Why are homes in NE Florida not concrete block or have a stucco exterior? (Sarasota: how much, houses)

[Thundarr457]

I think location is far more important than worrying about minutiae. I would much rather live in an area I like than worry about CB vs stick construction. We live in a stick house and the stucco needs some work but we love the area. When we looked in Naples, all the houses were CB. Up here in Jax CB is mostly in high end houses. We have zero interest in new construction except looking at models for decorating tips. As I stated earlier the best areas are built first. In PVB we see houses going up everywhere every lot no matter how bad has a house under construction. You can always repair something but you can't fix the location.

Happy New Year!

[OysterCatcher]

Originally Posted by Thundarr457

I think location is far more important than worrying about minutiae. I would much rather live in an area I like than worry about CB vs stick construction. We live in a stick house and the stucco needs some work but we love the area. When we looked in Naples, all the houses were CB. Up here in Jax CB is mostly in high end houses. We have zero interest in new construction except looking at models for decorating tips. As I stated earlier the best areas are built first. In PVB we see houses going up everywhere every lot no matter how bad has a house under construction. You can always repair something but you can't fix the location.

Happy New Year!

Which are the best locations in ST John’s County?

[Thundarr457]

For me its Ponte Vedra Beach. Its safe, if you stay a mile or so from the ocean your insurance rates are not sky high, its near the Mayo Clinic, 15 minutes to St Johns Town Center, 20-25 downtown, its near Jax Beach, Neptune and Atlantic. Ponte Vedra on the other hand, which consists of Nocatee and some other new developments is too far from the ocean and the traffic gets worse by the day. For a family and if that's your overriding concern Ponte Vedra is ok. I don't care for St Augustine to live plus it seems to get much worse weather than Ponte Vedra Beach. It depends on what stage of life you are in. PVB is kinda boring but I am in my 70's and boring is good plus I am close by to non boring. We have looked at every area of SJC and IMHO PVB is the best.

[LFJourney]

Originally Posted by wthay

There's a lot of things that play into this. I'm not an expert on building houses, but I'll do my best. In a lot of areas of Jacksonville that were built during the 50s and 60s, you can actually get some cinderblock homes but they tend to be older designs. A lot have been renovated in the last few years, so the quality has come up quite a bit. If you go to Arlington, parts of the Westside and the Northside around Trout River, you'll see these types of houses. However, the areas vary somewhat in terms of places you may want to live. And of course, as others mentioned, you can also find some high-end houses with cinderblock but the price is going to be significantly more than wood.



Wood houses offer much greater flexibility in terms of floor plans, customization and size (within a budget) and of course they're easy to remodel or customize later.

Remember that Jacksonville tends to be a place with a lot of transplants - people moving in who are not from the area. They want to buy a house and they want it now, so that feeds a pop-up house mindset. Often, they're not really sticking around; they might be in the military or moving in and then back out with some company, so people don't really care much about the quality of the house. They're only planning to stay there 3-7 years anyway, so as long as it's in relatively good shape when they move in, they think they'll at least get their money out of it when they move.


As someone else mentioned, Jacksonville hasn't had a direct hit from a really strong hurricane in a very, very long time. Downtown and Riverside, Murray Hill, etc got flooded during Irma, but those aren't new construction areas. The wind damage is usually pretty minimal and generally consists of oak trees falling over.


If you're planning on staying for a long time, you probably want to set a goal of building a block house. If you're just in and out, take everyone else's lead...buy a matchbox and don't worry about it.

Thanks for your feedback; it is much appreciated. I haven't ruled that area out, but the fact that cinder block is a rare thing in NE Florida and it's not reflected in the price disturbs me and kind of bums me out because I was excited about it before learning this. I looked at several articles, and I felt this one is pretty concise and easy to understand.

https://waypointinspection.com/concr...s-wood-framed/

I haven't looked more into the Hardie Board type siding versus stucco aspect again because it's not going to matter if I can't get past the wood frame and cost issue related to that.

I didn't realize that Jacksonville has a lot of transplants, so thanks for making me aware of this. I'm not crazy about that either, although I guess I should have known, especially since there's a lot of military there.

BTW - My home that I sold is in a community that is known for every street being lined with a canopy of oak trees and is one of the reasons it's so lovely. However, it also looked like a war zone after every single hurricane, and there were at least a few times that oak trees would fall on beautiful and very expensive houses.

I'm planning on staying in my next home for a long time and maybe even forever (especially after the nightmare that I've been living for two years). Since building a cinder block house is the exception rather than the rule up there, this might make moving to NE Florida not an option for me.

[URYwood]

I have a couple of comments and I'm in the construction industry here in Jax.

First off blocks are not made of "cinders" any longer. They are concrete block.

Second- all homes are build to local codes. A wood frame building will meet the same wind loads as a block home. To say one is stronger than the other is not the issue. They both meet the code period.

If you feel you want to block built home you'll need to have it custom built. Developers building communities will build wood framed homes. This is not the contractors decision so don't say the GC is just trying to build cheap. All buildings are designed to meet code. If want a custom home that is 3x as strong as code, go for it and you'll be paying a premium that you'll never recover when you sell it. The market drives the value of homes, not how strong you think they are.

As far as stucco vs. Hardie board. It comes down to labor. Carpenters can install the Hardie board where as stucco is another trade and they don't have enough skilled workers. Stucco and Hardie both meet code.

An old block home which is improperly build will will fail just as easy are a improperly built wood home. Don't think that just because it is old and block it is safe. I would rather live in a NEW wood framed house that meets the current code then in a old home that I know nothing about.

If you look are some of the photos of the recent hurricane damage in SW FL you can tell which homes are newer because the structure is still standing. They are stick built to the newer codes and they survived for the most part.

[socalbee]

Perhaps it is personal preference. Being an Engineer, I personally would not buy a stick home in Florida, no matter what the codes. If I were building one, I would pay extra for concrete block. Again JMHO. My insurance agent, also a personal friend tells me wood homes cost more to insure too, especially the closer to the coast one gets.

At the end of the day, it is one's budget and comfort level that controls the decision.

[wizrap]

Originally Posted by Thundarr457

For me its Ponte Vedra Beach. Its safe, if you stay a mile or so from the ocean your insurance rates are not sky high, its near the Mayo Clinic, 15 minutes to St Johns Town Center, 20-25 downtown, its near Jax Beach, Neptune and Atlantic. Ponte Vedra on the other hand, which consists of Nocatee and some other new developments is too far from the ocean and the traffic gets worse by the day. For a family and if that's your overriding concern Ponte Vedra is ok. I don't care for St Augustine to live plus it seems to get much worse weather than Ponte Vedra Beach. It depends on what stage of life you are in. PVB is kinda boring but I am in my 70's and boring is good plus I am close by to non boring. We have looked at every area of SJC and IMHO PVB is the best.

You speak the truth!!!

[beach43ofus]

Originally Posted by socalbee

Perhaps it is personal preference. Being an Engineer, I personally would not buy a stick home in Florida, no matter what the codes. If I were building one, I would pay extra for concrete block. Again JMHO. My insurance agent, also a personal friend tells me wood homes cost more to insure too, especially the closer to the coast one gets.

At the end of the day, it is one's budget and comfort level that controls the decision.

I agree. I looked at Rosemary Beach in NW FLA to retire to, but most homes there were stick, so I nixed the Panhandle. Cinder block homes there started at $1M back then (6 yrs ago, w/in 15 mins to beach) when I was looking, & I didn't want to go that high. Brick homes cost less, but they look out of place in FLA.

I wound up with cinder block home rated at 160 mph w/ shutters deployed for $550k in Sarasota County 5 yrs ago, so felt like I made the right decision. We never looked at the Jax area....too cold in Winter, and Ocean and beaches are not nearly as nice as Sarasota County.

Our home did fine in Ian at 100+ mph winds w/o any shutters deployed. I had 3 tiles slide down to the gutter I had to put back into place, that was the extent of the damage...$100

[URYwood]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Brick homes cost less, but they look out of place in FLA.

You know what is behind that brick? Block or wood framing. Bricks are used as a veneer and not structural in nature.

[URYwood]

Originally Posted by socalbee

At the end of the day, it is one's budget and comfort level that controls the decision.

Agree 100% on this statement.

If people don't want to live in a wood framed house then don't buy one, but people shouldn't say they aren't safe. People die in hurricanes because they do stupid things. They don't die because they are in a wood framed house.