Family moving from midwest to St Augustine area, need help choosing neighborhood

[Zaba]

30 minute commute to there puts you in range of most of St. Johns County, save for the extreme outlying portions.

Severe overbuilding took place in SJC during the Real Estate boom but unlike some other parts of the US where the building was driven by investing derivitives, this area was undergoing a very credible growth phase and much of that excess inventory has been soaked up in the past 3-5 years since the crash. If I'm not mistaken, they're actually starting to build again in certain areas.

200K puts you in the range of 'nice', you can get your foot in the door in modest homes in some of the better communities if you buy selectively (Davis Shores, St Aug Beach, etc) which are also situated in the better school zones.

[Midwest runner]

Thanks for the additional info. I assume you are mentioning neighbors/subdivisions? We will have to check those out. Thanks again everyone. I appreciate everyone's input.

[RSWATTY]

Originally Posted by Midwest runner

Thanks for additional info. How close is your neighborhood to the beaches and are there HOAs or CDDs? What is the zip code there so I can investigate more? I'm trying to gather info.

This area is a 20 minute drive from the beach. Most of the neighborhoods have HOA's, though the dues are mostly reasonable. A few are also CDDs.

The neighborhoods on the South side of County Road 210 are part of the 32092 zip code, and the neighborhoods on the North side of County Road 210 are part of the 32259 zip code.

This website has a good summary of these neighborhoods: HOA's in the CR 210 Area | Community Alliance Neighborhood in St. Johns, FL All of the neighborhoods listed on this website are zoned for either Liberty Pines Academy, a K-8 school, or Timberlin Creek Elementary (K-5) and Switzerland Point Middle (6-8). Each of these schools is very, very good.

I'd say about half of these neighborhoods will have some houses for 200k. The other half, it may be hard to find any house under 225k, though this is going from memory of the market...I have not checked actual prices.

Two caveats for you, even though I think this is a wonderful area.

1. Just east of I 95 at County Road 210, there are 2 trucks stops. They seem crime free, but they're truck stops. It is my opinion that these neighborhoods are far enough away to be safe, but the Wingfield Glen neighborhood is the closest to the truck stops, so keep that in mind. Also, there's another neighborhood called Sandy Creek (which is not listed on the website linked above) that is very nice, but it is located on the east side of I 95 near the truck stops. We intentionally omitted it from our home search due to the proximity.

2. County Road 210 is currently being widened, and the construction is a bit of a mess. When it's done, it'll be 3 lanes in each direction for the first few miles west of I 95. This will improve traffic immensely. But the next 12 months will be messy with the construction.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your search.