Housing stock and age — Sebastian, Florida

The typical Sebastian home dates from the mid-1990s: the median year built for the city's housing units is 1995 in Census ACS 2020-2024 estimates, four years newer than Indian River County's 1991 and seven years newer than Florida's 1988.

The median comes from table B25035 for Sebastian city, with a margin of error of 2 years, so the true figure sits between 1993 and 1997. The county median of 1991 and the Florida median of 1988 each carry a margin of 1 year, which keeps all three medians apart. A median year built of 1995 means half of the Sebastian stock went up in 1995 or later and half earlier.

The oldest band is thin in Sebastian. Homes built before 1980 number 1,484 (875 plus 470 plus 120 plus 0 plus 19), or 11.4 percent of 12,976 units in the Sebastian DP04 profile. The matching count is 22,159 of 86,440 units, 25.6 percent, in the Indian River County profile and 34.0 percent in the Florida profile. The 1959-or-earlier row adds the three oldest decade shares in each column (0.9, 0.0 and 0.1 percent for Sebastian).

Most Sebastian homes went up in two building waves on the city's lot grid, the 1980s with 3,910 units and the 2000s with 3,769, which together hold 59.2 percent of the city's housing.

The lots came first. The City of Sebastian's history of its drainage system says General Development Corporation designed and built the street and drainage network in the late 1950s for approximately 15,000 single-family home sites, laid out with canals, ditches and swales to 1950s standards. Houses filled those lots over the following decades rather than all at once, which is why so few Sebastian homes are as old as the street grid.

The arithmetic: 3,910 plus 3,769 is 7,679, and 7,679 divided by 12,976 is 59.2 percent. Adding the 1990s band of 2,300 brings the three decades from 1980 to 2009 to 9,979 units, 76.9 percent of Sebastian's housing in table B25034. The code labels are listed in the B25034 variable list.

Small bands deserve caution. The 2020-or-later count of 192 has a margin of 94, the 1950s count of 120 a margin of 90, and the 19 homes listed as built in 1939 or earlier a margin of 31, larger than the estimate itself. Decade totals also shift between releases: the Sebastian 1990s band read 2,817 in the 2015-2019 profile and 2,300 in 2020-2024, so each decade count is best read as approximate rather than as houses gained or lost.

Sebastian is overwhelmingly a city of detached single-family houses, 11,286 of its 12,976 units or 87.0 percent in ACS 2020-2024, compared with 65.9 percent in Indian River County and 54.7 percent across Florida.

Large apartment and condominium buildings are rare inside Sebastian. Only 188 units, 1.4 percent, sit in buildings of 20 or more units, against 6.7 percent countywide and 14.4 percent statewide. The grouped rows in the table add the profile's separate lines (1.4 plus 1.1 percent for 2 to 4 units in Sebastian; 0.7 plus 0.4 percent for 5 to 19).

Mobile homes are the second most common type, 855 units or 6.6 percent, with a margin of 228. The 2015-2019 Sebastian profile counted 568 (margin 154) out of 11,590 units, but the two ranges, 414 to 722 and 627 to 1,083, overlap, so the survey does not prove the mobile home count grew. The total stock did grow: 12,976 units against 11,590, a gain of 1,386 or 12.0 percent (1,386 divided by 11,590), with ranges that do not meet. The detached share held almost level, 87.4 percent then and 87.0 percent now.

Three bedrooms is the Sebastian standard: 7,792 of the city's housing units, or 60.0 percent, have three bedrooms in ACS 2020-2024, far above the 45.5 percent share in Indian River County and 38.1 percent in Florida.

The pattern fits a city laid out as approximately 15,000 single-family home sites. Studios and one-bedroom units, common in apartment buildings, make up 1.7 percent of Sebastian's stock against 12.3 percent statewide (2.3 plus 10.0 percent). Counting rooms of every kind, the most common Sebastian layout has five rooms, 4,245 units or 32.7 percent, and the median is 5.4 rooms, the same as the county, according to the Sebastian housing profile. Large houses are uncommon: 4 or more bedrooms account for 12.8 percent of Sebastian units (11.7 plus 1.1), against 18.0 percent in Florida.

The mix has barely moved. The 2015-2019 profile recorded 57.6 percent three-bedroom units and 14.4 percent four-bedroom units in Sebastian; the three-bedroom share has a margin of 3.9 points in the newer release, so the 2.4-point rise is within sampling error.

Nearly every occupied home in Sebastian heats with electricity, 94.3 percent of 11,586 occupied units in ACS 2020-2024, slightly above Indian River County at 93.5 percent and Florida at 90.4 percent.

Gas heat is uncommon in Sebastian. Utility gas heats 1.3 percent of occupied Sebastian homes, 150 units, compared with 2.8 percent in the county and 5.4 percent statewide, and bottled or tank gas another 0.5 percent, according to the Sebastian DP04 profile. The survey recorded no Sebastian homes heated with fuel oil, coal or wood.

Solar heat appears in 113 Sebastian homes, 1.0 percent, twice the county and state share of 0.5 percent, but the estimate carries a margin of 107 units, so it may be much smaller. The 2015-2019 profile recorded 14 solar-heated homes and an electric share of 96.1 percent. Labels for each heating fuel line are in the DP04 variable list.

Year built decides which Sebastian homes went up under the statewide Florida Building Code, whose first edition replaced all local codes on March 1, 2002, and which homes can qualify for state wind mitigation grants.

A Florida Senate bill summary on the building code records that the 2000 Legislature authorized the code and that its first edition replaced local codes on March 1, 2002. In Sebastian, 7,694 homes were built before 2000 (2,300 in the 1990s plus 5,394 earlier), 59.3 percent of 12,976 units, and so predate that statewide code; the 3,769 homes of the 2000 to 2009 decade straddle the switch, and the census table cannot split them by year.

The state's My Safe Florida Home grants follow age too. Under section 215.5586 of the 2026 Florida Statutes, a grant requires a home built before January 1, 2008, as reflected on the county property appraiser's website, and the home must be a site-built, owner-occupied single-family unit on its own parcel, either detached or attached and no more than three stories, with a homestead exemption. A note in the statute says these 2026 amendments expire July 1, 2027. Most Sebastian housing dates from before 2010, 11,463 of 12,976 units (12,976 minus 192 minus 1,321), or 88.3 percent, though the 2000s decade also holds homes built after the 2008 cutoff.

Wind mitigation inspections use a state form. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation revised its Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form, OIR-B1-1802, and inspections on or after April 1, 2026 must use the new version, according to a Citizens Property Insurance notice; Citizens still accepts the prior form if it was completed within five years before that date and the structure is unchanged. Last verified: October 12, 2026, against Census Bureau tables DP04, B25034 and B25035, the City of Sebastian drainage history page, Section 215.5586 on the Florida Senate site and the Citizens form notice.