It is — on the coast.
Amelia Island is the northernmost barrier island on Florida's Atlantic coast, in Nassau County, about thirty-five miles northeast of Jacksonville. It is roughly thirteen miles long and is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the Amelia River and Intracoastal Waterway, Cumberland Sound and the St. Marys River entrance, and Nassau Sound. From Interstate 95, take Exit 373 onto SR-A1A across the marsh. Jacksonville International Airport is about thirty minutes away, and Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport serves private and charter flights.
This is one of the most intact Victorian-era downtowns on Florida's coast. The fifty-block historic district sits at the island's north end, within walking distance of the restaurants and galleries on Centre Street and the marina on the Amelia River. The work here is renovation rather than new construction, because the houses came first.
It sits at 30.670°N 81.464°W, on Amelia Island. Its character is walkable and storied.
Amelia Park is a planned neighborhood at the island's center. Southern-style homes with front porches sit around a central green, on sidewalks that actually go somewhere. It is the middle path between a downtown Victorian and a gated resort, and it is walkable, newer, and quieter than both.
It sits at 30.652°N 81.452°W, on Amelia Island. Its character is planned and neighborly.
Crane Island is a gated enclave on its own island in the Amelia River, with deep-water access and architecturally curated new construction. It allows more design freedom than the resort side of the island. A Southern Living Idea Home was built here in 2019, and the appeal is privacy and water in the same breath.
It sits at 30.613°N 81.477°W, on Amelia Island. Its character is quiet, tidal, and private.
Summer Beach is the gated center of the island, running from the marsh on its west side to the Atlantic on its east, anchored by a Ritz-Carlton. Inside it sit Ocean Village, The Preserve, Harrison Cove, Sailmaker, and Amelia Surf and Racquet. Each is its own register of the same address.
It sits at 30.585°N 81.443°W, on Amelia Island. Its character is gated, with beach and marsh.
The Plantation is the island's most established resort community, with more than nine hundred homes around the Omni resort, two golf courses, three and a half miles of beach, and nine miles of trails through the maritime forest. The inventory is mostly resale homes, villas, and condominiums rather than raw custom lots. Long Point and Marsh Creek hold the custom end.
It sits at 30.547°N 81.448°W, on Amelia Island. Its character is active and full of amenities.
Oyster Bay is a harbour community on the Intracoastal, just across the marsh from the island. It has deep-water docks, a yacht club, and homes built around keeping a boat in the backyard. It suits the buyer whose first question is about draft rather than square footage.
It sits at 30.594°N 81.495°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is built around the dock.
North Hampton is a master-planned golf community on the mainland, off A1A on Amelia Concourse. It offers a course designed by Arnold Palmer, newer construction, a community pool, and the Yulee school zone. It is not on the island. It is fifteen minutes from it, at a different price per square foot.
It sits at 30.628°N 81.535°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is golf and family life.
Amelia National is a gated golf and country club community around a Tom Fazio course, west of the causeway. It is not on the island and it does not pretend to be. What it offers instead is the most house per dollar of any gated address in the county, with the club at the center of it.
It sits at 30.620°N 81.550°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is club life behind a gate.
Wildlight is a master-planned town near Interstate 95 and Yulee. It offers brand-new construction on a walkable plan, with schools, trails, and a town center still growing into itself. What you trade in shoreline you get back in square footage and a house no one has lived in.
It sits at 30.660°N 81.585°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is new and considered.
Yulee is the county's fastest-growing corridor, along A1A between the interstate and the causeway. Its newer subdivisions, including Tributary, Heron Isles, and Plummer Creek, sit fifteen to twenty-five minutes from the beach. It is the practical answer, with newer construction, the island on weekends, and a mortgage that leaves room for the rest of life.
It sits at 30.632°N 81.606°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is practical, fifteen minutes out.
Callahan is an incorporated small town at the crossing of US-1 and US-301 in the county's west. It has a real main street, Friday night football, and property measured in acres rather than lots. Jacksonville is half an hour away, the beach is forty minutes, and the definition of room is different here.
It sits at 30.562°N 81.831°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is a small town with acreage.
Hilliard holds the county's northwest corner, up US-1 near the Georgia line. The land is pasture, pine, and homesteads on real acreage, with the St. Marys River and two state forests for neighbors. Horses are not a novelty here. It is the furthest you can get from the resort island without leaving the county.
It sits at 30.691°N 81.918°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is rural, with horses and pine.
St. Marys is a small waterfront town on the Georgia side of the river, and it is where the ferry leaves for Cumberland Island. The historic district runs down to the water, the pace is unhurried, and the prices are a register below the island across the sound.
It sits at 30.730°N 81.546°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is riverfront and unhurried.
Atlantic Beach is the quiet north end of Jacksonville's Beaches, where the streets narrow, the canopy closes, and the houses get architectural. The town center it shares with Neptune Beach supplies the restaurants, and Hanna Park supplies the wild stretch of shore.
It sits at 30.334°N 81.401°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is canopy lanes to the sand.
Jacksonville Beach is the lively one, with the pier, the volleyball courts, and the bar and restaurant rows a short walk off the sand. The inventory runs from older concrete-block cottages to new townhomes and condominium towers, and it is the most attainable oceanfront in the corridor.
It sits at 30.288°N 81.394°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is pier, surf, and night life.
Avondale is Jacksonville's prettiest historic neighborhood, a 1920s riverfront district of Mediterranean and Tudor homes under oak canopy, with a shop and restaurant row on St. Johns Avenue. It is the city's old money address that never needed to advertise.
It sits at 30.302°N 81.715°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is canopy, river, and brick.
San Marco is built around its square, three lions and a fountain ringed by restaurants, a theater, and bookshops, with 1920s brick streets running down to the St. Johns. It is the south bank's answer to Avondale, a little denser and a little younger.
It sits at 30.313°N 81.658°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is the square and the river.
Ponte Vedra Beach is the corridor's country club coast, home to TPC Sawgrass, the PGA Tour's headquarters, and the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club. The housing runs from oceanfront estates along Ponte Vedra Boulevard to golf course communities behind the dune line, in the state's most decorated school district.
It sits at 30.235°N 81.387°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is boulevard, dunes, and golf.
Nocatee is one of the best-selling master-planned communities in the country, and on the ground it is easy to see why. The water parks, the trail network, the town center, and the school pipeline arrived before most of the houses did, and the building has not stopped since.
It sits at 30.094°N 81.410°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is new, planned, and complete.
St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the country, and its historic core is a working neighborhood as well as a destination. The housing runs from colonial-era quarters and Victorian inns in the old city to ranches and new builds across the bridges, with the fort holding the waterfront.
It sits at 29.898°N 81.313°W, on the Nassau County mainland. Its character is coquina, lanes, and the fort.
American Beach was founded in 1935 by A.L. Lewis, Florida's first Black millionaire, as a beach community for African Americans during segregation. It is home to NaNa, the island's tallest dune, and it stands as a cultural landmark of Amelia Island.
Amelia City is a small unincorporated community on the mid-south island.
Nassauville is an unincorporated creekside community between Yulee and the island.
O'Neil is an unincorporated community in central Nassau County.
Bryceville is a rural community on US-301 in southwest Nassau County, near Cary State Forest.
Kings Ferry is a historic landing on the St. Marys River in north Nassau County.
Boulogne is a small community on US-1 at the St. Marys River and the Georgia line.
Evergreen is an unincorporated community northeast of Callahan.
Italia is an unincorporated community on SR-200 between Callahan and Yulee.
Chester is an unincorporated community in north-central Nassau County.
Kingsland is a growing town on Interstate 95 in Camden County, Georgia, near Kings Bay.
Woodbine is the Camden County seat, on the Satilla River.
Neptune Beach is the small, quiet middle of Jacksonville's three beach towns.
Riverside is Jacksonville's bohemian historic district around Five Points and the Cummer Museum.
Ortega is Jacksonville's yacht club peninsula, ringed by the river.
Mandarin runs under the oaks along the St. Johns on Jacksonville's south side.
Orange Park is Clay County's riverfront suburb.
Vilano Beach sits across the inlet from St. Augustine's old city.
Anastasia Island carries St. Augustine's beaches, the lighthouse, and the state park.
Crescent Beach is the quiet south shore of Anastasia Island.
Tributary
Heron Isles
Flora Parke
Osprey Cove
Cumberland Harbour
Laurel Island
Harrietts Bluff
Downtown Jacksonville
Springfield
Murray Hill
Brooklyn
San Jose
Lakewood
St. Nicholas
Empire Point
Arlington
Fort Caroline
Oceanway
Baymeadows
Deerwood
St. Johns Town Center
Intracoastal West
Queens Harbour
Bartram Park
Julington Creek
Beauclerc
Ortega Forest
Venetia
Fairfax
Cedar Hills
Argyle Forest
eTown
Mayport Village
Palm Valley
Fleming Island
Oakleaf Plantation
Green Cove Springs
Middleburg
Lake Asbury
Doctors Inlet
Keystone Heights
World Golf Village
Palencia
Fruit Cove
Switzerland
Durbin Crossing
SilverLeaf
Shearwater
St. Augustine South
Butler Beach
Hastings
Sawgrass
Marsh Landing