Best Home Builders in Duval County, FL: Ranked by Recorded Closings

Shopping for the best home builder in Duval County, FL? Below is every builder we can verify through builder-affiliated sales offices in contributing MLS feeds, ranked by new-construction closings (build year 2024 or newer) — with median prices, what each has on the market right now, and the communities where they build. D.R. Horton leads the county by recorded volume.

Duval County new construction at a glance

The builders, ranked by recorded closings

Methodology: closings and actives are counted from listings recorded by builder-affiliated sales offices in contributing MLS feeds, build year 2024 or newer, as of 2026-06-16. Builders who sell primarily outside the MLS may be undercounted, and volume is not an endorsement of build quality. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Volume tells you who is active. It does not tell you who to hire.

A builder’s closing count tells you they can deliver homes in this county at scale — supply chains, trades and permitting all working. It does not tell you how they handle warranty claims, change orders, or a framing defect found at the pre-drywall walk. Before you sign: read the builder’s contract (it is not the standard Florida resale contract, and it is written by the builder’s attorneys), hire your own inspector for pre-drywall and final walks, and ask for addresses of homes delivered 12+ months ago so you can ask owners how service after closing actually went.

Negotiating with builders in Duval County

Builders protect base prices and negotiate with incentives instead: rate buydowns, closing-cost credits, design-center credits, or lot premium waivers. A $20,000 buydown and a $20,000 price cut are not the same deal — compare them properly with our builder incentive calculator. Then model the year-two tax bill (new construction is often taxed on the lot in year one, then reset to your purchase price) with the property tax after purchase calculator, and ask for the CDD assessment and remaining bond term in writing. An agent costs you nothing on a new build — the builder pays the commission — and an agent who has closed with these builders knows which incentives each will actually move on.

What it costs to own here

At Duval County’s typical combined millage of 17.86 mills, a purchase at $321,294 (the median recorded builder price) generates roughly $5,740 a year in property tax before exemptions — about $478 a month. Florida resets the assessed value to roughly your purchase price, so the seller’s current bill is not a preview of yours; a homesteaded owner then gets the $25,000–$50,000 exemption and the 3% Save Our Homes cap going forward. Citizens Property Insurance policies in Duval County average about $1,315 a year ($110 a month) — private-market quotes vary with roof age and wind mitigation, so price coverage before your inspection window closes. All-in, our county model puts the typical monthly cost of ownership in Duval County near $1,795 (principal and interest on the typical home, tax, and insurance).

Run your exact numbers: the property tax after purchase calculator uses Duval County’s verified millage, and the buyer closing costs calculator builds the full cash-to-close.

Demand and supply in Duval County right now

In the most recent IRS migration data (2022-2023), Duval County gained a net 912 people to relocation, with the largest inbound flows from GA, CA, VA. Households moving IN reported average incomes of $67,296 versus $68,273 for those leaving — the income mix of demand, straight from tax filings. Population is up about 9.0% over the recent multi-year window. On the supply side, builders pulled 6,017 residential permits in Duval County in 2025 (3,732 single-family), down 7.4% year over year — against 11,485 at the 2022 peak. Permits are tomorrow’s inventory: a shrinking pipeline supports prices, a swelling one hands buyers leverage. Our valuation model reads the county as undervalued by about 11.6% versus its income-and-rent fundamentals.

The Duval County market, in context

Duval County is Jacksonville — a consolidated city-county of just over a million people that anchors Northeast Florida. It is the value-and-jobs play of the First Coast: home prices sit well below the South Florida and Gulf Coast metros, a deep military, healthcare, logistics, and finance economy keeps demand steady, and 20 miles of Atlantic beaches plus the St. Johns River give it a lifestyle that punches above its price. After three years of rapid appreciation, the market has cooled into the most balanced conditions buyers have seen since 2019.

The economy behind the market: {'drivers': 'military, healthcare, logistics and the port, financial services, and insurance', 'summary': "Duval has one of the most diversified economies in Florida, which is the single biggest reason its housing demand holds up through national cycles. The U.S. Navy is the region's largest single presence through Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport, together supporting tens of thousands of active-duty, civilian, and contractor jobs. Healthcare is the civilian anchor, led by Baptist Health, Mayo Clinic's Florida campus, and UF Health Jacksonville. Finance and insurance run deep — Florida Blue (GuideWell), Bank of America, Citi, FIS, and Fidelity all operate major Jacksonville hubs — and CSX is headquartered downtown. The port (JAXPORT) and a cluster of logistics and distribution operations, including a large Amazon footprint, round out a base that spreads risk across sectors that rarely contract at the same time.", 'employers': ['Naval Air Station Jacksonville / Naval Station Mayport (U.S. Navy)', 'Baptist Health', 'Mayo Clinic Florida', 'Duval County Public Schools', 'City of Jacksonville', 'Florida Blue / GuideWell', 'Bank of America', 'UF Health Jacksonville', 'CSX Corporation', 'Citi', 'FIS', 'Amazon', 'JEA', 'Southeastern Grocers'], 'jobNote': 'Metro Jacksonville hosts four Fortune 500 headquarters, including GuideWell (parent of Florida Blue) and CSX.'}

What could change it: Duval's risks are coastal and budgetary rather than catastrophic. Storm surge and riverine flooding are real along the beaches, the Intracoastal, and the St. Johns and its creeks — Hurricanes Matthew (2016) and Irma (2017) both pushed water into low-lying neighborhoods — so flood zone and elevation matter enormously here, and a property's flood-zone status can swing the true cost of ownership by thousands a year. The county sits in a hurricane-exposed state, though it has historically been hit less directly than Southwest and the Panhandle. Property-insurance costs have climbed statewide, even if Duval's averages remain among the more reasonable in Florida. Inland, the main watch-items are overbuilding risk in the fastest-growing Southside corridors and the usual condo-association and special-assessment questions on older coastal buildings.

Near-term outlook: Expect Duval to stay roughly flat-to-slightly-up over the next 12 months. The cooling is demand-driven, not distress-driven: jobs and migration are still positive, but higher mortgage rates and three years of price gains have stretched affordability, so inventory has rebuilt and price cuts have become normal. Most local and national forecasters put Jacksonville-area appreciation in the low single digits for 2026, with more selection for buyers and longer days on market. The wildcards are mortgage rates (a meaningful drop would quickly absorb today's inventory) and the volume of new construction on the Southside, which is keeping a lid on resale pricing in the outer-ring communities.

Run the numbers in Duval County

• Find the best agent in Duval County
• Get a cash offer in Duval County
• Duval County housing scorecard
• What would selling net you
• Buyer closing costs calculator

See also: New construction communities in Duval County.

Common questions

Builder figures are aggregates from contributing MLS feeds as of 2026-06-16, deemed reliable but not guaranteed; ranking reflects recorded closing volume only and is not an endorsement or quality rating of any builder. Equal Housing Opportunity.