research<\/a> from the University of Florida\u2019s Shimberg Center for Housing Studies shows there were 718 eviction filings in St. Johns County in 2025, the highest number recorded since at least 2019.<\/p>\nIt also marked the fifth consecutive year of increases.<\/p>\n
Eviction filings fell sharply in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought eviction moratoriums and emergency rental assistance programs that helped keep many people in their homes.<\/p>\n
But as those programs expired, eviction filings began climbing again.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor several years now, we\u2019ve been seeing an uptick in evictions and housing loss,\u201d said Anne Ray, who manages the Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse at UF\u2019s Shimberg Center.<\/p>\n
Ray said the increase reflects a growing gap between housing costs and household incomes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, there\u2019s just been a real gap between what housing costs and what people can afford to pay,\u201d Ray said.<\/p>\n
St. Johns County eviction filings<\/p>\n
2019: 499<\/p>\n
2020: 292<\/p>\n
2021: 341<\/p>\n
2022: 502<\/p>\n
2023: 584<\/p>\n
2024: 657<\/p>\n
2025: 718<\/p>\n
St. Johns County is one of the fastest-growing areas in Northeast Florida, but that growth has also brought higher housing costs.<\/p>\n
Ray said many workers are in jobs that do not pay enough to comfortably afford local rents.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people are working jobs that don\u2019t pay enough to allow them to afford that rent comfortably or they have to skimp on other needs,\u201d Ray said. \u201cAnd eventually that catches up with them and they\u2019re forced to leave their housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Johns County\u2019s eviction rate remains below the statewide average and is far lower than neighboring Duval County, which has the highest eviction rate in Florida, according to the UF data.<\/p>\n
But Ray said the lower rate does not mean residents are insulated from affordability pressures.<\/p>\n
One sign of that pressure is where people choose to live.<\/p>\n
Workers who cannot afford housing close to their jobs in St. Johns County may move farther away, including into less expensive parts of Duval or Putnam counties.<\/p>\n
That can create another financial burden.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cost of your housing isn\u2019t just the place that you live, it\u2019s also your commuting costs,\u201d Ray said.<\/p>\n
Workers who move farther from job centers to save money on housing may end up spending more on gas, vehicle expenses and other transportation costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s not only important to have a variety of housing types and affordability levels in our counties, it\u2019s also really important to have those near our jobs,\u201d Ray said.<\/p>\n
Duval County evictions far higher<\/p>\n
While St. Johns County recorded 718 eviction filings in 2025, the numbers were substantially higher in Duval County. Duval County is 6th most populous county in Florida, while Miami-Dade County is the number one. <\/p>\n
There were 15,026 eviction filings<\/a> in Duval County last year, more than 20 times the number recorded in St. Johns County.<\/p>\nDuval County also had the highest eviction rate of any county in Florida, according to the UF data.<\/p>\n
Eviction filings in Duval increased 9% from 2024 to 2025.<\/p>\n
Duval County eviction filings<\/p>\n
2019: 13,174 <\/p>\n
2020: 9,689 <\/p>\n
2021: 10,644 <\/p>\n
2022: 12,756 <\/p>\n
2023: 13,879 <\/p>\n
2024: 13,818 <\/p>\n
2025: 15,026<\/p>\n
The difference partly reflects Duval\u2019s much larger renter population, but experts say the underlying affordability challenge is similar across Northeast Florida.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 St. Johns County is seeing evictions climb to their highest level in at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[15852,15851,1644,116,118,117,5902],"class_list":["post-390277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-addressing-a4dability","tag-addressing-affordability","tag-housing","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-st-johns-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}