Florida Real Estate News

If you have any doubts about the fact that those who live in the Jacksonville area and elsewhere around Florida’s First Coast is going to give you plenty of great opportunities to get out and go fishing, it’s time to set them aside. Not only that, but if you think that fishing in the Jacksonville area is only going to be for those who are able to get out on the saltwater or even to head out into much deeper waters, then you’re going to want to consider the following:

(source)JaxKayakFishing.com, Northeast Florida’s online kayak fishing community, has again announced plans for the world’s largest kayak fishing tournament to be held in Jacksonville, Florida on May 1-2. The 6th annual Jacksonville Kayak Fishing Classic promotes kayak fishing in Jacksonville with a fun conservation-oriented format and raises funds for children’s programs at Daniel Memorial and the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation. The Columbia Sportswear Company, the global leader in active outdoor apparel, is the title sponsor.

Officials expect that more than 300 kayak anglers will target Redfish, Trout, and Flounder in a catch-photo-release format with more than $75,000 in prizes and gifts.

In other words, if you’re looking for a great opportunity to get out on the water, to raise money for local charities and – basicaly – just to have a great time and fishing is your thing, you’re going to want to be sure to mark your calendar and to get ready to head out with your kayak. See for yourself just how great the fishing in the Jacksonville area can be.

One of the things that you are going to find when you have invested in reasl estate on Florida’s First Coast is that there’s a whole lot to explore. In other words, one of the things that you’re going to want to remember is that just because you call Florida’s First Coast home doesn’t mean that you aren’t going to want to take the time to explore the area.

Fortunately for those who do call the area home are going to find that there’s nothing to stop them from making a day trip to Jacksonville even if they live in St. Augustine (nor is there anything to stop Jacksonville residents from making the trip to Ponce Inlet or one of the other communities in the area). Sometimes, the best thing that you are going to be able to do is going to involve playing tourist in or near your home.

Jacksonville has plenty to offer – from a zoo to art galleries and museums to plenty of green space for those who want to just get outside and stay active. For those interested in boating and fishing, making the trip to Jacksonville Beach or St. Augustine is going to create opportunities to head out on a chartered fishing trip.

Regardless of what you are passionate about, you’re going to find that living in one of Florida’s First Coast communities gives you the chance to get out and take advantage of it. Focusing on the fact that there’s so much to do makes it easy to see why buyers are still looking at homes in the area.

If you have been thinking that you would love to get a Florida condo but you’ve been reluctant to buy, there is something that you are going to want to be sure that you are thinking about: you are going to want to be sure that you understand the way that the Florida real estate market has been behaving.

In other words, whether you are thinking about buying a Florida condo in Jacksonville or you are thinking about a home in Ponce Inlet, if you’re looking at New Smyrna Beach or you’re thinking about buying a condo in Amelia Island or anywhere else on Florida’s First Coast, it’s important to consider real estate news as it’s been coming out: news that points to the fact that home prices in general and condo prices in particular are down throughout the state. More than that, you’re going to want to think about the fact that sales have been slow for a while – and that means that sellers are more likely to negotiate with you.

With prices down and sellers willing to negotiate with buyers, now is a great time to buy a Florida condo – especially if you are looking for the chance to buy a condo that’s closer to the coast where you will be able to spend time during family vacations or where you will be able, eventually, to retire. In other words, if you are looking for the chance to save and you want to be sure that you have a great home, now is a great time to take action.

When you are thinking about buying Florida real estate, there are a number of things that you’ll want to keep in mind – especially if you’re thinking about buying a newly constructed home. Especially in the northeast coast, if you are looking into buying a newly constructed home, you’re going to want to think about what’s out there as there are a number of developers that are at least slowing down on adding homes to the market.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t possible to find great real estate on Florida’s First Coast that will have been constructed within the last couple of years if that’s what you’re looking for. You’ll still be able to find condos that are wired for security and entertainment, open floor plans, top of the line appliances and secure entries. You’ll be able to find homes that have had color schemes and features all carefully considered and put into place with one thing in mind: providing buyers like you the comfort and luxury that they are looking for.

Thinking about Florida real estate at this point in time is a great idea – there are plenty of fantastic properties available that are going to give you everything that you are looking for, and it’s possible to get a great deal on many homes (including those right on the coast). It’s really just up to you to think about your options, think about what you are looking for and then to take a step forward and start to look for the Florida real estate that will be ideal for you and your family.

Just because the Democratic National Committee would not honor the wishes of those who voted in the Florida primary and, as a result, the large number of ballots cast did not help Senator/Secretary of State Clinton to earn the nomination as the party’s presidential candidate doesn’t mean that those democrats in Florida didn’t vote for Barack Obama. Likewise, just because residents of Florida communities like Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Ponce Inlet, Jacksonville Beach and Amelia Island did not necessarily cast a primary ballot for Obama doesn’t mean that they did not turn out to vote in the general election last November.

No matter which candidate residents from Florida cast their votes for, the simple reality is that the election of Barack Obama had an impact on not just those living in Florida or within the United States – it had an impact worldwide. As a result, a number of people who live in Florida communities – including school classes, adults, parents with their children and those who brought photos of family members who did not live to see the day that an African American man would become the president of the United States – made the trip to Washington DC for yesterday’s historic inauguration.

Despite the cold temperatures in Washington DC, despite the fact that there were many people who made to choice to sleep in Union Station or in the homes of strangers because there were no hotel rooms in the city and surrounding areas left vacant and that the airports were a disaster, one thing’s sure: those who made the trip are going to be glad that they went – and glad to return to their Florida home.

When you first start to consider the very notion of living in a Florida beach home, chances are good that you are going to think about a number of the benefits right away. After all, who wouldn’t be able to head out, walk across their yard or down the street and to find themselves on one of Florida’s beaches: warm sand, sun, water that’s a great temperature, kids having fun?

The challenge, however, is that when people start to take a closer look at Florida beach homes, they start to think that maybe they would get tired of spending their time at the beach. They start to think that maybe they wouldn’t appreciate the home as much as they would like to or they worry that family members and friends wouldn’t show up and be willing to come into the area to visit.

First, to give you peace of mind – your family members and friends would come to visit (a more reasonable concern would be whether or not, after spending time in the area, they would want to leave). Second, you would spend time at the beach – whether you chose to watch the sun rise from the sand or you turned the beach into your private gym in the mornings or evenings).

And, if you are looking for a bit more motivation – some other reason why looking at Florida beach homes would be a good idea for you and your family – there’s always the news that, right now, Florida real estate is extremely affordable. You’ll be able to get a home that you love in a place you enjoy and you’ll be able to take advantage of a real estate market that is decidedly in the buyers’ favor.

When you live on Florida’s First Coast – whether you live in Jacksonville or Ponce Inlet, in St. Augustine or Daytona Beach, in Jacksonville Beach or Amelia Island – one of the things that you are going to find is that there are very few restrictions that will keep you from checking out other parts of the coast. Of course, from time to time, you are going to want to be aware of possible delays because the paths do get fairly well traveled:

(source) Starting Monday, the Sisters Creek Bridge on Heckscher Drive will intermittently close to traffic and re-open every 20 minutes from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. every day except Wednesdays for a bridge repair project, the Florida Department of Transportation reports.

Heckscher Drive is part of the route between Amelia Island and Jacksonville’s Florida 9A and the Dames Point bridge. For a month, traffic on the road will be interrupted twice every hour except during rush hours.

Those wanting to travel from Amelia Island to Jacksonville can take Florida A1A west to Interstate 95 or U.S. 17, and then drive south, to avoid delays.

In other words, while it’s great to check out the other areas around where you live – or you are planning to spend time in the area because you are going to be buying a home somewhere on the First Coast – there are going to be times when it’s a good idea to know what’s going on in the area and where there may be a few traffic hiccups along the way.

When you scan through a number of articles about those individuals who are living in Florida, one of the things that is going to strike you is the wide variety of human interest stories that involve members of the community who give something back.

Whether you are reading about folks living in Jacksonville and making an effort to volunteer their time in hospitals or you’re reading about photographers in the area who, rather than just serving meals to those less fortunate, offer their time and services to create family portraits, what you’re going to find is that a lot is done.

Simply put, for a lot of the people who live in Florida, giving back to their community is a big part of what they do – a significant part of what is important to the, and that keeps them focused on their own futures.

Sure, there’s nothing to say that, if you make the choice to live in Florida you will have to make these same choices and to focus on giving back to others – it’s just to say that it’s a great option and that the rewards that you can experience are well worth the effort that you put in.

For those who live in Florida, the election this past November is the first in a while where the state didn’t seem to embarrass itself on one level or another; those who are living in Florida who find themselves thinking that it would be great to head to Washington, DC in able to participate in the celebration may have started to make plans in order to be there and a part of the experience. However, those Florida residents who live on the First Coast – in areas like Jacksonville, Ponce Inlet, St. Augustine and nearby communities – are invited to share their stories about why attending is important to them:

(source)T-U looking for people going to inauguration

Are you going to the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama?

The Times-Union is looking for First Coast residents to write short essays (350 words or so) on why it is important to them to attend the event. Essays should be e-mailed to marilyn. young@jacksonville.com or mailed to Marilyn Young, The Times-Union, P.O. Box 1949, Jacksonville, FL 32231.

Be sure to include your full name, city where you live and daytime phone number (for verification purposes).

The deadline is Friday, Jan. 9.

That’s not a lot of time for those who are living in Florida who are going to attend the inauguration to get their writing together, but, fortunately, 350 words isn’t a lot to write. If you’re making the trip however, it would be great to have your story told.

It almost goes without saying that those individuals and families who have made the choice to buy an oceanfront home in Florida have a love of the water. Whether it’s a matter of listening to the crashing tides, going out onto the water in your boat or diving in and exploring the world under the water’s surface, you’re going to find that when you live on the Florida Coast, there’s always something to discover.

Don’t believe it? Newly discovered coral reefs off the Jacksonville shore serve to prove it:

(source) More than 300 deep-water coral reefs have been discovered during the past 10 years from off Jacksonville’s coast down to South Florida.

But the three reefs discovered during the recent trip, dubbed “Catalyst One,” were a surprise to researchers.

“Over the past 30 years of work out here we never had a good map of the bottom,” said John Reed, a professor and scientist with Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at FAU, in an online journal about the trip. “Our seven-day mission resulted in some spectacular data.”

Reed has studied the deep coral reefs off Florida’s east coast for decades and has discovered reefs in water 1,000 to 3,000 feet deep.

The new reefs were found 35 miles off the coast between Cape Canaveral and Fort Pierce at a depth of about 450 meters, or about 1,500 feet.

You might not have the opportunity to be out on the water and doing the research, you may not have all of the same tools as the researchers, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get out there and do some exploring of your own. When you live in an oceanfront home on the Florida coast, you’ll find that exploring the ocean is something that you can do at any point in time.