more housing musings after another visit to jville.... (Jacksonville: apartments, rentals)

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by tacosman

I think this is my problem.....if I were married or had kids, I would have a much easier time finding a spot. Or if I were younger. But I'm in my 30s and have no kids....and I don't want to live around a ton of kids, but quite frankly I don't want to live around a bunch of people making 55k either....and I don't know where on jville I can avoid both

I understand your situation. Because my husband and I have been in it as young professionals without kids. When we were in Philadelphia - we lived in a Rittenhouse Square luxury high rise apartment. In Miami - first a luxury apartment - then 2 luxury high rise condos. When we left Miami in the mid-1990's - we were retired - and wanted to try the house/country club lifestyle (golf/tennis/etc.).

Which is how we wound up in Marsh Landing. At the time - it had an average head of household age of about 50 or so. Young retirees like us - people getting ready to retire - etc. Some young professionals too. A lot of people had kids - but the kids tended to be older. Today - well what a difference. The average head of household is < 40. There are tons of kids - mostly younger. The last 3 houses on my block all sold to young couples < 40 with young kids (or kids on the way). So - like you said - this probably wouldn't be a good fit for you (there are some "singles" here - but they tend to be part of divorced couples).

Anyway - the housing stock here isn't like the housing stock in Philadelphia or Miami in terms of high rise buildings. OTOH - have you looked at the possibility of renting a condo in a nice building? I'm not familiar with most of them - including those out here at the beaches. The nicest I've seen personally is Villa Riva in Riverside (I worked the "symphony house" there when it first opened and know some people who live there - nice location). It's out of your price range in terms of buying - but I don't know about rentals. I also don't know about the price of renting any similar "luxury condos" (and we don't have that many of them here).

But it's probably worth exploring. You'll probably find more people without kids and/or singles. FWIW - my husband and I owned/lived in high rise luxury condos for 20+ years - and we grew to hate them. All the politics - all the bickering - all the problems (especially maintenance and insurance - both biggies). The only luxury condos I've seen that run pretty smoothly all the time are those where everyone has oodles of money. My accountant lives in a place like that in Coral Gables now. His maintenance is $30k/year (we were paying about $9k/year when we left Miami). Anyway - you're not going to find demographics like that in JAX.

Renting is a different story IMO. I'd explore around the waterfront Riverside/Avondale area and the beaches. Note that I also worked the symphony house at 11 E. Forsyth (a rental). I didn't like the location - and thought the place was a dump. The Peninsula looks nice - but the location kind of leaves me cold (YMMV).

Also - I just thought of a place that might work for you. 220 Riverside. This place:

Apartments in Jacksonville FL | 220 Riverside

I don't think it's been mentioned yet. The last time I drove by - it didn't look like it would be finished until 2015. But the website says it will be ready for occupancy by this summer. It's a rental. Not in the best part of Riverside IMO (which is on the water). But it's an ok location - and an interesting project. And - being a rental - you can use it as an initial "base of operations" - and explore the area. About the only thing I dislike about it off the top of my head is it's 5 stories - and apparently "stick construction":

A Closer Look At 220 Riverside | Metro Jacksonville

The quality of construction here leaves something to be desired .

A final observation. No one has talked much about crime yet. Florida in general has a large amount of property crime (burglaries and the like). But some parts of Florida are worse than others. For example - most of the Miami metro area that's not behind gates/guards is bad (one reason we never lived in a house in Miami). A fair amount of the JAX metro area too. So I'd be careful in terms of picking a "ground level" dwelling. You can pretty much avoid those problems by living in a mid- or high-rise building.

Get back to us and let us know what you think about 220 Riverside (I'm curious what your reaction will be). Robyn

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by pinetreecity

Have you tried looking at those side streets between San Jose Blvd and the river? Most houses are well kept in those areas. I don't know about the cost.

I don't know the costs in that area today either. But a fair number of the houses back there in the vicinity of the Bolles School are on low ground. Some of the properties have - in the past - had drainage and flooding problems. A lot of the houses are also 50+ years old. And probably "need work" of some sort.

One issue is that manicured landscaping can be a real challenge in Florida, especially in areas that are wooded. You either need to be willing to devote lots of time in maintaining the landscape, or you need to hire a landscaping company. Hiring a landscaping company is expensive, as is replacing the sod every few years, etc. Many people just let it go rather than go through the trouble and expense. Even the wealthy parts of town have a difficult time keeping things looking manicured.

Good point. I like our lot (which is heavily wooded in the back) - and enjoy gardening. But this is a tough area climate-wise. Too far north to be "semi-tropical" (with just enough hard freezes to kill off "tropicals") - and too far south to be "temperate" (e.g., not enough chill hours for many trees - too far south for northern grass varieties - etc.). There are some chores that we've never done ourselves (like "big tree" work and chemical applications - too dangerous). And - as we've gotten older and creakier - we've had to delegate some things we used to do ourselves (like regular lawn and shrub maintenance). Which is - like you say - pretty expensive. I still do my butterfly/hummingbird/herb garden myself (in fact - I'll be working on it this afternoon) - but that's a relatively small part of the overall equation.

Note that it's not necessary to replace sod every few years assuming it's taken care of properly and it's in the "right place" (it's pretty much impossible to grow decent grass under large shade trees - grass needs sun). Robyn

[abvavgjoe]

Originally Posted by tacosman

I think this is my problem..... I'm in my 30s and have no kids....and I don't want to live around a ton of kids, but quite frankly I don't want to live around a bunch of people making 55k either....and I don't know where on jville I can avoid both

I think you should move in with Robyn. She seems to understand your plight and is sympathetic to it. How 'bout it Robyn? You'd get some extra cash, tacosman would get to live in a nice, expensive area, you guys could go out to dinner together and ride off into the sunset.

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by abvavgjoe

I think you should move in with Robyn. She seems to understand your plight and is sympathetic to it. How 'bout it Robyn? You'd get some extra cash, tacosman would get to live in a nice, expensive area, you guys could go out to dinner together and ride off into the sunset.

<LOL>

You're kind of overlooking the fact that I'm happily married (for 42 years). And my husband and I aren't into threesomes. On a really frisky day - we can barely handle a twosome . Robyn

[abvavgjoe]

Originally Posted by Robyn55

<LOL>

You're kind of overlooking the fact that I'm happily married (for 42 years). And my husband and I aren't into threesomes. On a really frisky day - we can barely handle a twosome . Robyn

Um,....I was just talkin' 'bout a roommate situation. Get your mind out of the gutter, Robyn.

[williamwebb1986]

Originally Posted by tacosman

. But I'm in my 30s and have no kids....and I don't want to live around a ton of kids, but quite frankly I don't want to live around a bunch of people making 55k either....and I don't know where on jville I can avoid both

Ortega Forest!

[cw30000]

Originally Posted by tacosman

I think this is my problem.....if I were married or had kids, I would have a much easier time finding a spot. Or if I were younger. But I'm in my 30s and have no kids....and I don't want to live around a ton of kids, but quite frankly I don't want to live around a bunch of people making 55k either....and I don't know where on jville I can avoid both

What's wrong with 55k? 20k more and you are in the 1%. Source: Liberals making 200k plus million of dollars in perks.

Anyway. If you are single and no kids, go live where your heart desire. If you like beach, move close there. If you like night life, move close to downtown, etc.

Being single have so much choice. You don't even need a big place. Just get a 300 to 400 studio and you are set.

[wrigley615]

A quick search found that in 2011 it took $388905 to be in the 1%

[fsquid]

this thread is funny to read.

[Leaving4Ca]

Originally Posted by runswithscissors

Anyone who buys a house in FL after 2 visits is nuts - unless you have specific concrete desires. Rent FOR A YEAR.

Really? I've moved ALOT and we are not unpacking and renting for a year just to repack and pay movers again. THAT is nuts, in my opinion. If you do extensive internet research, 2 visits should be plenty. Unless you don't know what you want and/or don't pay attention and take notes when you are there looking at houses. A good Realtor should be able to provide you with school info and community info.

There are these wonderful places called "extended stays" and in the end it is cheaper and less stressful to store your stuff and stay in one of these places while you are looking at houses and waiting to close on a new home.