Looking into moving to Jax. (Jacksonville, Naples: homes, neighborhoods, buy)

[parks71]

Avoid springfield, thats the overprice hood, lots of crime and terrible schools.

Place to go, Mandrin or the beachs, the only places I would recommend in Duval county. Most of St. Johns county is great though.

[fsu813]

Facts are facts, and they don't back up the previous poster's statements about the neighborhood he mentioned negatively. Or his statments about education. I can provide multiple links if you like.

For example, check out today's (how timely) Jax Biz Journal: Southern Living honors Springfield

Southern Living honors Springfield - Jacksonville Business Journal:

Or these about the school system that was mentioned by others earlier:

Over 2/3rds of Duval schools received an "A" or "B": http://wokv.com/localnews/2009/06/big-gains-expected-in-duval-sc.html (broken link)

&

Duval County Schools rated as "B" overall : http://www.metrojacksonville.com/for...ic=5314.0;wap2

&

School grades by District: http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org/pdf/08...des2009_17.pdf


Here are all the grades of every Duval County school for your review: http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org/xls/08...ol20082009.xls





If schools & safety are of great importance to you, also being near shopping & parks for your daughter, there are plenty of good places to look. Most areas of town are safe and Jax has a HUGE park system, the largest in the US in fact : http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-13220158.html


What your budget? Your budget will determine what areas are possible and what are not......

[StreetSmarts]

ChrisA70,

A little off topic, but I know you've also talked about NC to me other other day too. I'm heading that way (FL native but went to school in the Asheville area) and we are planning on moving back to the area next year sometime. So if you have any questions just let me know.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by ChrisA70

I am down in Estero(between Fort Myers/Naples). I am looking at moving to the Jacksonville area. I don't know Jacksonville other than driving through it on the way to and from FL. Can anyone tell me what areas to avoid? I don't want to be too close to the city, but on the outskirts. I am in apartment property management, maintenance. i see positions all the time there, and am looking at April/May.

Thanks.

Chris,

Just to clarify, Jacksonville is a bit different in that the entire county is technically "the city". So, we have a downtown, we have the suburbs and we have rural parts, but it is all technically "Jacksonville". So when you say "I don't want to be too close to the city", I hope I'm correct in assuming you'd prefer a suburban location rather than strictly urban?

So to be in a suburban part of Jacksonville, you really don't need to venture far from the city center at all. Our "downtown" is quite small and concentrated in one core area. Once you go 2 or 3 miles outside of downtown, you're in the 'burbs . I just want to be sure you have that picture in your mind so you don't think you need to drive 20 miles from the city core in order to hit the suburbs, a couple of miles will do .

So which direction should you focus on? You'll get differing opinions, but with schools being a priority, I agree with Parks that Mandarin and the Beaches should be on your consideration list. I would also add parts of the Southside and the Intracoastal West area.

The 4 areas I mentioned above have 2 things in common: One, they are all dense enough to give you plenty of options for your line of work and Two, they are all South and East of downtown. Not such a coincidence IMO.

We haven't posted this link in a while and it might give you a sense for the different qualities of the city. I think it's a helpful link for anyone considering moving to Jacksonville or the surrounding counties:

Your Neighborhood Affects your Health | Metro Jacksonville

It's pretty clear in the link above what our good, bad and in-between areas are. The lousiest parts of the city tend to have the lousiest quality of living, no suprise there. Here's another good snapshot:

Quality of Life in Jacksonville | Metro Jacksonville

[Gator219]

Chris-

We just moved from Fort Myers (Gateway) to Jax two weeks ago!!! :-) We love it and are very happy to be out of FM. Everything up here seems to be better...more job opportunities, people are more polite, better weather, and significantly lower cost of living! We are currently renting in Julington Creek and are very happy. Julington Creek Elementary is one of the top schools in the state...and it was VERY easy to see why right away. The staff has bent over backwards to help us adjust. My daughter's teacher spent 45 minutes with me on the phone the first day making sure I knew what all went on in the classroom. Another huge perk of JCE is that they offer fulltime gifted. Their specials are incredible too. MUCH more diverse than in Lee County. The Julington Creek area has everything our family needs. Restaurants, schools, sports, and a great sense of community. I have been floored at how kind and welcoming everyone has been. It's a real change from South Florida. :-) Good luck!!!

[fsu813]

riveree,

Because of the arbitrary "zone" borders, the info that was linked is only somewhat accurate. There are very different neighborhoods with-in the zones, so they are perhaps more helpful to illustrate the which general areas are more diverse than others.

You'll notice that the most diverse areas are bordering Downtown. Because they are so diverse (ie, million dollar homes not that far away from 25k homes in some cases) it's hard to get a good idea about "lifestyle".

You have posh, regal, and very well-off neighborhoods like Avondale & San Marco catagorized in the same group with rough areas like Brooklyn & 103rd Street. These areas couldn't be more different, yet they are lumped in the same color coded-area. You'll find drastically different quality of life, crime, education, income, & lifetsyles in the Avondale/Riverside neighborhood vs. the 103rd street area, which are both in zone 1.

If you'll notice, that was an observation in the comments section as well: "The zone boundaries are pretty arbitrary. Can you really say 32205/32210 are similar to the far Westside or Near OP? Doesn't one think that the numbers would be skewed with the current zone lines?"

However, in the areas that are not very diverse (ie, zone 6 & 3) it is a good indicator of the general area and numbers do represent the area much more accurately.

[parks71]

Nice articles there, very good information. Springfield area there are 43 murders per 100,000 people opposed to most areas that have 5-8 murders per 100,000. Thats exactly why I say stay far away from the inner city. Its very crime ridden with bad schools. Thanks for that article. Facts are facts.


On another note, where he is refering to julington creek, that is the mandrin area and is an excellent choice.

[ChrisA70]

I have been looking at the south areas, and Mandarin online. They look good. I have seen a couple jobs there too. I am not going until about April/May, so it gives me lots of time to look around. I have gotten a lot of info so far from you guys. What's it like at the north part close to GA? Is that the not too good area?

[ChrisA70]

Originally Posted by riveree

Chris,

Just to clarify, Jacksonville is a bit different in that the entire county is technically "the city". So, we have a downtown, we have the suburbs and we have rural parts, but it is all technically "Jacksonville". So when you say "I don't want to be too close to the city", I hope I'm correct in assuming you'd prefer a suburban location rather than strictly urban?

So to be in a suburban part of Jacksonville, you really don't need to venture far from the city center at all. Our "downtown" is quite small and concentrated in one core area. Once you go 2 or 3 miles outside of downtown, you're in the 'burbs . I just want to be sure you have that picture in your mind so you don't think you need to drive 20 miles from the city core in order to hit the suburbs, a couple of miles will do .

So which direction should you focus on? You'll get differing opinions, but with schools being a priority, I agree with Parks that Mandarin and the Beaches should be on your consideration list. I would also add parts of the Southside and the Intracoastal West area.

The 4 areas I mentioned above have 2 things in common: One, they are all dense enough to give you plenty of options for your line of work and Two, they are all South and East of downtown. Not such a coincidence IMO.

We haven't posted this link in a while and it might give you a sense for the different qualities of the city. I think it's a helpful link for anyone considering moving to Jacksonville or the surrounding counties:

Your Neighborhood Affects your Health | Metro Jacksonville

It's pretty clear in the link above what our good, bad and in-between areas are. The lousiest parts of the city tend to have the lousiest quality of living, no suprise there. Here's another good snapshot:

Quality of Life in Jacksonville | Metro Jacksonville

My meaning of the "city" areas are, for instance, I lived in Winter park, part of "Orlando" per say. I didn't mind that, it's part of the city, but far enough away from the downtown busy areas. I am from a small city in MA, and I like the outskirts of town where is it more rural. I am more of a country boy....LOL, but I don't want to live in Ocala! So I am looking for something like that, outer city areas, quiet, family friendly. Kinda like here in Estero, it is between Pit Myers, and Naples. I have everything right here, but if I have to, I can go to one of those 2 places if I need something like a Walmart because Estero has none. My 1st concerns are safe clean areas, and good schools. My daughter is in 4th grade, so she has 3 more grades before high school which I am not too worried about because she will be going to high school up north where I went when the time comes.

So i should concentrate on Southeast, mandarin, or the beaches?

[fsu813]

"Nice articles there, very good information. Springfield area there are 43 murders per 100,000 people opposed to most areas that have 5-8 murders per 100,000. Thats exactly why I say stay far away from the inner city. Its very crime ridden with bad schools. Thanks for that article. Facts are facts."

- You demonstrate the underlying problem with the article. The neighborhoods with-in the zones aren't all the same, most are very different.

For Example, Ortega & the San Juan area look to be in the same zone.....yet one is luxury and upscale while the other is can be pretty sketchy. The example you gave, Historic Springfield is virtually violent crime free, while New Springfield is not a good area at all.

These are the types of misunderstandings that happen with arbitrary borders. A closer, neighborhood by neighborhood comparison is 100x more accurate.

The tools to compare individual neighborhoods can be found here: " + theTitle + " (http://maps.coj.net/WEBSITE/CrimeStats/viewer.htm - broken link)

You'll find great differences with-in the "zones" listed.

Now, in areas with little diversity (zone 6 & 3) the numbers will vary little and thus are much more accurate.

Chris, since your daughter will be attending Elementary & Middle School only in jax, most of the map is appropriate.

However, the more rural areas of town will be to the North near the airport, to Southwest in Orange Park (which sounds exactly like what you want), and to the Southeast in St. Johns County. The area mentioned above (Mandarin) is far less rural.

Really, by your description, the suburb known as Orange Park is probably what you are looking for. It's about 30 minutes Southwest of Downtown, much more rural, reasonable home prices, good schools overall, and is basically a small, modern town near a larger city. Orange Park is in Clay County, again, a suburb of Jax.