Moving to the area, need some suggestions (Jacksonville, West Palm Beach: for sale, real estate)

[nolan_12]

I'm relocating to a job in Wellington from Augusta, GA. I grew up in Jacksonville, FL so I'm glad to be back in FL. I'm looking for suggestions for areas to find a new house to live.

I'm a professional single male in my younger 30s and looking for a house. 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage or bigger. I would like to live in a safe area/neighborhood where I can go walk my dog or go for a jog in the dark without fear. I like to be close to shopping/restaurants/stores and don't need to be in a big night life area. Again, my office will be in Wellington, so I would like to limit my commute to no more than 30 minutes. I'm always thinking about resale as well, so even though I don't have kids, I would like to be in a good school district. I think my budget would be no more than 275K.

The areas I've started to look online are West Palm Beach, Royal Palm Beach, Wellington. Are there others to look into? Or are there certain neighborhoods to recommend? I understand in each area there are good and bad places. I'll take tips on areas/neighborhoods to avoid as well.

Also, can anyone tell me for sure the date when the FL building codes were made more stringent for hurricanes? I was reading the codes went into effect in 2002. Is that correct? I would like to look for a house that complied with the more stringent codes or I wanted to also look at new construction homes/neighborhoods.

thanks in advance

[skylinet]

Wellington, West Lake Worth would be your best bet for what you're describing. Quick drive to work, lots of shopping and restaurants easy access to the turnpike and 95 to get to other areas.
I'm in a similar situation and just bought a house here after living in a few local cities.
While there are some great other areas like Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter for example, Wellington is more affordable to purchase a property. Especially if you are looking for something newer.

[rusty78]

Try this site for new homes www.newhomesource.com they will give you a list of new construction for sale throughout the county...as far as resale homes I would find a good buyer's agent who will represent you and not the home owner...

[gregm]

Originally Posted by skylinet

Wellington, West Lake Worth would be your best bet for what you're describing. Quick drive to work, lots of shopping and restaurants easy access to the turnpike and 95 to get to other areas.
I'm in a similar situation and just bought a house here after living in a few local cities.
While there are some great other areas like Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter for example, Wellington is more affordable to purchase a property. Especially if you are looking for something newer.

Sound advice Sky....Oh, BTW I just noticed the little house next to your name. Cute, I knew the fact before. When did they put that up? Or was I just not ever paying attention?

[skylinet]

Originally Posted by gregm

Sound advice Sky....Oh, BTW I just noticed the little house next to your name. Cute, I knew the fact before. When did they put that up? Or was I just not ever paying attention?

Thanks Greg. not sure how that got there, guess it must be because of the real estate agent tag?

[nolan_12]

Thanks for the info everyone. I've noticed during my research online that some areas are listed in the "water catchment area". What exactly does that mean?

[ssclulow]

They are probably referring to (the water catchment area) the area in the NW part of West Palm Beach near the drinking water reservoir.

[THX 1138]

Originally Posted by nolan_12

I'm relocating to a job in Wellington from Augusta, GA. I grew up in Jacksonville, FL so I'm glad to be back in FL. I'm looking for suggestions for areas to find a new house to live.

I'm a professional single male in my younger 30s and looking for a house. 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage or bigger. I would like to live in a safe area/neighborhood where I can go walk my dog or go for a jog in the dark without fear. I like to be close to shopping/restaurants/stores and don't need to be in a big night life area. Again, my office will be in Wellington, so I would like to limit my commute to no more than 30 minutes. I'm always thinking about resale as well, so even though I don't have kids, I would like to be in a good school district. I think my budget would be no more than 275K.

The areas I've started to look online are West Palm Beach, Royal Palm Beach, Wellington. Are there others to look into? Or are there certain neighborhoods to recommend? I understand in each area there are good and bad places. I'll take tips on areas/neighborhoods to avoid as well.

Also, can anyone tell me for sure the date when the FL building codes were made more stringent for hurricanes? I was reading the codes went into effect in 2002. Is that correct? I would like to look for a house that complied with the more stringent codes or I wanted to also look at new construction homes/neighborhoods.

thanks in advance

I live in Wellington, it's not a big corporate park type of place, that is not a big influx of companies or jobs, there is no big employers here most everyone commutes to other parts of the county or way south into Broward and beyond. If you can live and work in the Village than your a minority on average.

The focus here is family life, suburbia, shopping and dining. Season is big from Oct through April, that is Horse season and Polo. With that being said you can choose to live in a pricey part of town with an expensive HOA from $300/month or more for the newer gated communities that have a ton of amenities. I had a friend that lived in VillageWalk, newer Divosta Built Community developed around 2003 and built out in 2004 or so. Mix of different price point homes, but look the same for the most part and zero lot lines.

Same goes for Olympia and a few of the other newer developments. Also another place to look is off of Lake Worth Road west of SR7/441, The Isles of Wellington and etc..

If you want more character and not so much cookie cutter, you can look in Sugar Pond in the heart of Wellington, these homes tend to be older and may not be up to snuff with the newer homes on Hurricane toughness, Divosta's are build like tanks, poured formed concrete walls.

There is one new development currently being built out called Castellina off of 441, Divosta again and probably the last of what will be developed in Wellington since the land is pretty much all gone, that is until they back fill the Everglades.

Castellina |

I would avoid anything off of the 12th Fairway or adjacent to it, also near the intersection of Greenview Shores and Wellington Trace, that's mainly filled with rental duplexes and just not that attractive and I have seen some shady people walking around that area a few times.

If it's one of the newer gated communities, then you can expect they have good resale for the most part but HOA fees can be a deal breaker for many. VillageWalk and Olympia are adjacent to three schools, Elementary, Middle and High School, I know the people that bought my friends house had 3 kids and the fact they could attend 1-12 within a mile or so distance from their home was a big selling point. He got $700K for it before the housing market tanked, it's now worth $325K, his HOA fees were $500/month because of the type of home.

[bklyn139]

Any 21 to 27 year old living in Olympia community