Overview
Nocatee is a large master-planned community situated at the boundary of northeastern St. Johns County and southeastern Duval County, carrying a Ponte Vedra address and occupying a position roughly midway between downtown Jacksonville and historic St. Augustine. Developed by The PARC Group, the community is one of the defining residential developments in the northeastern Florida region, combining neighborhoods, schools, parks, recreation facilities, offices, shopping, and restaurants within a single planned footprint, as described on the community's official website.
Jacksonville, the governing seat of Duval County, operates under a consolidated city-county government established on October 1, 1968, making it the most populous incorporated city in Florida at 961,739 residents as of the U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023. The city's real estate geography extends southeast toward Nocatee and a growing cluster of master-planned communities along the Philips Highway and U.S. 1 corridor. As of 2026, this corridor is expanding further with EverRange, a new 1,000-acre development by The PARC Group positioned between Nocatee and the existing eTown community in Jacksonville proper.
Nocatee Community Profile
Nocatee occupies land straddling the southeastern edge of Duval County and the northeastern portion of St. Johns County, a geography that places it within easy reach of Jacksonville's employment centers while falling largely within one of Florida's fastest-growing counties. The community carries its own Ponte Vedra mailing address and ZIP code, a distinction that reflects its position between the Jacksonville and St. Augustine metro areas rather than full administrative integration into either city.
According to The PARC Group's official Nocatee website, the community is designed around a blend of residential neighborhoods, top-rated schools, parks, recreation, offices, shopping, and restaurants — the hallmarks of the master-planned model that The PARC Group has replicated across northeastern Florida. The site describes proximity to beaches, golf courses, and both major airports serving the region.
The PARC Group serves as master developer for Nocatee, and the same organization is also responsible for eTown, a master-planned community within Jacksonville proper, and for the newly announced EverRange project. This concentration of development by a single master developer across a geographic corridor — from southeastern Duval County through northeastern St. Johns County — is a structurally notable feature of the Nocatee real estate market as it stands in 2026. Individual neighborhoods within Nocatee are built by a range of homebuilders operating under the master plan framework.
The community's location near the Intracoastal Waterway and the barrier island beaches of northeastern Florida gives it the coastal proximity that has historically supported price premiums in the Ponte Vedra corridor relative to inland Jacksonville neighborhoods.
Jacksonville HMA Market Conditions
The Jacksonville Housing Market Area (HMA), as defined by HUD's Economic and Market Analysis Division, encompasses a population of approximately 1.73 million as of January 2024, with Jacksonville itself accounting for roughly 58 percent of that total. The HUD Economic and Market Analysis Division report (January 2024) characterized the HMA home sales market as balanced, documenting an estimated for-sale vacancy rate of 1.8 percent and approximately 2.8 months of inventory as of December 2023.
Mortgage rate movement has been the dominant force shaping transaction volume in the HMA over the 2021–2024 period. The HUD report, citing Freddie Mac data, recorded the 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaging 3.15 percent in 2021, rising to 5.53 percent in 2022, and reaching 7.00 percent in 2023. That rate trajectory dampened home sales and constrained affordability across the Jacksonville area, including the Nocatee corridor.
On the rental side, the same HUD report documented an overall rental vacancy rate of 11.0 percent across the HMA, with the apartment-specific vacancy rate reaching 13.5 percent in Q4 2023, following sustained multifamily construction activity since 2021. The MMG Real Estate Advisors 2025 Jacksonville Forecast, drawing on CoStar and U.S. Census data, subsequently reported that multifamily construction starts fell 61 percent year-over-year and that under-construction inventory declined 50 percent during 2024 — a contraction that positioned the rental market for a return to positive rent growth in the second half of 2025.
Population growth has sustained demand across the HMA. Since 2013, the HMA has averaged 31,200 new residents per year, with net in-migration averaging 27,450 annually — nearly three times the pace of 9,750 per year recorded between 2010 and 2013, according to the HUD report.
EverRange and the PARC Group Corridor
In September 2025, News4Jax reported that The PARC Group had announced EverRange, a new master-planned community on a 1,000-acre site off Philips Highway in Jacksonville, positioned geographically between Nocatee and eTown. The initial phase is planned to include approximately 1,500 homes, with first neighborhoods targeted to open in 2026.
As described in The PARC Group's own announcement, EverRange is planned to include a walkable town center called The Station, designed to host neighborhood shops and services. The developer states that half of the site's total land area will be preserved for green spaces, shaded trails, and native Florida foliage — a conservation component that mirrors elements of the Nocatee master plan model.
EverRange represents a geographic extension of the master-planned corridor that The PARC Group has built across the southeastern Duval County and northeastern St. Johns County area over the preceding two decades. Nocatee, eTown, and EverRange are all products of the same master developer, creating a contiguous band of planned residential development running southeast from the urban core of Jacksonville toward the St. Johns County line. This clustering concentrates new housing supply, community amenities, and commercial infrastructure in the corridor served by Philips Highway and Interstate 95, which connects Jacksonville to St. Augustine.
The opening of first EverRange neighborhoods in 2026 adds inventory to a Jacksonville market where, as the HUD report documented, overall for-sale supply remained constrained at roughly 2.8 months as of late 2023.
Jacksonville Housing Figures
The U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 documents Jacksonville's housing stock at 422,355 total units across 384,741 occupied households. The owner-occupancy rate stands at 57.4 percent and the renter-occupancy rate at 42.6 percent. The citywide median home value is $266,100, and the median gross rent is $1,375.
These figures represent the Jacksonville consolidated city-county geography in aggregate. The Nocatee corridor, straddling St. Johns County, occupies a segment of the market where prices have historically run above Jacksonville's citywide median, reflecting proximity to Ponte Vedra Beach, A-rated St. Johns County schools, and the master-planned amenity packages offered by communities in that corridor. The ACS figures do not disaggregate Nocatee specifically, but they establish the baseline against which pricing in planned communities along the Duval–St. Johns line is understood.
Jacksonville's median household income of $66,981 and median age of 36.4 — younger than Florida's state median of approximately 42 — describe a working-age population that has driven sustained demand for suburban and master-planned product in the southeastern corridor. The city's labor force participation rate of 76.2 percent and an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, as of ACS 2023, reflect the active employment base that supports residential absorption in communities like Nocatee.
Regional and Economic Context
Jacksonville's position as the fastest-growing metro in the United States — identified by the MMG Real Estate Advisors 2025 Forecast citing ESRI projections based on U.S. Census data, expanding at twice the national average — underlies the sustained development activity in the Nocatee corridor. The HMA has absorbed an average of 31,200 new residents per year since 2013, driven by net in-migration that has nearly tripled compared with the 2010–2013 pace, according to the HUD Economic and Market Analysis Division (January 2024).
Jacksonville's economy, as described by HUD, has been strengthened by corporate headquarters expanding and relocating to the area. The city's diversified base — spanning financial services, defense installations anchored by NAS Jacksonville (documented as the third-largest naval installation in the United States), logistics activity through the Port of Jacksonville (JAXPORT) on the St. Johns River, and healthcare — sustains employment and residential demand across the metro.
Nocatee's location within St. Johns County places a significant portion of the community under the jurisdiction of a county government separate from Jacksonville's consolidated Duval County administration, established by the October 1, 1968 consolidation referendum that voters approved 54,493 to 29,768, as documented by News4Jax. St. Johns County operates its own school district, land use authority, and property tax structure — factors that have contributed to the county's appeal for master-planned residential development and have shaped Nocatee's market positioning relative to Jacksonville's Duval County neighborhoods. EverRange, by contrast, is sited fully within Jacksonville's Duval County jurisdiction, placing it under the consolidated city-county government's planning and permitting authority.
Sources
- The City of Jacksonville and Duval County consolidated into one government 55 years ago — News4Jax https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2023/09/29/the-city-of-jacksonville-and-duval-county-consolidated-into-one-government-55-years-ago/ Used for: 1968 city-county consolidation effective date; August 8, 1967 referendum vote totals (54,493 to 29,768); Hans Tanzler as first consolidated mayor; four independent municipalities (Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Baldwin); consolidation as one of few in the U.S.; Jacksonville as largest city by population in Florida and briefly by land area globally
- Elevated Apartment Construction Softens Jacksonville HMA Rental Market — HUD USER, Economic and Market Analysis Division, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-spotlight-article-052824.html Used for: Jacksonville as ~58% of HMA population; HMA population 1.73 million (Jan 2024); HMA population growth averaging 31,200/yr since 2013; net in-migration averaging 27,450/yr vs. 9,750/yr 2010-2013; economy strong with corporate relocations; home sales vacancy rate 1.8% (Jan 2024); 2.8 months inventory (Dec 2023); 30-yr mortgage rate averages per Freddie Mac 3.15% (2021), 5.53% (2022), 7.00% (2023); overall rental vacancy 11.0%; apartment vacancy 13.5% Q4 2023; elevated multifamily construction since 2021
- 2025 Jacksonville Forecast — MMG Real Estate Advisors (citing U.S. Census Bureau/ESRI and CoStar data) https://mmgrea.com/2025-jacksonville-forecast/ Used for: Jacksonville metro identified as fastest-growing U.S. market per ESRI projections citing Census data; multifamily construction starts fell 61% year-over-year; under-construction inventory declined 50% in 2024; return to positive rent growth forecast by second half of 2025
- Nocatee — Master Planned Community near Jacksonville FL (The PARC Group, official community website) https://www.nocatee.com/ Used for: Nocatee described as coastal community in northeastern St. Johns County/southeastern Duval County with Ponte Vedra address; blend of residential neighborhoods, schools, parks, recreation, offices, shopping, restaurants; proximity to beaches and airports
- New master-planned community EverRange with 1,000+ homes coming to Jacksonville — News4Jax https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2025/09/16/new-master-planned-community-with-1000-homes-pickleball-courts-shops-coming-to-jacksonville-next-year/ Used for: EverRange: 1,000-acre site off Philips Highway between Nocatee and eTown in Jacksonville; ~1,500 homes initial phase; first neighborhoods opening 2026; 'The Station' walkable town center; half land preserved for green spaces/trails/native flora; developer The PARC Group
- Introducing EverRange: The Newest Master Planned Community in Northeast Florida — The PARC Group (developer primary source) https://parcgroup.net/blog/introducing-everrange-the-newest-master-planned-community-in-northeast-florida Used for: The PARC Group as master developer of EverRange; 1,500 homes across 1,000 acres in Jacksonville; PARC Group also developer of eTown and Nocatee
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2023 https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs Used for: Population (961,739); median age (36.4); median household income ($66,981); median home value ($266,100); median gross rent ($1,375); total housing units (422,355); total households (384,741); owner-occupancy rate (57.4%); renter-occupancy rate (42.6%); poverty rate (15%); unemployment rate (4.5%); labor force participation (76.2%); bachelor's degree or higher (21.6%)