Moving to Jacksonville..or Palm Coast?! (Tampa, Orlando: for sale, leasing, sex offenders)

[RedWingsFan]

Palm Coast in my opinion is awful. It's no place to move to. Before moving to Florida I thought online it looked great. Housing was cheaper, close to the beach, they were building a new town center... etc. Got to Florida and thought it was a mistake. Totally not what it seemed like online. Housing is cheaper because you get what you pay for and this town has nothing to offer. I think the housing is actually overpriced for what you get there.

The town is small, there's barely anything there, neighborhoods have more empty houses than those with people living in them, many don't have sidewalks, the schools are not that good (do the homework on www.greatschools.com), there's higher crime than some other towns around, etc. I don't like it at all. Oh, you will also have to drive all the way to St. Augustine or Daytona to do any shopping or find entertainment. There's also not much in the way of eating out, not a very large selection of restaurants.

We ended up going south of there to Ormond Beach and living in an apartment for a while and then bought a house in Port Orange (low crime, great schools, family oriented, close to great beaches).

There are many threads on Palm Coast, they are in the regular Florida section though, not in Jacksonville. Just do a search there for them.

And... take everything a realtor says with a grain of salt. It's their job to sell a town/city so they are overly optimistic.

[riveree]

Even with all the people moving to Palm Coast, it seems that not much has changed. The post above could have been written ten years ago or just today.

I personally don't see the attraction to Palm Coast - I would not move there just to save a little money on a house.

[RedWingsFan]

Originally Posted by riveree

I personally don't see the attraction to Palm Coast - I would not move there just to save a little money on a house.

Same here! I couldn't agree more. I think that's why people go there - cheaper housing. But people need to remember that you get what you pay for and location is the number one thing in purchasing a house. Palm Coast does not have a good location.

[muvovr]

We lived in the "L" section. As we were moving they were clearing ground for some new shopping along the highway.

[china rose]

well all i can say is you couldnt pay me to live in jacksonville for the crime rate alone like over 40 murders alone this year already!! Please dont move there!! BUT Palm coast has way less jobs to offer sooo...

[RetGI]

I was considering Palm Coast too after visiting their local website "PalmCoastBiz.com" and reading all the mostly positive talk about the place. A while back I had replied to you about your negative comments to someone else interested in going there and was dismayed by your comments. So last week I visited Palm Coast for three days (enough time for me to form an opinion about what I was looking at) and did a lot of driving around most of the neighborhoods from A - Z. I even had a realtor show me several houses. I must say I kept looking and looking in the neighborhoods (those in the low 300k price range) that I could afford and just didn't like what I saw. I just couldn't find any area where I could say to myself "this is the place!". Not that it was necessarily dirty or unkempt, but just not as nice as some other areas I had visited in the state. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I pretty much agree with your assessment from what I saw on my brief visit. each to his own as they say. In my tour of various parts of the state, I actually liked the Homosassa area the most for now. Not built up like Palm Coast and other areas and the housing/neighborhoods, Sugar Mill Woods in particular I really liked. I'll be coming back for another visit in the near future..

[RedWingsFan]

Thanks for reporting back to us to let everyone know you visited and give your opinion. I think anyone interestd in moving there needs to visit first. Palm Coast looks good online, but not in person for most people I've come across.

[rttampabay]

I need some real info on Palm Coast. I just can't decide if people hate it just because its "small town". We are looking in that area and need to know the best places to live, we live in Tampa Bay now and it is just too expensive. We are trying not to have to leave Florida and Palm Coast just looks reasonable.

[kort677]

Originally Posted by rttampabay

I need some real info on Palm Coast. I just can't decide if people hate it just because its "small town". We are looking in that area and need to know the best places to live, we live in Tampa Bay now and it is just too expensive. We are trying not to have to leave Florida and Palm Coast just looks reasonable.

there's a reason that it appears to be reasonable, some reasons might be lack of employment opportunities locally, lack of amenities and the area's isolation. People have said that if you live there be prepared to have to go to either jacksonville or daytona for shopping, entertainment and activities.
My impression was that is appeared to be just ok as a place to live but I couldn't deal with how far from things the place was. Any money you save on housing could be eaten up by travel expenses.
You can find lower cost housing closer to jacksonville.

[rttampabay]

Unfortunatly I am scared to death of Jacksonvilles crime. We first lived in Brandon when we moved the area but the crime ended all that. Terrible crime. We now live in Riverview in an awesome neighborhood but if I stay here much longer I might have to file for bankruptcy. And I am not joking.