Is the Jacksonville rental market still hot?

[James Elden]

I had been doing some research about Jacksonville and am going there soon and it seemed the rental market was hot with low vacancy rates. I'm looking now at listings for properties that are lower end, in the urban core area and west of there so I then checked Zillow rentals to see what's out there in terms of the rental prices and times on market, etc and I'm seeing more rentals than I thought there would be, some have been on over 30 days as well. Some seem like decent houses for the neighborhood (interiors up to date, not super run down or anything), I'm wondering if anyone has any insight as to whether the rental market is cooling off in these lower end neighborhoods or maybe some of these are just landlords trying to stretch too much and asking more for rent than the market currently is bearing? 

[Matt Leber]

@James Elden we have some lower end units in west Jacksonville that we have been raising the rents on for the last two years, starting $550 now up to $775. Unfortunately most of our turnovers have come in slower than normal holiday months (Nov,Dec, Jan) but we most times have had a renter within 45 days of posting. And it’s not for lack of applicants. I agree with @Mark Fries, Property management is being smarter this time around to find the right fit. Weeding out a lot of applicants with eviction history and failure to submit proper documentation, or failure to show the ability to pay security deposit after approval.