Investing in Orange Park, FL — Market Analysis
Orange Park is one of the lower-basis entry points in Florida, with a median home price around $335,000. Orange Park is an urban infill market where small multifamily and converted stock dominate. Per-door rents run higher than the metro average, but so do turnover, maintenance reserves, and the spread between gross and effective rent.
Buying a rental property in Orange Park on a DSCR loan means putting a minimum of $67,000 down (20% of purchase price), leaving a loan amount of $268,000 at 80% LTV. At current DSCR investor pricing near 7.50%, principal and interest on that loan runs about $1,874 per month. Add Clay County property taxes of roughly $254/month and landlord insurance of about $257/month, and your all-in PITIA lands near $2,385/month. That PITIA figure — not the P&I — is what the lender divides your rent into.
A long-term lease in Orange Park should generate roughly $2,150/month in gross rent. Against a PITIA of $2,385, that produces an estimated DSCR ratio of 0.90x. That falls just short of the 1.0 minimum. This is a very common outcome in Orange Park and it does not kill the deal: moving to 25% down ($83,750) cuts the payment enough to close most of the gap, and several shelves will fund down to 0.75 with a rate add-on.
Two Florida-specific items to build into your model: Florida has no state income tax, but the Save Our Homes cap does not follow a sale — the county property appraiser resets assessed value to market the January after closing, and investor policies now price wind and flood separately in most coastal counties. In Orange Park specifically, effective property tax on investment property runs around 0.91% of value annually — about $3,049 a year at the median price — and landlord insurance near $3,082 a year.
On return metrics, Orange Park pencils to an estimated cap rate of 4.77% using a 62% NOI margin, and a gross rent multiplier of 13.0. Monthly cash flow on a long-term lease at 20% down is estimated at $235 negative. Negative cash flow at 20% down is common in appreciation-led markets; investors here typically increase the down payment, buy below median, add a unit, or run the property short-term to close the gap.

