Fleming Island or St. John's County (Jacksonville, Country Club: for sale, real estate, apartment complex)

[Tonestar]

Hi -

Family of 3 relocating from southern California. We've been seriously considering Fleming Island or St. John's County (Fruit Cove area and nearby). We don't want to be near St. Augustine area due to traffic concerns and tourism but we'd like visit it from time to time. Plus I may be working in St. Augustine.

We know FI and most of St. John's County have good schools. Seems like traffic to/from FI could be a concern but then again where we live, it has been rated the worst traffic in the U.S. Before I had my work schedule changed, it took me 1 hour to drive 12 miles from my employer to home during rush hour. If I took the toll road home, I could shave off a good 20-25 minutes but then I was paying $6.00 a trip which adds up ($6.00 x 5 = $30 then multiple that by 4 so a $120 month or $1,440 per year). Oh, and this fee is with a toll road account; it'd be even higher without an account.

Which leads to me why we are leaving. WAY too expensive to live here and I am a Cali native. When you start seeing real estate advertisements for homes "starting in the low $1,000,000s" then you know its time to leave. Unless you make bank and I work for government so I am excluded. Then throw on all the taxes and other fees charged by city, county and state which makes getting ahead almost a pipe dream. One big rat race here!

We are planning on putting our house up for sale in April 2019. Kids are out of school mid June 2019. We hope to be in escrow or have our house sold by the time school lets out. I'll be either commuting to near Jacksonville Airport or near St. Augustine. Depends on my employer needs.

Looked at Nocatee but I don't want to be staring into my neighbor's living room from my kitchen window. We live in a planned community now with 2 HOAs. We'd like some breathing room (more land) but not directly opposed to another HOA community but again we strongly desire some land. Not talking acres but like .35 up to 1 acre would be cool.

Our price range is $350k - $500k. We want to put down a decent down size payment to make our mortgage payments small otherwise we would go higher. Wife has no job prospects in Florida at this time as her current employer doesn't know if she can transfer to their Jacksonville office. So I may be carrying the mortgage alone for a while.

Thank you in advance for your input

[accelv]

Look at Amelia National or Northhampton golf communities in Nassau Cty. Airport is a 20-25 minute drive. 12 minutes to the beaches; 35 minutes to downtown Jax.

[Thundarr457]

The OP stated they might be working in St Augustine. Amelia is a long way away.

[murabelladawg]

Looking at your needs, World Golf Village seems like it would work pretty well for you and your family. Look at some stuff in the 32092 zip code and see if you like what you see.

[Scottamemnon]

Having to work in St Augustine, but wanting to be away from it a bit, I personally would take a look at the World Golf Village area. Closer to St Augustine than Fleming Island by a lot, not as busy as extreme northern St Johns county. You would be south of the major traffic points when you need to go into work, but still close enough to St Johns Town center and the developing Durbin shopping developments to take advantage of them.

[Tonestar]

World Golf and 32092 are spot on. Thanks for the suggestions. I let our realtor know to keep an eye out on those areas.

[Gromicide]

Check St Johns Country Club on 210 just west of 95. 20 min to St Aug, ocean, Jacksonville. Large (ish) lots, nice houses but more closer to the top of your range. I would say Julington Creek too but that is slightly more congested and growing with a lot more retail close by. It is a well established area though and IMO the roots of what made St Johns County such a booming area.

Nocatee is pretty sweet too. Proximity to the beach and intracoastal waterway are a bonus along with premium amenities. There is an abundance of available homes and some would offer preserve and oversized lots but yeah get your point of seeing your neighbors kitchen. I live in Nocatee and love it.

[sithlord72]

Be careful with World Golf Village...seems our county commissioners like Jimmy zjohns don’t know how to say “no”...

https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article...ed-to-florida/

[Florida2014]

Originally Posted by sithlord72

Be careful with World Golf Village...seems our county commissioners like Jimmy zjohns don’t know how to say “no”...

https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article...ed-to-florida/

Jimmy has a problem saying "no" to any development in our county. He and most of his fellow Commissioners just approved a very large apartment complex near Race Track and 2209 in an area that is CLEARLY busting at the seams in terms of schools in the area.

Sadly, this guy was recently re-elected by a fairly wide margin. His opponent was an independent running with an agenda of slowing growth. This is what you voted for, SJC.

[Florida2014]

To be clear, I believe their vote simply paved the way for the plans to be examined more closely, I don't think this was by any means a final approval. Still........it should have been struck down until more schools are built.