"Cracks in the Foundation: The spiraling affordability crisis in Northeast Florida" is a new regional reporting project we're working on this year.
Not so long ago, Northeast Florida was the state’s best-kept housing secret: It was a younger, working-class alternative to the gilded retirement getaways in the state’s other large metros. Land was plentiful. Rents were lower. Houses were a bargain, even on the coast.
That has changed dramatically, from the eastern beaches west to Macclenny where hundreds of new homes are proposed and unincorporated Baker County where large homes on large lots on private roadways have become a common pattern for new residential development applications. Those properties are priced too high for the average county resident. And that’s why The Press has partnered with The Tributary and its Northeast Florida News Collaborative, which is focused on covering solutions to the affordable housing crisis here.
“Affordable housing is not a niche issue. It’s an economic issue, a workforce issue and a quality-of-life issue for the entire First Coast," Jacksonville Business Journal Editor-in-Chief James Cannon said. "If we want to keep growing as a community, this is a challenge we have to confront together.”
“I can think of no better topic for our region’s first news collaborative than the cost of housing — one of the biggest, toughest issues facing our community,” said Deirdre Conner, Publisher & CEO of The Tributary. “The Tributary was excited to convene partners who we previously worked with one-on-one because we know we can have so much more impact working together than going it alone.”
Voters told the University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab in 2025 that housing costs topped their list of concerns, displacing crime for the first time in the survey’s history. Just five years ago, only 3% of voters said the same.
In 2019, housing didn’t even make the list.
At the center of Northeast Florida’s housing affordability issues is excessive housing costs, defined as paying more than 30 percent of household income for housing, according to the UF Shimberg Center for Housing Studies. More than half of renting households in Northeast Florida are suffering from excessive housing costs, along with nearly a quarter of homeowners, according to 2023 data from the U.S. Census. Meanwhile, Jacksonville is Florida’s eviction capital; residents here are kicked out of homes at twice the rate as Miami-Dade and well above Orlando and Tampa.
In Baker County, the same trends have emerged with between one-third and one-half of the population not earning enough to afford the average cost of housing in the county. See coming coverage in this week’s print edition regarding the state of affordable housing here.
The regional coalition of news organizations – including digital, broadcast and print media – plan to tackle the issue of housing costs as a shared editorial project in 2026.
Working together, these organizations will examine the complex causes of and solutions to this crisis so that bad actors are held accountable, citizens and nonprofits can make informed decisions, and public pressure builds on policymakers so that housing is within reach for all residents of Northeast Florida.
“Affordable housing has been a focus for the Jacksonville Today news team since our inception,” said Jacksonville Today Editor Jessica Palombo. “By joining together with other local news outlets in the Northeast Florida News Collaborative, we are able to shine a brighter spotlight on causes and solutions that affect housing affordability in our communities.”
“This partnership represents a necessary step forward in our mission of serving Northeast Florida through independent fact-based journalism,” News4JAX News Director Robert Brown said. “We know that many Americans are struggling to afford necessities like housing and our hope is that we can provide information and resources to help them live better lives.”
This story is part of the Northeast Florida News Collaborative, a coalition of news organizations dedicated to providing news and information in the public interest for a more informed and engaged Northeast Florida. More information is available at neflnews.org.