Beach and suburban properties are always fairly scarce and in very high demand. However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought with it a surge in migration as 2020-2021 saw a significant migration increase to the Jacksonville Beaches areas. According to the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council, July 27, 2001, Florida ranked #1 in net migration for the fifth consecutive year. According to the the most current net migration data from the U.S. Census, Florida saw the largest gain of residents between July 2019 and July 202 with more than 252,700 new residents. "These stats bring the total daily number of people moving to Florida to 692."

According to ABC-7.com, relocations to Florida show no sign of slowing down. "Between January 2020 and April 2021, at least 555,710 people have moved to Florida from other states. That data is only accounting for the number of people who have switched over their driver's licenses, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV)."

CBS 47 FOX30 Action News Jax covered a segment called "Priced out of Jax: Local families face affordable housing crisis, Part 1 and 2," stating that the cost of homes in Jacksonville have doubled in the past decade, from an average of $150,000 to $300,000+ for the same home. Before 2020, a home would get on average one offer, but in 2020 the average home gets around 15 offers, many from cash investors. That leaves an average of 14 buyers still looking for a home for every home that goes under contract." 

In fact, in Mayport Landing and Atlantic Beach, townhouses that were listing and selling at $60,000 5-10 years ago are now listing at $200,000 - $350,000+ which is a whopping 300% to 600% market value increase. Therefore, Landlords are either forced to cash out or raise rents to attempt to make a dent in higher property taxes, insurance and overall costs. Then consider that many homes in the beaches, west beaches and St. Nicholas area were built in 1945-1985 and need constant remodeling and repairs to stay current and up-to-date. Since the Covid-19 pandemic we have witnessed an increase in lumber costs, fuel and shipping costs, construction costs, delayed times for building permits and an overall decrease in available labor and construction workers. All of these things force a landlord to increase rents, though, they will still take a huge decrease per property unless the rents also rise 300-600%, which is certainly not feasible given that income/salaries have not risen much at all.

On January 4th, 2022, News 4 Jax Morning Show reported "Jacksonville lands No. 2 on Zillow's hottest housing markets" second only to Tampa. In fact, Zillow predicts that Duval County home values will "jump 22% through November (2022) - and that means the housing market is expected to be even more competitive." "The spike in home values will also mean that rent prices will soar... Tampa, Jacksonville, Raleigh, San Antonio, and Charlotte top Zillow's ratings," in that order.

Many landlords are being offered to cash out with full price, current market value offers on their non-listed properties by national investment groups and hedge funds, who will then manage the rentals through massive, national management companies such as Progress Residential who manage over 70,000 rental properties across 29 metro areas, who are currently facing a class action lawsuit by Story Griffin, Consumer Justice Law Firm, for imposing predatory fees, such as late fees when payments are not paid late, and failure to return security deposits while not notifying the tenants of that intent, etc. These national companies take away the human element of property management, with one size fits all arbitrary rules, leasing criteria and global/predatory fees.

In short, small family run landlords/property owners, such as Atlantic Restoration Council/ARC Houses are becoming more and more difficult to find, and with that great perks such as being pet friendly, working with bad credit, allowing co-signors, lack of rental references, offering a slightly larger security deposit in lieu of first, last and security, and personalized perks such as providing beach access via an annual state park pass, etc., are becoming more and more scarce too. These are some of the reasons that our tenants are so happy to sign a lease with us (often including tears of joy and hugs) and most continue to renew with us for many years.