Overall vibe in Jacksonville?? (sales, insurance, homes)

[divagotstyle07]

I am thinking of relocating and need to make a visit out there. I was driving thru on my way up to Savannah for a work function (I live in CA right now) and what I saw looked beautiful.

Can you give me some input on the vibe of the city and the surrounding areas? If I worked in JAX would I live outside of the city?? It seems easy to get around there compared to southern California traffic that has been annoying me for the last 5 years!!

Does the city have some good opportunities as far as jobs go? My role is sales engineering working in the HVAC and construction industry, B2B interfacing with engineers and contractors, if it helps.

[Gromicide]

Plenty of jobs I would say. Traffic can be bad but it's more like a rush hour with some stop and go. Commutes to work can be long as the city is large. Going to work might take 20-30 minutes without traffic and 45-60 with heavy traffic. Or you might live close and avoid traffic.

Vibe is pretty good - More of a southern feel peppered with some culture but not much. Good surrounding areas like St Augustine, Amelia Island. Plenty of places to golf, fish, beach/surf, state parks, sports. The micro brew craft beer and craft cocktail trend is on fire here just like everywhere else so some cool places opening up. shopping galore at the town center. Downtown is pretty dead but trying. Good concert venues, NFL, minor league baseball and some good eats downtown but not much of a destination.

If you're job involves residential housing construction, you should have no issue getting a piece of the pie down here. Monthly permits for new housing in the area (Jax and surrounding area) is well over 500.

[divagotstyle07]

Originally Posted by Gromicide

Plenty of jobs I would say. Traffic can be bad but it's more like a rush hour with some stop and go. Commutes to work can be long as the city is large. Going to work might take 20-30 minutes without traffic and 45-60 with heavy traffic. Or you might live close and avoid traffic.

Vibe is pretty good - More of a southern feel peppered with some culture but not much. Good surrounding areas like St Augustine, Amelia Island. Plenty of places to golf, fish, beach/surf, state parks, sports. The micro brew craft beer and craft cocktail trend is on fire here just like everywhere else so some cool places opening up. shopping galore at the town center. Downtown is pretty dead but trying. Good concert venues, NFL, minor league baseball and some good eats downtown but not much of a destination.

If you're job involves residential housing construction, you should have no issue getting a piece of the pie down here. Monthly permits for new housing in the area (Jax and surrounding area) is well over 500.

Thank you. I have seen some commenters mention a "ghetto" vibe. I'm sure this may be the case in some areas but overall this isnt so, right??

I also had no idea when I posted this that jax is so large!!! Wow!

[projectmaximus]

Hard to exactly put the vibe into words, especially speaking so broadly. It's kinda similar to Cali but certainly the weather isn't as nice and it's more reserved and laid back. We just dont have much of the spotlight/glamour side of things that Socal does.

But no, most of the city does not look or feel ghetto by most people's definition. And traffic is certainly far better than socal, though it has been getting worse in recent years. Barring extremely unusual circumstances, the "bad" rush hour traffic (that looks like a lot of red on google maps) will add 25-50% of time to your drive, so something that normally takes 30 min would now be 38-45 minutes. Far better than the common 2-4x that factor in Socal (30 min becoming 1-2 hours...)

Construction is doing well in Jax, particularly SFH. The other product types are moving too but nothing compared to other cities. However I dont know how long this will last.

[divagotstyle07]

Originally Posted by projectmaximus

Hard to exactly put the vibe into words, especially speaking so broadly. It's kinda similar to Cali but certainly the weather isn't as nice and it's more reserved and laid back. We just dont have much of the spotlight/glamour side of things that Socal does.

But no, most of the city does not look or feel ghetto by most people's definition. And traffic is certainly far better than socal, though it has been getting worse in recent years. Barring extremely unusual circumstances, the "bad" rush hour traffic (that looks like a lot of red on google maps) will add 25-50% of time to your drive, so something that normally takes 30 min would now be 38-45 minutes. Far better than the common 2-4x that factor in Socal (30 min becoming 1-2 hours...)

Construction is doing well in Jax, particularly SFH. The other product types are moving too but nothing compared to other cities. However I dont know how long this will last.

Thank you!! Good feedback. The main things I dont like about ca are the materialism, unfriendly people, expensive cost of living and traffic. It seems like all that can be mitigated with jacksonville.

What is SFH??

[projectmaximus]

Yeah those aspects are far less prevalent in Jax.

SFH = Single Family Homes. This area of the industry is booming in Jax. I wasn't sure what type of HVAC you do...other things like multifamily and commercial are doing ok but certainly not booming compared to other cities.

[JBtwinz]

I don't think I would ever compare Jacksonville in any shape or form to SOCAL. Geographically, ethnically, culturally and weather wise you are looking at two different vibes and types of living.

While Jacksonville is a great place to live..........it is a completely different animal.

Jacksonville land wise is the largest city in the US although our density (population) is small but growing.

As far as questionable area's you are looking at a large swarth of area from the urban core (downtown) north that is still in a state of decay and revitalizing extremely slow......at a snails pace. They are trying, between the NFL stadium and new amphitheater it is slowly becoming an entertainment area but they still lack bars and restaurants close by to keep people here before and after the events at the venues. You definitely cannot chill out downtown with things to do like in downtown San Diego.

South of downtown you have Riverside, San Marco, and Avondale to name a few that have made a remarkable turn around in the past 30 years. These areas are white hot. Further south is Saint John's County where suburbia is in its finest form with the top rated schools in the state of Florida. I compare it to the big push of new development as like the Inland Empire.

I frequently drive in the LA and Bay Area of California and I can tell you traffic here is a piece of cake compared to California even on the worst day. I can be 45 miles out from Lax and it can take me two hours. Here you can be 30 miles form the airport and most of the time you can get there in 45 minutes or less.

Jobs here are plentiful right now although high paying jobs are not in high percentage as far banking and insurance........medical positions seem to be a growing field with so many new hospitals popping up.

Housing compared to SOCAL is completely opposite here.................350k gets you a lot here if you are not looking at higher end beach areas, whereas 350k is extremely entry level in California.

We have been in this area for about 30 plus years and while some areas have seen some explosive growth our urban core is almost non-existent but they are really trying. From the urban core out in about a thirty to forty mile radius there are some beautiful community's with lots to see and do!

Good luck and welcome.