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Jacksonville is a top destination for people on the move

A couple from Cleveland is moving to this house in Fleming Island.
Randy Roguski
/
WJCT News
A couple from Cleveland is pulling up stakes and moving to this home in Fleming Island.

An unprecedented number of people are looking to move from one metropolitan area to another, and thousands are landing in Jacksonville as they try to escape high housing prices.

Although the housing market has slowed lately with inflation and rising interest rates, people who can afford to buy are continuing to move, according to a new report by Redfin, an online real estate brokerage.

Surging housing costs are putting expensive metros further out of reach, Redfin says.

Miami was the most popular destination in the country among 2 million Redfin users in the second quarter. Tampa was second. Jacksonville was 13th of 148 metro areas.

Data analyzed by WJCT News shows that the greatest number of people were looking to leave Orlando for Jacksonville, followed by New York, Washington, D.C., and South Florida — all substantially more expensive areas than Northeast Florida.

The average home price in Jacksonville in June was $370,983, according to the latest research from Florida Atlantic and Florida International universities. The average price in South Florida was $456,489; Washington, D.C., $556,296; and New York, $614,826.

Overall, Jacksonville attracted 3,818 more buyers than it lost in the second quarter, Redfin says.

Those people pay a premium to live here, though. Prices, on average, were 46% higher in June than they should have been, based on historical trends, the FAU/FIU study found.

Homes have been growing more overvalued every month since July 2020, the study said.

Randy comes to Jacksonville from the South Florida Sun Sentinel, where, as metro editor, he led investigative coverage of the Parkland school shooting that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for public service. He has spent more than 40 years in reporting and editing positions in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio and Florida. You can reach Randy at rroguski@wjct.org or on Twitter, @rroguski.