Tracking the First Coast’s great condo bust [North Florida]

Tracking the First Coast’s great condo bust [North Florida]

While attention has been focused on shrinking values in Jacksonville’s single-family housing market,something much worse has been happening in the condominium market.

Numbers tell the story: The median sales price for condominiums in Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties has sunk by more than 70 percent since a five-year high of $239,200 in April 2007, falling to a low of $64,400 in April of this year, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.

By comparison, the median sales price for single-family homes in the area fell 33 percent from a five-year high median price of $213,500 in June 2006 to $143,400 in July 2010.

In recent years, Jacksonville has spawned dozens of condominium buildings – both new and those converted from former apartment complexes – but when the economy tanked, there were too many for the market and too many owners in financial trouble. The shocking drop in condominium values followed.