On February 14, 2023, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund hosted a community event to share the results of the latest Market Value Analysis for Jacksonville, conducted by The Reinvestment Fund, a mission-driven nonprofit organization that brings financial and analytical tools to partnerships that work to ensure that everyone has access to opportunities. This MVA is the third for Jacksonville--the first was conducted in 2015 and the second in 2018.

The Market Value Analysis is a data-backed study tracking trends in the housing market over time—specifically, it shows us who can afford housing where, given the state of the Jacksonville real estate market today. This data can direct policy interventions, as well as investment from the public, private and nonprofit sectors. For example, this new MVA shows us that with the appreciating real estate market, there are fewer areas of town that are affordable to residents who have jobs as teachers, police officers, or construction workers. These are jobs that are close to Jacksonville’s median household income–and there are fewer places today where people making a median income can afford to buy or rent compared to three or seven years ago. If we do not act now, it means that many of our neighbors will have no choice but to either move farther out or spend more of their paycheck on housing, making them housing cost-burdened.

There are interventions already underway or planned for 2023 that are on the right track to make sure these Jaxsons can afford to stay in their homes: the Jacksonville Community Land Trust is helping to create permanently affordable housing; public and private partners are socializing a proven housing finance model designed to fill the financial gaps that make affordable housing too costly for developers to want to invest in; the work that the The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida and LISC Jacksonville are doing around expanding capacity for community development corporations and community housing development organizations will improve financing options for nonprofit developers and therefore reduce costs to homeowners; and LISC Jacksonville and United Way of Northeast Florida are working on unlocking the estimated $2.5 billion in wealth currently tied up in heirs’ property to reduce wealth loss and displacement for those Jaxsons.

Watch the Reinvestment Fund presentation and question and answer session:

Review the full Market Value Analysis presentation: 

Written by
Chris Crothers