if you are truly looking for the area.

Reach out if you begin planning - I love it here and our whole family does as well. ;-)

[shokwaverider]

Palm Valley RE seems very expensive (Looking on Zillow). We live in St. Augustine and it seems a lot more reasonable all things being equal..... 3,200 sqft, walking distance from the beach, Poat 2003 built home, no CCDs.

We are looking to downsize and do not mind being further from the beach. Also PV beaches ae very small compared to St. Augustine Beach.

The Dell Webb 55+ has CDDs, and the taxes are quite high. Read some not so good reviews about the builder(s) also, but that could be Buyer's Remorse.

[Gromicide]

Palm Valley is great. Lot's of people retire there. It's quiet but close enough to shopping, dining, beaches. It's 'coastal country' living meaning there is beach life but also you might see feral hogs, roosters, rattlesnakes etc...

[JessicaJax]

Really, Palm Valley is just a section of Ponte Vedra Beach.

You'll run into some people who will insist that they're different, but most people in Palm Valley will just say that they live in Ponte Vedra Beach.

If you look at a map, Ponte Vedra Beach is pretty much the area north of Guana, South of JTB and between the ocean and the innercoastal. Palm Valley is roughly the area around Mickler Road (including Neck Road) and west of Palm Valley/210 to the innercoastal.

I only know one person who lives in Palm Valley who will insist that she lives in Palm Valley and not PVB, and that's because she lives on Wilderness Trail and has chickens in her yard, so she likes to embrace the "country" aspect of where she lives and contrast it with the "country club" atmosphere of most of the rest of PVB.

The whole area is great. Check it out and I think you'll find something you like :-)

FYI -- the Dell Webb community is in Nocatee, which is neither Ponte Vedra Beach or Palm Valley.

[shokwaverider]

We visited the Area on Saturday. Unfortunately the Dell Webb Community is really in the middle of nowhere, as is most of Nocatee and Palm Valley. Unless you want only one local grocery store, the most expensive one at that. It took over 35 minutes to get to the main shops in PVB. The traffic once on A1A was quite bad also.

The show stopper for us was the homes were made of wood and Not the preferred (and recommended) CBS for the region. The floorplans were pretty nice though. A decent home was upwards of $550k once they added all the mandatory options and Land cost. Also Irrigation and landscaping is NOT included.

Resale homes were much better value than the new ones too.

The Club was great assuming you never wanted to leave the community and actually go to the beach.

All somewhat moot for us as the "Stick" construction is not for those who know. I think they are aimed at out of towners who really do not know anything better.

[Ivan Putski]

Originally Posted by shokwaverider

We visited the Area on Saturday. Unfortunately the Dell Webb Community is really in the middle of nowhere, as is most of Nocatee and Palm Valley. Unless you want only one local grocery store, the most expensive one at that. It took over 35 minutes to get to the main shops in PVB. The traffic once on A1A was quite bad also.

Just want to clear up one thing since I've lived in "Palm Valley" since 2015, it doesn't take over 35 minutes to get to main shops in PVB from "Palm Valley". It takes 2-3 minutes to get to our closest Publix at Palm Valley Rd Circle, 10 minutes to Sawgrass Village (Publix/ABC/Nona Blue etc.), 17 minutes to Target/Home Depot/Bed Bath & Beyond etc., 15 minutes to Winn Dixie, 24 minutes to Costco in St John's Town Center and 45 minutes to Jax Airport. We live in the far reaches of Palm Valley so I would expect everyone else to have shorter times/distances to various places I noted.

Most people around here also know when A1A will be bad and will take either Ponte Vedra Blvd or Solana/Roscoe to bypass A1A and get to where they need to go.

Aside from being in an HOA subdivision which I'm not particularly fond of, we really like it here.

[Turbogyrl]

Nix on the Nocatee area. Unless you are fond of cookie cutter homes and living on top of your neighbors and you totally love have a microscopic yard. You can practically look at their patio area from your patio area and see what they are grilling for dinner.

I believe there are some areas with larger lots, but be prepared to pay.

Nocatee is NOT "old Ponte Vedra."

Building in that area is out of control. I hate to see what 5-10 years out will bring.

OP you also might want to google the hurricane zones and consider that as well. Flood insurance is a must (as far as we are concerned) if you live in Florida. That area you are interested in is in a higher risk zone than many other lovely areas on the other side of 95. We are in World Golf Village area and love it.

[shokwaverider]

Originally Posted by Turbogyrl

We are in World Golf Village area and love it.

We looked in WGV. Like Palencia it is also far from everything. Also almost every home is "Stick" (Not so in Palencia though). A CBS home is a minimum for Florida IOHO. Buyer beware.

[Jax2PVB]

I must say that I do NOT agree with HAVING TO HAVE CBS construction. Oceanfront? Yes, then CBS is a minimum, but in places like Nocatee, which are not even at the beach, you do not need concrete block structure (CBS) and to be honest, if you are over the ditch (not at the beach because you have crossed the bridge) you will find that 90% of home are NOT CBS. Please do not be fooled by that fallacy. We actually are in a flood zone, in Palm Valley and live in a custom built stick home and nothing happened in either storm. We have friends down the road that had CBS and flooded - so honestly, CBS is only better protection from winds, not flooding. Also, there is a significant difference between production builder quality and custom built. Hurricane strapping for the roof and elevation of the ground floor are far more important for storm protection around here.