Florida Luxury Oceanfront Homes | Waterfront Condos For Sale

(source)If the Jacksonville Jaguars are truly worthy of status among the NFL elite, they’ll have a chance to prove as much on Saturday night.

The Jags will face arguably the tallest task in their franchise history on Saturday, when they take the Gillette Stadium field . . .

The Jaguars will be up against both that potential piece of history, and New England’s record-setting offense.

Plenty of those who live in Jacksonville are gearing up for the big game. Some of them are talking about the bets that they’ve made. Some are talking about where they’re going to be watching the game.

Those who live in Jacksonville’s Chelsea Lofts however are going to be taking advantage of their loft’s entertainment system and space and having friends over to watch the game from home.

After all, staying home helps to dodge the crowds and, well, their loft homes are new enough that they’re still anxious to show them off - the open floor plans, the high ceilings and everything else the homes have to offer.

When you make your choice to live in Florida, you haven’t really made an official decision: you’ll still need to figure out what type of home you would like to live in.

One of the first choices is going to be whether you want to live inland or directly on the coast - whether or not you want to live in a Florida beach home in St. Augustine, Ponce Inlet or even Jacksonville Beach for example.

Then you’ll have to determine what type of home you’re looking for. Do you want to live in a loft or a condo so that you won’t have to worry about maintaining the property entirely on your own? Are you looking for a townhouse so that you’re a bit more independent than you would be if you were to live in a condo but you’re still in a close knit community? Are you looking for a single family home that will give you the space that you’re looking for - a home with a lot of space for stretching out, entertaining or playing host to out of town guests?

No matter what you’re looking for, living in Florida will enable you to find the right option for you - you just need to take the time to look at your wants and needs.

When the sun sets on another day, do you hang onto the stress and start dreading the morning when the alarm goes off and you head back into the office? Or do you let go of the day, relax and let go of the pressure that’s been building?

When you have a waterfront home, it’s easy to watch your stress fade away at the end of the day, to watch as it drops off the horizon.

This is particularly true when your waterfront home is on Florida’s First Coast - in St. Augustine, in Ponce Inlet, in Jacksonville Beach. Your waterfront home will put you in a spot where the world is open to discovery (or at the very least, you always have the option to sail off into open water), where there is always possibility.

In a place where everything suddenly feels possible, it’s hard to feel bogged down by the everyday stress.

Everyone who’s been to Florida has a taste of what it must be like to live there - especially if their trips have taken them to places other than Orlando’s theme parks. There are so many different reasons why people live in Florida, but many of them can be broken down into the following four areas:

1. With Florida real estate it really does come down to “location, location, location.” Year round good weather. Beaches with palm trees and sunshine are never far away.
2. Great golf: particularly in Florida’s First Coast area, Florida is a golfer’s paradise with a wide variety of courses that will challenge golfers of all levels.
3. Romance. Maybe it’s the fairy tale world of Disney that drives it or maybe it’s the ability to take long walks, hand in hand, along the beach as the sun rises or sets. It might also have a lot to do with all of the great places to have a quiet, romantic dinner, but there’s something about Florida that brings couples together.
4. Opportunity. When you’re living in Florida, you have access to everything that interests you - natural landscapes, modern cities, the arts, great jobs - and you’ll find that it’s not that hard to fit a wide variety of activities into each and every day.

When you live in Florida, you won’t have to settle - it really is as simple as that.

Florida’s First Coast communities are a popular destination - particularly for New England golfers who are looking for a way to escape the blustery snow, the wind and cold and try out those new clubs they got for the holidays:

(source)You have probably already grown tired of stepping up to an imaginary ball and waggling that new set of clubs that Santa left under the tree. We found a fairly inexpensive 3-day golf getaway that you might be able to swing (pun intended), unless you went ridiculously overboard on holiday gifts. Northeast Florida bills itself as “Florida’s First Coast of Golf,” what with the World Golf Hall of Fame and TPC Sawgrass, home to the PGA Tour and its Players Championship, in the neighborhood. It is touting a getaway in the Orange Park area, about 30 miles south of Jacksonville.

Golf getaways are among the most popular vacation packages around, and they aren’t always cheap. In addition to airfare, there’s the worry that your clubs won’t make it there without damage. There’s the need to find a place to stay. Chances are good that you’ll be traveling for a weekend getaway - and that makes travel rates and greens fees higher.

So what if you were able to make an investment in a First Coast home? What if you knew that you always had a place to stay, a place to keep your clubs safe and ready for you - a vacation home - or easy access to playing every day of the week when you call Florida’s First Coast home?

People come from all over to enjoy what those folks who live near Florida’s beaches experience each and every day.

There are the morning sunrises: the chance to sip your morning coffee or take your morning run in the sand listening as the waves crash in and the sun comes up. There’s nothing quite like mornings on a Florida beach, except of course afternoons on the beach.

In the afternoons, you’ll find that Florida beaches give you a chance to relax with the kids - to play in the surf, search for shells, build sand castles, challenge others to a game of volleyball or frisbee. Walking on the beach, beating the heat with a quick swim and knowing that you don’t have to go far - it’s a great thing.

Also great, evening picnics on the beach and watching as the sun fades on another day. When you live in one of Florida’s beach communities, you’re going to find that it’s easy to plan a romantic evening or just spend some time meditating on the day and letting go of the stress.

There really isn’t a bad time for enjoying the beaches of Florida’s First Coast, though if you’re going for the sun, you might not want to head out to them in the middle of the night.

Look to any major city - Jacksonville included - and it won’t take long to discover that lofts - loft condominiums are increasingly popular.

There are plenty of great reasons why this is the case. In many cases, artists fall in love with high-ceilinged open floor plans because they create the ideal living and working space - great lighting, plenty of room and inspiration based on the angles and the modern style (which also make lofts appealing to art lovers looking to display the work they’ve collected). Those who do a lot of entertaining are drawn to lofts because they’re modern, comfortable and often in the center of things - for those nights when you and your friends would rather get out and enjoy the nightlife or a great meal out than always staying in.

Preparing great meals at home or bringing home takeout; either way, you’ll have a great place to dine. Having friends over to watch a movie and have a couple drinks or playing host to out of town guests who come to visit and see how the other half lives; whether you’re entertaining a few people for few hours or a few days, you’ll have all the space you need.

In Jacksonville, lofts those things and more. Easy access in a walkable part of town, convenience to work and play, great neighborhood views, an attractive community - all of this and the ability to create your home your way - contributes to the appeal as well.

In Ponce Inlet, developers build with an eye on protecting endangered tortoise by relocating them rather than settling for paying a fee up front that would allow them to merely bury them in the foundation.

Those who are equally concerned with the environment in St. Augustine, there’s a possibility of seeing another endangered species - the Right Whale - as a whale along with her calf were recently seen just outside of the St. Augustine Harbor:

(source)While sailing, we noticed many boaters cruising into the harbor at high speeds - speeds that could’ve hurt the whales had any boaters actually ran into them.

Boaters beware! Please call the whale hotline at 1-888-97-WHALE if you see a whale. [It's the hotline for the Marine Resources Council, which tracks whale sightings across Florida.]

Because there are so few of these whales in the world - at this time, only 55 breeding females are documented - it’s important for First Coast boaters to be aware that they are around. Using caution is just one more way to protect the environment that sets Florida’s First Coast apart.

When you take the time to visit St. Augustine, you know right away that there’s something special about the area. You know that history is important - whether you discover it with a visit to the old city fort or you take the time to climb to the top of the St. Augustine Lighthouse (where the views are fantastic even on a cloudy day) and talk with the museum worker who can tall you what’s what regardless of which direction you’re looking in.

You know that there’s a rich culture that has been passed down through time since the city was a Spanish colony. There’s color. There are gardens and beaches that have maintained all of their natural beauty. There are shops and cafes as well as restaurants - in other words, there’s a little bit of everything just waiting to be found.

If you can discover all of those things when you visit St. Augustine - for an hour, a day or a weekend - imagine all that you’ll be able to find when you call the nation’s oldest city home!

Of Florida’s First Coast Communities, when people talk about exploring history Jacksonville isn’t one of the most commonly brought up - people focus on Ponce Inlet named for the Spanish explorer and St. Augustine which got its start as a Spanish colony. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to explore the city’s history.

One way to do so is to spend some time visiting the Mandarin Museum and Historical Society:

The Mandarin Museum & Historical Society is a private, non-profit educational and research institution founded in 1991 to preserve buildings, artifacts, and sites related to the history of Mandarin and its residents.

Major William Webb purchased 31.2 acres on the St. Johns River in Mandarin in 1873. He built a home, barn and 1,000-foot dock extending into the St. Johns River. Major Webb cultivated oranges, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, and beans. The farm produce was shipped north on steamships that regularly stopped in Mandarin. Major Webb played an active role in the community, which by 1881 had a population of 1,200 people

Sometimes exploring the history of a place is the best way to really appreciate and celebrate what it’s become. Getting in touch with the roots of a place helps to ground us - in the present and for the future.

Jacksonville is a great place to call home. With access to the arts, business, sports and modern homes - along with the history of the area - it’s easy to see why.