Moving to St Augustine from the UK.....all advise greatful (St. Augustine: 2015, rental)

[yingyang75]

I am british and my husband is american, we have lived here in the UK for many yrs, we now have 2 young boys (6, 2) and are seriously thinking of relocating to Florida, we have been many times , but never to St Augustine, we have researched the area over the last couple of months and think it looks like a great place to raise our boys, we are visiting for a week in early April and hope this will make our decision clearer. I have a few questions for any residents though:

We have a great realtor already, but would like your advise and experience on a particular area/neighbourhood, we are looking at the shores, then the other side of highway one to the west, also areas in the north towards Jax. We are looking for any specific school experiences and hope to settle in a family friendly safe neighbourhood, but would like amenities close, shops, parks etc, we would like to be no more then about 10 mins outside the town centre of St Augustine and hopefully avoid Cdd's

Has anyone bought off D R Horton builders or Richmond, they have several neighbourhoods we are considering?

I am a stay at home mom in my 30's and would like to join any mommys groups and make new friends, does anyone know of any groups or anyone else a stay at home mom?

Can anyone give us a rough guide to living costs for 4 bed single fam home, taxes, home ins, elec, water, cable, internet etc

We are doing as much research as we can before we get over there and really appreciate any replys

Thanks St Augustinions

[ssclulow]

If your children will be attending public schools, I would advise researching the various schools and the attendance boundaries for those schools. IMO, you should concentrate your search for housing in the St. Augustine Shores neighborhood. There is an excellent elementary school (Hartley Elementary) located within the community. There are sidewalks in all areas of St. Augustine Shores, which I highly recommend looking for in a housing community if you have young children. Housing neighborhoods on the west side of US1 are not zoned for Hartley. Here are links to the schools attendance zones. ftp://ftp.bocc.co.st-johns.fl.us/gis...Zones_8x11.pdf St. Johns County, Florida School Attendance Zone Locator 2014-2015 School Year

[yingyang75]

Thank-you for that ssclulow, we have been looking a lot into the school zones, trulia is very good for that too, I do like Hartley and we plan to visit it when we are over there, do you know anything about Otis Mason? again we plan a visit when over there. The only problem with the shores area at the moment is the lack of good homes on the market, we are struggling to find the right thing, you are right though, schools is top of the list.

[Peter the Brit]

As an ex pat Brit who has been here with family since 1998 the best advice I can give is RENT FIRST as you may not be able to to decide where you want to settle until you have lived here.
When I first came to St Aug I bought on the beach (I loved it wife hated it) we then moved to where we are now settled after a lot of searching
Yes go to the best schools ( St Johns is No 1 in the State anyway ) catchment areas but what may be good for elementary may not always be good for middle or high school.
The newer part of the Shores may suit you.
You say you want to be 10 minutes from St Augu so do not understand why you are looking in areas in the North towards jax ...the only one I would recommend is Palencia but then you will pay heavy CDD and taxes
Sounds to me that you need to visit look around at areas find a rental then take your time to buy

[yingyang75]

Yes thanks Peter, we are considering renting, however it may mean moving our son school twice and that's something we arn't keen on. The areas to the north I meant where more around the Woodlawn road area, near St Aug high school, they seem to be about 10 mins into town, not sure about the schools in that area though.

I have read many of your posts with interest, you seem to have a great knowledge of the area how do you feel about Coronado, that neighbourhood is ticking boxes at the moment.

Interested to hear if you have any other tips or cost of living info for us, thats something we are struggling with at the moment, especially home ins, we know the taxes roughly, but are guessing other things.

[Peter the Brit]

I live where you are considering Heritage Park I must confess the schools are not good around this area and you may be better looking in Palencia
Coronado is some distance south of St Augustine and does have good schools
Taxes about 1.2% of cost of home annually plus any cdd fees ( watch out for those as they can make annual taxes very expensive) home insurances on a 200k house about $700 without flood insurance , elec variable on use but we average $100 a month, water about $50
Your biggest problems will be getting credit as you have no credit history and the cost of health insurance.

[ERSireci]

HI yingyang,
I too am British with an American husband and we settled on Anastasia island mainly for the elementary school BUT just because it has a good rating doesn't mean it's a good school. My youngest child will not be going there. Unfortunately the principal has changed and not for the better. Where did you settle on, I'd would be very interested in hearing from you, feeling quite isolated and home sick at the moment

[Acebab]

Las Calinas is a Non CDD community just north of Palencia, attending Palencia elementary, Pacetti Bay Middle School, and Nease High School - all good schools. Nice park and pool....lots of families....but not much else! Hopefully a grocery store will come back to the Palencia shopping area - to me that would make a huge difference! About 15 minutes or so into St. Augustine.

[yingyang75]

Originally Posted by ERSireci

HI yingyang,
I too am British with an American husband and we settled on Anastasia island mainly for the elementary school BUT just because it has a good rating doesn't mean it's a good school. My youngest child will not be going there. Unfortunately the principal has changed and not for the better. Where did you settle on, I'd would be very interested in hearing from you, feeling quite isolated and home sick at the moment

Hi we came out in April and are buying in WGV we liked the area and the publix and outlet shops nearby, we fly in 11 days!!! Nervous now, my son will be going to mill creek, hope it's what we expect, how one you don't like your school? We did look at palencia and las calinas, liked them both, but the right house just never happened there.

[ERSireci]

Unfortunately the principle changed just as my son started and she's pretty useless, not very welcoming to new comers especially considering we're international and not used to the american system. A school is only as good as it's principal and teachers. I'm sure we are just unlucky though and you'll have a better experience.