Possible move to Jacksonville Area

[John Breen]

Deercreek, james island and jax golf n cc are gated with newer homes but pricey.

[johnrk99]

My wife and I both work at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota and are interested in transferring to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. Our kids are both out of High School so we would consider a Condo somewhere in close proximity of Mayo. We've visited the Jacksonville area several times and have looked at Condos off of Hodges Blvd. Prices there seem to range in the low to mid 100's, and the commute to Mayo seems like it would be easy. Would anyone have any suggestions, or anything to add about living off of Hodged Blvd ?

[apvbguy]

Originally Posted by johnrk99

My wife and I both work at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota and are interested in transferring to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. Our kids are both out of High School so we would consider a Condo somewhere in close proximity of Mayo. We've visited the Jacksonville area several times and have looked at Condos off of Hodges Blvd. Prices there seem to range in the low to mid 100's, and the commute to Mayo seems like it would be easy. Would anyone have any suggestions, or anything to add about living off of Hodged Blvd ?

nice area, it's hard to go wrong there

[LewLew]

Originally Posted by MarketSpeculator

BARTRAM SPRINGS PLANTATION

Is this a good place? Just looking at a home here that I like.

Single Family Home - 9148 Sweet Tree TRL, JACKSONVILLE, FL, 32256 - Realtor.com

Bartram Springs has very high fees, and the property taxes on the newer homes (b/c they are Duval) will be high. For example, there is a home for sale in there now that is listed at 269K. Property taxes are $8,000 per year b/c the homeowner bought in the height of the market, and paid over 300 for the home. The fees on top of that are near 1700 per year...so all in all, you'll be paying over 10K in taxes. The other negative about Bartram is that you will always have 100's of competitors for sale at the exact same time as you. Especially in this market, until all the overspenders/speculators etc. sel off, you could be looking at negative value problems as they dump inventory. Also, once the builders STOP building in there, you will have them to compete with as well. If you want new construction, but don't have to have BRAND new, you can look at many neighborhoods in Julington Creek, and off Baymeadows near 9A.... Look out off JTB as well, but the commute might be bad.

[ComputerGuy]

A lot of the long commutes really depend on what time you or your wife would be going to work. You can easily get from the southside (for your situation southside blvd round deercreek) to the airport in 30-40 minutes with no traffic, maybe even less.

I95 North will take you there fast if it's anytime before 7:30am. After that things start to get bad. We are having a lot of construction out here, and I95 is getting it as well, so the commute should be very fast after everything is completed.

In my opinion I would prefer to live on the southside and have to drive to the Northside area (Near the airport) than do the opposite.

[ComputerGuy]

Originally Posted by johnrk99

My wife and I both work at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota and are interested in transferring to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. Our kids are both out of High School so we would consider a Condo somewhere in close proximity of Mayo. We've visited the Jacksonville area several times and have looked at Condos off of Hodges Blvd. Prices there seem to range in the low to mid 100's, and the commute to Mayo seems like it would be easy. Would anyone have any suggestions, or anything to add about living off of Hodged Blvd ?

Hodges, which is off of J. Turner Butler Blvd (JTB) is very congested, however the traffic going towards the mayo clinic should be much less severe than traffic going into town.

I'm not sure about condos in the area. It's funny though. I'm looking at job opportunities at Mayo in AZ. Small world huh.

[johnrk99]

Computer Guy, do you currently work at Mayo in Jacksonville ?

[ComputerGuy]

Unfortunately I don't. I have applied there before, but I was not called back for an interview. They are one of the organizations that I do want to work for though.

[agreatlife]

Originally Posted by LewLew

... property taxes on the newer homes (b/c they are Duval) will be high. For example, there is a home for sale in there now that is listed at 269K. Property taxes are $8,000 per year b/c the homeowner bought in the height of the market, and paid over 300 for the home.

While it is true that Bartram Springs has hefty CDD fees, I question the $8000 property taxes. Duval millage rate is .0018. With a homestead exemption on a 300,000 home (equivalent to $500), I would calculate it to be under $4000, which still may seem high to folks that have lived in their own homes for a long time.

Do you disagree?

[riveree]

Originally Posted by agreatlife

While it is true that Bartram Springs has hefty CDD fees, I question the $8000 property taxes. Duval millage rate is .0018. With a homestead exemption on a 300,000 home (equivalent to $500), I would calculate it to be under $4000, which still may seem high to folks that have lived in their own homes for a long time.

Do you disagree?

....and the millage is even lower now, the 2007 final millage rate for Duval is listed as 16.68 (down from the 18 rate of earlier years):

http://coj.net/NR/rdonlyres/ep5m3oimnmxp4lw53aglz6cfx2qvpu3bh7kxgh35v2gam2j5v3 onyrtt3hm53xgcn57kkbz6pmuniy4klcity7zkema/07+Millage+Final.pdf (broken link)