By Carole Hawkins, [email protected]
One of Northeast Florida’s smaller homebuilding markets, Nassau County is growing. But where are all of those homes exactly?
In June, a group of about two dozen Realtors found out.
A Nassau Builds Council bus tour ticked off 11 communities in Yulee and Fernandina Beach where more than 1,800 new homesites combined are coming.
“We did this because, quite honestly, we’ve never had a bus tour before in Nassau County,” said Carrie Budds, who organized the event as a member of the Nassau Builders Council.
Models toured included ones built by Dream Finders Homes, SEDA Construction, D.R. Horton, ICI Homes and Adams Homes.
There were upscale country club-style communities along Amelia Concourse, targeting wealthy executives and retirees.
Deeply wooded communities well to the north of the Florida A1A artery, courting boat and RV enthusiasts and retirees.
And communities near Interstate 95 with affordable homes and playgrounds at amenity centers to lure young families.
Watson Realty’s Jordan Marshall, an agent from the company’s Nassau County office, was impressed with the builder incentives. One by Dream Finders covered closing and pre-paid costs when using the builder’s preferred lender.
“I think they could be very attractive to first-time homebuyers,” he said. “And you get to move into the house you want — you pick floors and cabinets.”
He was most surprised, though, that so many Realtors from Jacksonville and elsewhere had joined the tour.
Marc Jernigan of Watson’s Fleming Island office was one of them.
“We wanted to see the growth areas in Northeast Florida and we’re not as familiar with Nassau,” he said.
Their impressions?
“The pricing is great,” said Diane Cook, an agent with Exit Real Estate Gallery in Orange Park.
Homes with granite countertops, tile floors, gourmet kitchens and covered lanais fell abundantly into the $200,000-$300,000 price range.
“It’s very competitive,” Jernigan said. “This home would cost $400,000 in St. Johns County.”
Budds, too, compared Nassau to St. Johns.
A sales manager for iMortgage, Budds moved to Nassau from St. Johns’ World Golf Village a few years ago. Now, she said, there’s no other place she’d rather be.
“Everybody always talks about homes in St. Johns because of its great schools. But Nassau has A-rated schools as well,” she said. “It’s just as nice, without necessarily all of the fees.”
Nassau is maturing from a beach and bedroom community into a self-contained entity, with its own shopping, entertainment and soon, expanded commercial development in the form of the planned Terrapointe Employment Center.
A large park system and a huge amount of water access make Nassau a great place for recreation, Budds said.
Homebuyers range from military families, looking for an easy commute to nearby bases, to executives to retirees.
“We compete more with St. Augustine for the retirement market than we do with Jacksonville,” Budds said.
But it’s a different kind of retiree. They’re coming from Georgia.
“It’s because Fernandina is the first Florida beach,” Budds said.