Median sale price set record last year
BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
GREEN COVE SPRINGS—Clay County Property Appraiser Tracy S. Drake said in a May 27 news release that the county’s real estate values increased by 11.5% or $1.5 billion during 2021.
Drake said the valuation, with a date of Jan. 1, 2022, “is a reflection of the upward direction the real estate market has taken during 2021.”
In his 2021 annual report issued last month, Drake reported that the median sale price for a Clay County single-family residence climbed 22.4% last year, the single biggest percentage increase in county history.
“Since reaching its bottom in 2011 at $160,000,” Drake said, “the median sale price for single-family homes has appreciated 88%.”
Other news within the appraiser’s 2021 annual report included:
Save Our Homes differential
Even though real estate values increased substantially in 2021, Florida law limits increases in assessed value to 3% a year or the increase in the consumer price index, whichever is smaller.
Since the consumer price index rose by only 1.4% in 2021, assessed value increases were limited to that percentage under Florida’s Save Our Homes constitutional amendment.
Clay County’s Save-Our-Homes differential, the difference between assessed values without the cap and assessed values limited by the amendment, grew from $2.2 billion at the beginning of 2021 to $2.6 billion at the end of the year.
Top 10 taxpayers
Clay Electric Cooperative retained its position as the county’s number one taxpayer, contributing 1.68% of the county’s taxable value. Orange Park Medical Center, the Orange Park Mall, Mid-America Apartments and TECO Pipeline Holdings rounded out the top five.
Mid-America Apartments owns the Lighthouse at Fleming Island, a 47-acre apartment complex.
Vallencourt Construction, PC Parkland Florida, the Guidewell Group, Invitation Homes and Landmark at Vista Grande completed the top 10.
PC Parkland owns an apartment complex on Wells Road, as does Landmark at Vista Grande. Invitation Homes owns hundreds of rental houses in the county.
Transactions and parcels
Nearly 15,000 Clay County parcels changed hands during 2021, an 11% increase over 2020.
The county now has 95,271 real estate parcels, all of which are on the tax rolls of the county, the school board and the St. Johns River Water Management District.
The City of Green Cove Springs has 4,077 parcels on its roll, and the Town of Orange Park has 3,382.
Eight hundred, eleven parcels are within the City of Keystone Heights, while 128 are within the city’s community redevelopment district.
