The Downfall of the Housing Market in Jacksonville, Florida

The housing market was once the biggest money making industry in the United States. From builders to property owners, to real estate agents, building and selling new homes created deep pockets of wealth. Since the fourth quarter of 2006, the market has been at a record downhill slide. In the fourth quarter of last year, median sales the drop began at an extremely rapid rate. By the second quarter of last year, the sales volume began to take the fast track south on the graphs.

In the Jacksonville, Florida area alone, the housing market is at a freeze. From the third quarter of last year to the third quarter of this year the median sales prices have plummeted from above 60.1% to below -40.1%. This is affecting huge numbers of families in the area.

Once considering giving up my schooling in the field of education to go into real estate, I will never regret my decision to remain in the career I am cut out for. As a builder, my husband was the big money maker in the family. Now, the small drop of a teacher's pay is the big income, while the builder (a sub-contracting framer) is searching the area and beyond for something to build before he loses his crew.

But this all goes beyond the drop in sales. Banks are filing bankruptcy or just not assisting in the building of much needed housing. In Kingsland, Georgia, the population growth is beginning to bust at the seams. Most of those populations are renters, not buyers. An apartment complex is in the process of being built, but the land owner is not getting money from the bank as promised. This in turn has crews working in the high temperatures all day long but no money is going their way because there isn't any. This doesn't just affect the hard working laborers; it hurts all of their families as well.