We underwrite Jacksonville exits where homes sell faster than Tampa or Orlando.
USA Mortgage funds investors across the Jacksonville metro. Duval consolidated, but four towns kept their own rules. Jacksonville has the lowest-cost insurance of Florida's big metros. Business-purpose loans only, and every structure is set in underwriting.
You deal with the people who can say yes, not a committee.
One consolidated county, five different rulebooks
Duval County merged with the City of Jacksonville in 1968, so most of the metro shares one tax roll and one permit desk. Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, and the Town of Baldwin never consolidated and set their own zoning, permitting, and millage; on short-term rentals, the three beach towns each run a different regime.
The lower-cost end of Florida on insurance
Average homeowners premiums including wind ran $2,540 to $3,051 across Duval, Clay, St. Johns, and Nassau counties as of March 2026, well below Hillsborough, Orange, and Pinellas, and roughly half of Broward. For a DSCR deal, that carry advantage is real and it is countywide.
Rents at a record while inventory tightens
Single-family rents hit an all-time high of $2,102 a month in June 2026, up 2.5% year over year, while active listings fell 20% and homes are selling faster than either Tampa or Orlando. Home values are down just 1.1% year over year, and the metro sits less far off its peak than Tampa or Orlando.
Loan programs in Jacksonville
Acquisition through exit, all funded or arranged by one lender.
Yes. We fund across the metro. That includes Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, Orange Park, Middleburg, Fleming Island, St. Augustine, Fernandina Beach, and Yulee. We are headquartered in Bee Cave, Texas, and every loan is business-purpose only, on investment property, with terms subject to underwriting. See how we lend across Florida or talk to us.
Jacksonville is a consolidated city-county government. What does that mean for my deal?
It means most of Duval County pays one property tax structure and goes through one permit desk, with no lower-cost unincorporated pocket to hunt for. The City of Jacksonville and Duval County merged in 1968, so the whole general services district runs 17.2004 to 18.9701 mills depending on urban services district, a band under 1.8 mills wide. Permits and code enforcement for most of the county run through the City of Jacksonville Planning and Development Department. Four municipalities never consolidated and keep their own rules: Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, and the Town of Baldwin. Confirm which of the five districts your parcel sits in before you underwrite the tax line. See the DSCR program.
Can I count on short-term rental income in the Jacksonville area?
Only if you check the specific municipality, because three towns on the same barrier island run three different rules. Atlantic Beach prohibits rentals under 90 consecutive days in residential zones. Neptune Beach prohibits rentals under 28 days in all residential districts. Jacksonville Beach permits short-term vacation rentals with a certificate: $150 a year, a mandatory fire inspection, and renewal due October 1. The City of Jacksonville's own position on short-term rentals could not be confirmed at a primary source, so we do not state what it allows. Duval County also charges a 6% bed tax (a 4% tourist development tax plus a 2% convention development tax) that Airbnb and VRBO do not remit for you; filing is monthly. We can underwrite a long-term lease number without any of this. See the fix and flip program.
How does insurance and property tax actually run for an investor here?
Insurance is Jacksonville's structural advantage over the rest of Florida, but the tax bill has an uncapped layer to add up before you underwrite the deal. As of March 2026, average homeowners premiums including wind ran $2,540 in Clay County, $2,786 in Duval, $2,883 in St. Johns, and $3,051 in Nassau, all well below Hillsborough ($3,525), Orange ($3,610), Pinellas ($4,063), and Broward ($6,136). On tax, Duval's non-homestead investor pays roughly 17.2 to 19.0 mills depending on district, and about a third of that bill, the school portion, is exempt from Florida's 10% non-homestead assessment cap by statute, so it reassesses to full market value every year regardless. The cap also resets entirely on a change of ownership. Pull an address-level estimate from the county property appraiser rather than a metro-wide rate, and talk to your CPA on the specifics.
Do I need flood insurance on a Jacksonville rental?
If the policy runs through Citizens, yes, on a schedule that reaches every qualifying residential property by January 1, 2027, regardless of flood zone. Duval's flood exposure is mostly riverine and storm-surge-up-the-St.-Johns; Hurricane Irma in 2017 is the county's benchmark event at 2,050 NFIP claims, while the 2024 storm season that hit Tampa Bay hard produced only 93 Duval claims all year. St. Johns County carries the metro's heavier flood record, with 7,637 cumulative NFIP claims against a third of Duval's population. Flood is always a separate policy from wind coverage. Confirm the parcel's flood zone and Citizens status before you close.
What is the Jacksonville market actually doing right now?
Tight and getting faster, with rents at a record and prices down only modestly, while metro payrolls stay flat. Median list price was $389,973 in July 2026, down 4.5% year over year and 11.3% off the June 2022 peak, on 63 median days on market, down from 72 a year earlier, and active listings down 20% year over year to 7,813. Single-family rents hit an all-time high of $2,102 a month in June 2026, up 2.5%. Total nonfarm employment was up only 0.3% year over year as of June 2026, and financial activities employment is down 10.0% over two years, so the honest story is lower-cost carry and fast sales, not a jobs boom.
Which Jacksonville loan programs have a minimum credit score, and which do not?
The documented programs have a floor. The asset-based ones do not.DSCR and bank statement start at 640, conventional investment starts at 580, and fix and flip, commercial bridge and ground-up construction carry no minimum score, because the property and the equity qualify the deal. Transactional funding has no credit check at all. We do run credit on the rest, but on asset-based files a weaker score is usually met with lower leverage rather than a decline, and there is no hard credit pull to start. Subject to underwriting.
How much do I need to put down on a Jacksonville investment property?
It depends on the program, and the range runs from nothing to a quarter of the deal. Fix and flip funds up to 90% of purchase and up to 100% of the rehab, so on a $300,000 Jacksonville purchase that is up to $270,000 from us and $30,000 from you (300,000 x 90% = 270,000). DSCR and conventional investment run up to 80% LTV, or $60,000 down on that same $300,000 (300,000 x 80% = 240,000). Commercial bridge runs up to 75% LTV. Transactional funding covers up to 100% of the purchase on a double close. Subject to underwriting.
What is the smallest loan you will write in Jacksonville?
One hundred thousand dollars on most residential programs.Fix and flip, DSCR and bank statement all start at $100,000, which matters in a metro where Jacksonville city's mid-tier value is $287,871 and a cheaper door can price below the floor. SBA starts at $350,000 and portfolio loans start at $500,000 across five or more properties, so a stack of low-priced rentals can clear together when no single one would. Subject to underwriting.
Can a first-time investor get funded in Jacksonville?
Yes. First-time flippers are welcome, and there is no minimum credit score on the asset-based programs, so no track record and a thin credit file do not close the door on their own. Expect the first file to price at conservative leverage rather than the top of the range, and expect us to look hard at the budget and the exit. On ground-up construction, experienced builders can access higher leverage, so a first build should plan on more of its own money in. Subject to underwriting.
Local rules move. Every tax rate, fee, ordinance and market figure here comes from a primary source and carries the date we read it, and we correct them as the rules change. Where a number is mid-change or we could not verify it, we say so rather than guess. Before you commit a budget, confirm anything that drives it with the city or county, and talk to your attorney or CPA on questions of law or tax.
Published by USA Mortgage Funding, LLC, NMLS #152588. Researched from primary sources by our team, drafted with AI assistance, and every figure checked against its source before publishing. Where an answer rests on a public record, that record is linked under it. Figures read on 2026-08-13.
Funding Jacksonville deals fast.
Get real terms, usually same day. No obligation, no hard credit pull to start.
