There is a discount in the Northeast Florida housing market that never shows up in a price chart. It is the seller concession: money the seller credits the buyer at the closing table for closing costs, prepaid escrows, or a mortgage rate buydown. The contract price stays where it is, so the sale still prints at full freight in every median-price report. The buyer just walks away with several thousand dollars of their costs covered.
That discount has been growing, and this year it changed hands. We pulled every closed residential sale in the realMLS footprint since the concessions field first appeared in the feed in 2023, across Baker, Bradford, Clay, Duval, Nassau, Putnam, and St. Johns counties, and split it new construction against resale. Builders used to be the least likely party in the market to pay a buyer's costs. In 2026 they became the most likely.
Concessions are now in more than four closings in ten
Start with the market as a whole. In 2023, 35.8 percent of closed sales recorded a concession, at a median of $6,526, or 2.00 percent of the close price. By 2026 year to date that is 43.1 percent of closings at a median $9,150, or 2.89 percent of price.
Notice that both numbers moved, and the dollar figure moved faster. Concessions did not just get more common, they got bigger, rising 40 percent in dollars and nearly half again as a share of price in three years. A market where four in ten sellers pay part of the buyer's costs is a market that has quietly repriced without cutting the sticker.
The crossover: builders passed homeowners in 2026
The split is where it gets interesting. In the first quarter of 2023, new construction was the stingier side of the market: 26.2 percent of builder closings carried a concession versus 38.3 percent of resale closings, a 12-point gap in the homeowner's disfavor. Builders had backlogs and pricing power, and they did not need to buy the sale.
The resale line barely moved after that. It drifted from 38.3 percent to about 42.5 percent over three and a half years, a slow climb and nothing more. The builder line went almost straight up. It crossed above resale in the second quarter of 2026, at 49.1 percent against 42.4 percent, and sits near 49.4 percent in the partial third quarter. Roughly half of new-home closings in Northeast Florida now include the builder paying part of the buyer's costs.
The dollars are even more lopsided than the frequency. The median new-construction concession in 2026 is $14,456, about 4.00 percent of the close price. The median resale concession is $7,600, about 2.50 percent. A builder concedes roughly twice as much money as a homeowner does, and now does it more often. That is the shape of a seller with production to move, a rate-sensitive buyer pool, and an incentive budget that is cheaper to spend than a headline price cut. It is the same pressure that shows up in the collapse of the new-home price premium, arriving through a different door.
Where in the market concessions cluster
Concessions are not spread evenly by price. In 2026 the $300,000 to $500,000 band is the epicenter: 49.7 percent of those closings recorded one, up from 39.3 percent in 2023. Below $300,000 it is 43.8 percent. From $500,000 to $750,000 it drops to 37.0 percent, and above $750,000 it falls to 27.7 percent.
That gradient tracks payment sensitivity rather than anything about the homes. The mid-market is where a rate buydown decides whether a buyer qualifies, so that is where the money goes. At the top of the market, where buyers are more likely to be paying cash or bringing large down payments, a closing-cost credit moves the decision far less, and the concession rate is barely half the mid-market's.
What this means for pricing a home
A concession is a price cut that hides inside the closing statement. Two homes can both close at $400,000 with one of them handing back $12,000, and only one seller actually got $400,000. Anyone reading comps off close price alone is reading the market about three percent rich in the mid-range, and closer to four percent rich on new construction.
It also reframes what a resale seller is competing against. A homeowner listing near a builder community is not just competing on price and finish. They are competing with a seller who will write a $14,000 check to buy the rate down, and who does it in half of their closings. That is a sharper form of the same problem as starting at the wrong asking price: the market clears, just not at the number on the sign.
How agents can use this data
With a buyer comparing new construction and resale: the sticker prices are not comparable. Ask what the builder is crediting before you compare anything, because half of new-home closings in this market now include a concession and the median is over $14,000. A resale that looks $10,000 cheaper may be the more expensive deal once the builder credit is on the table.
With a payment-constrained buyer: in the $300,000 to $500,000 band, half of closings already include a credit. Asking for one is not an unusual request in this market, it is the modal outcome. Frame the ask around the rate buydown, which is where the credit does the most work on a monthly payment.
With a resale seller: build the concession into the pricing conversation up front rather than discovering it in negotiation. If comparable closings in the band are conceding two and a half percent, a list price set as though sellers net full price is a list price set about two and a half percent too high. Show the seller the concession rate for their price band, not just the median sale price.
On social or with press: one line carries it. In Northeast Florida, homebuilders now credit buyer costs in about half of their closings at a median above $14,000, more often and roughly twice as much as homeowners selling resale. Pair it with the Jacksonville market data hub for the price context.
Keep the framing on the homes, the prices, and the contracts, never on who lives where. Cite the source line below if you quote the figures, and never present them as guaranteed.
People also ask
What is a seller concession in a home sale?
A seller concession is money the seller credits the buyer at closing, most often to cover closing costs, prepaid escrows, or a mortgage rate buydown. It does not change the contract price, so it does not show up in a median-price chart. In Northeast Florida, 43.1 percent of closed residential sales in 2026 recorded one, at a median of $9,150, per Momentum Research analysis of realMLS closings.
How much are seller concessions in Northeast Florida?
The median recorded concession in 2026 is $9,150, or about 2.89 percent of the close price, up from $6,526 and 2.00 percent in 2023. New construction runs far higher at a median $14,456, about 4.00 percent of price, while resale sits at $7,600, about 2.50 percent. Figures are per Momentum Research analysis of realMLS closed sales and are deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Do home builders pay closing costs in Northeast Florida?
Increasingly, yes. The share of new-construction closings recording a concession rose from 26.2 percent in the first quarter of 2023 to 49.4 percent in the third quarter of 2026, passing resale for the first time in the second quarter of 2026. Builders also concede about twice as much in dollars as resale sellers. This is general market information, not a guarantee about any particular builder or contract.
The takeaway
Northeast Florida has been repricing for two years without moving the sticker. Seller concessions went from about a third of closings at $6,526 to 43.1 percent at $9,150, and the party doing most of the conceding flipped. Builders started this stretch as the least likely seller to pay a buyer's costs and now do it in roughly half of their closings, at about twice the dollar amount a homeowner pays. If you are pricing a home, shopping a builder, or reading comps, the close price is no longer the whole number. When you are ready to put a real figure on your own home, start a comps-based valuation on our home value page. Data reflects closed sales in the realMLS footprint and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. This is general information, not investment advice.
Momentum Research. Equal Housing Opportunity.
This article was compiled with the help of automated tools from realMLS closing records and may contain errors. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. It is for general information only and is not financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. Verify all facts independently before relying on them. Important data note: the realMLS feed did not populate a concessions field before 2023, so every closing from earlier years reads as zero. That is a field-availability artifact, not a real reading, and no claim is made here about concession levels before 2023. Source: Momentum Research analysis of realMLS closed residential sales, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Duval, Nassau, Putnam, and St. Johns counties, share of closings recording a concession and median concession amount, by close quarter and close year, 2023 to 2026 year to date.