Land Sales Activity in Northeast Florida

In the past two weeks, three cash offers on vacant land have been made through me and one offer on an industrial site where the primary value is the land.  Six months ago, I was seeing few offers on anything. 

Home builders have bought most of the lots developed in the rush of 2004 - 2007 that were foreclosed by banks. That supply has been absorbed.  Developers are anxious to buy suburban land suitable for subdivisions and are paying much higher prices than two years ago, particularly in St. Johns County. Schools in St. Johns are some of the best in the state and northern parts of St. Johns have good transportation to jobs in Jacksonville - Duval County - with a population in 2010 of 864,263. Two of my offers were in that area.

One of the largest sales in the state last year was on CR 16A in northern St. Johns County on 11/05/2013. It was $24,249,000 for 1,521.57 +/- acres, or $15,937 per acre. The buyer and seller were limited liability companies without much visibility.  My Google search did not find news articles about the sale.  The land is well located for a residential development about five miles west of St. Augustine.

Since the CR 16A sale, on 4/03/2014, St. Joe sold its 4,057 acre development of RiverTown to Mattamy Homes, the biggest home builder in Canada, for $43,600,000, or $10,747 per acre.  The project had been developing for six years, but only 150 houses have been occupied.  Some of the amenities of upscale communities have been built - pool, sports fields,  play grounds and a 58 acre riverfront park.  About 3.5 miles of frontage on the St. Johns River will provide upscale locations nine miles south of the Jacksonville city limits.  A detriment to its development is the existing two lane road access along the river. At 3:00 in the afternoon, it took me three light changes to get past one intersection.  Wider roads are inland.

If you need help buying or selling land, please contact me at 904-421-8537.

Happy Easter to all !!!

Henry Rogers, CCIM, ALC