Why would anyone move to Jacksonville? (Orlando, Atlantic Beach: big home, safe area, schools)

[parks71]

Id gladly pay a state income tax if it went towards education, then maybe we wouldnt have the 50th worst state for money per pupil for our public school system as well as tied for the high illiteracy in the USA.

Don't be fooled though, google taxes paid per state and you will see Florida right in the middle even though we dont have state income tax, they get it in other ways like gas, property and many other ways.

[lubbermuchhio]

Hi all, Im finding this forum extremely useful. Just that a few of the queries in my mind arent answered so Im asking.

To give you all a brief background, Im moving to Jax from outside the US and would like to have some idea about the living expenses so that I can negotiate my compensation.

Cost of Rentals (assuming Im renting a condominium or a 1 bedroom appt)
Cost of Food (family of 3- eat simple home cooked vegetarian food only)
Cost of a decent 2nd hand car (and fuel)
Cost of playschool/nursery for my kid
Safe areas (gated communities) to live nearby to my office (Deutsche Bank)
Cost of Medical Insurance (for a family of 3)
Cost of Utilities

If someone could guide me on these, then I would be really thankful.

Regards.

[IndigoLight]

lubbermuchhio, please repost your questions as a new thread.
Your questions require multiple answers and are not related to the topic of this thread, the moderators may consider this as "hijacking" the thread (you are navigating the topic away from the original discussion).

Also, you'll get more responses related to your questions if you start your own thread, otherwise, you run the risk of being ignored as people will continue responding to the original question of this thread: why would anyone want to move to Jax?

Just a friendly advice

[fsquid]

Originally Posted by parks71

Id gladly pay a state income tax if it went towards education, then maybe we wouldnt have the 50th worst state for money per pupil for our public school system as well as tied for the high illiteracy in the USA.

Don't be fooled though, google taxes paid per state and you will see Florida right in the middle even though we dont have state income tax, they get it in other ways like gas, property and many other ways.

you are a bigger man than I since I wouldn't trust the state government with an income tax further than I can spit them or **** on them.

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by pandorafan5687

Different strokes for different folks. The St Johns river cannot possibly be that bad. I don't think the OP knows what FILTHY water is until he has been to Louisiana. Jaxville seems to be a nice city from the little bit that I saw of it(on our way to the st johns town center which was one of my best experiences in 2009). Very spread out b/c it's mostly annexed suburbs. But seems like a nice area. But if you are making 100grand/annualy you should look elsewhere. I don't recall Florida ever being a "cheap" place to live. Maybe Jacksonville was cheaper 10 years ago, but that happens in a lot of big cities(especially when "yuppies" move in to them, it makes real estate SKYROCKET. But I can tell you that it's nothing compared to Miami, or most south florida areas. Seems like it has alot going for it.

The St. Johns River is "sick":

Signs of death abound on the sickly St. Johns River | jacksonville.com

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by parks71

Robyn and thats my point, Jax used to be a VERY cheap place to live and IMO it make it a very desirable places due to cost of living. Once it gets as high as miami, tampa and place where it actually looks like Florida and not Georgia, why live here instead of there? Why not have crystal clear water to dive and swim in. Why not have white beaches instead of brown. Why not live in a city with a lot more to do there.

When people say theres plenty to do here I dont think they get it. If you LOOK hard, yes you can find stuff to do but you need to find that certain date and do it. Some cities have things going on all the time. Many big name singers/bands just pass Jax and go to olrando, Tampa and Miami.

Last week I was looking to buy a new higher end watch. Several of the brands I wanted to look at did not even have dealers in Jax. These same brands has 3-5 dealers in every other major city in Florida. Why are they not in Jax? It wasnt just one brand either. Yeah they have Rolex and ONE Omega dealer but wheres the rest of the brands?

Apart from job/work considerations (which aren't an issue for us since we're retired) - I think whether or not you like this area depends on what you like to do. In our case - for something like golf - which we enjoy - this is a lot better than Miami. I've always gotten the impression that we get a lot of big deal musical acts here (they're not my cup of tea - but I do notice the ads). As for the arts in general - we get the same road productions that you'll find in places like Miami and Palm Beach. Generally pretty uninspiring stuff - but you won't find better elsewhere in Florida. For the best in theater - you have to go to New York or London. And we even have a symphony orchestra.

As for shopping - I too wish it were better (except in terms of food - I think the food shopping here is excellent). But it gives me an excuse to plan little and big deal trips to places where I can shop to my heart's content for higher end items. Took me a year to find a particular David Yurman piece I was looking for. Couldn't find it in Orlando or Miami or lots of other places. Finally found it in Chicago .

And then there is the internet. I buy a lot on line. Today I was looking for some Spice Hunter spices. Fresh Market and World Market used to carry them - but don't anymore. But there were almost no places that carried them in south Florida either. So I bought directly from the manufacturer.

Have you ever lived in Miami? We lived there for 20+ years. It suffers from some of the same problems JAX has because it's spread out all over the place. Like there may be a great restaurant *there* - but you live *here* - a 30+ minute drive away. So you don't go that often. That's what happened with us and Opus 39 in St. Augustine (which closed this week). In Miami - from *here* to *there* is likely to be a longer more aggravating drive (traffic there was bad for a long time - but has gotten miserable in recent years).

And this area is still cheaper than south Florida. Real estate is somewhat cheaper (I'd say in general 20-30%) - and things like insurance premiums are much cheaper (e.g., my husband just bought a Medigap policy - and it would have cost him 40% more if we lived in south Florida).

I do miss the color of the water in Miami (I lived in waterfront high rises with views of the water). But not much else (never liked to swim in the ocean and my diving days were over years ago). I am still a shell collector - but Miami was never a very good place for that. Robyn

[BabyBoomers2]

Well this "sickness" sure didn't stop the St. John's Poker River Run from happening earlier this month. We do hope that this problem does get solved soon though! We are (were?) planning on taking our boat out this weekend, but will check to see how many boaters are out on the water before we go out. Only place we touch the water is launching the boat at Goodby's Landing.

Originally Posted by Robyn55

The St. Johns River is "sick":

Signs of death abound on the sickly St. Johns River | jacksonville.com

[jaxnville]

Moving to Jax in a couple months. Do a lot of people live in condos on the river? Doesn't seem like you see many high rises when looking at pictures of the skyline. I would think it would be nice (and convenient) to live in a condo on the river but I've heard all the stories of the lack of downtown activity. Any info would be much appreciated.

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by jaxnville

Moving to Jax in a couple months. Do a lot of people live in condos on the river? Doesn't seem like you see many high rises when looking at pictures of the skyline. I would think it would be nice (and convenient) to live in a condo on the river but I've heard all the stories of the lack of downtown activity. Any info would be much appreciated.

Most Riverfront property is single family houses. I've seen some smaller low rise condos in the Avondale/Ortega area - and others somewhat north of Mandarin. There are also some condos - including a really tall one - in Riverside. Should be easy enough to find all of the condos by doing a search on a real estate web site. Robyn

[jaxnville]

Thanks, how do you like PVB? That's an area I'm looking at.