Cost of Living in Jax... (Jacksonville, Orlando: for sale, real estate, insurance) - Florida (FL) - City-Data Forum

jaxres206 · 05-12-2007, 02:07 AM

Hi everyone! I just discovered this board, and some of the posts have been really helpful so far. My fiance and I recently moved to Jacksonville. We graduated from college in '05, so we're pretty young and just getting started in our careers. We love living here, but the cost of living has discouraged us a little bit (especially considering that, overall, salaries in this area seem to be pretty low). Our plan is to buy some land and build a house in a few years, utilizing my father's help. He used to build homes but for the last 20 years, he has specialized in kitchen and bathroom design.

We've been looking at the price of land around here, and it's completely insane... LOL. I guess I'm wondering what you all do for a living, and how you're able to afford homes here? Maybe the problem is that my fiance and I fairly "old-fashioned" and conservative when it comes to our finances. We don't believe in allocating any more than 30% of our combined incomes to housing costs. But we're not sure if that's even possible in this market. We'd prefer to build in St. Johns county because of the better school district. I'd love to hear your opinions and advice. Thanks!

p.s. I'm also having some trouble landing a decent full-time job here because of how competitive it is (I guess I should have stayed in Orlando LOL). If any of you could recommend some good companies or offer any job advice, I'd appreciate that as well. I'd love to break into insurance underwriting, but it seems that underwriting assistant jobs are hard to come by.

FLPL75 · 05-12-2007, 04:58 AM

jaxres
There are quite a few Insurance companies here in Jax.
Is underwriting your background? You may have to accept a different job then post once you are in the company. Thats what I did collections was not my first choice, too many years of it, but it got me in the door. Then I was able to post my way up to litigation.
To find land you are going to have to look either South of Orange Park or West heading to Mclennay.
My vet bought a lot with a "tear down" at the beach this may be another option.
Karla

5FLgirls · 05-12-2007, 09:07 PM

When we first started looking at homes in Jax, everyone told us that we were going to get a steal and how affordable it was to live here (we moved from South FL). Ha! That was a laugh. We ended up increasing our budget almost $200k to get the house we wanted. I tend to believe that you do what you feel comfortable with. We've always purchased homes that were a tiny bit out of our financial comfort range. It's worked out for us so far. St. John's County is a definite winner. Maybe if you look more south St. John's, you might have more luck. As for your question as to what people do for a living--I don't know.

riveree · 05-12-2007, 10:39 PM

Hi Jaxres206,

Yes, the price of land has gone up significantly - even out in the far out rural areas.

Even in areas that are not yet built up, you can be sure a lot of it is already owned by developers who are just sitting on it

.

The developers really do have it down. They can buy building supplies much less expensively since they have bulk wholesale agreements. Land too - they buy it "in bulk" and then divy it up. Floor plans, engineering - all streamlined. The labor is probably the least of their expenses

. Their profit margins are actually pretty small...it's volume they're after, that's where the money is for them.

It costs more to build it yourself...all you'll really save on is labor.

Unless you need to have a very particular type of house, or are really wanting acreage, I would suggest looking into either new built developer homes or an older home...it's actually likely to cost you the same or even less and none of the headaches of building.

jaxres206 · 05-12-2007, 11:21 PM

Thanks everyone. I actually know someone who recently bought two acres in St. Augustine for $150k. It took them a while to find it, but I know there's land out there. We're going to keep our eyes open and if we find a good deal, we're going to take it.

As for building a house, it will actually be cheaper for us to do it ourselves. As I said, my father used to build homes and he's been in the construction industry for many many years so he gets significant discounts on everything from lumber to granite countertops... you name it. He's very well known in his field (been in magazines such as Architectural Digest), and he has some good connections up here. We've already priced it out, and we can build a house worth $300k for about $80k (possibly less). But the primary reason we're interested in building our own home is because we'll be able to control the quality. There's no way in hell (pardon my language) that we would allow one of those developers to build a house for us. My dad has been in the industry long enough to have seen all the shoddy construction that goes on. It's either we let someone like KB Homes build a house for us and get ripped off like my friends who are building in Orlando right now (they're paying almost $300k and the quality is horrible... cheap countertops, "fake" cheap cabinets, etc.). OR, we could let my father build, take advantage of all his discounts, and end up with something that's much higher quality (custom kitchen and bathrooms, etc.). My father has recommended looking out at Green Cove Springs, but we don't want to be too far away from our jobs. But I guess we'll have to make some sacrifices to get what we want. We've also considered buying an old lot with a trailer on it and just tearing it down. We'll see what happens I guess... But it'll be a cold day in hell before I build with one of these other home companies LOL.

riveree · 05-12-2007, 11:31 PM

So it seems you have it all figured out already. If you can have a home built by your dad and save $220k+, then you really can't lose, can you?

jaxres206 · 05-13-2007, 01:39 AM

Well maybe not... I guess it's going to depend on the land situation and how difficult it is to find a decent lot. I've already found a few by searching online but without talking to a real estate agent, it's hard to tell. So far it seems like there are some cheaper lots in Mandarin. St. Johns county might be out of our reach. But I'm really interested to find out if anyone else has built their own home in Jacksonville. I'm from a rural part of Pennsylvania where it's normal for people to buy land and build their own houses (my cousin is actually in the process of doing that right now. Her husband is building theirs). But down here in FL, people seem to find that strange for some reason

. I'd be back up there in a second if it weren't for all the snow LOL.

FLPL75 · 05-13-2007, 04:24 AM

kaxres
A friend of my husbands bought 1 acre with a mobile home on it a few years ago in middleburg he paid $86k and said it is now worth $150k he is planning to build one of these days.
next time my husband taks to him I will have him ask if there are any lots for sale .

karla

jaxres206 · 05-13-2007, 04:40 AM

Thanks Karla! I'd love to get some information from him.

he's so hott · 05-13-2007, 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaxres206

Thanks Karla! I'd love to get some information from him.

The only think that I can think of is if area is becoming a hot bed of development, say like Middleburg started to become a couple of years ago and still is, then the cost of the land will be much higher as you probably are aware. North Jax maybe and option as well as parts of far and I do mean far west Duval County.