Data Analysis

Redfin reported that homes in Jacksonville's highly rated school zones sold for a median $630,000 between January and June 2026, 68 percent above the metro's overall median of $375,000 and the fifth largest school zone premium among the 81 metropolitan areas it studied.

Tampa's premium was 48 percent, at $569,000 against a metro median of $385,000. Redfin found the national premium was 35 percent, and that metros where highly rated schools are scarce tend to charge the most for access to them.

Homes inside Jacksonville's highly rated school zones sold for a median of $630,000 between January and June 2026, Redfin reported on September 2. The metro's overall median over the same six months was $375,000. That gap of $255,000 works out to a 68 percent premium, the fifth largest of the 81 metropolitan areas in the study. Tampa, the only other Florida metro Redfin was able to include, carried a 48 percent premium at $569,000 against $385,000. The national premium was 35 percent.

How much more do Florida buyers pay for a highly rated school zone?

Redfin matched home sales that closed between January and June 2026 to public high school attendance boundaries, then compared prices inside zones that GreatSchools rates 8 to 10 out of 10 against the typical home in each metro. Nationally the highly rated zone median was $580,000 and the overall median was $430,000.

Jacksonville's $255,000 gap is larger in dollar terms than the $150,000 national gap, and it sits on a smaller base. A buyer in Jacksonville who wants a highly rated zone is paying about two thirds more than the metro's typical price. In Tampa the same decision costs about $184,000 more, or roughly half again the metro median.

Only four metros in the study carried a bigger premium than Jacksonville. Philadelphia led at 93.5 percent, followed by Fort Worth at 81.7 percent, Akron at 78 percent and Detroit at 77.2 percent. At the other end, Little Rock was the single metro where highly rated zones sold for less than the metro as a whole, at 5 percent below. Anaheim, Charleston, Chicago and Greenville all came in under 9 percent.

Why is Jacksonville's premium one of the largest in the country?

Redfin's explanation is scarcity, and its own numbers support it. Just 15.2 percent of Jacksonville's school zones are highly rated, against 30 percent nationwide. Fort Worth has the smallest share in the analysis at 8 percent, and it has the second largest premium. Anaheim has the largest share at 70 percent, and its premium is 6 percent.

"Access to a highly rated school zone can come with a steep price tag, but house hunters who consider school ratings in their search may find smaller price differences in metro areas where highly rated schools are more common," said Yingqi Xu, a senior economist at Redfin.

The pattern is a supply story rather than a schools story. Where a metro has many highly rated zones, buyers who want one have many neighborhoods to choose from and no single one can command much of a markup. Where a metro has few, the competition concentrates. Jacksonville sits closer to the scarce end than most large metros do.

What income does a Jacksonville school zone require?

Redfin calculated the income a buyer would need at 15 percent down on a 30 year fixed mortgage, including taxes, insurance and mortgage insurance, treating a home as affordable at 30 percent of income or less.

On that basis a Jacksonville buyer needs $166,211 a year to afford the median home in a highly rated zone, against $98,935 for the metro's typical home. The median household income in the Jacksonville metro is $88,715, so the highly rated zone requires about 87 percent more than the typical local household earns, a figure calculated from Redfin's own numbers. Even the metro's ordinary median home requires roughly 12 percent more than that household makes.

Nationally the same calculation produced $159,157 for a highly rated zone and $117,995 for a typical home, against a median U.S. income of $87,599. Redfin found 13 percent of listings in highly rated zones were affordable to a median income household, compared with 27.6 percent of listings overall.

Why are Miami and Orlando not in this study?

The analysis covered 81 of the 100 most populous U.S. metros, those with enough mappable sales to support the comparison. Tampa and Jacksonville were the only Florida metros Redfin included. Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando do not appear.

Redfin excluded magnet and charter schools and districts that assign students by lottery rather than by attendance boundary. Several large Florida districts use choice and magnet programs heavily, which is a plausible reason those metros fell out, though Redfin did not name them or give a metro by metro reason. Readers should not assume the Jacksonville and Tampa figures describe South or Central Florida.

How does this square with what Florida prices have been doing?

Florida list prices have been falling for most of 2026. Realtor.com reported in early September that Jacksonville's August median list price was $380,000, down 4.8 percent from a year earlier, and that Tampa's was $390,000, down 6 percent, as covered in our August housing trends report. Those are list prices for one month. Redfin's figures are closed sale prices averaged over six months, so the two are not directly comparable and a difference between them is not a contradiction.

What the two together suggest is that a softening statewide market has not compressed the school zone premium. Redfin's window runs through June, so it does not capture whatever happened over the summer. The next comparable read will not arrive until Redfin repeats the analysis.

For current conditions in either metro, our Jacksonville market page and Tampa market page carry live price, inventory and days on market data, and the Florida housing tracker covers the statewide picture.

Limitations

Redfin's school zone boundaries are drawn from conventional zoned public high schools only. Metros where families commonly use magnet, charter or lottery assignment are underrepresented, and four of Florida's six largest metros are absent from the study entirely, so these figures describe Jacksonville and Tampa and cannot be read as a Florida-wide premium.

GreatSchools ratings are one commercial rating product among several and reflect test scores and other inputs that correlate with household income in the surrounding neighborhood. A price premium attached to a highly rated zone therefore partly reflects the income of the families already living there rather than the effect of the school itself. Redfin does not separate the two, and neither does this article.

The income and affordability figures assume 15 percent down and a 30 year fixed mortgage at prevailing rates during the study window. Buyers with different down payments, rates or tax and insurance costs will see different numbers, and Florida insurance costs in particular vary widely within a single metro.

The premium figures compare medians, not matched homes. A highly rated zone may contain larger or newer houses than the metro average, and that difference in what is being sold is included in the premium rather than controlled out.

Sources

Redfin, "Homes in Highly Rated School Zones Cost 35% More Than the Average U.S. Home. But the Premium Is Much Smaller in Some Parts of the Country," by Dana Anderson and Yingqi Xu, published September 2, 2026, at redfin.com/news/school-zone-housing-affordability-2026/. National and metro figures, methodology, income calculations and the Xu quotation are taken from that report.

Realtor.com August 2026 Monthly Housing Trends, published September 2, 2026, for the Jacksonville and Tampa August list price comparison.

Disclosure: Jon Brooks is a co-founder of Momentum Realty, a Florida real estate brokerage that owns and funds Florida Housing Intelligence. Momentum has a financial interest in Florida real estate transactions, including in markets named here. See our editorial standards.