Housing sales tick up for First Coast in October as prices begin to drop

Housing sales for the six-county First Coast region ticked up slightly in October, while prices for single-family homes are starting to come down.

The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors (NEFAR) released its housing market statistics for October this week. There were 1,662 single-family homes sold in the region last month.

That’s a slight 2.3-percentage-point uptick compared to October 2024, when there were 1,625 houses sold on the First Coast. Meanwhile, October’s figure is a decrease from the month before, when 1,716 homes were sold. That’s a drop of 3.1 percentage points, and it’s the fourth consecutive month of falling home sales dating back to June, when there were 2,056 homes sold.

Home prices are also starting to moderate, as the median cost of a home on the First Coast in October was $385,000. That’s a 1.7-percentage-point drop from the October 2024 figure of $391,589, and a 0.7-percentage-point decline from September’s price of 387,597.

NEFAR’s report also shows that the number of Northeast Florida homes on the market is going up. There were 7,903 homes on the market in October, a 1.2-percentage-point increase from a year ago and 1.4-percentage-point increase from September. The inventory of homes for sale has fluctuated throughout much of the year. The high point was in May, when there were 8,545 homes for sale.

In the individual county breakouts, Duval County, home to Jacksonville and the largest population in the region, had an increase in home sales with 882 closings in October. That’s up 4.9 percentage points from a year ago and is a 0.5-percentage-point increase over September. The median sales price dropped, though, to $325,000, down by 1.8 percentage points from a year ago and a 1.5 percentage points from September.

St. Johns County, the fastest-growing county in the region, saw a notable sales decrease with 393 homes sold last month. That’s a 4.1-percentage-point decline from October 2024 and a sizable 10.9-percentage-point drop from September. The median sales price in St. Johns was $559,000 in October, which represents an increase of 0.5 percentage points from a year ago but a 0.2-percentage-point drop from September.

Nassau County had a mixed bag of home sale indicators last month with 99 houses sold, a 5.3-percentage-point increase from a year ago but a 9.2-percentage-point drop from September. The median sales price came in at $450,000, a drop by 5.8 percentage points from a year ago and a 5.1-percentage-point decline from September.

Clay County took a hit on sales, posting 231 closings in October. That figure is down 1.7 percentage points from a year ago and a decrease of 1.3 percentage points from September. But the median price for a home in Clay did tick up, coming in at $362,500. That’s a jump of 2.4 percentage points from a year ago and a 0.7-percentage-point uptick from September.

Rural Putnam County saw 44 sales last month, an increase of 29.4 percentage points in the year-over-year comparison and a 15.8-percentage-point uptick from home sales in September. The median sales price also increased to $270,000 in October, up 13.2 percentage points from last year and 5.3 percentage points from September.

Baker County, the First Coast’s most sparsely populated county, had 13 closed home sales last month, up 18.2 percentage points from a year ago but down 18.8 percentage points from September. The median price of a home in Baker came in at $425,000 last month, a jump of 27.6 percentage points from a year ago and a rise of 35.6 percentage points compared to September.