Almost there! (Plantation, Fruit Cove, Orange Park: for sale, real estate, rent)

[wb3690]

Aloha all......

Well after months and months of "looking" at homes online our process is getting closer to an end. We got our preapproval, have a real estate agent and are weeding out homes! I am pretty darn excited!

We have narrowed our search down to Oakleaf Plantation, Fleming Island Plantation and some areas in northern St. John's County (mainly for the schools).

I do worry about the drive from say areas near Fruit Cove/Julington Creek to NAS Jax. I won't be doing the drive, but my husband will and while he "says" he won't mind it I worry he'll end up hating the drive. I do know the traffic can and will be an issue in some areas of O.P., but if say he gets called back to work he wouldn't have to drive that long drive at odd hours.

We have found a few homes we liked in a subdivision called "Hickory Glen". Is anyone familiar with that neighborhood? It is further down Blanding and looks nice. The high school is Ridgeview High and they have that IB program there. High school is really important to us as I have a 13 year old.

Anyway my husband will be heading down your way soon and will be staying with our friends in Oakleaf and house hunting.....I wish I could come, but with two boys in school it is so hard to get everything coordinated.

Any advice/input would be appreciated!!

[Joe 4520832257]

I assume you're a Navy family? Congrats on the move.

I do worry about the drive from say areas near Fruit Cove/Julington Creek to NAS Jax.

That can be a terrible drive. The Buckman Bridge can be a huge bottleneck. Traffic is often backed up for awhile at the Roosevelt exit. But ...

The only problem is that Blanding Blvd can be even worse. Blanding has the worst traffic in the greater Jax area. You WILL be in traffic hell if you live on Blanding. Your realtor hopefully should have mentioned that.

It's a tough delima, and probably why so many navy families keep gravitating towards Fleming Island. There aren't lots of good alternatives. The Westside has bad schools, Blanding is traffic hell, and the other side of the river (Southside, St Johns) is a bit far away and has Buckman traffic.

The high school is Ridgeview High and they have that IB program there. High school is really important to us as I have a 13 year old.

Schools can be a touchy subject, so I have to tread lightly. However, I would strongly urge against overestimating the suburban school districts - particularly with high school.

Certainly, Clay and St Johns have better overall districts. Their schools are either "A" or "B" whereas Duval is full of "F" schools. The problem is that just because they have more "A" schools, doesn't mean that Duval doesn't have specific schools that are just as good or better.

For example, if you truly want the best public high school in the region, that's Stanton, which is a Duval county Magnet. Then there's Paxon, Douglas Anderson, Mandarin, and Fletcher ... all of which are similar or better than Ridgeview. And for the rest of the suburbs, Fleming Island, Bartram Trail, and Nease are all better too.

Again, this is not to step on any toes .. because I know that ranking schools can be sensitive for people. But I think that's a pretty good overview of the public schools that are often considered better than Ridgeview.

[wb3690]

no no no I thank you for your input and really welcome it.

we've lived in hawaii for SO long and their public school system is just terrible. getting our son into a good public school is top priority for us. I do worry about that buckman bridge drive though........however if he is willing to do it maybe st. johns isn't a bad idea.

thanks so much!

we are navy and hoping to retire in Jax......he has one shore duty tour and then a sea duty tour (he's a p3 guy) and we loved it there when we lived there earlier.

[mawipafl]

It's ideal that your husband will be able to experience the commute for himself. Of the choices, I think the travel between NAS and anything off Blanding will be the worst, so he'll be able to tell if it's something horrific or tolerable.

As for living in St Johns and having to use the Buckman to get to NAS, that would be a reverse commute and not so bad. Using an afternoon commute time home as an example, the bottlenecks encountered would be Hwy 17 south at the I-295 interchange, I-295 and the Buckman would be a breeze, and then another traffic snarl on San Jose Blvd/Hwy 13 south after getting off I-295. I'm not certain of the traffic on San Jose once a commuter arrives in the Julington Creek area.

There are truly quite a few good high schools here, so your home choices are not limited because of that. I don't know anything about the Hickory Glen subdivision, but if it's in the vicinity of Hickory Glen Dr., then I'm familiar with that part of Blanding Blvd (but not the subdivision itself.) Blanding is quite busy from I-295 to College Dr (near Hickory Glen) - traffic in either direction can be thick at many different times of day, but especially during the commute hours and school hours.

I don't know a ton about Ridgeview HS other than it's not exactly located in a nice area I've been told, but it's IB program is extremely challenging even for the brightest of bright kids. My neighbor's daughter attends Ridgeview specifically for the IB program.

[TREE4309]

I think the traffic on the Buckman Bridge wouldn't be that big of an issue if your husband is going TO the base in the morning...that's actually going AGAINST traffic if you're coming from Mandarin/Fruit Cove. I think the hardest part of that drive would be along 13/San Jose Blvd. just getting to I-295. The Buckman does bottleneck getting off Hwy17 in the afternoons, but even that's not too bad now that they've improved the exit ramp (I know...I did it for 6 years). Going home in the evening from the navy base can get congested on 17 heading back towards 295 (between 3:30 and 6pm).

[wb3690]

thanks! He just said one of his biggest plans when he is there is to DO the drive in the AM and the evening both from up blanding to NAS and then from Mandarin/Fruit Cove area to NAS to see what it is like and get the feel and see if it is something he wanted.

when we lived there while he was going through schooling we lived in Orange Park and I would either hop up blanding or 17 to get to NAS and I remember the traffic.....but that was in 2000.

It's also nice to know that we won't be there for just one tour.......sure there is no guarantee in the military, but he only has 6 more years in the Navy and while he will be doing his first shore duty for 3 years he'll more than likely hop to one of the other p3 squadrons at NAS to finish his career in the Navy. We liked the area quite a bit and while I am from Michigan and he is from Indiana we have no plans to move back up north when he is done with the Navy (we've lived in Florida and Hawaii his entire career). So more than likely we plan to retire in Jax and hopefully stay there.........so I'd prefer to not settle on a home just for a tour, but to buy a home we'd stay in instead of one we'd sell later like alot of military families do.

I'm getting excited!!

[kmoon327]

I just typed a better response, and it got lost!!Wanted to drop in on this conversation because we were in the same boat about 2 months ago. DH is stationed at NAS (for hopefully the last two tours as well) and so we decided to get a house. We originally looked at Oakleaf, but hated the drive because of traffic and well.. it just seems so far away from everything. I hate driving on that side of town!!!!! We ended up off 210 in St. Johns County and LOVE it. Schools were a big issue for us (13 yo as well) and even with the magnet schools we just weren't ready to stay in Duval. Traffic was an even bigger issue. I can tell you that he leaves for work most mornings around 7 and it takes him 20 minutes to get to work from 210 and 20 minutes to get home at around 3:30-4 - he beats all the major rush hour traffic and all the other traffic is going the opp direction in the AM. I guess it depends if you'll have any idea about his hours, but I leave for classes at around 8:30 in the morning and again at 5:30 in the evening up 95 and I honestly haven't had a problem yet. The biggest issue is 210's expansion, right now it is congested in the AM but it really isn't that bad and won't take that long before they are done (hopefully)!! Good luck with everything, my advice is to take a hard look at St. Johns, it's beautiful down here!!

[wb3690]

Originally Posted by kmoon327

I just typed a better response, and it got lost!!Wanted to drop in on this conversation because we were in the same boat about 2 months ago. DH is stationed at NAS (for hopefully the last two tours as well) and so we decided to get a house. We originally looked at Oakleaf, but hated the drive because of traffic and well.. it just seems so far away from everything. I hate driving on that side of town!!!!! We ended up off 210 in St. Johns County and LOVE it. Schools were a big issue for us (13 yo as well) and even with the magnet schools we just weren't ready to stay in Duval. Traffic was an even bigger issue. I can tell you that he leaves for work most mornings around 7 and it takes him 20 minutes to get to work from 210 and 20 minutes to get home at around 3:30-4 - he beats all the major rush hour traffic and all the other traffic is going the opp direction in the AM. I guess it depends if you'll have any idea about his hours, but I leave for classes at around 8:30 in the morning and again at 5:30 in the evening up 95 and I honestly haven't had a problem yet. The biggest issue is 210's expansion, right now it is congested in the AM but it really isn't that bad and won't take that long before they are done (hopefully)!! Good luck with everything, my advice is to take a hard look at St. Johns, it's beautiful down here!!

perfect! thanks so much for your response (and all others!)......I know my husband will have weird hours for his job and sometimes he'll be at work before 630 and others not until later on in the day. It all depends on the flight schedule!

[chefduck]

I live in the old Ortega area and it is a wonderful place to live. The neighborhood is beautiful with huge live oak trees, several parks, great place for walking, grocery store and small mall only 2 min away. There are several houses for sale and also some for rent. The area is only 5-10 min from NAS JAX right off of US 17. Have you & your husband looked at this area ?

[JagFan27]

Originally Posted by Joe 4520832257

For example, if you truly want the best public high school in the region, that's Stanton, which is a Duval county Magnet. Then there's Paxon, Douglas Anderson, Mandarin, and Fletcher ... all of which are similar or better than Ridgeview. And for the rest of the suburbs, Fleming Island, Bartram Trail, and Nease are all better too.

I will definitely have to disagree that Stanton is the best high school in Duval County. I will agree that it is a good high school in Duval County. Paxon School for Advanced Studies offers the same curriculum as Stanton. It was in the newspaper a month ago that more students chose Paxon as their #1 choice in the magnet lottery (in the college prep category).

I feel that Mandarin High would offer the OP another choice, and living in Mandarin would cut out some of the traffic getting to I-295 that living in St. Johns County would have. Mandarin High also offers a rigorous curriculum, called ACE (or something like that). BTW, I know people who have their children in other Duval County high schools that are happy with those schools. And, I know people who have their children at Stanton and Paxon who are not happy with those schools. So, don't believe everything you read. You really need to go and visit the schools to get a feel. That's what I did before my sons got to high school.

The drive to NASJax in the morning is not bad from the Mandarin area. It's the traffic going west-to-east in the morning and east-to-west in the afternoon that is bad.