Hubby recently retired from the Marines and we are considering relocating. We like where were are well enough but neither of us want to stay in our current home and if we have to move, we might as well MOVE!

We are trying to figure out where! We have little to no interest in our respective home states, we have gotten used to a bit more warmth! ..lol
Dh loves golf, so Florida is nice on that note. I like seasons but don't want to shovel snow!
We are thinking of the outskirts of Jacksonville, probably to the south. (his job prospects would be on NAS Jax).

Any opinions , thoughts, warnings, etc??? School info, housing info, general Florida tips? ( we have never lived there).
We would love to get real peoples reviews, not just the tourism website!...lol
Thanks all!

How well do you like to be in the line of fire with hurricanes?

I understand that the economy downturn has really hit Florida hard and along with that comes alot of crime. My brother moved to FL, north of Orlando 2 years ago and his wife says the alligators are horrible and they hate having to get the property sprayed all the time for those roach bugs. Eeeeek.

Well, it's been 7 years since we lived there, but, we liked it pretty well when we did live there. We lived closer to the beach (other side of the bridge, not on the NAS JAX side). I loved all the shopping and things that the area has to offer, and the proximity to I-95 made travel pretty easy.

There is a nice air port, so you can get some good deals on air travel. If you will have the benefit of commissary privelages, there is one near Mayport Naval Station as well as on NAS JAX. Also, the hospital on NAS JAX is really good.

In town, there are many excellent hospitals as well. It is a huge "town" if you could call it that. It really is all of Duval County. Just south and west, I think, is Orange Park. You may want to consider there.

We lived there for 7 years, and only had to evacuate one time for a hurricane, and that was only because we lived on base, and they forced everyone to leave the base.

Personally, I think it would be a smart move job wise and housing wise.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

I moved from Jax a year ago after living there for about 10 years. PM me and I will send you my email if you have specific questions.

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Raising my baby RIGHT!!!!!!

All the cool babies are wearing cloth!

My sister in law lived there for quite a few yrs before moving back home. Her main complain was those huge roach bugs that was EVERYWHERE!!! They had the bug man spray their place all the time. The kids playhouse was full of them things. They have a big fancy name for them that I cant think of right now but the bug is basically a roach on steroids.lol They get HUGE!!
she said she would never move back cause of them bugs. lol

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I lived outside Jax in Neptune Bch. I really enjoyed it there. Lots to do..great shopping. I would think the jobs outlook is good. My dh was in the Navy in Jax. Orlando and Cocoa are nice towns too. I love FL!

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The roach thing is not widespread, nor are they huge. A single family dwelling, kept clean, and especially brown paper bag free, will not draw roaches.

Apartment living will because of the close proximity of others who aren't clean. When a tenant moves out, so do the roaches, they go looking for food.

Our worst battles with roaches were in military housing (apartment / townhouse style) due to the variation of how clean people were / weren't and the constant moving.

dl

Thanks guys,
I am aware of the weather isses and the "roaches on steroids"...lol
We have lived in more active hurricane/typhoon areas and know how to react to that/prepare.
I don't love the giant palmetto bugs (it that it?) but I am all for pest control! I would be more worried about fleas since the soil is likely to be sandy and of course it never gets dry enough for the little suckers to die off. I am the first (and only human) in our house to get attacked. They seem to just love me, mosquitos too unfortunately. We had the hardest time in N.Carolina with fleas getting a ride on our shoes/clothing from outside and then we would get infested yet again. (vet said this was the issue since we bombed/flea dipped/protected our house/cat). Of course, now the flea treatments are better and we haven't had a flea since we moved & started using Revolution on the cats. Maybe it was just that house...lol, we flea bombed so much and with too much so many times I thought for sure we would blow up the house!

We definetly like the lower home prices, are there a lot of associations/fees, etc ?
We will have base/commissary/medical priviledges.
We have considered the Orange Park, Middleburg areas but Dh was told Middleburg is a traffic nightmare going to the base. Yulee seems like a growing area but probably a longer commute for DH.
Keep it coming ladies (and gents , if applicable )

My late grandparents lived there for my entire childhood, now my parents own their house. Let me just start by saying its hot there, really hot - and humid, did I mention the humidity? I won't even consider going there except from late october - march/april. The rest of the year I just wilt in the heat. The mosquitos are the size of seagulls, if not larger. The beaches have jellyfish sometimes. The fleas are bad, the cockroaches give NYC a run for its money. However having said that there's still a difference between indoor and outdoor roaches if you will. The outdoor ones you can't do much about - the indoor ones are the type you'd find in any area (due to uncleanliness). If you can keep the outdoor ones out, you can prevent the indoor ones with the usual common sense (except in apartment type housing).

It is pretty, there's a nice stadium. You get great access to citrus and other tropical fruits. But if you can't live with the heat and you're not able to handle the bugs its not the place for you.

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