Jacksonville didn't need the National Football League's Super Bowl to give it a Super Sunday. Florida's largest northeastern town and the nation's largest by land mass is hosting Sunday's Super Bowl XXXIX between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles at Jacksonville's Alltel Stadium.

Any day of the week, Jacksonville, one of Florida's hottest housing markets, scores for home sellers as single-family home prices and sales can attest -- prices rose nearly 15 percent last year, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.

With sales also jumping 15 percent last year, Jacksonville's sales increase ranked 6th highest among the 20 metropolitan statistical areas tracked by the association.

Also, the number of single-family residential building permits issued by the four counties in the Jacksonville area rose 14 percent last year, according to county building departments and the Northeast Florida Builders Association.

Ten of the nation's largest home builders vie for market share in a housing market of 787,000 residents, a population that grows by about 2 percent a year, in one of the nation's Top 20 housing markets, according to John Burns' Real Estate Consulting.

A lesser known and somewhat cooler town than most of Florida's hot spots, Jacksonville has one of the Sunshine states' hottest housing markets because of a housing variety that offers something for everyone from first timers to big spenders looking for a water front view.

The median price was $159,000 in 2004, according to the association, but there's an ample supply of homes ranging in price from less than $100,000 to more than $500,000 making the market appealing to all income groups, according to Site Reports data from Claritas, Inc., a demographics marketing information firm in San Diego, CA.

"Jacksonville is a spread-out city (at 840 square miles, the continental U.S.'s largest) that comprises all of Duval County. The north end and west end are two areas that continue to offer locations with more affordable housing, while the south and east tend to offer more robust appreciation," said Olde Carriage Realty agent Marina Riggio, in a recent report to Realty Times' Jacksonville Market Conditions.

"New construction continues to boom in Northeast Florida, while resales are rapidly turning over to accommodate buyers who are interested in pre-owned homes, may not have the time to build a new home, or are interested in an area that may not have new construction. Waterfront property continues to sell at a premium because of the limited amount of land and property available," Riggio reported.

With more gray days than Miami or Fort Lauderdale far to the south on the state's peninsula, Jacksonville, in northeast Florida near the Georgia border, nevertheless gets an average 220 days of sunshine, which doesn't hurt the housing market.

The city's business and growth climate is just as sunny.

• Jacksonville has been ranked the nation's No. 1 city for business expansion by Expansion Management magazine twice in the last five years and Money Magazine has consistently rated the area one of its "Top 10 Best Places to Live."

• Jacksonville residents are watching a $2.2 billion comprehensive growth management plan, the Better Jacksonville Plan, which is providing road and infrastructure improvements, environmental preservation and targeted economic development, and new and improved public facilities. The plan provided funding for the construction of a new sports and entertainment arena , equestrian center, and baseball stadium.

• In 1995 Jacksonville snared the NFL's expansion team the Jacksonville Jaguars, which enjoyed a winning season in 2004.

• Jacksonville is an import-export town. The ships of more than 100 nations pass through Jacksonville's port, the No. 1 cargo-value port in Florida which also hosts a Naval Air Station and shipyard.

• The Jacksonville International Airport is the 4th fastest growing large airport in the U.S. and Florida's fastest growing airport overall.

For those who live there:

• Jacksonville operates the largest urban park system in the United States, providing services at more than 350 locations located on more than 6,000 acres.

• Jacksonville's 100 golf courses, with 1,3000 holes of golf makes it a duffer's paradise and challenge for the pros with courses designed by Nicklaus, Palmer, Ross and professional tournaments including the Tournament Players Championship (TPC) at Sawgrass.

• Households enjoy an average income of $57,167 and in December 2004 enjoyed an unemployment rate of only 4.2 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

"Our beautiful waterways along the St. Johns River and the Intercoastal waterways allow for water entertainment and enjoyment," Keller Williams First Coast Realty's agent Celena Alters Blunk reported to Realty Times Market Conditions for Jacksonville.

Jacksonville is not a perfect town, but the Super Bowl has made one of its shortcomings a cash cow for some entrepreneurial homeowners.

Super Sunday is expected to draw an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 visitors and existing homeowners were asking as much as $2,000 a week to rent their homes and help fill a void left by the city's limited hotel and motel room supply. Homeowners sought rentals even after the town planned to dock five cruise ships on the St. Johns River to add an extra 7,000 floating hotel rooms.

Coldwell Banker hosted one rental Web site, while another site Super Bull Rentals By Owner, changed it's name from Super Bowl Rentals By Owner, after the NFL warned the owner it infringed upon the professional sport league's intellectual property rights.

"North Florida's growth is up and coming with Jacksonville out in front. Although a good sellers market at this time, the new construction gives the consumer the opportunity for exactly what they are looking for," said Blunk.

Published: February 4, 2005

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.