The rapid rise of Jacksonville home prices is expected to accelerate in 2021.
From 2019 to 2020, the median home price in the Jacksonville metropolitan area increased by 4.8%. Over the next 12 months, the median home price is expected to increase by another 6.8%, according to Zillow data compiled by Construction Coverage.
Despite the COVID-19 induced recession, the Joint Center For Housing Studies of Harvard University found low interest rates have bolstered home buying at the same time housing supply has been lower than normal, as many would-be sellers have been reluctant to relocate during the pandemic.
In fact, there are fewer homes for sale in the U.S. today than ever recorded in data going back nearly 40 years, according to NPR.
Nationally, the median price for previously owned homes has hit a new record at $313,000, up 16% from a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors, which tracks home sales.
"We are simply facing a housing shortage, a major housing shortage. We need to build more homes. Supply is critical in the current environment," said Lawrence Yun, the chief economist at the National Association of Realtors in an interview with NPR.
Construction Coverage, an industry reviews and research website, reports younger adults, including millennials, drove much of the increase in national home sale prices during 2020, with millennials making up the largest share of home buyers at 38%.
At the same time, Zillow, an online real estate listings company, finds home value disparities between owners of different races are shrinking, but remain wide.
Zillow spokesman Tyron Law said in an email to WJCT News that Zillow looked at the home value differences in Jacksonville’s metropolitan area between different minority groups:
- The typical Black-owned home is valued at $193,905, about 21.3% lower than all homes in the area.
- Average Latinx-owned home prices are valued at $244,903, 0.6% below all homes in the area.
- Average Asian-owned home prices are 0.3% below all homes in the area.
- Average Non-Hispanic white-owned homes price are 4.0% above the typical home.
- The typical home value in Jacksonville is $246,484, Law said.
Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.
