Eviction filings in St. Johns County climbed to 718 in 2025, the highest annual total recorded in at least seven years, as one of Northeast Florida's fastest-growing counties grapples with housing costs that are outpacing what many local workers actually earn. It marks the fifth consecutive year that filings have risen in the county, a streak that researchers say reflects a widening gap between what people pay for shelter and what their paychecks can cover.
The figures, drawn from University of Florida Shimberg Center data and reported by News4JAX, show St. Johns County eviction filings rising from 499 in 2019 to 292 in 2020, then climbing steadily each year afterward: 341 in 2021, 502 in 2022, 584 in 2023, 657 in 2024, and finally 718 last year. Anne Ray, who manages the Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse at UF's Shimberg Center, told the outlet that evictions and housing loss have been increasing for several years, and that the trend reflects a growing gap between housing costs and household incomes.
The dip in 2020 lines up with pandemic-era eviction moratoriums and emergency rental assistance programs that helped many people remain in their homes, according to the report. Filings began climbing again once those pandemic assistance programs expired, a pattern visible in both St. Johns and neighboring Duval County's numbers.
A County Built on Growth, Squeezed by Its Own Success
St. Johns County is one of the fastest-growing areas in Northeast Florida, and that growth itself has brought higher housing costs, per the News4JAX report. U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts data show the county's population reaching 334,928 as of July 2024, up 22.5% from the 2020 Census, while its median household income hit $109,839 in 2024 dollars — a figure that on its surface suggests broad prosperity.
But that county-level wealth masks strain further down the income ladder. Many St. Johns County workers have jobs that do not pay enough to comfortably afford local rents, the News4JAX report notes, and median gross rent in the county reached $1,922 per month in 2024, among the highest of Florida's 67 counties, with a median rent-to-income burden ratio of 35.1%, according to Cost by County data. A local workforce housing study found that entry-level teachers earning $47,500 and hospitality workers earning $28,300 remain priced out even of housing the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners designated as affordable under a 2023 ordinance capping sales prices at $260,000.
Ray said housing costs include commuting costs, according to the News4JAX report. Workers unable to afford housing near St. Johns County jobs may move to less expensive parts of Duval or Putnam counties, and that shift can mean higher gas, vehicle and transportation expenses for workers moving farther from job centers.
Duval County's Eviction Crisis Dwarfs Its Neighbor
Despite St. Johns County's climbing numbers, they remain small next to Duval County, which had more than 20 times St. Johns County's eviction filings in 2025 and continues to post the highest eviction rate of any county in Florida, according to UF data cited in the same report. Duval County recorded 15,026 eviction filings in 2025, up 9% from 13,818 the year before, following a trajectory that ran from 13,174 filings in 2019 down to 9,689 in 2020, then back up through 10,644 in 2021, 12,756 in 2022, and 13,879 in 2023.
Duval is Florida's sixth most populous county, behind Miami-Dade, which holds the top spot statewide. St. Johns County's eviction rate remains below the statewide average even as its filings rise, while Duval's rate leads the state — a split that researchers describe as part of a broader Northeast Florida affordability challenge that experts say plays out similarly across the region, per the News4JAX report.
That regional pattern echoes a separate Jacksonville Eviction Diversion Program, launched in January 2024 by the city, the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court, and Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, which has helped more than 400 Duval County households with a reported success rate exceeding 80%. St. Johns County currently has no comparable court-partnered diversion framework.
Statewide Trends and a Shrinking Pipeline of Affordable Units
Florida recorded 142,576 total residential eviction filings statewide in 2025, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families, a roughly 3% decrease from 146,856 in 2024 but still 10.7% higher than 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Under Florida Statute § 83.56(3), landlords must deliver a formal written three-day notice demanding past-due rent or surrender of the premises before filing a court eviction case, a legal threshold that shapes how quickly a missed payment can turn into a court filing.
Statewide, subsidized assisted rental housing totals just 306,400 units across 3,047 developments, comprising only 10% of Florida's total rental housing supply, per the University of Florida's Shimberg Center. Meanwhile, residential building permits in St. Johns County fell to 5,575 in 2024 after topping 8,200 in both 2021 and 2022, a cooling construction pipeline that could restrict future rental supply even as the county's population keeps growing.
Rising filings in a county with St. Johns' wealth and growth trajectory illustrate how housing costs continuing to outpace household incomes can strain even relatively affluent communities, particularly for the service-sector workers who keep those communities running. Whether that gap narrows may depend on whether the county eventually adopts diversion tools similar to those already operating next door in Duval.
