Drew Dixon
October home sale numbers for the six-county First Coast region showed yet another decrease, while single-family home prices are continuing to rise and the glut of houses on the market is piling up.
The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors (NEFAR) issued its monthly home sales report and the numbers show a prolonged sluggish housing market. There were 1,512 single-family closed home sales in October. That’s a 3.9% drop from September’s figure of 1,526 homes sold, and a 7.2% decline in sales from October 2023, when there were 1,360 houses sold.
The report covers activity in Duval, Nassau, St. Johns, Clay, Baker and Putnam counties.
While the number of single-family dwelling sales dropped in October, the number of homes for sale continues to trek upward. The active inventory for homes increased in October by 10.7% to 7,839, compared to the September figure of 7,082. The inventory of houses for sale jumped a whopping 73.9% compared to October 2023, when there were 4,507 homes on the market. The inventory in the Northeast Florida market hasn’t been below 5,000 homes since March.
As housing sales slump and the inventory grows higher, the price of homes continues to climb on the First Coast. The median home sale price in Northeast Florida increased by 1.5% in October to $395,000, up over September’s median price of $389,000. The October number is also a 4% increase over October 2023, when the median price was $379,700.
Houses are also sitting on the market for longer, at a median of 49 days in October. That’s up by 16.7% from September, when the median number of days on the market was 42. It’s a 14% increase from October 2023, when a home was normally on the market for 43 days.
Nassau County had the most dramatic housing swing in October. The number of home sales dropped to 83 closings in October, a 17% decline from September and a brutal 26.5% decrease from October 2023. The median cost of homes in Nassau, meanwhile, increased to $485,000, a 7.8% uptick from September and an 18.6% increase from October 2023.
Duval County, home to Jacksonville and the First Coast’s most populous county, saw 770 homes sold in October, a 1.4% decrease compared to September and a 4.1% drop from October 2023. Median home sale prices increased, though, to $337,995 in Duval, a 1% uptick from September and a 6.3% hike from October 2023.
St. Johns County, one of the fastest growing counties in the United States, also saw a drop in home sales to 383 in October. That’s down by 10.3% compared to September and down by 7% from October 2023. Median home sale prices saw a slight uptick to $555,000, a 1.7% increase from September and a 2.8% increase from October 2023.
Clay County had a mixed bag of home sales data in October. There were 230 closed single-family home sales in October, a 7% increase from September, but a 5% drop from October 2023. Meanwhile, Clay saw median home sales prices drop to $352,850, a 2% decline from both September 2024 and October 2023.
Putnam County saw 36 closed home sales in October, a 10% decline from September and a 25% drop from October 2023. Median sales prices for homes in Putnam settled at $217,500 in October, a 13% decline from September and a 14.7% drop from October 2023.
Baker County, the most rural county on the First Coast, saw only 10 closed home sales in October, unchanged month-to-month and a 16.7% decline from October 2023. Median home sale prices in Baker jumped to $366,500 in October, a 35.5% jump from September and a 20% hike from October 2023.
