Any Samara Lakes residents out there?

[EricBoyd]

I just sent you a direct message.

[Erik_Veston]

Grave digging here... revisiting this old thread again.........

Originally Posted by LewLew

One suggestion I would make to anyone moving to Jacksonville is to stay out of any very large development. The market is soft here, despite what the news says.... There is a ton of inventory, builders are leaving the area, people are getting foreclosed on, and short sales are 1 in 10 of the sales out there. When you choose to move into a very large development, you will always compete with one of two things....1. The builders, who can cut their costs immensely, and you'll be stuck owning a home not worth what you paid for it. 2. 100's of resale competition.
Just make sure you LOVE the development you buy in before you do. There are tons of people in the above boats...just check out Bartram Springs, Murabella, Heritage Landing, Oakleaf Plantation, Julington Creek (almost 700 homes currently for sale in there), World Golf Village, SouthHampton, St Johns Golf and Country Club, etc. There are hundreds of homes for sale in every single one of these communities. Your best bet for resale value stabilization is buying a resale NOT in a large development, or in a neighborhood that isn't full of fees (older neighborhoods).

^was very good advice looking back since the bubble burst on the housing market. I bought for about $145K and the value shot down to like $90k-100k in the immediate years following 2007. GOOD NEWS THOUGH! It looks like its finally, SLOWLY, turning around. Neighbor behind me with same house style/size sold recently for $130k... They've never totally stopped building in this area but, it was VERY slow for a while... Its ramping up again. My parents just bought a 1800 sq. ft. place in murabella for $205k 6 months ago and prices have already jumped up some since that. (info from the builder - DR HORTON).

There's currently a huge Publix on the corner of SR16 and Pacetti Road. As well as Walgreens, CVS, Mcdonalds, and a Dollar General. There's a few 'outlet' shops that are part of the Publix building like - pizza hut, Publix liquors, Chinese restaurant, ups store, tropical smoothie café, dry cleaner, sushi bistro, alexander dental, ect... The site directly behind (south of) publix is planned to be some sort of Flagler hospital outpatient center. There was a VA clinic of some sort built along SR16 just a little east of the publix. I haven't been there at all, so I cant offer any info on what VA services it provides, I just drive by it every day and know its there and operational. There is a Vystart ATM just east of the publix, behind the new dollar general, in the next section that looks like it is intended to be turned into smaller shops and such. I chatted with the vystar folks in town and was told that will eventually become another branch when the population density grows enough. I think that is the main hold-up on bigger chains and development getting rolling out here again... Also, all the restaurants and outlets that are at the intersection of SR16 and I95 are only 10min down the road so,.. *personally, all that I think is still needed out here is a walmart or target type store and a home depot, lowes, or ace hardware type store. Closest one of those nearby is at least 25-30min drive into St. Augustine or up I95 to Jax.

Also, someone a few posts back had mentioned a 'new highschool' being built out here? I have not heard about this at all and would be very interested if that's true. As far as I know, there are two elementary schools (wards creek and mill creek elementary schools) and only one middle school (pacetti bay). As far as I know, the closest highschools are St. Augustine and Nease highschools. I believe this area is zoned and belongs to Nease. Not sure if that's true. They are about equal distance although, I believe nease is the newer of the two. both are AT LEAST a 20min drive. I'll probably care more when I have school aged children.

Also, if anyone else is still interested in whats to come around here... before the real estate bust a few years ago, there was talk of shopping centers being developed and built out by I95 and International Golf Parkway (IGP). One was supposed to be called "Esplande" (supposedly was going to be built on the northeast quadrant of the I95-IGP intersection) and the other was being called "Lion's Gate" (which was going inside the world commerce center loop). Lion's Gate actually had a sign up that boasted of over 700k sq. ft. of retail going in. There was a bunch of earth moving equipment working there for a while and then it just went quiet and the signs disappeared. There's other threads on this forum about both of those if your interested in searching. I have not seen anything about them lately but, haven't been looking either.

Anyway, this is as good an update as I can offer at the moment for anyone still interested.