Jacksonville or Tampa?? (Miami, Orlando, Port Orange: house insurance, condos, house)

[ind2fla]

Many thanks Floridian.

Do you know if there is a web site similar to what Tampa has tbodotcom that tells you about what neighborhoods have crime or stats for the entire year?
I've been checking all the online Jax newschannels but they don't have a crimewatch stats.

Also, price wise for apts, 1 bd, would one expect to pay above $800 to be in a decent area?

Thanks

[Floridian]

I would say a decent 1 bedroom will not cost you > $800. This is just my presumption.. If you want more features such as fireplace, they can go much higher. There is another website URL REMOVED that will provide crime statistices for every individual city within US.

[daedalo]

Are correct re crime. However, there are numerous new housing subdivisions to the North of I-295 ring road that are just fine, for example, in the Callahan area and in the area of the airport. The commute is MUCH better than from the south or east of the city and Callahan is a small place with lower crime. This is in southern Nassau County. I just want to say that I lived in the Boston area before moving back to NE FL where I grew up. The commuter traffic in Jacksonville can be BAD, and this is coming from a Bostonian. Commutes from the entire southern, eastern, and SW tiers of Duval County from Northern St. Johns County/St. Augustine or from NE Clay Counties- Orange Park can be very very bad. These areas to the south and SW of Duval County have been growing at a rapid rate for twenty years and have become too intensively settled even for the relatively new road widenings etc.

[ind2fla]

Thanks daedalo. I didn't even know about Callahan, it seems a bit out of the I-295 loop but perhaps that will for the better. Iremember seeing on the news back in 99 that some unfortunate people in a pickup truck were thrown off the Buckman bridge. Now, I can't recall if this was during rush hour but it gives me a taste of how crazy traffic can get.

[ind2fla]

this is a question for Floridian:

I saw some previous posts that you are in the IT field. Is the market still decent in Jax and or has it gotten a bit better ?

Thanks

[Floridian]

ind2fla:
Better and Stronger... I based my assumption from my former co-workers who have moved out to find easier 'greener pastures'. These are the aggressive ones that are not satisfied with a 6% yearly salary increase. It took them less than a month to find another IT job here in JAX. With this, plus the addition of fortune 400 Insurance companies that relocated here may answer your question for "better". And "Stronger", due to my loyalty. For the most part, our IT has widen to larger scope. Five years ago, we do not have a 5 people LAN, IS help desk support, GUI programmers (Java Developers). We now have them. FYI- I work for a large retail company with 200+ stores nationwide. What specific area in IT are you interested/looking for?

[ind2fla]

Floridian, again many thanks and that is very encouraging about the IT prospects in the JAX region. As far as myself, I'm leaning toward more opportunities that are project based but have spent many years with infrastructure servers, networking and more recently, WIFI as well as RFID deployment. I'm hoping that I have at least a skill that potential employers will find attractive down in Jax. I've been looking through all the online resources and it can be sometimes tough. Perhaps if you are local finding opps are easier.

[Floridian]

ind2fla:
Online resources is the best spot in finding IT job. I recall landing my IT job here in JAX thru the headhunter.net but from a Tampa headquarter (head hunter). My line is on the programming side... The system we are using is the ISeries formerly IBM AS/400. Part of our upgrade is also deploying individual servers to each of our stores...but our market is really retail and merchandising.

Have you tried online the JAXPORT (JAX port Authority)? A couple of months ago they have several infrastructure job openings..part of it is the opening of our new shipping port to where this "tour" ships such as CARNIVAL is destined to leave JAX for carribean (2-4 day tour)...they probably deal a lot of server jobs.

[ind2fla]

Ok, will try that one as well. I've generally found Monster to be somewhat ineffective. I get the overall impression that a kazillion people respond and out of that pool, how many are seriously considered are unknown. I know there are opportunities down there, it's just getting your self into the loop that's hard, harder if you're coming from a different state. I've found that sometimes a lot of opportunities in life come about by luck. Thanks for your help Floridian.

[okiegirl]

I have also considered a move to Florida. I am a systems analyst/programmer from Arkansas. It seems from the posts that the market is getting better. I have 12 years of experience doing mainframe COBOL, DB2, javascript, etc. Is there a market for this type of skills in the Jacksonville area? Most postings I've seen lately are java-based systems. I've always dreamed of living close to the ocean but it's seems like a scary move! It's hard to leave security and family here for a chance at the unknown!