December First Coast home sales report is a mixed bag, but shows some positive trends

Image via Drew Dixon.

The six-county First Coast region saw a solid uptick in home sales in December.

New Northeast Florida Association of Realtors (NEFAR) figures showed there were 1,773 houses sold in December. That’s up from 1,437 in November, or a 23.4% increase.

The year-over-year comparison was solid as well. In December 2023 there were 1,584 homes sold in Northeast Florida, showing an 11.9% jump this year in sales.

NEFAR officials said the latest home sale numbers bode well for the new year.

“There is a rekindled excitement from many buyers and sellers as we head into 2025 as we are coming out of the uncertainty of an election year. While we are in the ‘slow time’ that we see annually through the holidays, we are already seeing increased activity,” said 2025 NEFAR President Mario Gonzalez.

The median price for a home on the First Coast also reached new heights, hitting $400,000, a 2.3% increase over the November price of $391,000. It’s also up from $385,000 in December 2023, a 3.9% increase.

But the inventory of homes on the market showed mixed indicators. The 6,883 homes on the market in December is a 4.5% drop from November’s inventory count of 7,206. But December’s home inventory is an eye-popping 66.7% spike from December 2023, when there were 4,128 homes for sale in Northeast Florida.

“Increasing the inventory of homes on the market allows buyers a wider selection to choose from, as compared to the craziness during COVID when competition was incredibly difficult for buyers, so much so that many buyers abandoned their home search journey altogether,” Gonzalez said.

Duval County, the most populous First Coast county and home to Jacksonville, showed the biggest increase in closings. There were 953 home sales, an increase by 34.5% over November and a 19.3% spike over December 2023.

Nassau County last month saw a total of 101 homes sold. That’s up by 27.8% over November, but is a 10.6% drop from December 2024.

St. Johns County, one of the fastest growing counties in the United States, saw 474 homes sold. That’s up by 23.1% from November and a 4.4% uptick from December 2023.

Clay County, with its suburbs and rural areas to the west of Jacksonville, saw declines in home sales in December. There were 215 homes sold last month, a 4.4% decline from November and a 3.6% drop from December 2023.

Putnam County saw only 21 homes sold in December, which was a 53.3% decline from a year ago and a 27.6% drop from November.

The most rural county in the Northeast Florida region, Baker County, had only eight sales in December, a 46.7% decline from November and a 27.3% decrease from December 2023.