Jacksonville | St Johns Co. Real Estate Blog

Builtmore Builders have announced that homes are now on offer at The Preserve at St Johns Landing Estates in Jacksonville.

Their model home, the “Wentworth model”, is 2,725 square-feet in size and it comes with three bedrooms and three baths.   The front of the property has double doors and a covered entryway while visitors to the property will walk into a ceramic tiled foyer and a dining room with columned arches.

Cooks and food lovers will adore the large kitchen that the house has.   The kitchen comes with a generous amount of counter space, double sinks, a large pantry, not forgetting the built-in stovetop and oven.

The house also comes with other impressive rooms and features including a 21-foot ceiling, columned arches, oversized windows, and a bedroom suite which comes equipped with two walk-in closets and a bathroom with a jacuzzi tub.

Prices begin in the $300,000 area and the buyer has the possibility to choose from a wide variety of options which allows them the chance to upgrade and customize their new home.

You only have to read the newspaper or watch TV to be told that there is a “housing slump” at the moment with sales down nationwide. This can perhaps scare people into avoiding hunting for a new place until things pick up again. However, canny homebuyers can use this situation to their advantage to obtain a great deal which they may not be able to get under normal circumstances.

A “housing slump” can also be described as a “buyers market”. This means when you show an interest in a property, all the advantages are on the side of the buyer instead of the seller. During a slump, sellers cannot demand higher prices or hamstring you with what you would perceive to be unfair demands. The buyer instead gets to call the shots.

This allows you, the buyer, to be a little more relaxed about the homebuying process and with a bit of luck also grab a desirable property at an unbeatable price at great terms. You can even try to negotiate a better mortgage package as the home builder may have special arrangements with mortgage lenders or they may even offer mortgages themselves. In fact everyone from the seller to the mortgage lender will go out of their way to help because sales will be down overall due to the slump.

However, an interesting quote jumped out of a local Jacksonville newspaper. The Northeast Florida Builders Association notes that with over 2000 people a month moving to Jacksonville, property values in the area have always more-or-less remained stable so Jacksonville has never really slumped as much as the rest of the country.

But even so, buyers still remain in control right now and serious homebuyers should take full advantage of the situation.

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine a day of breathtaking sunrises and ocean views. An unattainable dream? Not necessarily if you happen to be living in Hammock Dunes, Jacksonville.

Residents can choose between Tuscany condos or Arezzo condos in the Hammock Dunes community. Described as a “daily beach club experience”, residents will have full use of an “oceanfront entertainment complex” including swimming pools, spas, bars and restaurants. But perhaps the properties’ biggest selling point is its emphasis on privacy - there’s only one residence per floor with a private garage for each home.

Residents will also have the privilege of using the Equity Club next door which features numerous golf courses including two world championship courses.

The promotional piece featured in a November edition of the Jacksonville Times-Union “Builders Showcase” doesn’t mention approximate prices but Hammock Dunes’ official website puts prices at approximately $500,000 per property.

156 townhomes are now on offer at the Villages of Northwood in Duval County, Jacksonville with prices starting at $170,000. The properties can be found off New Berlin Road and Cedar Point Road.

Each home will have between three and four bedrooms with a minimum floor-space of 1,362 square-feet. You can choose between three different floorplans and whether you need a one car or a two car garage.

The properties were built by Ryland, which has been described as “one of the nation’s largest home builders”.

Golf fanatics will be interested to learn that eight new residential floorplans are being offered at Village Square, located within the premier golf community of Palencia, south of Jacksonville.   Residents there can live in a relaxed environment, play golf and be within easy walking distance of local amenities.

Village Square will have 24 residential condos which will be placed above 21 office and retail condos and they are all expected to be completed by the spring of this year.  The residential condos will feature between one and three bedrooms with a minimum floor-space of 1,227 square feet.

Residents will enjoy fantastic views of the golf course, the tennis court and the swimming pool and of course each resident will have access to each of these facilities.

Each condo comes with its own private gated entranceway and reserved garage parking.   Prices start in the $300,000 price area.

Shipyards has been hailed as “Jacksonville’s only urban master-planned community” and “one of the largest mixed-use riverfront developments in Florida”. As of November 2006, the sales center has been open for business.

The Shipyards community is located in the heart of Jacksonville’s sports & entertainment district on the Northbank of the St Johns River. Much has been said about the stunning views from up high in the condo towers such as Building One which is a 38-story glass tower in the middle of the Shipyards community. Shipyards will also be a busy hub for shops, offices and entertainment (Shipyards is a short walk from the Alltel Stadium, the Baseball Grounds and the Metropolitan Park).

Residents in the area will benefit from being close to a busy area of employment, avid book readers will enjoy being close to the Jacksonville Public Library and those fond of culture will love the fact that Shipyards is close to places such as art galleries, museums and theaters.

A river taxi service is even planned to connect Shipyards residents to both the Northbank and the Southbank Riverwalks. The planned marina will have space for 240 boats.

The first 38-story condo tower will have residences with a minimum of one bedroom going up to three bedrooms and prices start at the low-$300,000’s and reach as high as much as $1 million. A one-bedroom residence can be as small as 804 square-feet while a three-bedroom residence can be as much as 3,902 square-feet. So there will be something for everyone in every possible price range.

In the words of the builder, Standard Pacific Homes, “The Duo-Home shatters the townhome mold of the past”.   Now one of them could be yours starting at $150,000.

The community of Spring Pointe is located within Spring Tree Village on Jacksonville’s Westside.   In Spring Pointe, the “Jade model Duo-Home” is on offer.   Equipped with four bedrooms and two baths, this 1,923 square-feet of space along with a two-car garage “offers the low maintenence advantage of townhome living and pairs it with the perks of owning your own home”.

Each home offers a dining room, a living room, a breakfast nook and a laundry area.   The master bedroom comes with its own walk-in closet while the master bathroom comes with both a bathtub and a shower cubicle.

Osprey Cove in northern Jacksonville has moved on from what it was first meant to look like and it has now been developed into one of the best and most sought-after golf destinations in the Southeast USA.

The Strand in Oak Bluff is one of the neighbourhoods in Osprey Cove and this area will have 33 new homes with prices starting at almost $95,000. Each house sits on an acre of land with surrounding woodland.

Another Osprey Cove neighbourhood, Island Estates, has three new model homes to look at and prices for these styles of housing will start at $450,000. One of the homes in this neighbourhood is a three bedroom, three bathroom home, 3000 square-feet big.

As well as the golf courses, the Osprey Cove community also offers ample opportunities for walking & biking through pristine and beautiful nature preserves. There is also direct access to the St Marys River, which in turn leads to the Atlantic Ocean so Osprey Cove is also suitable for lovers of fishing and boating. A club on-site also offer fitness facilities, sports equipment and a swimming pool.

To top it all off, Jacksonville International Airport is just 22 miles away so frequent travellers will find Osprey Cove an ideal location in which to live.

There can be no better marketing line for Queen’s Harbour than the one given by Brylen Homes president Bryan Lendry : “Queen’s Harbour sets the local standard for luxury living in Jacksonville”.

Now, Queen’s Harbour is offering a limited number of new homes to interested buyers as well as a select few in its townhouse community, Providence Island (a private island situated inside Queen’s Harbour).

Providence Island is surrounded by trees, marshes and vegetation and it has Mediterranean-style 3-bedroom townhouses. Prices for these properties start at just under $600,000. The properties also have designer ceramic tile, modern kitchens and a stately 8-foot entry door!

Queen’s Harbour has a yacht club and a country club as well as a gated private golf course, and the community has built up a big reputation for its first-class facilities.

The building used to house the Barnett National Bank but now a piece of the property can be yours from the high end of $100,000.

112 W.Adams Street in Jacksonville is now known as the One 12 building and it has been split up into 105 luxury homes as well as high-class office and retail space.    The development of this space gives you the chance for the first time to live in one of Jacksonville’s notable landmarks with a prestigious address, with construction due to be finished by the middle of this year.
According to the building developer, Kuhn Companies, the 18-story tower was built in 1926 by the same development company that went on to construct Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.   The tower also used to be the biggest tower in downtown Jacksonville.

There are 13 different floorplans to choose from, the smallest being 500 square-feet and the largest 2,300 square-feet.  The top floor of the tower has six penthouse apartments with the rest of the homes located on floors 4 through 18.  The office and retail space will be on floors 1 to 4.

The developer has taken great care with the construction, adding new brick walls, new windows, new hardwood flooring and new plumbing and electrical wiring.   The building is also wired for high speed internet service and Voice-Over-Telephone service.

If that wasn’t enough, if you look out of the window, you will get a great view of the St Johns River and beyond.