Overview
The Jacksonville metropolitan area, in northeastern Florida, is coterminous with the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan statistical area and consists of Duval, Nassau, St. Johns, Baker, and Clay Counties. The principal city of Jacksonville is located in Duval County. Jacksonville, Florida, is the largest city by land area in the contiguous United States, with a subtropical climate. The metropolitan area is a center for tourism, defense, and logistics.
- As of July 1, 2025, the population of the Jacksonville metropolitan area was estimated at 1,785,500, an average annual increase of 34,225, or 2.1 percent, since April 1, 2020 (1,605,900) (Population Estimates, vintage 2025).
Jacksonville has played a significant role as a major Civil War supply center for Confederate troops.
Quick Facts About Jacksonville
Current sales market conditions: balanced
Current apartment market conditions: slightly soft
By Zoomprop Market Analytics · As of January 1, 2026
Economic Conditions
During the 3 months ending February 2026, nonfarm payrolls in the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area totaled 803,700 jobs, a decrease of 3,617 jobs, or 0.4 percent, from a year earlier.
- The unemployment rate was 4.9, up from 3.6 a year earlier.
- The Education & Health Services sector led growth, increasing by 4,750 jobs, or 3.6 percent, to 138,150 jobs.
- The Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area accounted for 8.0 percent of all nonfarm payroll jobs in the state.
Nonfarm payrolls by sector — Jacksonville metropolitan area, the 3 months ending February 2026
| Sector | 3 months ending<br>February 2026 (jobs) | Year earlier (jobs) | Abs. Δ (jobs) | % Δ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Nonfarm Payrolls | 803,650 | 807,267 | -3,617 | -0.4% |
| Mining & Logging | 400 | 400 | -0 | -0.0% |
| Construction | 53,050 | 53,433 | -383 | -0.7% |
| Manufacturing | 36,450 | 36,733 | -283 | -0.8% |
| Trade, Transportation & Utilities | 173,900 | 174,067 | -167 | -0.1% |
| Information | 13,950 | 14,567 | -617 | -4.2% |
| Financial Activities | 70,750 | 73,567 | -2,817 | -3.8% |
| Professional & Business Services | 115,600 | 118,367 | -2,767 | -2.3% |
| Education & Health Services | 138,150 | 133,400 | +4,750 | 3.6% |
| Leisure & Hospitality | 92,650 | 91,333 | +1,317 | 1.4% |
| Other Services | 29,100 | 29,133 | -33 | -0.1% |
| Government | 79,650 | 82,267 | -2,617 | -3.2% |
| Unemployment Rate | 4.9% | 3.6% |
Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (CES, LAUS). Rows marked † are reconstructed from QCEW county-level annual data, because the CES monthly series is suppressed or unpublished at this MSA; absolute YoY values are from the two most recent fully-published QCEW annual files.
Largest employers — Jacksonville metropolitan area
| Employer | Sector | Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Naval Air Station Jacksonville | Government | 23,000 |
| Baptist Health | Education & Health Services | 14,000 |
| Mayo Clinic | Education & Health Services | 8,000 |
Sources: local economic-development authorities, corporate filings, and press reporting (verified live at report-build time).
Sales Market Conditions
During 2026, home sales in the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area totaled 3,190, down 21,642 home sales, or 87.1 percent, from 2025. Market conditions are balanced, with 5.8 months of supply and homes averaging 96 days on market during February 2026, compared with 88 days a year earlier.
- During 2026, new-home sales totaled 959, down 7,362, or 88.5 percent, from 8,321 in 2025.
- During 2026, existing-home sales totaled 2,231, down 14,280, or 86.5 percent, from 16,511 in 2025.
- The average sales price of a new home during 2026 was $452,341, up $7,633, or 1.7 percent, from $444,708 in 2025.
- Existing home prices closed 2026 at $387,470, down $11,831 or 3.0 percent from a year earlier.
Home-sales totals — Jacksonville metropolitan area, annual
| Year | New-construction sales | Existing sales | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | — | 29,800 | 29,800 |
| 2017 | — | 31,175 | 31,175 |
| 2018 | 8,794 | 22,583 | 31,377 |
| 2019 | 9,648 | 22,207 | 31,855 |
| 2020 | 11,468 | 22,498 | 33,966 |
| 2021 | 11,555 | 32,111 | 43,666 |
| 2022 | 12,391 | 21,911 | 34,302 |
| 2023 | 12,552 | 13,664 | 26,216 |
| 2024 | 10,577 | 14,530 | 25,107 |
| 2025 | 8,321 | 16,511 | 24,832 |
| 2026 | 959 | 2,231 | 3,190 |
Average sale price — Jacksonville metropolitan area, annual
| Year | New-construction average | Existing (year-end) |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $330,824 | $249,380 |
| 2019 | $332,268 | $258,738 |
| 2020 | $338,740 | $280,497 |
| 2021 | $369,444 | $345,129 |
| 2022 | $447,289 | $404,119 |
| 2023 | $466,522 | $401,326 |
| 2024 | $480,051 | $399,977 |
| 2025 | $444,708 | $385,808 |
| 2026 | $452,341 | — |
Homebuilding and Permits
During 2025, residential building permits in the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area totaled 13,183 units, down 1,823 units, or 12.1 percent, from 15,006 units in 2024.
- Single-family homes (1-unit structures) accounted for 9,508 permits during 2025, down 3,430 units, or 26.5 percent, from 12,938 a year earlier.
- Multifamily structures (5+ units) accounted for 3,436 permits during 2025, up 1,683 units, or 96.0 percent, from 1,753 a year earlier.
Residential permits — Jacksonville metropolitan area, annual
| Year | 1-unit (SF) | 2-4 unit | 5+ unit (MF) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 8,499 | 155 | 3,044 | 11,698 |
| 2017 | 9,829 | 115 | 3,010 | 12,954 |
| 2018 | 10,756 | 119 | 4,576 | 15,451 |
| 2019 | 11,311 | 117 | 3,440 | 14,868 |
| 2020 | 13,046 | 232 | 3,083 | 16,361 |
| 2021 | 16,521 | 331 | 5,873 | 22,725 |
| 2022 | 14,368 | 149 | 8,614 | 23,131 |
| 2023 | 12,402 | 437 | 7,414 | 20,253 |
| 2024 | 12,938 | 315 | 1,753 | 15,006 |
| 2025 | 9,508 | 239 | 3,436 | 13,183 |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey (county year-to-date files, coYY12y.txt = full calendar year through December).
Apartment Market Conditions
As of the first quarter of 2026, apartment market conditions in the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area are slightly soft, with a 7.4-percent vacancy rate as of February 2026.
- The average rent for all apartments in the Jacksonville, FL metropolitan area was $1,341 as of March 2026.
- HUD's FY2026 Fair Market Rents for the area are $1,382 for a one-bedroom unit and $1,658 for a two-bedroom unit. The two-bedroom FMR is 23.7-percent above the area's average market rent of $1,341.
- Recent developments include Springs at Flagler Center with 250 units, offering studios and one-, two-, and three-bedroom units with rents starting at $1,261, $1,484, $1,768, and $2,047, respectively. Vista Brooklyn features 308 units with studios and one-, two-, and three-bedroom units with rents starting at $1,470, $1,555, $2,190, and $3,395, respectively.
Rents — Jacksonville metropolitan area, monthly
| Month | Overall rent | YoY change | Vacancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-02-01 | $1,338 | -1.5% | 7.4% |
| 2026-01-01 | $1,335 | -1.4% | 7.5% |
| 2025-12-01 | $1,340 | -0.9% | 7.5% |
| 2025-11-01 | $1,344 | -0.9% | 7.4% |
| 2025-10-01 | $1,353 | -0.9% | 7.3% |
| 2025-09-01 | $1,358 | -1.0% | 7.3% |
| 2025-08-01 | $1,362 | -1.2% | 7.3% |
| 2025-07-01 | $1,367 | -1.4% | 7.4% |
| 2025-06-01 | $1,370 | -1.7% | 7.5% |
| 2025-05-01 | $1,369 | -2.2% | 7.6% |
| 2025-04-01 | $1,363 | -2.3% | 7.6% |
| 2025-03-01 | $1,361 | -2.1% | 7.5% |
HUD Fair Market Rents — FY2026
| Bedrooms | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rent | $1,355 | $1,382 | $1,658 | $1,512 | $2,561 |
Source: HUD User FMR dataset (annual revision).
Location Fundamentals
The standard HUD HMP sections above describe the metropolitan area's housing market itself. This section characterizes the underlying drivers of price formation — safety, schools, natural-hazard exposure, infrastructure, policy, and demographic tailwinds — from Zoomprop's proprietary thematic layers. These signals are the most-replicated non-housing inputs in the hedonic-pricing literature.
The Jacksonville metropolitan area exhibits a complex set of location fundamentals that influence its housing market. The median school rating of 5.00 suggests moderate educational quality, which may have a stabilizing effect on home prices. The area faces a significant hurricane risk, with a peril score of 85.78, potentially exerting downward pressure on property values due to increased insurance costs and perceived risk. The average walk score of 44.1 indicates limited walkability, which could constrain demand from buyers prioritizing pedestrian-friendly environments. Over the past three years, the population has decreased by 0.5 percent, which may dampen housing demand. Conversely, a substantial increase in income growth of 19.8 percent over the same period could bolster purchasing power and support home price appreciation.
Safety
- Across the Jacksonville metropolitan area, Zoomprop aggregated 85,202 reported incidents over the most recent six months and 14,018 in the last 30 days.
| Crime type | Last 30 days | Last 6 months |
|---|---|---|
| theft | 2,543 | 15,568 |
| assault | 2,059 | 12,858 |
| arrest | 1,347 | 8,165 |
| vandalism | 488 | 3,021 |
| burglary | 356 | 1,986 |
- Most recent FBI UCR data for the state (2025) shows a violent-crime offense rate of 12.9 per 100,000 residents and a property-crime offense rate of 66.4 per 100,000 residents.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR), state-level, latest full year available.
Schools
- 266 K-12 schools operate within the MSA (31 with GreatSchools ratings).
- Median GreatSchools rating is 5.0 out of 10; 3 schools score 8 or higher and 11 score 3 or lower.
- Average high-school graduation rate is 86.6 percent.
- Average student-to-teacher ratio is 30.6 to 1.
- Average share of students classified as low-income across schools in the MSA is 52.4 percent.
Top-rated schools in the Jacksonville metropolitan area
| School | City | District | GreatSchools | Grad. rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alice B. Landrum Middle School | Ponte Vedra Beach | St. Johns | 9.0 | — |
| Chet'S Creek Elementary School | Jacksonville | Duval | 8.0 | — |
| Atlantic Beach Elementary School | Atlantic Beach | Duval | 8.0 | — |
| Atlantic Coast High School | Jacksonville | Duval | 7.0 | 95.0% |
| Clay High School | Green Cove Springs | Clay | 7.0 | 92.0% |
Natural-hazard exposure (FEMA National Risk Index)
- Of 339 census tracts in the MSA, 177 (52%) rated Relatively Moderate; 117 (35%) rated Relatively Low; 43 (13%) rated Relatively High; 2 (1%) rated Very Low.
- Leading perils by average FEMA NRI risk score across the MSA's tracts: Hurricane (score 85.8); Lightning (score 76.9); Coastal Flood (score 71.1); Riverine Flood (score 70.1); Earthquake (score 55.7).
- The MSA's tracts average a social-vulnerability index of 50.0 and a community-resilience score of 57.1 (both on FEMA's 0-100 scale).
Source: FEMA National Risk Index, mapped to census tracts and rolled up to the MSA. Flood and wildfire capitalization into home prices is well-documented post-2017 disclosure (Bin & Polasky 2004; Keys & Mulder 2024).
Accessibility & infrastructure
- Across 27 neighborhoods measured, the Jacksonville metropolitan area has an average Walk Score of 44.1 and an average Bike Score of 50.7.
- 4 neighborhoods score above 70 on Walk Score ("very walkable"); 16 score below 50 ("car-dependent").
- The MSA is served by 2,473 public-transit stops operated by 4 transit agencies across 12 neighborhoods.
Demographic tailwinds
- Population-weighted median household income across the MSA is $67,736.
- Three-year median-income growth averages 19.8 percent.
- Three-year population growth averages -0.5 percent.
- Average neighborhood-level unemployment rate (ACS-derived) is 3.5 percent.
- Average ACS-reported median gross rent is $1,288.
- Average ACS-reported median owner-occupied home value is $295,806.
Terminology, Definitions, and Notes
Absorption. The net change, positive or negative, in the number of occupied units in a given geographic range.
Building permits. Residential building permits from the U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS). Permit counts do not necessarily reflect all residential building activity; some units are constructed or created without a building permit, issued under a different permit type, or reported late. Annual totals are aggregated from the county-level full-year file coYY12y.txt (year-to-date through December).
Existing home sales. Includes regular resales and real estate owned (REO) sales.
Home sales / home sales prices. Includes single-family home, townhome, and condominium sales.
Net natural change. Resident births minus resident deaths.
Rental market / rental vacancy rate. Includes apartments and other rental units, such as single-family, multifamily, and mobile homes.
Data Lineage
- Employment (CES supersector): U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS Public Data API v2.
- Employment fallback (QCEW county aggregation): U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, QCEW Open Data (CSV).
- Unemployment (LAUS): U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, LAUS series at MSA / state / national.
- Fair Market Rents: HUD User FMR dataset (ingested into
hud.fmr). - Mortgage rates, delinquency, state HPI: Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED).
- Building permits: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey (annual county files, live fetch).
- Population: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program (PEP), vintage CBSA/metro flat files (
cbsa-estYYYY-alldata.csv) with April 1, 2020 decennial base. ACS 5-year estimates are used as a last-resort fallback only. - Narrative color (overview, largest employers, recent developments): Tavily research API, composed by GPT-4 with a fact-check pass against the structured payload.
Location Fundamentals data lineage (Zoomprop proprietary)
- Crime incidents (Zoomprop aggregates): rolled up from local law-enforcement feeds into
public_records.crime_aggregates(rolling 7d / 30d / 6-mo counts per neighborhood). - FBI UCR offense rates:
public_records.fbi_crime_data, state-level, sourced from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program. - Schools:
public_records.school, built from NCES Common Core of Data, state DOE files, and GreatSchools ratings. - Natural-hazard exposure:
public_records.weather_risk, mapped from the FEMA National Risk Index (census-tract grain) to the MSA. - Walkability / bikeability:
public_records.walkability(Walk Score / Bike Score per neighborhood). - Public transit:
public_records.transit_stop(GTFS feeds from local agencies, stop-level geometry). - Policy changes:
analysis.policy_changes, curated from municipal / county planning department disclosures. - Development pipeline:
analysis.development_pipeline, curated from permit disclosures, planning-board agendas, and publicly announced projects. - Neighborhood-level demographics:
market.region_demographics_v2, derived from American Community Survey 5-year estimates, population-weighted to the MSA.