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First Coast STR Market Report: Amelia Island to St. Augustine in 2026

St. Augustine, Florida

Northeast Florida's First Coast is not one short-term rental market — it is five overlapping demand engines stitched together along a hundred-mile Atlantic corridor, each with a different guest, a different seasonality curve, and a radically different regulatory posture. From Amelia Island's supply-constrained resort island at the Georgia line through Jacksonville Beach's walkable bar-and-pier volume trade, Ponte Vedra's golf-luxury ADR ceiling, St. Augustine's heritage-tourism engine, and St. Augustine Beach's nightly-rental beach zone on Anastasia Island, the host who treats "First Coast" as a single comp set will misprice, mis-zone, and mis-market. AirROI's June 2026 snapshot — the consistent baseline across this report — shows the spread in plain numbers: Ponte Vedra Beach at roughly $603 ADR and $67,112 average annual revenue per listing versus Jacksonville Beach at $355 ADR, 46.9% occupancy, and $50,381 annual revenue versus Amelia Island's luxury-enclave geography at $490 ADR but only 27.9% occupancy. Those figures are directional and must be re-verified at publish time against current AirROI, AirDNA, and municipal sources; they also understate the booked-night occupancy, which AirDNA and Rabbu quote 15–25 points higher because the platforms use different denominators.


What unifies the corridor is geography and feeder-market DNA. Jacksonville metro, Atlanta and the broader Georgia I-95 drive corridor, Orlando overflow, and JAX fly-in traffic supply the bulk of demand across every sub-market. March is the universal revenue peak for most First Coast towns — spring break, The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, the Amelia Concours d'Elegance, and pre-summer mild weather compress bookings into the year's strongest month — while September is structurally the hardest month to fill, with hurricane-season caution and school restart knocking occupancy into trough territory across Amelia, Jax Beach, St. Augustine, and St. Augustine Beach alike. The exception pattern worth noting: Amelia's luxury micro-cut peaks in July rather than March, reflecting summer family resort demand on the island's oceanfront corridor.


Florida-wide tourism set records in 2024 with roughly 143 million visitors; the First Coast's county-level bed-tax collections — Duval at $31.5 million, St. Johns above $23 million, Nassau near $12 million — confirm that leisure demand is real even when individual sub-markets show signs of softening. Amelia Island's CVB warned in 2025 that the 2026 booking pace was running behind prior years, a caution flag worth carrying into any September-shoulder pricing conversation.


The decision that matters most for operators and buyers is not which market has the highest ADR on a dashboard — it is which regulatory regime your parcel sits inside, because Florida's local STR patchwork survived intact when Governor DeSantis vetoed SB 280 in June 2024. That veto preserved grandfathered municipal restrictions in Fernandina Beach, St. Augustine, Atlantic Beach, and Neptune Beach while leaving registration-and-go posture in St. Augustine Beach and much of unincorporated St. Johns County. The sections below compare sub-markets on the dimensions hosts actually use: rate posture, occupancy and volume, seasonality shape, event calendars, feeder markets, and the regulatory friction gradient that often matters more than RevPAR on a spreadsheet.


Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach: High ADR, Soft Occupancy, Hard Supply Caps

Amelia Island occupies the most supply-constrained position on the First Coast. The City of Fernandina Beach requires a Resort Rental Dwelling Permit (RRDP) for legal short-term rental operations, permits new resort rentals only in R-3 High Density Residential zoning, and grandfathered properties holding permits before October 3, 2000, represent a meaningful share of the legal inventory that new entrants cannot replicate. RRDP fees are approximately $300 for new applications and $200 for annual renewal per the city's ordinance packet — verify current amounts with the Building Department at draft — and operating without a permit incurs a $1,000 penalty, with active enforcement in 2024–2025. The RRDP number must appear in all advertisements.


On performance, the data geography splits sharply. AirROI's "Amelia Island" luxury-enclave cut — just 23 active listings in June 2026 — shows approximately $490 ADR, 27.9% occupancy, $141 RevPAR, and $33,684 average annual revenue, with peak July at roughly $8,017 monthly revenue and January trough near $2,126. The broader Fernandina Beach working market — 1,018 active listings on AirROI — averages $440 ADR, 38.3% occupancy, and $42,651 annual revenue, with March as the revenue peak. Cross-platform triangulation pushes occupancy higher when Vrbo and booked-night methodologies enter the mix; disclose the range rather than quoting a single platform. Large oceanfront homes clear $100,000 or more annually in top-performer tiers, and the Amelia Concours d'Elegance week of March 5–8, 2026 remains the island's single biggest ADR spike — one of the top automotive gatherings in the world, drawing a national collector-car crowd that fills resort-adjacent inventory for miles.


The host profile here skews affluent second-home owners and resort-adjacent investors competing against The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island and the Omni Amelia Island Resort & Spa — a rate-over-volume market where positioning beats discounting. Nassau County tourism supports roughly 12,700 jobs and collected approximately $12 million in tourist development tax in FY2024–25, but the softening in the 2026 booking pace signals that operators should not assume automatic rate growth. Regulatory reality outside R-3 and grandfathered stock includes a four-week minimum stay in most other Fernandina zones and a 24/7 local contact requirement with a roughly 30-minute response obligation — verify the exact operational rules for the subject parcel. Unincorporated Nassau County properties follow a different jurisdiction; diligence the parcel before modeling revenue from a neighbor's listing.


Jacksonville Beach: Volume, Occupancy, and the Viable Duval Beach Market

Jacksonville Beach is the First Coast's occupancy-led, year-round earner among the three independent Duval County beach municipalities. AirROI June 2026 shows 767 active listings, 46.9% occupancy — the highest in this report — $355 ADR, $166 RevPAR, and $50,381 average annual revenue, with revenue up 24.8% year-over-year against supply growth of only 7.0%, a tightening signal that demand is outpacing new inventory. Peak March runs approximately $7,631 monthly revenue at 59.5% occupancy and $436 ADR; September trough — directly relevant to shoulder-season content — falls to roughly $3,722 at 42.2% occupancy. The market benefits from NFL Jacksonville Jaguars home-game weekends, downtown Jacksonville convention and business spillover, Springing the Blues at Seawalk Pavilion April 10–12, 2026, and a local restaurant-and-bar scene that fills shoulder weeks, a pure seasonal beach town cannot.


Regulatory posture is medium-friction but operable. Jacksonville Beach requires a Short-Term Vacation Rental Registration Certificate through Planning and Development, a Fire Marshal inspection before initial issuance, and an annual fee of approximately $150 — verify current fee schedule at draft — plus Duval County Local Business Tax Receipt, Florida DBPR vacation rental licensing, and remittance of Duval's 6% tourist development tax stacked on 6% state sales tax for a combined transient rate commonly quoted around 12–13.5% depending on surtax framing. This is the viable Duval beach market for nightly turnover. Atlantic Beach next door effectively bans residential STRs under 90 consecutive days in all residential zones — a pre-2011 grandfathered restriction with only 23 legal AirROI listings, averaging $11,311 in annual revenue and declining performance. Neptune Beach prohibits STR in all residential zoning where rental is defined as less than 28 days, leaving roughly 35 listings with long 11-night average stays. The regulatory contrast between Jax Beach and its quieter neighbors is the single most important diligence fact for Duval buyers.


Ponte Vedra Beach: Golf Luxury, ADR Leadership, and The Players Week

Ponte Vedra Beach is unincorporated St. Johns County's premium market — TPC Sawgrass, THE PLAYERS Championship each March, gated golf neighborhoods, and Atlantic beachfront that commands the corridor's highest ADR. AirROI June 2026 shows 211 active listings, 40.8% occupancy, $603 ADR — the highest in this dossier — $243 RevPAR, and $67,112 average annual revenue, with revenue up 16.8% year-over-year against 33.5% supply growth. Rabbu's seasonally adjusted projection runs higher, at approximately $93,392 in annual revenue on a $520 ADR — disclose both; the truth for a typical listing likely sits in the lower-middle. Peak season averages near $11,226 monthly revenue in July at 55.6% occupancy; THE PLAYERS week in March remains the single largest demand and ADR event of the year for the entire First Coast corridor, filling rentals for miles and spilling into Jax Beach and St. Augustine.


Unincorporated St. Johns County governs Ponte Vedra with a registration regime adopted in 2021: county STR registration, health and safety rules, a 10-guest occupancy cap phased in for existing rentals over three years, and a parking ratio of at least one space per three guests — verify current phase-in status and any HOA or condo-association carve-outs at draft. This is low-regulation relative to St. Augustine city, but not registration-free. Hosts skew affluent second-home owners and golf-investor LLCs; properties near TPC Sawgrass and Sawgrass Beach Club carry measurable premiums. Supply growth of 33.5% on AirROI is a watch item — rates are still rising, but luxury demand that cools will compress faster here than in occupancy-led Jax Beach because moderate occupancy in the low 40s means rate dependence.


St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach: Heritage Engine Versus Nightly Beach Zone

St. Augustine is the corridor's heritage-tourism powerhouse — the nation's oldest continuously occupied European-founded city, year-round history travelers, and Nights of Lights from November 21, 2026, through January 18, 2027, when more than three million lights blanket the historic district for two months and lift otherwise-soft November, December, and January demand. AirROI's broader St. Augustine geography shows 1,520 active listings, 42.7% occupancy, $330 ADR, $147 RevPAR, and $38,919 average annual revenue, with a peak in March near $7,452 at 62.4% occupancy and a September trough near $3,149 at 34.3% occupancy. Rabbu and Airbtics seasonally adjusted cuts run higher — approximately $55,000 annual revenue with higher booked-night occupancy — and supply growth has been aggressive in recent vintages; re-verify current YoY supply figures at draft.


The city's regulatory regime creates a two-tier market that shapes listing strategy more than any amenity upgrade. City of St. Augustine registration requires St. Augustine Fire Department life-safety inspection at registration and annually, with fees under Resolution 2025-41 at approximately $303.03 base plus $79.30 per rental bedroom — verify current schedule — and zoning splits that dictate minimum stays: RS-1 and RS-2 zones permit weekly rentals only with nightly stays prohibited; HP-1 Historic Preservation permits monthly rentals only; other districts allow nightly if registered. Occupancy caps run two persons per bedroom plus two children under 18. The frequency caps explain why 43.9% of city listings carry 30-plus-night minimums on AirROI — owners are adapting to regulatory reality, not guest preference.


St. Augustine Beach on Anastasia Island is a different product entirely: 751 active listings, 38.5% occupancy, $308 ADR, $33,558 annual revenue, a condo-heavy inventory at 70.8% (apartments and condos versus houses), and low regulation relative to the city. Transient rentals are allowed only in Commercial and Medium-Density Residential districts, with a 100-unit cap in Medium-Density — verify the current fee resolution in the draft. For hosts who want nightly beach turnover without historic-district frequency caps, Anastasia Island is the free-flowing zone; for hosts who want heritage proximity and can accept weekly or monthly minimums, the city core is the play — with compliance as the moat that protects permitted operators from illegal competition.


Regulatory Gradient, Feeder Markets, and Where Supply Is Concentrating

The regulatory friction gradient is the report's most decision-relevant frame. At the restrictive end: Fernandina Beach RRDP with R-3-only new permits and pre-2000 grandfathering; City of St. Augustine with zoning-dependent nightly-versus-weekly-versus-monthly frequency caps and annual fire inspection fees; Atlantic Beach's 90-day residential minimum and Neptune Beach's 28-day residential ban. At the permissive end: St. Augustine Beach transient rental zones with registration; unincorporated St. Johns County, including Ponte Vedra, with county registration and the 10-guest cap; Jacksonville Beach with STVR certificate and inspection. Statewide, Florida Statute §509.032 preemption bars post-2011 local governments from banning STRs or regulating rental frequency and duration — unless the ordinance predates June 1, 2011, which is why the patchwork persists. SB 280, which would have centralized registration under DBPR and tightened preemption, passed the Florida Legislature in March 2024 but was vetoed by Governor DeSantis on June 27, 2024; no successor bill became law as of June 2026 compile, and the local patchwork still governs.


Feeder markets run consistently across the corridor: Jacksonville metro and Orlando–Daytona drive markets dominate, Atlanta and the broader Georgia I-95 corridor supply weekend and spring-break traffic, and JAX airport enables fly-in segments for golf, luxury, and heritage travelers. Visit Jacksonville's 2024 report cites top feeder markets including Orlando–Daytona, New York City, Atlanta, Tampa–St. Pete, and Miami–Fort Lauderdale — a pattern that supports short-lead weekend bookings on Jax Beach and plan-ahead heritage stays in St. Augustine. New supply is concentrating where regulation permits nightly turnover: St. Augustine city inventory has surged as owners adapt with longer minimums; St. Augustine Beach and Jax Beach show steadier supply growth; Amelia remains constrained by R-3 zoning; Ponte Vedra shows the fastest luxury supply growth at 33.5% YoY on AirROI with rates still rising — a market to watch, not avoid.


For portfolio and relocation decisions, the shorthand is this: choose Amelia or Ponte Vedra if your parcel and capital support ADR-led, event-spike pricing and you can comply with island RRDP or county luxury registration; choose Jax Beach if you want occupancy-led, year-round volume with manageable municipal compliance; choose St. Augustine Beach if you want nightly beach rentals without city frequency caps; choose St. Augustine city only if your zoning permits the stay length you intend to operate and you accept fire-inspection fees and heritage-season calendar architecture. Every figure in this report is directional — re-verify ADR, occupancy, supply growth, fees, and zone status against live platform data and municipal code before acquisition, listing, or pricing decisions.


Work with Crest & Cove Creative

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Frequently Asked Questions

Which First Coast sub-market has the highest ADR in 2026? Ponte Vedra Beach leads AirROI's June 2026 snapshot at approximately $603 ADR, followed by Amelia Island's luxury-enclave geography at near $490 ADR and Fernandina Beach's broader market at near $440 ADR. Jacksonville Beach has an ADR of approximately $355, with the corridor's highest occupancy at 46.9%. All figures are directional and should be re-verified at draft time.


Is Jacksonville Beach or St. Augustine Beach better for short-term rental volume? Jacksonville Beach shows higher occupancy — 46.9% versus 38.5% on AirROI June 2026 — and stronger year-over-year revenue growth against moderate supply expansion. St. Augustine Beach offers nightly beach turnover with lower regulation than St. Augustine city, but lower ADR and occupancy. The better market depends on your parcel's zoning, target guest, and compliance posture.


How does SB 280 affect First Coast STR rules in 2026? It does not — SB 280 was vetoed by Governor DeSantis in June 2024. Florida's 2011 preemption framework and local municipal patchwork still govern. Grandfathered restrictions in Fernandina Beach, St. Augustine, Atlantic Beach, and Neptune Beach remain enforceable; registration regimes in Jax Beach, St. Augustine Beach, and unincorporated St. Johns County remain in effect.


What is the biggest event on the First Coast STR calendar? THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra each March is the single largest rate-and-occupancy spike for luxury inventory. The Nights of Lights in St. Augustine, from November 21, 2026, through January 18, 2027, is the corridor's strongest holiday demand driver. The Amelia Concours d'Elegance, March 5–8, 2026, anchors Amelia Island's March peak.


Why is September the hardest month on the First Coast? Hurricane-season caution, school restart, and the absence of major dated events compress demand across Amelia, Jax Beach, St. Augustine, and St. Augustine Beach in September. AirROI through data consistently shows September as the low month for these sub-markets. Price shoulder tiers honestly and merchandise October and November events — Springing the Blues in Jax Beach, April 10–12, 2026, sits just outside September but illustrates how dated anchors lift adjacent weeks.


Can I legally operate a nightly Airbnb in Fernandina Beach? New resort rentals are permitted only in R-3 High Density Residential zoning with an RRDP, or on grandfathered properties holding permits prior to October 3, 2000. Most other zones impose four-week minimum stays. Operating without an RRDP draws a $1,000 penalty. Verify your parcel's zoning and permit status before listing.


Do Airbnb and Vrbo collect St. Johns County bed tax? Platforms collect Florida state sales tax automatically in many counties, but do not collect St. Johns County's 5% tourist development tax — hosts must register with the county and self-remit. This is a common compliance error; verify the platform's collection status for your specific county at draft time.


Where is the new STR supply growing fastest on the First Coast? St. Augustine has seen aggressive supply growth as owners adapt to frequency caps by implementing longer minimum stays. Ponte Vedra shows rapid luxury supply expansion at approximately 33.5% YoY on AirROI, with rates still rising. Amelia remains supply-constrained by R-3 zoning. Jax Beach supply grew 7.0% YoY against 24.8% revenue growth — demand absorbing inventory.


About the Authors

Crest & Cove Creative is a Southeast-focused short-term rental marketing agency founded by Thomas Garner and Jacob Mishalanie. We build direct-booking brands, listing-optimization systems, and market-specific content strategies for independent STR operators across the Gulf Coast, Appalachian Mountains, Coastal Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and the Southeast lake country.


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Sources

AirROI — Amelia Island, Fernandina Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, St. Augustine, St. Augustine Beach market reports, June 2026 vintage. Florida Senate — SB 280 (2024). City of Fernandina Beach — Resort Rentals and RRDP ordinance. City of St. Augustine — Short-Term Rentals and Resolution 2025-41. St. Johns County Tax Collector — Tourist Development Tax. Visit Jacksonville — 2024 Economic Impact. Amelia Island — Value of Tourism. Visit St. Augustine — Nights of Lights 2026–27. Amelia Concours — 2026 dates. Florida Governor — tourism economic impact 2024.

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