Fort White, Florida.
Typical home $299,716 (-2.2% in a year). Lake City, FL metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$907 (+136%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $6,728 -2%
- $306,444$299,716 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $55,736 +23%
- $243,980$299,716 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Fort White$1,573
- Florida$1,970
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Fort White, FL fell 2.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Fort White, Columbia County, Florida
Fort White is a town of 618 people in Columbia County. Half its households earn more than $53,750 a year and half less, against $59,205 across Columbia County. Unemployment in Columbia County was 5.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Columbia County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Fort White is a very small town in Columbia County, home to far fewer people than most towns. Household incomes here run below the county's, while the typical home is worth a good deal. Winters are mild, with little or no snow, and summers are hot, with plenty of rain through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in government and in the building trades. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and only a small number work from home. Across Columbia County, some of the largest workplaces are Columbia Schools, the Veterans Health Administration and HCA Florida Lake City Hospital, and unemployment in the county has risen a little over the past year.
Things to do. The Ichetucknee River and Ichetucknee Springs State Park are a short drive away, and Ginnie Springs, a park, is close by as well. For a different kind of day, the Florida Museum of Natural History is a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 17%of adults have a degree
- 5%work from home
What people in Columbia County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Columbia County had 24,847 jobs in 2025, 0.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 67° and lows near 40°; warmest in July, with highs near 92° and lows near 70°. About 52 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the High Springs weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Columbia County
- Columbia SchoolsSchool district1,329FTE
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs1,196
- HAECO Airframe Services - Lake CityAircraft maintenance and repair services702
- HCA Florida Lake City HospitalGeneral hospital481FTE
- TargetDiscount department stores420
- Champion Home BuildersManufacturing348
- Florida Gateway CollegeUniversity or college340
- NutrienSuperphosphates manufacturing285
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 56 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,826 people in all across the county; Fort White has none of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- LightningVery high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- Hurricanesrelatively high in parts of Fort WhiteRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Fort White’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Columbia County and the Lake City, FL metro.
Fort White home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Fort White$299,716
- Florida$375,361
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Fort White listings — the market is roughly in balance.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Fort White27.96%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Fort White29
Zip codes with a Fort White address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Fort White — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.