{"id":458831,"date":"2025-12-20T00:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T00:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/458831\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T00:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T00:04:11","slug":"real-estate-experts-expect-jacksonville-home-sales-to-drop-7-in-2026-prices-headed-lower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/458831\/","title":{"rendered":"Real estate experts expect Jacksonville home sales to drop 7% in 2026, prices headed lower"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 After years of sticker shock, there may finally be some relief ahead for Jacksonville homebuyers.<\/p>\n

A new forecast from Realtor.com<\/a> suggests 2026 could mark a turning point in the housing market, with conditions gradually shifting away from sellers and toward a more balanced market.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a couple of years there, it felt like sellers had all the power,\u201d said Joel Berner, a senior economist at Realtor.com. \u201cHomes would list on a Thursday and be sold by Sunday, sometimes for $50,000 over asking price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those days are long gone. According to Realtor.com\u2019s outlook, 2026 is expected to be a \u201cbalancing year,\u201d with buyers gaining more leverage as inventory grows and prices level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings have slowed down,\u201d Berner said. \u201cBuyers have more options to choose from than they did a few years ago, and better prices on those homes as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nationally, Realtor.com expects home sales to rise about 2% next year, with prices also increasing modestly. But Jacksonville is expected to move in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

Local sales are projected to decline by nearly 7%, while home prices in the Jacksonville area are forecast to fall between 1.5% and 2% \u2014 compared with a projected 2.2% price increase nationwide.<\/p>\n

Berner said the key factor driving Jacksonville\u2019s trend is inventory.<\/p>\n

\u201cInventory has rebounded in Jacksonville and in Florida as a whole much faster than it has in other parts of the country,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

That shift is expected to help affordability, especially for buyers who have struggled to break into the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cAffordability is going to improve in 2026,\u201d Berner said. \u201cThat\u2019s primarily due to lower mortgage rates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mortgage rates are expected to hover around 6.3% in 2026, lower than earlier this year and potentially even lower at the start of the year. Homes are also spending more time on the market, another sign conditions are cooling.<\/p>\n

While the outlook may be encouraging for buyers, experts say sellers will need to adjust their expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think your home is worth $500,000, don\u2019t list it for $550,000 and try to walk it down,\u201d Berner said. \u201cThat just causes homes to sit longer and raises questions about why it hasn\u2019t sold. Pricing competitively from the start is the best advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The forecast does not suggest a dramatic drop in prices or a housing crash. Instead, economists say the market appears to be settling into something closer to pre-pandemic norms with more balance between buyers and sellers.<\/p>\n

For Jacksonville residents who have been priced out or waiting on the sidelines, Berner says that shift could make 2026 a year of renewed opportunity.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 After years of sticker shock, there may finally be some relief ahead for Jacksonville homebuyers.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":458832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[16547,29397,5229,8314,3188,723,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-458831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-addressing-a4dability","9":"tag-addressing-affordability","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-duval-county","12":"tag-fl","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115748974303528889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}