That's nuts! Here in JAX you can rent a nice 3-4 bedroom house for around $2000 a month in the safe suburbs, closer to $2500 near JAX Beach. St. Augustine and the parts of St Johns County that are almost in Jacksonville are more expensive, though.
My mortgage is under $1000 a month before the escrow stuff like homeowners insurance, PMI(FHA loan) and property taxes. I live in the most populated suburb of Jacksonville which is just outside of Duval County and I got a very reasonable price on my house which is in an established, nice neighborhood with no HOA (no HOA is rare in any nice neighborhood in FL). Little to no crime in this area, very good public schools within less than a mile and within 5-10 miles we have two malls and every store, chain or fast food restaurant and lots of very good mom and pop restaurants. Nearly every major cultures food is represented and there are several fish camps with great seafood.
Our house was built in late 90's is about 2000 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, 1.5 car garage, big fenced in back yard, screened porch and can do whatever I want regarding sheds, installing a pool, etc. with little to no permit hassle. All my neighbors keep up their properties so the HOA isn't needed. The value did jump around $100,000 within 6 to 8 months of me buying the house in 2021 and has not come down much so property taxes went up.