First Coast struggled to regain robust home sales market in March

Signs of improvement for home sales and values for Northeast Florida in December.

The Northeast Florida housing market is still struggling to rebound following a sluggish beginning to 2024, according to the latest monthly regional home sales report from the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors (NEFAR).

March brought a nominal month-over-month increase in single-family home sale prices in the six-county First Coast real estate region. NEFAR officials report that the median sales price for a home in the region last month was $389,000, up by about 1% over February.

The year-over-year comparison was more upbeat in Northeast Florida, though. The median price saw a 6.6% jump from March 2023.

There were 1,895 closed sales in the First Coast region in March, which is an impressive 21.3% spike compared to February. But that’s still a 13% decrease from March 2023.

NEFAR President Rory Dubin acknowledged that there is still an unsettled housing market on the First Coast. But as the home-selling season heads into late Spring and Summer, there’s an optimistic outlook among realtors in the region.

“The market is moving up in a positive direction each month,” Dubin said.

“March saw over a 20% increase in closed transactions despite a slight increase in the median price. In fact, almost a third of sales were above list price, indicating high demand in our more affordable market compared with the rest of and most of the Southeast. Both inventory and new listings increased as well, showing a robust market for both buyers and sellers.”

There were a total of 5,920 homes on the First Coast market last month, a 3.2% increase over February.

Individual county housing figures for March showed a relatively tight market with nominal changes in statistics. St. Johns County, though, witnessed an increase in the median home sales price of 10.4% compared to February coming in at $546,259.

St. Johns County is one of the fastest growing counties in the U.S., and the March figures buck the trend that showed declining home sales prices in January and February. The St. Johns County median price of homes is also the highest on the First Coast.

Baker County also saw an increase in median home sale prices, which jumped to $295,000. That’s an 18.5% increase in the median price over February for the largely rural county.

Clay County was another Northeast Florida county with an increase in median home sale price, but just barely. The March median home price in Clay was $348,00, an increase of just 0.1% over February.

Duval, Putnam and Nassau Counties all saw nominal decreases in median home prices, falling between 0.1% to about 7%.