Drew Dixon
Single-family home sales fell again in September along Florida’s First Coast while home prices crept up for the month.
The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors (NEFAR) issued its monthly analysis of the six-county region, and the housing market remains sluggish in the area. There were 1,526 closed home sales for Northeast Florida in September. That’s an 11.4% decrease from September 2023. Numbers are down from August by 17.7%, when there were 1,777 closed sales. That August number was an 8% drop from the number of homes sold in July.
Meanwhile, the median price for houses on the First Coast and the number of homes for sale are seeing increases. The median sales price in September for single-family homes was $389,945, a 2.4% increase from September 2024 and a 1.8% increase from August.
The number of homes on the market increased in September. There were 7,695 homes for sale in the listed active inventory in September, an increase by 74.1% over September 2023. But it was only a 4.2% increase compared to August.
Duval County, the Northeast Florida county with the highest population, also struggled. There were 753 home sales in September for Jacksonville’s home county. That figure is down by 18.2% from the August figure and is a 14.6% decrease from September 2023. Duval County also saw a wild jump in homes for sale, with 3,664 listed in the active inventory. That’s a 90.2% spike compared to September 2023 and a 7.5% increase compared to August.
The median sales price for Duval County increased, but only slightly. That figure now stands as $334,750, a 0.3% increase from August and a 1.1% increase from September 2023.
St. Johns County, one of the fastest growing counties in the U.S., saw a monthly drop in sales, with 417 closed sales in September. That’s a 20.1% decrease from August but a 1.2% increase over September 2023. The median home sales price saw more moderate change with the September figure of $550,000, a 1.3% decrease from August. But that’s a 3.3% increase from September 2023.
Nassau County was hit hard in the home sales category, with only 98 closed sales in September. That’s down by 15.5% from August and is a 12.5% decline from September 2023. The median home sales price was $444,995 in September, a 12.2% increase from a year ago, but a 4.7% decrease from August.
Clay County saw 212 closed sales in September, a 17.2% decline from September 2023 and a 10.2% decrease from August. The median sales price for a home crept up only slightly, by 0.2% from September 2023 and up by 1.8% from August, to $359,950.
The more rural Putnam County had only 37 closed home sales in September, representing a 17.8% decrease from August and a 14% drop from September 2023. The median sales price in Putnam was relatively stable, coming in at $250,000 in September. That’s a 2% drop from September 2023, but a 2.9% increase from August.
The most rural county in Northeast Florida, Baker County, saw only 9 closed sales in September, which is a 47.1% drop from September 2023 and a 40% decline from August. The median sales price in Baker declined slightly to $265,000. That’s a 3.6% decrease from September 2023 and a 4.3% decline from August.
