Palm ValleyFL
Population 19,796: a town settled in 1908.
Is Palm Valley a good place to live?
Plenty to like here, at a price. Its strongest is health (A+): CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 96% of the country. Add schools to its strengths (A+): its schools outperform 96% of the state's. The trade-off is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $691K, 8.7 years of the Jacksonville metro’s $80K median household income. Hazard risk is weaker too: FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 62% of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top. All told, that adds up to an A overall and a rank of 3rd of 634 in Florida. Set against the rest, it does better than 86% of U.S. towns. 71% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Palm Valley, above both Florida’s towns (31%) and U.S. towns (29%).
Figures: health, CDC PLACES · schools, state test and graduation results · home values, Zillow · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · FEMA National Risk Index.
What makes Palm Valley stand out
Where Palm Valley beats most towns.
| Widest gap | Palm Valley | FL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 5.7% | 16.8% |
| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Ponte Vedra Palm Valley- Rawlings Elementary School | PK–5 | 940 |
| Ocean Palms Elementary School | PK–5 | 386 |
| Palmer Catholic Academy | PK–8 | 470 |
How Palm Valley grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Florida), ordered by how far Palm Valley is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
EverBank Field and 42 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Palm Valley. Close and well known come first.
Big draw17 mi Stadium & arenaEverBank Field
22 mi National MonumentCastillo de San Marcos National Monument598K visitors a year
14 mi National MemorialFort Caroline National Memorial369K visitors a year
17 mi Stadium & arenaVyStar Veterans Memorial Arena
17 mi MuseumUSS Orleck
16 mi Park & preserveKingsley PlantationPhoto credits
EverBank Field: AndrewAvitus, CC BY 3.0 · Castillo de San Marcos National Monument: National Park Service, Public domain · Fort Caroline National Memorial: NPS Photo, Public domain · VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena: Nichos (talk), Public domain · USS Orleck: U.S. Navy, Public domain · Kingsley Plantation: Original uploader was Emanuel Kingsley at en.wikipedia, Public domain
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Moving to Palm Valley: who provides what
Palm Valley is unincorporated, so St. Johns County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 17, 2025.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Palm Valley.
Palm Valley has schools in the top 5% of Florida, has less food insecurity than most of Florida and has milder winter nights than nearly all U.S. towns.
Open space protected for good: 0.3% of Palm Valley
14 miles of trail wind through 4 parks and preserves. The trail density in Palm Valley is 1.0 miles per square mile.
| Palm Valley | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 1.0 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 0.3% | 3% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Bird Island Park | 0.8 mi | 6 |
| 2. Cornerstone Park | 0.7 mi | 19 |
| 3. DeLeon Shores Park | — | 5 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
For schools, Palm Valley earns an A+
That grade ranks #1 of the 638 Florida towns we grade for schools. It comes with a D− for cost of living: the typical home is worth about $691K.
Its public schools are run by the St. Johns school district. Of its 5 schools, two are listed below, each with the reason. 3 public schools serve Palm Valley, with 2,244 students in all.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ponte Vedra Palm Valley- Rawlings Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 940 | A+ |
| Ocean Palms Elementary SchoolTop results in townGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 386 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within FL on state tests and graduation
Compared with most of Florida and the rest of the country, fewer of Palm Valley’s adults get no exercise outside work
Its widest gap with Florida is food insecurity: 5.7% of its 17,695 adults worry about having enough food, against 16.8% statewide.
Of 31 CDC measures, Palm Valley beats the Florida average on 21 and trails it on 1. 29% of adults sleep under 7 hours in the town. Only 6 of the 636 Florida towns we compare have a lower share of adults who say their health is fair or poor than Palm Valley.
| Palm Valley | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 37% | 36% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 16% | 17% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 25% | 25% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 7.5% | 13% | 14% |
| What stands out | Palm Valley | FL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 5.7% | 16.8% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 5.4% | 13.9% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 12.3% | 9.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Expect mild winters and hot summers in Palm Valley
January nights average 46.1°, milder than in 97% of U.S. towns; July afternoons average 90.2°. The Jacksonville Beach weather station, 6 miles away, records that about 36 days a year reach 90°: more than most of the country, but fewer than 99% of Florida places with climate records.
Its January low stands at 46°F. Snow is a rarity.
| Palm Valley | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 46°F | 51°F | 22°F |
| July high | 90°F | 91°F | 85°F |
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
About two in five of Palm Valley’s working residents commute to Jacksonville
Palm Valley has about as many jobs (9,910) as working residents, but only 1,150 people both live and work here. Jobs based here grew from 6,938 in 2013 to 9,910.
Jobs based in Palm Valley grew to 9,910 in 2023, 2,972 more than in 2013. Commuting out is the norm here: 13% of working residents work locally. 25% of Palm Valley workers do their job from home. The top destinations are Jacksonville (44%), Jacksonville Beach (5%) and St. Augustine (4%).
| Palm Valley | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 25% | 14% | 11% |
| Median household income | $117,000 | $73,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 4.2% | 11% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 13% | 5% | 8% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Top of a high hazard risk in Palm Valley: inland flooding
Federal disaster aid has reached households in Palm Valley once, in 2017. Of the losses FEMA expects in the town, 60% come from inland flooding and 23% from hurricanes. This Florida town has had 76 paid flood insurance claims since 1979.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Homes in Palm Valley sell for about $879K
At 8.7 years of the Jacksonville metro’s $80K median household income, the typical home costs more against local pay than in 92% of Florida towns; that ratio is one input to its D− for cost of living. The median property tax bill is $4,490, against $2,730 across Florida, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
The share of households in Palm Valley who live in a home they own: 81%. In Palm Valley, the typical rent is $1,856 a month. On the market here: a median 60 days to sell.
| Palm Valley | Florida towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,856 a month | $1,647 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 81% | 72% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about Palm Valley
Colleges nearby
3 within 15 miles of the center of Palm Valley
About 3 of every 100 Palm Valley residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Florida.
About Palm Valley
CDP in Florida, United States
Palm Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) on San Pablo Island in St. Johns County, Florida, United States. The population on this part of the island was 21,827 at the 2020 census, up from 20,019 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Jacksonville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 14 sq mi
- Elevation
- 7 ft
- Area code
- 904
Palm Valley’s neighbors
3 towns share a border with Palm Valley.
At #3 in FL, it grades higher overall than all 3 graded towns on its borders; Nocatee (B+) comes closest.
| Town | FL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palm Valley | #3 | A | D− | — | A+ | A+ |
| Sawgrass | #37 | B+ | D− | — | A+ | A |
| Nocatee | #35 | B+ | D− | — | A+ | A+ |
| Jacksonville Beach | #74 | B | D | — | C+ | A |
Palm Valley, Sawgrass, Nocatee and Jacksonville Beach report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Palm Valley with a neighbor →
Questions about Palm Valley
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Palm Valley, FL a good place to live?
For most people who can afford it, yes. Palm Valley grades A overall, better than 86% of U.S. towns and #3 of 634 in Florida. It grades A+ for health and A+ for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D−.
Is Palm Valley, FL expensive?
Yes. The typical home is worth about $691,000, 84% above the Florida typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D−.