Job and Relocation Questions (Jacksonville, Naples: real estate, rental, condo)

[canudigit]

My husband is potentially accepting a job position in the Jacksonville area. I am an RN with years of experience in both inpatient cardiac and Med/Surg nursing and hospice nursing. We are in our late 40s and our kids are out of school, so school districts are not a big issue with us other than in terms of property values.

My questions are:

Could anyone recommend a safe, moderately-priced area to live in the greater Jacksonville area? Our housing budget would probably be in the mid-$200,000s and parts of the city of Jacksonville itself or any suburbs that are safe and family friendly would be what we are looking for. If we do decided to relocate, my dh would have a job but I would be looking. I have been doing some research on Ponte Verda and Orange Park, are those nice areas? Ponte Verda seems like it might be a bit out of our reach as far as housing prices.

Are there many opportunities in the Jacksonville area for experienced RNs? I have a friend who works seasonally in Naples, FL as a respiratory therapist and he told me that nursing jobs in FL are more plentiful during snowbird season and taper off in the summer months, so does that mean that RNs get laid off for part of the year, or are there pretty good opportunities year round?

We currently live in Michigan, but both suffer terribly from sinus problems here. I know that many parts of the Southeast aren't any better in this regard due to the humidity and various pollens, but does being near the coast make a difference in terms of sinus/allergy problems? I have been told that sea air alleviates these conditions.

That's all I can think of right at the moment. We are going to be in the area later this month because I got my dh Daytona 500 tickets for our 25th anniversary and we have never been...

If anyone can suggest any areas, job advice, etc. it would be greatly appreciated. We are really looking forward to visiting the Jacksonville area and would of course do so before my dh accepts the position, we are just curious and this opportunity presented itself. We own a rental condo at Myrtle Beach, SC, so we would also be closer to that property.

Thanks in advance.

ETA: I would normally read the "sticky" advice threads in a forum before presenting all these questions, but I didn't see anything like that on this particular forum, so thanks for bearing with me if I am asking the "same old, same old" stuff.

[jetsfan2012]

Congrats on your husbands potential new job I am also in the process of doing the same, and moving in the next 30 days to Jacksonville. This forum has been a great resource to me regarding the various areas of the city you would be interested in living.

Some websites that I have also signed up for include

Trulia.com
Zillow.com

I set up searches by particular zip codes, and narrowed down my search to include the amenities that were most important to me.

Hope this helps!

[canudigit]

Thanks for your reply.

I did do a search on Zillow and Trulia, as well as a few other real estate sites, but I was hoping to get some first hand information from locals in that area as well. I did a search of this forum based on the areas we are wondering about, but it was sort of inconclusive, particularly in the area of nursing jobs, so I thought I would start my own thread.

Thanks again, and I hope your relocation works out for you.

[Robyn55]

This area is a lot less seasonal than south Florida - people tend to live here full time.

We have a lot of major medical centers spread over a really large geographical area.

Where is your husband's job? If you don't want to deal with bad commutes - you will probably want to live/work reasonably close to where his job is. I don't mean to be sexist here. Like if you'll be earning more than he's earning - perhaps your job should come first.

Note that this is a bad pollen/allergy area in the spring (and spring came early this year). Best I can tell - talking to people who have allergies. If you'll be here this month - drive around. Get outside a lot - and see what you think. Pollen season won't be over by then. Robyn

[canudigit]

Thanks, Robyn, for all the good information. My dh is a truck driver, so when he gets good hours working for a good company, we make just about the same. I am hoping to find work in hospice if possible if we do relocate, because I am a certified hospice and palliative nurse. I am currently working, though, for the internal staffing agency of a large healthcare system and work on various intermediate cardiac units in various hospitals, so I could also do that type of nursing.

I can imagine that the pollens get pretty bad there, what with the warm winters and all. Today it wasn't bad here for February, around 43 degrees and rainy, but the combination of rain and chilliness just about did dh in and he struggled with sinus problems and the resulting cough all day long. It is definitely his sinuses, he had to go to four different doctors to clarify that, so anywhere that he feels better and coughs less, the better for his quality of life.

We are really looking forward to our trip next week! Thanks again for the great information.