Hey guys,

My wife just got a promotion at work.  It involves moving from Iowa to the Jacksonville area within the next 6 months.  We know nothing about the area.  We will likely rent until we can figure things out and find something to buy.  Can anyone give me an idea of where to stay away from and where would be a decent place to live?  We have a daughter that will be in 7th grade, so a good school will be important in our decision.  We have been looking mostly south of Jacksonville, but again we know nothing about the area.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve

Don't know the area well enough to recommend anything. I'm sure someone that can help you, will be by soon.

These questions are often so broad, it takes a while to craft a reasonable response.

Here's what suggest to start.  This topic has been covered more than once recently in this subforum.  Search around a bit and read the replies in the other threads.  Once you've done that and have a bit of a common reference point, we can address more specific issues or clarify stuff for you.  I'll even volunteer to speak with you on the phone if you'd like (I'm in Ponte Vedra, just south of Jacksonville Beach) and can really tackle some stuff that way.

Trying to give you a complete overview of Jax here would take a dissertation.

Feel free to pm me. Born and raised in Jax and still live here. Happy to answer any questions. Where will your wife be working?

Best schools: St. Johns County, just south of Duval County (Jacksonville). Clay Co., also south of Duval is supposed to be good, too.
Southeast Jax is the best area. It has the newest neighborhoods, like Nocatee, Mandarin, East Arlington, the beach towns, Ponte Vedra.
Avoid the Northwest quadrant at all costs!
Westside tends to be more rednecky, if that's your thing. The northeast area is marshland, mostly. The county north of Jax, Nassau, is growing, but it's still mostly undeveloped.

I live on the northside is a quiet subdivision north of the airport, I personally love it, there are however a few areas in Jax to avoid, west side, NW side, Arlington after dark and Springfield for certain. Everywhere else is pretty good. But always Conceal carry in Jax, it's just the responsible thing to do. If you are going to live in Duval private school is the way to go, it'll be more expensive, but then again living in St Johns county will be more expensive than living Duval.

Btw the gun Gallery is the best gun store in the South hands down.

All of this. I live near the airport but I live on 8 acres on a dead end road and I'm surrounded by marsh for 1200' of my property line. There are other places I'd like to live at times but I don't think I could live in a neighborhood. That's one nice thing about Jax, you can live in or close to town but still have some property to stretch out.
I can be almost anywhere in about 30 min or less and Jax is a BIG town at 850sq miles!

As said before, public schools in Duval are mostly a no-go. There are a handful that I would send my children to if I cannot afford private when the time comes. Best elementary is Hendricks Avenue Elementary. Neighborhoods zoned for Hendricks are San Marco/Miramar and parts of Emerson (not where you want to live). San Marco and Miramar are great neighborhoods, but relatively pricey for what you get, i.e. homes built mostly in the 40s and 50s that will either need gut jobs or will be priced at 150-200/ft and up. Trade off is that homes generally retain their value/appreciate better than the rest of Duval. Hendricks can feed into Landon Middle and from there you can get into Stanton/Paxon, which are great schools if your kid makes it into the IB program. Otherwise, private school is the best option for high school in Duval. Bolles/Episcopal are running $21K/year right now, and Bishop Kenny and Providence are probably in the $7k-11K range.

FWIW, I work with a lot of highly educated folks that can afford to send their kids to Episcopal/Bolles but have chosen to move to St Johns Co. instead. I thought long and hard about it, but grew up in San Marco and can't see myself battling traffic into downtown for the next thirty years.

Thanks for the replies.  We are looking at homes in the Mandarin and Fruit Cove areas.  My wife will be working downtown.  This came at us really fast and unexpectedly.  I won't lie, I'm not really excited about moving.  We've lived here the entire 23 years that we've been married.  I can't tell you how many trips we've made to the dump and good will.  Hard to know what to get rid of and what to keep.  

While my wife has a good job waiting for her, I have nothing.  How is the job market?  At the moment I'm working as a supervisor for a small homeopathic drug manufacturer.  I'm hoping I can find something relatively quickly.  It will take a little time to figure things out, but I think that I would go a little crazy without a job.  

Is there any public land close to Jacksonville?  I like to hunt, but I'm guessing it will be a little different in Florida.  

Thanks again for the help, I'm gonna need all that I can get.

There is some, but a lot less than there used to be. Hit me up I'll take you out for hogs if you're into that sorta stuff.
Facebook.com/silentsolutions

It's a looonnggg drive from Fruit Cove to downtown Jax at rush hour.

Re: hunting, there are some good public places operated on quota systems not too far away. The drawings for deer season have already occurred. The drawings for turkeys are usually around October. The turkey hunting especially is second to none. There is also great duck hunting a little south in Merritt Island.

What do you consider a long drive?   We've heard conflicting stories on the traffic in Jacksonville.

Traffic is light in the 6:00 am hour.  8:00 to 9:00 is heavy but nothing compared to the big cities like Chicago, New York, Atlanta.  Jax is a huge town in land mass, but still only about a million people in the greater Jax area.  

However it can be a long drive from one end of Jax to another with no traffic.  From Fruit Cove to the south bank down town is a straight run down state road 13/San Jose blvd/Hendricks rd but it is a long road with plenty of red lights and 45 mph speed limit; could take 30 to 40 minutes.  You can get from anywhere in Jax to anywhere in Jax in an hour or less at any time of day.  

30 minutes in rush hour is the absolute fastest you could do it, many days will be longer for no apparent reason. Could be 2x that on a rainy day or if there is an accident. I wouldn't want to do that drive between 7 and 9 am and 4:30-6:30 pm.  Most people I know who live that far south leave for work at 6 am and either cut out at 4 or after 6.

ETA I just google mapped it, and it states it would take 35 minutes at 10:30 pm., so I would say my estimates are pretty optimistic.

That's not that bad.  About what I had thought.  She drives about an hour each way now.  She was told that there was meeting near the end of August that she needs to go to.  I told her to try the drive when she was there.  Hopefully she will have a couple of places to look at by then.

Nocatee...

Just talked to a dude I work with about it. He says an hour and a quarter in rush hour is about average, and it's getting worse because of the growth in that area. I would highly recommend her doing the drive at the time she will be commuting. I can't imagine spending that much time in a car to and from work. Of course, I've always lived within 5 to 10 minutes of my job.

Thanks wally.  I told her at least an hour.  I'll tell her to try the trip during rush hour when she's down there.

Slug-o, we looked at Nacotee.  I don't think it's for us.  I don't think we could afford it anyway.  We're coming from a rural town of 1,200.  This move is going to be a culture shock to say the least.

I grew up in Mandarin and have lived at the beach since returning.  Jville is huge; you can get city, suburb, rural, or beach here.  

Sounds like you should really consider Baldwin or Yulee areas.  The commute is a lot different than driving in town.  It used to take me 1 hr from the beach to downtown in traffic, 20 min otherwise.

What he said, up on the northside it's rural, if you like the small town vibe Yulee is it,,not 1200 small but as close as you'll get with a decent drive into town.

If you are coming from a town of 1200 and you like that feel then look at the far western end of Duval in Baldwin or Macclenny in Baker County or Yulee in Nassau. I would avoid anything inside the I-295 loop. People will say avoid the the northside or westside, but most the bad areas are around or inside I295. I am farther out on the westside where it is quiet and semi rural. Crime is not an issue where I am at.