I'd like to look at rental homes in St. Johns County Next Week (Homestead: sale, 2013)

[Shannon4426]

Originally Posted by theresamcallahan

Hello friends:

You will remember me as the originator of this thread. It's funny that we actually ended up renting the home that is discussed above from daisies76. We are very excited and will be moving into the home at the end of the month. The home is absolutely fabulous! The brand new neighborhood, the schools, the proximaty to everything is wonderful. I'll keep you posted on how we do in St. Johns. We are very excited and I'm sure we are going to love it.

T

Welcome to the neighborhood!

[EricBoyd]

Originally Posted by theresamcallahan

Hello friends:

You will remember me as the originator of this thread. It's funny that we actually ended up renting the home that is discussed above from daisies76. We are very excited and will be moving into the home at the end of the month. The home is absolutely fabulous! The brand new neighborhood, the schools, the proximaty to everything is wonderful. I'll keep you posted on how we do in St. Johns. We are very excited and I'm sure we are going to love it.

T

Congrats on renting their home. It's a beautiful place!!

[islandtimect]

It seems like there are a fair number of houses being rented in SJC. Are there folks also looking to rent homes in PVB in gated communities? A realtor told us we could get over 4,000/month for our home but don't know that it's true. Do folks rent unfurnished homes? We would have put our house up for sale, but would wind up taking a loss after paying realtor commissions.

[Robyn55]

There are some houses for rent where I live (in Marsh Landing). One house at the corner of our block was rented out for a year to a couple who wanted to give the area a test drive before they made a final decision to retire here (the owners had to relocate quickly due to a job transfer). Of course - being a long distance landlord isn't necessarily a fun experience. I'd probably sell - take the loss - and move on. Robyn

[momof4_tn]

I was hoping the original poster would come back with the information on the high schools that they toured and looked at. We are looking at making a move to the area by the end of the year, and that is one of my biggest worries is my Freshman integrating into a high school and which one is the best.

[ClassicStyle]

Well here I am and I can't tell you how happy we are. We have been here a week and we absolutely love it. Long story short, NW St Johns county is the best. The Julington Creek Area, the Aberdeen subdivisions, the durbin Creek subdivisions are all beautiful. The schools are very nice. I have had long talks with parents from the area and they are very happy with the programs at the high schools. Little known secret, in St Johns county all of the high schools have specialty academies. Your children can enroll in an academy or not. With these options available you have your pick of all of the high schools and you can choose which high school you want to send your child to. So you choose the high school and if you pick one out of your immediate area you are responsible for transportation. Don't get me wrong they want you to go to the districted school, but if you ask to go to another school they will allow it and you transport the child. I'll check in again. My choices for high schools would be Creekside or Bartram Trail. We register next Monday so I'll let you know how it goes. We are going to Creekside. Bye for now.

T

[btanNEOhio]

Originally Posted by theresamcallahan

Well here I am and I can't tell you how happy we are. We have been here a week and we absolutely love it. Long story short, NW St Johns county is the best. The Julington Creek Area, the Aberdeen subdivisions, the durbin Creek subdivisions are all beautiful. The schools are very nice. I have had long talks with parents from the area and they are very happy with the programs at the high schools. Little known secret, in St Johns county all of the high schools have specialty academies. Your children can enroll in an academy or not. With these options available you have your pick of all of the high schools and you can choose which high school you want to send your child to. So you choose the high school and if you pick one out of your immediate area you are responsible for transportation. Don't get me wrong they want you to go to the districted school, but if you ask to go to another school they will allow it and you transport the child. I'll check in again. My choices for high schools would be Creekside or Bartram Trail. We register next Monday so I'll let you know how it goes. We are going to Creekside. Bye for now.

T

I've read the whole thread and found this very informative. I just started researching about Jacksonville and being lead to SJC because of the schools. I have a 6th grader and 'thinking' of moving in summer 2014. Which High School did you chose? How was the summer weather (ie. Hot and Humid)? I'm interested to know since you moved from Chicago? It's been 6 months since so I guess you must have a good idea on the area/house you want to buy?

[ClassicStyle]

Good Evening everyone, it's me the original poster again. Checking in here now 5-6 months later, letting you know that St. Johns County, especially NW St. Johns County for us has been fabulous. We have lovely landlords, our home is beautiful, modern, and we love it and the community. We live off long leaf pine parkway which is the center road through the northwest towards SR-13. Right near Durban Crossing and Aberdeen. Surrounded by beautiful trees and multiple different sections of subdivision communities with parks and schools and recreation facilities all available to us and others in their communities. Our son goes to Creekside and we absolutely love it. It is a brand new school, it is now in its 5th year. Last year they graduated their first class of seniors. The curriculum is challenging and they offer fabulous options for your kids to specialize in academies, or AP classes or the IB program for early and easy transfer and credit for university level work. What everyone looking in St. Johns County and specifically out west here should know is that 10 years ago it was all forest and wet lands - well maybe 20 years ago when Julington Creek Plantation got started. Since then over the past 20 years you have had new developments pop up all over the NW of the county and they are full of folks from all over the country. My son came home the other day from school and he was so excited, he said, "Mom, you know I know people, from Hawaii, and Alabama, and New York, and Japan, and Africa, he said "it is so cool,". So moving into this community is very easy, all of your neighbors are from somewhere else and they are glad to see new people moving into the neighbourhood. New people now are welcomed even more because it is a clear signal that the economy is getting better. We have seen 7 homes go up since we have been here, there have been lots more, but those we can see out our back door. So its a great community for starting over fresh. The other thing about the folks here is that they love where they live, and everyone has that wonderful "southern" hospitality, folks are very friendly, they wave to you on the street and are always kind and say hello. The customer service here for example is excellent. Shopping here is a dream. First you have the St. Augustine premium outlets @ 95 and RT 16. There you find all the usual luxury outlets and some familiar chain stores. Thats a great place to drop into during the week if I need to pick something up quick. it was also a great place for me to bring my boy for all of his brand new school clothes this year. But beyond that, in almost every direction you drive there is shopping. The St. Johns town center, the Avenues mall, Costco, Best Buy, the Wallmart in Mandarin. All of this stuff is accessible with a given that you must drive to everything. There is also 4 or 5 Publix Stores and 2 Windixie Grocery Stores within local driving distance. Once you get used to the fact that you can't just run down to the corner store, you find that you have almost everything here, and with just a little effort you can get anything you want. I am so impressed by how well I am treated as a customer here. All of this kindness in combination with beautiful homes, great amenities, fabulous schools and nice people, really makes this area of St. Johns County a nice place to move to. Finally in terms of the schools, you have a very active local school board, and the county commissioners and the "county folks" are very aware of their growth and are planning accordingly. If the housing boom really takes off again, this place will easily become the fastest growing county again. I'm thankful that we found this place, thankful to our landlords, and thankful that we ended up in such a nice community.

Finally, I will say that the other end of this community - say the east side Nocatee, is also absolutely stunning with beautiful homes and brand new schools. That development has an excellent amenity centre and a local Publix Grocery Store rightly included in the centre of the community. Nocatee for us seemed to be farther away from all the other communities, except Ponte Vedra which we were not looking at, and when we were looking at Nocatee there were not any rental properties there and we were, and still are not, ready to buy. Truthfully, I could have moved in that direction too had circumstances been different. Its much closer to the beach and to St. Augustine so it also has its perks. I hope I have been able to give you some perspective of what its like to live here. I am truly grateful we moved here. Please direct message me if you have any specific questions and I'll try to help. This board was instrumental in helping me make my decision so I offer you the same that I received when I inquired. Good Luck. T

[ssclulow]

I am in agreement with everything theresamcallahan has posted in her impressions of living in St. Johns County. I hear these same comments frequently from new friends I meet who have moved here from other parts of the country and the world, whether than have moved to the northern part of St. Johns, St. Augustine, St. Augustine Shores, or the St. Augustine Beaches, they all love it here as much as I do. I am getting ready to celebrate my 16th year here and I still feel like I live in paradise. The physical environment is great and the people living here are awesome!

[btanNEOhio]

Thanks!!! I'm excited to visit the area, hopefully in summer, to see/feel the hot and humid, that people from up here, warns me about. Been to Disney in January '04 so I don't know how it's like. Been to Myrtle Beach in August '10. I was ok with it but family hiding in the room from noon though :-) thanks!