Jacksonville is a lovely little city situated on the coast of NC, supporting a population of around 74,000 and employing about 18.7k people (~2% growth year over year).

Jacksonville's annual population growth rate is sitting around 0.34% which is not a highlight, -1.10% growth since the 2020 Consensus has been recorded. Persons over 65 account for 6.2% of the population. Median age of 23, 15 min average commute to work, and around 6,000 veterans locally. Jacksonville is the 14th largest city in NC, and the 553rd largest in the US. It should be noted that Jacksonville's population more than doubled between 1990 and 2000, rising from 30k to over 66k in that decade, and as a result of that explosive growth Jacksonville overtook the population of many cities. Jacksonville has been the recent beneficiary of a plethora of new builds, which tend to drive wealthier individuals to a location. Something the local economy has been benefitting from recently.

Jacksonville of course is the famous home of Camp Lejeune the Marine Base established in the 1940's, and still home to nearly 160,000 active and retired military, their families and all work personnel. Lejeune is a massive military installation, built on 11,000 acres, just under 7,000 buildings, and 450 roads it's one of the largest bases in the Country. About 20% of the local workforce in Jacksonville is employed in the Military. It's easy to find Fort Bragg (55% of military intermingled with civilian), not so easy to find for Jacksonville, therefore I think the statistic of ~20% intermingled is likely the closest guess we're gonna get to. This is still extremely solid when you consider ~39,000 Active personnel are stationed there, out of the ~160,000 working on post. So SFM/MFH Rentals are viable options as military make great buyers/renters.

Lejeune is fully outfitted to create a mini city inside the base, it hosts a massive array of amenities for the local areas, including: three elementary schools, one primary school, one secondary school, one middle school, one high school, the Lejeune Inn has 90 rooms, post office, 12 Marine Marts, two golf courses and two driving ranges, bowling alley, two community centers, six recreation centers, three hobby shops, five pools, two movie theaters, a marina, banks and credit unions, fitness centers, and even library on base. There is no need to ever leave when you look at all that. No wonder it has been awarded the Commander-in-Chief’s Award for Installation Excellence six times.

We all know about the drinking water. Moving on.

Jacksonville New River Area and Country Club have been the recent targets of it's 5 year plan for infrastructure, cleaning and revamping much of these areas, including downtown. The work has been done to promote non-profits, and affordable housing, and they continue to have more on their list to work with. They are typically working with a budget of ~$600k annually for their housing projects, neither a small sum nor exactly a massive one either.

Jacksonville is putting less than 1% (.0096) of their GDP back into housing and renovations combined. While you can take a look at Charlotte and find them investing 0.7% of their GDP in affordable housing alone. A combined total of $205 Million at 1.3% of GDP to be reinvested in Charlotte. The GDPs used were $6.2 B for Jacksonville, and $156.7 B for Charlotte. I'd like to see those %'s brought up a bit in Jacksonville to compete with places like Charlotte. Obviously Jacksonville is not experiencing the growth that Charlotte is, however updating and renewing your city brings more people, so Jacksonville need not stop it's work any time soon. Using the GDP as a reference shouldn't be indicative of whether or not they are doing beneficial work, just interesting to know how much they are putting back into their city with a reference point.

Jacksonville's largest school is Coastal Carolina Community College with about 3500 enrolled students in 2020, of which about 45% are full time students. There are a few of schools nearby, but this is no college town. Looking around the 5-6k mark of enrollments between all the colleges, and they are running a less than 1/2 as full time students. Student housing is on the table, just not as needed as places like Greenville/Durham/Raleigh/Charlotte.

Let's talk crime, then numbers. Jacksonville sits at a 22 out 100 on the crime index (with 100 being the safest), This is a very agreeable number, especially when you consider places like Burlington (Population ~60k) with a 4/100 in NC. Not a bad number to sport around!

The median home value is around $160,000, median sale price is at $220,000. Average DOM around 45, with average homes getting list price. Some homes are getting multiple offers still, there are some buyers here. I'd consider it "Somewhat" Competitive.

About a 34.7% owner occupied ratio. Poverty rate is around 13%, there is a decent need for affordable housing in this market. It has been addressed by local government as a need in the area, as they have spent money working on the issue in past 6 months.

Jacksonville has a cost of living ranked as 45/50th most expensive, which means as far as NC is concerned it is extremely agreeable in pricing. People in Jacksonville get to enjoy some of the benefits of the cheapest prices in NC. Jacksonville also makes the cut in the top 46% of cities to live in, in the world.

To conclude, Jacksonville is one of the markets in NC that should stay on an investors radar. It has massive potential. Investors can aim to work more with the military or the civilian side, they have the options of SFH or MFH, and any military town is going to need STRs/MTRs and LTRs. New builders are having a great time here right now, and Jacksonville may be entering another phase of growth soon. It's proximity to one of the largest military bases in the US makes it extremely attractive for travel, whether in or out, and there's a constant influx of new people who need places to stay. The savvy investor can make some solid profit when the right deal slides across the table.

As always looking for questions, comments, concerns, and any feedback. It's impossible to know everything about a market, so any value add information is expressly desired, and I appreciate it! I'm looking to connect with more people on here, so please reach out!

For more reading and sources:

https://www.rate.com/research/...

https://www.realtor.com/reales...

https://www.neighborhoodscout....

https://worldpopulationreview....

https://datausa.io/profile/geo...

https://datausa.io/profile/uni...

https://www.census.gov/quickfa...

https://livingcost.org/cost/un...

https://www.jacksonvillenc.gov...

https://militarybases.com/nort...

https://www.forbes.com/places/...