Fleming Island Plantation versus Eagle Harbor? (Jacksonville, St. Augustine: short sales, real estate market, foreclosures)

[titaniummd]

Anyone have knowledge/experience between the two communities? Both have CDD fees, golf, tennis, swimming etc, but is one more desirable than the other?

I was just considering what is better for resale in the future.

[maryintwin]

Our family is thinking of relocating and looking at these 2 neighborhoods also. Can someone please help by providing what they feel are the pros and cons of the two locations.

[titaniummd]

Originally Posted by maryintwin

Our family is thinking of relocating and looking at these 2 neighborhoods also. Can someone please help by providing what they feel are the pros and cons of the two locations.

I opted for Fleming Island Plantation. I was looking for a new construction house.

The neighborhoods are subdivided into discrete 'villages' with no through traffic. They have 2 water parks (one for lap swimming and the other for kids). They also have golf, clay tennis courts, beach volleyball courts and basketball courts. It is in close proximity to the schools and library.

The disadvantage is that there are less social activities that Eagle Harbor has. Eagle harbor has through streets and no true distinction among 'villlages' in the area. A lot of the streets are 'throughfares' which is not as safe for my taste. Houses (resales) are overpriced for the age of the homes. They have more pool / water parks.

[robert1843]

The difference is Eagle Harbor allow kids 11 and up to use there water park without an adult. Fleming Island Plantation requires a parent to accompany a kid to their water park under the age of 15. In this respect, given that Fleming Island Plantation is a Neigborhood pool just like Eagle Harbor Water Park, I would say that Fleming Island Planation is kid unfriendly. FIP alienates their kids from the age of 11-14 from using the water park pool.

[wb3690]

Originally Posted by titaniummd

I opted for Fleming Island Plantation. I was looking for a new construction house.

The neighborhoods are subdivided into discrete 'villages' with no through traffic. They have 2 water parks (one for lap swimming and the other for kids). They also have golf, clay tennis courts, beach volleyball courts and basketball courts. It is in close proximity to the schools and library.

The disadvantage is that there are less social activities that Eagle Harbor has. Eagle harbor has through streets and no true distinction among 'villlages' in the area. A lot of the streets are 'throughfares' which is not as safe for my taste. Houses (resales) are overpriced for the age of the homes. They have more pool / water parks.

it sounds very similar to eagle landing vs. oakleaf plantation. My friend in Eagle Landing is always going to fun social events that Oakleaf doesn't have. However I guess that due to the sheer number of people it would be more difficult to do those events in Oakleaf.

As far as the comment above about kids 11-14, I'd be glad they require parental supervision at the pool.....Oakleaf is the same and for that I am glad. Less unsupervised kids there......because there are enough of them!

[samanthajw]

We are looking into possibly relocating to this area too. I am confused by the different fees. Can someone explain what they are for and about how much they are? Also, what can I expect for home-owners and auto insurance and property taxes? We are from Indiana, so we have income tax here, which I know FL doesn't have, but I wonder how much higher these other expenses are? Thanks!

[titaniummd]

Originally Posted by samanthajw

We are looking into possibly relocating to this area too. I am confused by the different fees. Can someone explain what they are for and about how much they are? Also, what can I expect for home-owners and auto insurance and property taxes? We are from Indiana, so we have income tax here, which I know FL doesn't have, but I wonder how much higher these other expenses are? Thanks!

There are two different fees CDD fees that are bonds that the real estate developer pays to the town and HOA fees. In Fleming Island Plantation there is a main HOA fee and a neighborhood specific HOA fee. CDD fees are tax deductible. For Fleming Island Plantation the CDD runs around $1800/year. The HOA is about $60 and the size of the subdivision determines the cost of their respective HOA (runs $300 to $600/ year).

The amenities are listed in the following link:

Fleming Island Plantation - Amenity List

I like FIP since each community is distinct and separated from the main road (Towne Center BLVD). Within that road, the High School, County Library and Movie Theater are a short distance away.

The deciding factor for you will be the commute to work, unless you work from home.

Eagle Harbor has more community social gatherings than FIP but I don't have time for those, personally. Both are Golf Course Communities. FIP has a few gated communities (for condos, townhomes, houses and garden homes respectively) as well as non gated communities.

Another community to consider without the amenities is Margaret's Walk that is gated and Hibernia on the Eastern Side of Fleming Island.

Good luck with your decision.

Additionally, I highly recommend that you check out this site if you have children:

FDLE Florida Sexual Offenders and Predators

There are a lot of sex offenders scattered throughout Duval and Clay County.

[mawipafl]

CDDs Eagle Harbor is a bit different than Fleming Island Plantation -- you'll find each community is different in some ways than the next.

Our CDD fee has two parts: the debt service (paying back the bonds) and an operating & maintenance fee. Debt Service can vary a bit depending on the location within Eagle Harbor, but it ranges around $1617 per year. The Operation & Maintenance is $523 per year. The HOA fee is $50 per year.

In a CDD (Community Development District), the developer sells bonds to raise the money to install all the amenities right at the beginning rather than wait for "profits" from selling homes to afford to keep on building. The idea is to not add onto the price of a new house in order to build future pools, tennis courts, or what-have-you, but instead to keep the new house prices affordable and have a complete community when the first homeowner moves in. That's the basic idea. The homeowners still end up paying, but it's spread out over the life of the bonds.

Not all developments are CDDs. When you're house hunting, that's a question to ask your realtor.

Homeowners Insurance: we have about 3000 sq ft, and our insurance is about $1500/year. We also buy flood insurance even though our location isn't in a flood zone and it's not required. That runs about $350/year.

Auto Insurance: we have 3 cars with one driver under 25 and it's about $2600/year.

Real Estate Taxes: we're in Clay County, take a homestead exemption, and our taxes are about $3900 per year.

[mwaroff]

My wife and I are considering a relocation to Fleming Island. Currently we reside in South Florida and are tired of the traffic, concrete and aging community. We visited Fleming Island for a few days and really liked it--not too far from the city, but not too close either. Our kids are in college and we are both active playing tennis and enjoying nature.

I've read the posts on here going back a few years but there doesn't seem to be anything current. If anyone that has relocated to Fleming Island can shed some light on what it is like and their feelings in hindsight, I would appreciate it very much.

Thank you!

[mawipafl]

Chiming in three years after my last post about Eagle Harbor and Fleming Island Plantation.

Not much about the two communities has changed - both are still great areas with all the amenities they had (in other words, neither has gone "down hill" in that regard despite the real estate market). Both probably have their share of short sales and foreclosures (which are found everywhere in the country), but to my knowledge there are no big problems with properties falling into an unsightly mess of abandonment and disrepair.

Fleming Island itself has grown quite a bit with the addition of a few new restaurants, and the disappearance of Steinmart which has now been filled by PetCo (and its previous location still empty I think).

Although it's a long story, not necessary to bore you with (a brief job relocation to NC and then back to FL), we sold our Eagle Harbor house last June and ended up buying in northern Duval. Although we really loved living in Fleming Island for all the reasons you like it, we have relatives in St. Marys GA and, as well, travel frequently for business, so we wanted to be up nearer GA and the airport. Otherwise we would have repurchased in Fleming Island.

Since my last post in 2010, I do feel that traffic has increased dramatically along Hwy 17 through Orange Park, and then through Fleming Island until south of the intersection with Hwy 220. But it was never so cumbersome for us to say "let's get out of here"! We loved the convenience of shopping (Target, Publix, Walmart, Home Depot, etc.) and there were enough restaurants (fast food and sit-down) to satisfy us. If we wanted something else, a trip to Southside or the beaches or St. Augustine was not a major trek.

I could be wrong, but in my opinion Eagle Harbor is a bit more "tennis-y" than Fleming Island Plantation. EH used to host a national men's tennis tournament, but a few years ago it was transferred to a sister community, Eagle Landing (near Oakleaf Plantation). I think both EH and FIP are 'young' and active ("young" meaning not necessarily in age, but in 'heart').

Hopefully I've given you some info that you seek! Definitely, most definitely, Fleming Island and Jacksonville itself for that matter are far than South Florida in every regard.