by Michele Newbern Gillis
Home values at the beaches are skyrocketing,
“Atlantic Beach has been known for sometime as a hot real estate market,” said John Meserve, mayor of Atlantic Beach. “Which is good if you live here, but bad if you want to live here. The cost of real estate is just phenomenal.
“Twenty years ago you could buy houses and property to the west side of Mayport Road for a song. They were giving it away. Now, there is a new development back there where marsh front homes have already sold for well over $400,000. That was considered throw-away area 15 or 20 years ago. Phenomenal growth from a real estate standpoint.”
“We are seeing many people buying duplexes,” said Dick Brown, mayor of Neptune Beach, “tearing them down and building modern homes. Prices have really gone up everywhere, but especially anywhere near the beach with a ocean view or oceanfront.”
Even rentals are feeling the brunt of the raising real estate prices.
“Some are suggesting that the young people with service jobs who love to live near the beach will not be able to afford it anymore,” said Brown. “It will strictly be high dollar neighborhoods.”
“You see a small one bedroom apartment approaching $1,000 a month,” said Brown. Redevelopment and demolition of older homes to make way for new homes is rampant in Atlantic Beach.
“I don’t know where the money comes from,” said Meserve. “People are selling a 1,100-square foot cinder block home built in 1940 that is seven blocks off the ocean for $300,000. The people who buy it knock it down. In the end, they have $600,00 to $700,000 into a piece of property that 10 years ago would have sold for $40,000. It takes a lot of people with a lot of money to do those kind of things.”
Redevelopment of homes in Jacksonville Beach and Neptune Beach are also in high gear.
“Real estate is kind of booming right now,” said Bob Marsden, mayor of Jacksonville Beach. “All three beaches are very attractive places to live with the ocean, upgrading of our shops and shopping centers. We have our own police force, fire department and recreation. We have Huguenot Park, baseball parks, golf course, a children’s park on South Beach Parkway and we are building an oceanfront park where the old pier used to be.”
Jacksonville will be building the new pier at Fifth Avenue North; it should be complete in about 14 months.
The increase in home values is bleeding over in the commercial market as well.
“Everything has gone up,” said Jill Sprowell, executive director of the Beaches division of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce. “We moved into this new office space about a year ago. I had looked for months for new office space when I found out our old building was being sold and I could hardly find anything reasonable. It’s not just homes, it’s across the board. The real estate out here has gone through the roof.”