Northeast Florida home prices down in August, realtors expect Fed rate cuts to further improve housing market

JACKSONVLLE, Fla. — Some good news for homebuyers in Northeast Florida: The median home prices were down in August compared to the month prior.

For aspiring homeowners like 28-year-old Sara Jones, the past few years of skyrocketing home prices have made homeownership seem unattainable.

“Like three years ago, when I originally wanted to move here, I should have just bought a house cause it would have been a lot cheaper, but now I’m just sticking to renting,” said Jones.

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But the new statistics from the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors suggest the trend may be swinging in the other direction.

Median home prices in the region dropped by 3.7% in August to $383,990.

“I think we’re coming into a healthy marketplace where the affordability is not going to be necessarily as out of reach of as many buyers as it may have been,” said Rory Dubin, President of NEFAR.

The decrease wasn’t universal, however.

While Duval, Clay, and St. Johns Counties saw median prices fall, month-over-month prices in Nassau, Baker, and Putnam saw significant jumps. It was as high as 23.1% in Baker.

Dubin explained that price increases in the more rural parts of the region are impacted far greater by far fewer sales and the trend overall is headed downward.

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“If you compare it to hundreds of houses being sold in Duval and Clay and St. Johns County, you’re going to see less extreme changes because no one house is going to impact the entire month’s statistics,” said Dubin.

Dubin attributed the regional price drop to a 4 percent increase in housing supply and an 8 percent drop in sales likely driven by high interest rates.

Now, with the Fed planning to cut interest rates by half-a-point, Dubin said expects prices to begin stabilizing or even increasing over the coming months.

But overall, he anticipates the interest rate cut will have a bigger impact on affordability.

“Those very small increases and decreases in the interest rate greatly affect mortgage payments that people are making, and most houses do have a loan,” said Dubin.

While the market may be in store for some incremental improvements, young renters like Jones argue they need to see more drastic changes before they’ll be able to attain the dream of homeownership.

“I think it would have to come down way more with everything else that’s super high right now like groceries and bills and stuff like that,” said Jones.

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