You’re in Jacksonville right? Did work bring you there - were you working out of NAS JAX or Mayport? Just curious. For a few months I had a job that required me visiting NAS JAX pretty regularly. If the right opportunity presented itself, I’d move back in a heartbeat. Really liked that area.
I retired out of a branch clinic in Kings Bay, that fell under the NAS Jax hospital , and my wife worked at the hospital, until retiring last year.
We live just south of Jacksonville in Fleming Island. It's a nice area, but housing prices have almost doubled in the last couple years as every retiree from NY and NJ has decended in the area with crazy cash offers on any house they can get their hands on.
Another good area is Southside, but rents and prices are skyrocketing all over the area. It used to be an affordable city, decent entertainment and city type activities, especially given how affordable it was, and great location for a car guy, with Sebring, Daytona, FIRM, Roebling, and Road Atlanta all pretty accessible without to much of a stretch.
If I were moving here today, I'd feel a little underwhelmed with what you get for the cost of living, but it could be worse.
For reference, I have a friend with a nice apartment on the Southside overlooking the intercoastal water way, was paying $1400 a month for a 2 bedroom. Went up to almost $1900 this year.
At this point, you're better off buying, except, you can't find a house to buy in a decent area that you don't have to fight off the Jersey horde offering $60k over asking, cash, no inspection.
It's going to take 20 years to thin out the boomers to get this area back to a nice to mediocre city that's affordable.