Investing in Wakulla County, FL Real Estate: The Actual Numbers

Considering rental property in Wakulla County, FL? The typical home ($289,715, Zillow) against typical rent ($1,649/mo, Zillow Observed Rent Index) works out to a 6.8% gross cap rate. Gross is where analysis starts, not ends — below is the investor cost stack that turns it into a real number, and the demand-and-supply data that decides whether the rent holds.

Wakulla County yield at a glance

The investor cost stack, worked

Start with $19,790 of gross annual rent. Property tax: investors get NO homestead exemption and no 3% cap — at Wakulla County’s typical 14.22 mills on a $289,715 assessment, roughly $4,119 a year (non-homestead assessments can still rise up to 10% annually). Insurance: Citizens averages about $1,456/yr here, and landlord (DP-3) policies typically price above owner-occupied. That already takes the yield to about 4.91% before vacancy, maintenance, management and any HOA — the line items that separate real operators from spreadsheet optimists.

Will the rent hold? Demand and supply

Rent growth here is running +2.3% (Zillow index). On demand, IRS migration data shows a net 872 people per year into the county; on supply, builders pulled 518 residential permits in 2025. Rising rents plus positive migration plus a restrained pipeline is the configuration that protects yields; the reverse erodes them. Our valuation model currently reads the county as undervalued by 20.6% versus income-and-rent fundamentals.

Where investors actually buy here

Community-level medians, days on market and price trends for every tracked Wakulla County community are on the county’s community and lifestyle pages — start with the county rent page (full rent-versus-own math).

The Wakulla County market, in context

Wakulla County is Crawfordville and the wild Big Bend coast — a fast-growing but still-rural county just south of Tallahassee, home to the spectacular Wakulla Springs, the St. Marks coast, and the Apalachicola National Forest. It blends a capital-commuter bedroom community with genuine old-Florida nature.

The economy behind the market: {'drivers': 'government (Tallahassee commute), healthcare, forestry, and nature tourism', 'summary': "Wakulla's economy is increasingly tied to Tallahassee — a large and growing share of residents commute north to state-government and university jobs — alongside forestry in the national forest, a small local healthcare-and-services base, and nature tourism around Wakulla Springs and the St. Marks coast. It is one of the faster-growing rural counties as the capital expands south.", 'employers': ['Wakulla County School District', 'Wakulla County government', 'state government (Tallahassee commute)', 'forestry (Apalachicola National Forest)', 'nature tourism (Wakulla Springs, St. Marks)', 'regional healthcare'], 'jobNote': "A large and growing share of Wakulla residents commute to Tallahassee's state-government and university jobs."}

What could change it: Wakulla's risks are coastal-and-rural: the low-lying St. Marks and Panacea coast carries hurricane-and-surge exposure (recent Big Bend storms like Helene hit the coast hard), forestry-and-government economic concentration, and the growing pains of fast commuter growth. Inland Crawfordville carries lower surge risk, and insurance rises toward the coast.

Near-term outlook: Expect Wakulla to keep growing as a Tallahassee bedroom county over the next 12 months, with affordability and nature pulling steady demand to Crawfordville and the coast working through storm-and-insurance considerations.

Run the numbers in Wakulla County

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

Common questions

Figures from Zillow research series, Zillow Observed Rent Index, verified county millage, Citizens Property Insurance, IRS SOI migration and Census permits, as of 2026-06-16; deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Informational only - not investment, tax or legal advice. Equal Housing Opportunity.