Jefferson County, Florida: A Local Guide for Home Buyers and Homeowners

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Jefferson County runs from the Georgia line south to the Gulf coast at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, which makes it the only Florida county that borders both Georgia and the Gulf. It covers 598.08 square miles of land, Monticello is its seat, and about 16,000 people live here.

If you’re buying around Courthouse Circle, out toward Lloyd, Waukeenah or Wacissa, or you already own here and want to refinance, this guide covers what we’d go over on the phone: the towns and roads, how the loan limits work, the county SHIP program, how homestead and tax bills work, what Idalia did here, and who to call once you’ve moved in.

Every source for this guide is listed at the bottom of the page.

County seatMonticello
Founded1827
PopulationAbout 16,000
Land area598.08 sq mi
Named forThomas Jefferson
FHA limit, 1 unit$541,287 in 2026
Conventional limit, 1 unit$832,750 in 2026
School districtJefferson County School District

Cities and areas
Homes and loan limits
Down payment help
Property taxes
Storms and insurance
Jobs, schools, commute
Parks and local favorites
Moving checklist
Buying or refinancing

Monticello and the communities around it

Monticello is the county seat, and around it lies a scatter of named communities: Lloyd, Lamont, Wacissa, Waukeenah, Aucilla, Drifton, Capps and Ashville. Lloyd and Wacissa are unincorporated, so for a house out there the county, not a city hall, handles your permits.

The county was created on January 20, 1827, and named for Thomas Jefferson. Before the Civil War, cotton was its main source of income, and about a sixth of all the cotton grown in Florida came from here.

Monticello

Monticello was settled in 1827 and incorporated in 1859. US 90 comes through as Washington Street and US 19 as Jefferson Street, and the two meet at Courthouse Circle, where the Jefferson County Courthouse was modeled on Thomas Jefferson’s own Monticello.

The town sits about 26 miles east of Tallahassee on US 90 and reaches I-10 by heading south on US 19 to Exit 225.

Monticello Historic District

The county counts 27 blocks in the Monticello Historic District. Inside it you’ll find the 1890 Opera House, the Monticello Old Jail Museum and the Old Howard Academy, which went on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.

Lloyd and the I-10 corridor

Lloyd sits at the I-10 interchange with SR 59. Farther east, Drifton has the US 19 interchange and the CR 257 exit lies south of Aucilla.

Wacissa and Waukeenah

CR 259, the Waukeenah Highway, runs through Wacissa. The Wacissa River’s headsprings are about a mile south of the community, and the county’s 30-mile Tallahassee Hills cycling section passes Wacissa Springs.

Capps

Capps is the crossroads where US 27 branches off US 19 and heads west toward Tallahassee.

Nutall Rise and the coast

Nutall Rise Landing marks the end of the Wacissa paddling trail near the coast. Coastal Jefferson is part of St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, and US 98 is the southernmost east-west road.

Buying a home in Jefferson County, and how the loan limits work

Jefferson is part of the Tallahassee metro, and its homes fall into a few clear settings: the 27-block historic district and the streets off Courthouse Circle in Monticello, the I-10 interchange communities at Lloyd and Drifton, the river country around Wacissa and Waukeenah on CR 259, and the far south end near Nutall Rise and the refuge.

Only a handful of Jefferson homes change hands in a typical month, so one larger sale can swing the published numbers and any figure we printed would be stale fast. Send us the house and we’ll pull the sales that match it. If you’re renting in Monticello, call 888-601-8344 and we’ll set your rent next to what a mortgage on a comparable house would cost.

With so few listings at any moment, having your pre-approval done before a house comes up lets you make an offer the day it does.

The FHA and Conventional limits for Jefferson County are in the table below. HUD and FHFA reset Jefferson’s limits every January, and the table keeps itself current.

Loan limits in Jefferson County for 2026	Maximum loan
FHA, single-family home	$541,287
FHA, two-unit home	$693,050
FHA, three-unit home	$837,700
FHA, four-unit home	$1,041,125
Conventional, single-family home	$832,750

HUD sets the FHA limits and FHFA sets the Conventional limits for every county, and both change each January. This table refreshes itself from HUD's published figures.

Here’s FHA’s minimum down payment as an example: on a $350,000 purchase, 3.5% down comes to $12,250, and the county’s SHIP money and the state programs below can carry part or all of that. Send the listing to 954-816-8820 by text and we’ll work out your payment and cash to close on that exact house.

Down payment help for Jefferson County buyers

Jefferson’s Board of County Commissioners runs a SHIP program with state housing money, and statewide Florida Housing programs work in every corner of the county. The county’s SHIP budget covers purchases, repairs and every other strategy in its housing plan, so purchase money competes with repair money inside the same pot.

Jefferson County SHIP purchase assistance

SHIP purchase assistance helps first-time buyers in Jefferson County with the down payment and closing costs. The county runs it for the Board of County Commissioners under a local housing assistance plan, and it posts its SHIP application on the county housing page, both as a PDF and as an online form.

The county page doesn’t post whether purchase money is available on a given day, and the per-home cap comes from a plan that’s rewritten every few years. Before you go under contract in Monticello or anywhere else in the county, we call the Grants Office at 435 West Walnut Street, (850) 342-0287, and find out what SHIP is paying. Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll call Walnut Street for you.

Jefferson County housing assistance

SHIP repair and rebuild help

The same SHIP program funds owner-occupied rehabilitation and demolition and reconstruction for income-qualified Jefferson homeowners, and the plan lists disaster assistance as well.

Repair money comes out of the same county SHIP budget as purchase help. If you own a home that needs work, call 888-601-8344 and we’ll weigh SHIP repair help against a cash-out refinance for your house.

Jefferson SHIP plan (PDF)

PACE financing

Jefferson County participates in PACE financing through Florida PACE for energy-efficiency and wind-resistance improvements to a home.

Call 888-601-8344 before you sign up for PACE, and we’ll walk through how it would sit alongside your mortgage on a Jefferson home.

County housing page

Florida Hometown Heroes (statewide)

Hometown Heroes serves buyers who work full time for a Florida-based employer in health care, K-12 schools, first response, public safety, the courts or licensed child care. Active-duty members of the military qualify with any employer, and veterans, Reserve and National Guard members qualify through full-time work for a Florida-based employer, including one in Tallahassee. Remote and part-time jobs don’t count.

You get a 30-year fixed first mortgage, FHA, VA, USDA or Conventional, and a 0% second toward the down payment and closing costs. The second has no monthly payment and is repaid when you sell, refinance or pay off the home or stop living in it; it isn’t forgiven. A homebuyer education course comes first (online is allowed), and you apply through a participating lender or broker.

Florida Housing lets a buyer use its assistance once in a lifetime, so line it up on the right house in Monticello or Lloyd with the right lender behind you. Limits vary by county and funds are reserved loan by loan, so call 888-601-8344 first and we’ll check Hometown Heroes for your Jefferson address.

Official program page

FL Assist, FL HLP and HFA Preferred (statewide)

FL Assist is a 0% deferred second with no monthly payment, repaid when you sell, refinance, transfer or move out, on top of a Florida Housing first mortgage: FHA, VA, USDA, or the Conventional HFA Preferred and HFA Advantage loans. The HLP second, unlike the others, has a modest fixed monthly payment stretched over 30 years. HFA Advantage PLUS matches a Freddie Mac Conventional first with a second that’s forgiven over 5 years of living in your Jefferson County home.

You count as a first-time buyer with Florida Housing if you haven’t owned a primary residence in the past 3 years; veterans with a DD-214 can be exempt. Ask us which of these can sit alongside Jefferson’s SHIP loan, and we’ll check them against your house the same day: 888-601-8344.

Official program page

FHA 100% financing pairs a 96.5% FHA first mortgage with a down payment assistance second, which can cover the whole down payment on a Jefferson County home. Since SHIP and state funding change through the year, call 888-601-8344 before you make an offer and we’ll match the open programs to the house you want.

Jefferson property taxes and the homestead exemption

Make the home your permanent residence and file for Florida’s homestead exemption. It can lower the taxable value by as much as $50,000: the first $25,000 comes off for all property taxes, and the additional amount comes off for non-school taxes.

You qualify based on ownership and residence on January 1, and the filing deadline is March 1 of the year after you buy. The Property Appraiser’s office on West Walnut Street in Monticello handles homestead along with the widow, widower, blind, disability and total exemptions.

From then on, Save Our Homes caps the yearly increase in your assessed value at 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower, and portability lets you carry some or all of that difference to your next Florida homestead.

Tax bills generally go out in November. Paying in November earns the biggest early-payment discount, the discount gets smaller each month through February, and unpaid taxes go delinquent April 1. With an escrow account, your loan servicer pays the bill for you.

Jefferson County Property Appraiser

480 W. Walnut St., Monticello, FL 32344 (mail: PO Box 63)

Phone: 850-997-3356

Exemptions and property search: jeffersonpa.net

Tax bills: Jefferson County Tax Collector

Hurricanes, flooding and insurance in Jefferson County

Hurricane Idalia hit Jefferson County hard in late August of 2023. Nearly 100% of the county’s customers, 8,669 of them, lost power, and the National Weather Service reported that nearly all of the county’s power infrastructure was destroyed. Downed trees and lines closed numerous roads, debris landed on I-10 at mile markers 218, 227 and 230 and at Exits 217, 225 and 233, and the county logged 87 evacuations, a count that included 16 dogs and a cat.

Idalia’s aftermath also showed the coastal risk. Near Nutall Rise, an unusually high king tide on top of the water still piled up in Apalachee Bay caused minor flooding.

Seven years before Idalia, in 2016, Hurricane Hermine made landfall near the Wakulla-Jefferson county line as a Category 1 with 80 mph winds. In May of 2024, an EF-1 tornado with estimated 100 mph winds touched down north of Hall Rd. and S. Salt Rd. at 7:31 in the morning, then tracked 38.19 miles to the Madison-Suwannee county border, twisting and snapping pines and oaks along the way.

Especially near the Wacissa, the Aucilla or the coast, check a Jefferson County home’s flood zone on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center before you write an offer. Federally backed loans like FHA and VA require flood insurance for homes in high-risk zones, the ones starting with A or V.
Line up a homeowners quote early on any older house in Monticello, and order a wind mitigation inspection; documented storm features on that report can lower the premium.
Look up your evacuation zone at Know Your Zone and sign up for the county’s free emergency alerts, run by Jefferson County Emergency Management.

Work, schools and getting around

Jefferson is part of the Tallahassee metro, and I-10 is its main road in and out, with Monticello about 26 miles east of Tallahassee on US 90.

The Monticello-Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce at 420 W. Washington St., (850) 997-5552, is the place to start if you’re opening or moving a business here.

Schools

Public schools are run by the Jefferson County School District, whose office is at 1490 W. Washington Street in Monticello, 850-342-0100.

Roads and rail

I-10 crosses the county with interchanges at SR 59 in Lloyd, US 19 in Drifton and CR 257 south of Aucilla. US 19, US 27, US 90, US 98 and US 221 all pass through, SR 59 links US 90 with US 98, and CR 259 is the Waukeenah Highway.

A CSX freight line is the county’s only railroad. Amtrak’s Sunset Limited used it until 2005 without ever stopping in the county.

Rivers, refuges and Jefferson County favorites

Wacissa River

The spring-fed Wacissa is a 14-mile paddling trail the county rates beginner to easy, with a 2 to 3 mph current. At least 12 springs feed its upper 1.5 miles, the state has designated it an Outstanding Florida Waterway, and paddlers pass Goose Pasture on the way down to Nutall Rise.

Aucilla River and Aucilla WMA

The Aucilla is a 19-mile run rated intermediate to technical, with a swift current the county says isn’t for inexperienced canoeists. Between the two rivers, the Aucilla Wildlife Management Area has springs, sinkholes, limestone outcrops and miles of trails, and it’s part of the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail.

St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

Established in 1931, the refuge covers more than 86,000 acres along about 43 miles of Gulf coast in Wakulla, Jefferson and Taylor counties, and it takes in coastal Jefferson.

Watermelon Festival

Monticello’s Watermelon Festival comes around every year on the third weekend of June, and in December the town puts on Christmas in Monticello.

Monticello Opera House

The two-story Opera House at 185 West Washington Street dates to 1890. It runs concerts, plays and musicals year-round and is home to the Opera House Stage Company and the Monticello Acting and Dance Company, with the Perkins Banquet Hall on the ground floor.

Canopy roads by bike

The county points cyclists to a 100-mile Canopy Roads route from the Sierra Club’s Adventuring in Florida, including a 30-mile Tallahassee Hills section that passes Wacissa Springs.

Recreation Park

The county Recreation Park at 1380 Mamie Scott Drive in Monticello has lighted tennis courts, pickleball, racquetball and basketball courts, ball fields, a covered picnic area and a paved exercise path.

Jefferson’s historic sites go back to the Spanish mission era. The county lists the sites of two Spanish missions, San Francisco de Oconi and La Conception de Ayubale, among its historic places, and forts named Aucilla and Wacissa went up here between 1838 and 1843. In town, the R.J. Bailar Public Library now fills the old Jefferson High School library building.

Moving to Jefferson County: your setup list

County government: the Courthouse Annex is at 1 Courthouse Circle in Monticello, (850) 342-0287, and jeffersoncountyfl.gov lists trash, recycling and yard waste sites with their hours.
Utilities: ask the seller or listing agent which electric provider and water source serve the property, and whether it’s on a well and septic, before you close.
Driver license and tag: handled through the Jefferson County Tax Collector.
Homestead: apply with the Property Appraiser at 480 W. Walnut St. by March 1 of the year after your purchase.
Emergency alerts: sign up for the county’s free alerts from Jefferson County Emergency Management before hurricane season.
Recreation: county recreation programs are centered on the Recreation Park; the director’s line is (850) 519-6640.

Buying or refinancing in Jefferson County with AAA Capital Funding

Buying a home

FHA carries most of our Jefferson County purchases: 3.5% down, flexible credit standards, and it pairs with SHIP and the state programs. Eligible veterans can use a VA loan with no down payment, and we close Conventional, Hometown Heroes and FHA 100% financing loans too.

AAA Capital Funding has been a licensed Florida mortgage broker since 1997 and lends in all 67 Florida counties statewide, so the same broker can handle a house on Courthouse Circle or one in Pensacola or Miami. We compare offers from multiple wholesale lenders and tell you what you qualify for before you start touring homes around Monticello.

Refinancing the home you have

A refinance can cut your monthly payment, give you cash for storm repairs or a new roof, clear out high-interest debt, or let you buy out a co-owner and take them off the title.

Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll put the payment, cash out and costs for your Jefferson County home side by side so the decision is easy to make.

Jefferson County questions we hear a lot

What is the FHA loan limit in Jefferson County, Florida?

The current FHA limits for one to four units in Jefferson County, and the one-unit Conventional limit, are in the table on this page. Both agencies reset Jefferson’s numbers each January, and the table follows.

Is there down payment assistance in Jefferson County?

Yes. The county’s SHIP program helps first-time buyers with down payment and closing costs, and Hometown Heroes and FL Assist are available statewide. The county doesn’t post an open date or a current award amount, so check with us before you make an offer.

How far is Monticello from Tallahassee and I-10?

Monticello is about 26 miles east of Tallahassee on US 90. To reach I-10, take US 19 south to Exit 225 at Drifton; Lloyd has its own interchange at SR 59.

When is the homestead deadline in Jefferson County?

March 1 of the year after you buy, filed with the Jefferson County Property Appraiser at 480 W. Walnut St. in Monticello. Ownership on January 1 sets the year, so a Monticello closing in any month means a filing by the March 1 that follows.

How bad was Hurricane Idalia in Jefferson County?

Very bad for power. Nearly 100% of customers lost electricity when Idalia came through in 2023, and nearly all of the county’s power infrastructure was destroyed. Coastal Jefferson near Nutall Rise also saw minor flooding afterward, so check the FEMA flood map and get insurance quotes before you buy.

Sources for this guide (26)

AAA Capital Funding, Inc. NMLS #374739. Jason J. Sarji, NMLS #374700. Licensed Florida mortgage broker serving Jefferson County and all 67 Florida counties since 1997. Equal Housing Opportunity.

You work with the same person from start to finish, in every county in Florida.

We've been closing Florida loans since 1997, in all 67 counties. If you want to know what's possible in Jefferson County, call 888-601-8344 or text 954-816-8820. One call, under ten minutes. No application needed to start.

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AAA Capital Funding, Inc. · NMLS #374739 · Jason J. Sarji, NMLS #374700