Prefer to watch? The full tour is above — the written version is below.
Five years ago, if we had asked whether you would ever move to Yulee, most people would have said where? And honestly, we would have understood. Back then Yulee was mostly the place you drove through on the way to Amelia Island. You were not stopping. You were definitely not house hunting.
That changed fast. National builders are up and down SR 200. Entire master-planned communities have come out of the ground. New shopping, new healthcare, new schools. And a lot of people are now saying: hold on, maybe we should look at Yulee.
Here is the part most people miss.
Everybody talks about Wildlight, and Wildlight is not even close to being all of Yulee. There are gated communities, villas and townhomes under $300,000, and luxury homes on acre-plus wooded homesites — all within a few miles of each other.
The short answer: Yulee is an unincorporated community in Nassau County, roughly 24 miles from downtown Jacksonville and about 12 miles from Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island. Homes currently run from just under $300,000 for a new townhome to $729,900 and up for a new home on an acre. Nassau County's school district earned an A and ranked second in Florida for 2025–26. The trade-off is that Yulee is still in the middle of its growth story — which is either the reason to come or the reason to wait, depending on who you are.
Where exactly is Yulee, and how far is everything?
Yulee sits in Nassau County, just above Jacksonville, in the unincorporated stretch between I-95 and the Intracoastal. It is not a city — it is a census-designated place, which is why the boundaries feel fuzzy when you are looking at listings.
On distances, we would rather give you miles than drive times, because a drive time is a guess and a mile is a fact. Downtown Jacksonville is about 24 miles via I-95, roughly 30 minutes in normal conditions. Jacksonville International Airport is roughly 12 road miles from the SR 200 interchange — the Wildlight developer publishes it as about 15 minutes. Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island are about 12 miles east on SR 200 and A1A.
So a flight, a commute, and a beach day all start from the same driveway. That is genuinely the number one reason people are landing here.
What is Wildlight, and why does everyone keep talking about it?
Because it earned it. Wildlight is not a subdivision, it is a master-planned community, and what makes it stand out is how much is already built rather than promised.
There is a YMCA (planned at 25,000 square feet), a 40,000-square-foot UF Health Wildlight medical campus, a Publix at the Crossings, Wildlight Elementary, resort-style and community pools, splash pads, parks, playgrounds, pickleball, tennis and basketball. There are 12-plus miles of trailways open today with more than 31 miles planned, plus a planned 13-mile linear park and thousands of acres of conserved land. There is also Del Webb Wildlight, a gated 55+ neighborhood.
Pricing across Wildlight currently runs from just under $300,000 into the $700,000s and above depending on the neighborhood and builder — which is unusual. Most master-planned communities serve one buyer. This one serves a first-time buyer, a growing household and a downsizer on the same map.
And it is not finished. New neighborhoods, new commercial space and more amenities are still coming, including the Garden District, which is a whole second half we covered separately.
Sandy Ridge by SEDA Homes: the gated one nobody talks about
One thing we have learned selling all over Northeast Florida: do not get so caught up in the builder's name that you forget to look at the product. Sometimes the builders with the biggest commercials are not building the best homes.
SEDA is a good example. They have been building in Florida for decades but they are not in every neighborhood, so they fly under the radar. Sandy Ridge is their gated community in Yulee — 89 homesites, currently starting in the upper $400,000s, with homes from 2,188 to 3,083 square feet on
75-foot homesites, and
no CDD fees.
The 75-foot lots are the part to pay attention to. Drive in and it does not feel like somebody was playing Tetris with the houses. Add the paver driveways, walkways and front porches and the whole street reads differently. Inside, you are looking at 10-foot ceilings as standard, and the amount of space in a home office off the entry is not what you usually get in new construction at this price.
Drees Homes: acre-plus homesites and a mid-$400,000s option
Drees is a national builder that stays selective about where it builds, and we like that. They have two things going in this area.
McGirt's Creek in Yulee currently starts at $461,900 with homes from 2,058 to 3,675 square feet. The model we walked is all about natural light — very tall windows and high ceilings throughout, which is what makes a room feel large even when the square footage is ordinary. The one we toured had 12-foot ceilings with a tray in the owner's suite, a three-car garage with a separate en-suite bedroom beside it, a loft with a full bathroom upstairs, and no CDD.
Tyson Forest is the one to watch if you want land. Nine floor plans on
one-acre-plus wooded homesites, homes from 2,704 to 4,069 square feet, currently starting at $729,900. Worth knowing: Drees markets it with a Fernandina Beach address, so if you are searching by city you may miss it entirely. Large homesites in this market do not sit around, so if that is your lifestyle, do not wait for everybody else to find out.
Westerly Park at Wildlight: townhomes, villas and single-family
Westerly Park is one of the newest sections of Wildlight's Town District, and it is where the entry pricing lives. David Weekley Homes is building the attached product and Pulte Homes is building single-family, which means four or five real price points in one neighborhood.
The David Weekley
Overlook Collection starts at $299,990 with 1,769 to 1,791 square feet and front-load garages. The
Courtyard Collection starts at $324,990, 1,791 to 1,937 square feet, with rear-load two-car garages and upstairs lofts. The
Villa Collection also starts at $324,990, 1,569 to 1,755 square feet, configurable as two or three bedrooms. The
Plaza Collection starts at $339,990 with 1,631 to 1,649 square feet. On the Pulte side, single-family runs from $394,990 to roughly $535,000 across 1,775 to 3,842 square feet, on 50-foot and 60-foot homesites.
A few things stood out walking these. There is a one-story townhome in the David Weekley lineup, which is rare here. The villas give you the feel of a single-family home without spending every weekend on a yard, and the flex space can become an office with French doors if that is what your life needs.
On the Pulte side, the one-story Mystique at roughly 2,100 square feet can be built as a four-bedroom, three-bath or a three-bedroom with an office, and the covered lanai is included rather than an upgrade — with a pre-plumb available for an outdoor kitchen. The two-story estate plan we walked had 10-foot ceilings and 8-foot doors as standard, double-stack cabinetry to the ceiling, and an owner's closet that is, frankly, the thing everybody stops walking to look at.
Westerly Park has its own amenity center, Suncatch Park, with a family pool, lap lanes and a playground, and it is close to Wildlight Elementary and the YMCA.
