Northeast Florida · NAS Jax · Mayport · Blount Island · Kings Bay
Northeast Florida · NAS Jax · Mayport · Blount Island · Kings Bay
The decision guide for service members and spouses with orders to NAS Jax, Mayport, Blount Island or Kings Bay — from a Marine Corps veteran who is licensed for both the house and the VA loan, and who rented his entire time in the service. Both sides of each option. Every number sourced and dated.
Garrett DeckerOrders drop. Somewhere between out-processing and the movers you have to answer it — base housing, rent, or buy — and the only help you've got is a rule of thumb somebody posted online and a BAH number typed into a mortgage calculator. That price in your head was never real. BAH is one fixed number; your actual housing cost is the mortgage plus taxes, insurance, flood, HOA, CDD and the funding fee — and the same list price costs hundreds more a month one county over.
Buy on a short tour with the payment stretched to the top of your BAH and no exit plan, and you can spend the equity you built just getting out. Rent again "because it's easier," and it's another tour of BAH building somebody else's future. I did the second one for eight and a half years. Nobody explained the long-term financial impact to me either.
Make the decision on purpose, with the actual math for this specific market — both sides of every option, not the one an agent wants you to pick. That is what this guide is.
Garrett DeckerSeven pages. Not "you should buy." The three doors side by side with the downside of each stated out loud, then the numbers to decide between them.
I'm Garrett Decker. United States Marine Corps, 8½ years, two overseas deployments — Iraq and Africa. I'm a Marine Corps disabled combat veteran, a licensed Florida Broker Associate and a licensed Mortgage Loan Originator, and my brokerage is called Navy To Navy Homes. I rented my entire time in the service because it felt easier, and nobody showed me what that decision cost. That's the reason this guide exists — not to talk you into buying, but to make sure you decide on purpose, with the numbers.
I hold the Military Relocation Professional certification from the National Association of REALTORS® — the actual credential for this — I'm licensed for both the house and the VA loan (NMLS 2567934), and I serve as Senior Vice Commandant of the Marine Corps League, Flagler County Detachment. Licensed since November 2019, 180+ homes sold.
The math I wish somebody had handed me when my orders dropped — the same conversation I'd have with you in person.
Buying, selling, or both at once. PCS moves and relocation, handled fully remote — the whole transaction while you're still at your current duty station. New construction and land. Condos and second homes. And the mortgage side through FLO Mortgage if you choose it — always optional, never a condition of working with me, always disclosed.
Every financing route on the table — VA, FHA, conventional, and both hero programs through an approved-vendor brokerage. Whether you qualify is the program's decision, not mine; I'll check both and tell you either way.
One person for the house and the VA loan. Most buyers make two calls to get their real monthly number against a real address with the BAH for their grade on the other side of the page. You make one — and the loan and the contract move on one timeline, which on a PCS clock is the difference between closing on your report date and explaining a hotel bill to your command.
I've had orders. I know what the timeline does to a family because I lived it, and I know what renting through it cost me. And because I carry a service-connected disability rating myself, the VA funding fee exemption isn't a line I read off a script — it's one of the most overlooked pieces of the whole process, and I'll check it on day one.
I've sat on the builder's side of the table, so if you go new construction I know what's actually negotiable and where the contract protects the builder. And I answer — after hours, weekends, across time zones. Eleven separate clients across six years have said the same thing in writing.
From a BAH number and a forum rule of thumb, deciding from another state on a clock → to knowing your real all-in monthly number in each county, which door actually fits your orders and your exit, and what your VA benefit does and doesn't cover — before you write an offer, or before you decide not to.
Five things you can hold me to: You get the truth first, even when it costs me the deal. I answer — calls, texts, emails, after hours and weekends. You'll know what's happening before it happens, not at closing. If a mistake is mine, I fix it at my cost. The mortgage side is always your choice — never a condition.
Your BAH is one number. Where it lands depends entirely on which county you point it at — and these are the actual medians from the guide, with the source and the month, not a range I made up.
NAS Jacksonville, Naval Station Mayport and Blount Island all sit inside it or on its edge. The honest part: at today's rates, principal and interest alone on a median-priced Duval home lands right around an E-5 with dependents' entire BAH — before taxes, insurance, HOA or CDD.
The tightest county in the region, and the highest price band of the four — and where the HOA-versus-CDD question bites hardest: Nocatee CDD fees vary by village and published sources contradict each other. Silverleaf has no CDD at all — a master HOA of roughly $1,200 a year instead.
Redfin has the county at $357,442 and the two disagree on direction, so use the range. My home county, the value entry point on this side of the market, and the longest drive of the four to the Jacksonville gates. Citizens' average premium here runs higher than Duval or St. Johns — get a real quote on the specific address.
The lowest entry point of the four, and the tightest supply anywhere I work. Also the longest commute to any of the installations, and the highest Citizens average of the four counties. Both of those go on the sheet before anyone falls for a house.
Reporting to NSB Kings Bay, Georgia? It's a different Military Housing Area with its own BAH table. Never apply a Jacksonville figure to a Kings Bay assignment; it's a several-hundred-dollar-a-month mistake, and it's the first thing I check.
A forum will tell you "rent if it's under three years." It can't tell you that the same list price costs a different amount every month in each of these counties once taxes, Citizens, flood and CDD are in it — and that the three-year rule is really just transaction cost versus time.
If you want to know what an area is actually like, I can be the source of the source. Drive it during the day and at night, weekday and weekend — or have me drive it on video at those hours. Call the sheriff's office or police department for that area and ask what's actually happening there. Then you have a real answer instead of somebody's adjective.
I put the whole stack on one sheet — mortgage, taxes, Citizens, flood, HOA, CDD, the exit cost — for the address you're actually looking at, against the BAH for your grade. That's the number you decide on. Not a rule of thumb, and not a mortgage calculator with one field filled in.
Garrett and his wife were the absolute BEST Real Estate agents. They took great care of us and their follow through was outstanding (especially since we're not in the State just yet). Service like that was extraordinary, to say the least.
Buyer, 2026 · bought from out of stateHe was always prepared and ready to do whatever and whenever something came up that needed to be done or checked into. He also always responded immediately, and I called him often, after hours, weekends. Always kind and helpful.
Buyer, 2025Garrett was instrumental in designing our custom home and as our lender he was our advocate in getting closed while dealing with adversity from the builder.
Buyer, 2025 · real estate and mortgage services provided in a dual capacity; see the disclosure in the footerThe thing you're worried about — deciding a six-figure question from another state, on a clock, with someone who might not pick up — is the exact thing these people name. Follow-through from out of state. Answered after hours and on weekends. The loan and the house handled by the same person when the builder got difficult. Every review above is real and verbatim; I don't write testimonials.
If the guide is useful, there's more of it — BAH math, VA loan myths, using the VA loan more than once, PCS timelines, and what the Palm Coast and Jacksonville markets are actually doing. Straight answers, sources shown, no hype.
Base housing, rent, or buy — both sides of each, with the real monthly math for Northeast Florida. Free, and it downloads the second you ask for it.
Garrett DeckerI'll text or call once to make sure it came through — no drip, no pressure. That's it.
You're in — here's your guide. Read Page 4 first — the whole monthly number, line by line — and Page 7 before you talk to any agent or lender, including me. Those two decide everything else.
One honest warning, the same one that's in the guide: every figure is current as of September 2026 and sourced. BAH, insurance and inventory have all moved inside the last twelve months. Before you sign anything, check the current number — or call me and I'll pull it while you're on the phone.
Didn't download? Read the guide online here ·
386.449.9248 (call or text) · buyahomeatthebeach.com · @garrett.decker_realtor · @thedeckergroup on YouTube
Garrett Decker, Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker Associate BK 3466920 · Mortgage Loan Originator NMLS 2567934, FLO Mortgage. The Decker Group Brokered by Navy To Navy Homes, License CQ1038170. Use of FLO Mortgage is optional and is not a condition of real estate representation. Equal Housing Opportunity. Equal Housing Lender.