Avondale Real Estate in Jacksonville in 2026: Values, Rents and Historic Rules

The ACS 2020-2024 estimate puts the median owner-occupied home value in Census Tract 22, the stand-in for Avondale used here, at $402,500, well above the $293,700 median for the City of Jacksonville.

Avondale has no Census place of its own, so Census Tract 22 in Duval County is the closest official stand-in. The Census Geocoder places Boone Park at 3700 Park Street in that tract (Census Geocoder), along with Fishweir Elementary at 3977 Herschel Street (Census Geocoder) and the 3600 block of St. Johns Avenue (Census Geocoder). The City of Jacksonville describes Boone Park as located in the Avondale area (City of Jacksonville).

The American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates give Census Tract 22 a median value of $402,500 for owner-occupied homes (ACS DP04, Tract 22). The whole 32205 ZIP area, which reaches well beyond Avondale, comes in at $291,900 (ACS DP04, ZCTA 32205). Duval County sits at $303,500 (ACS DP04, Duval County) and the City of Jacksonville at $293,700 (ACS DP04, Jacksonville).

These are ACS five-year estimates covering 2020 to 2024, not sale prices. On these figures the Tract 22 median is about 37 percent above the citywide median, while the wider 32205 ZIP area is slightly below it.

Most Avondale houses predate 1940: ACS 2020-2024 counts 51.1 percent of the 2,579 homes in Census Tract 22 as built in 1939 or earlier, and 0.0 percent as built in 2020 or later.

Another 24.6 percent of Tract 22 homes went up between 1940 and 1949, so roughly three in four predate 1950 (ACS DP04, Tract 22). Across the 32205 ZIP, only 28.4 percent date to 1939 or earlier (ACS DP04, ZCTA 32205). Single detached houses make up 82.1 percent of Tract 22 units (ACS DP04, Tract 22).

The subdivision itself dates from 1920. The city's historic preservation guidelines for Riverside and Avondale record that by the summer of 1920 investors led by Telfair Stockton had assembled a large tract including all of Edgewood and the adjoining riverfront, at a cost of over $500,000, and developed an exclusive subdivision that Stockton named Avondale (City of Jacksonville guidelines). Boone Park followed when the City bought most of its land from William Elijah Boone and four other owners in 1926 (City of Jacksonville).

For owners inside the historic district, the City lists repairs to windows and siding, and site work such as fencing, driveways and sheds, among the exterior work that needs a Certificate of Appropriateness (City of Jacksonville).

The ACS 2020-2024 median gross rent in Census Tract 22 is $1,579 a month, $114 above the City of Jacksonville median of $1,465.

Renters are a minority in Census Tract 22: 69.8 percent of occupied homes there are owner-occupied, against 57.6 percent citywide (ACS DP04, Tract 22, ACS DP04, Jacksonville). Owners carrying a mortgage in Tract 22 report median monthly costs of $1,902, compared with $1,602 across the 32205 ZIP (ACS DP04, ZCTA 32205).

For a current yardstick, HUD's fiscal 2026 Small Area Fair Market Rents, which all Housing Choice Voucher programs operated in the Jacksonville, FL HUD Metro FMR Area use, set ZIP 32205 at $1,260 for a one bedroom, $1,510 for a two bedroom and $1,860 for a three bedroom; neighboring 32204 in Riverside is $1,410 for a two bedroom (HUD FY 2026 Small Area FMRs). A Small Area Fair Market Rent is set for a whole ZIP code, and HUD says it allows multiple voucher payment standards within a metropolitan area; it is not a survey of Avondale asking rents (HUD).

Any exterior change to a house in the Riverside Avondale local historic district, from windows and siding to fences, driveways and sheds, needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the City of Jacksonville before work begins.

The City's Historic Preservation Section says a COA is required for all properties within the historic districts and for local landmarks; once approved it is valid for 1 year, and after work has begun it stays valid for 5 years (City of Jacksonville). Interior work also needs one when it changes windows, exterior doors or a feature such as a chimney (City of Jacksonville).

Applications go through the City's online portal, LUZAP. Staff sort each one against the 2026 COA Matrix: administrative approvals take a week or two, while anything that must go to the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission takes a minimum of one month from submittal to signed approval (City of Jacksonville). The Commission is mayor-appointed and usually meets on the 4th Wednesday of the month, except in November and December, and an Avondale application headed there should be filed about six weeks before the meeting (City of Jacksonville).

Skipping the step costs money in Avondale: work started without an approved COA may receive a violation, the after-the-fact application fee is doubled (an alteration becomes $630), and outcomes range from approval to denial requiring full reversal (City of Jacksonville). The City says owners can check whether a property is in a historic district on its Land Development Map, under the Local Historic Districts layer (City of Jacksonville), and it offers a search for past COAs by address (City of Jacksonville). Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the City of Jacksonville website.

Yes: the City of Jacksonville Historic Preservation Property Tax Exemption lowers the City share of the tax bill on the added value of an approved restoration of a locally designated Avondale property.

The exemption is limited in time and partial: only the City of Jacksonville millage is applied to the lower taxable value, while every other taxing authority still taxes the full renovated value (City of Jacksonville). The application should be reviewed by the City's Planning and Development Department before work starts, must meet the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, and needs approval by Jacksonville City Council (City of Jacksonville).

A second program, the REHAB grant, targets historic commercial buildings rather than houses: the building must be income-producing, mixed-use or owned by a not-for-profit, at least 50 years old, and declared critically endangered by the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission. Ordinance 2023-316, amended by Ordinance 2024-0847, caps awards at $100,000. The City page still headlines the 2026 application cycle as open, but it gives the deadline to apply as Tuesday, June 30, 2026, a date that has passed (City of Jacksonville).

One dated document is worth knowing about. The Riverside and Avondale design guidelines that the City still posts are dated January 1992 (City of Jacksonville), while the COA Matrix and New Construction Supplement are 2026 documents (City of Jacksonville); the matrix sorts scopes of work into administrative review or Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission review.

Fishweir Elementary, at 3977 Herschel Street inside Census Tract 22, earned an A from the Florida Department of Education in 2026 with 65 percent of possible points.

Duval County Public Schools lists Fishweir Elementary at 3977 Herschel Street, Jacksonville, Florida 32205, telephone 904-381-3910, with a bell schedule of 8:30 to 3:00 (Duval County Public Schools). The state's 2025-26 school grades record the A and the 65 percent score (Florida Department of Education).

Census tract lines are not school attendance zones, so the zoned school for a specific address is worth confirming with Duval County Public Schools. The district also lists school hours of 8:00 to 3:30 and office hours of 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for Fishweir (Duval County Public Schools).