This is for someone renting in St. Augustine, for a season or on a year's lease, furnished or not. Every figure below is sourced and dated; where no reliable figure exists, that is said.
Rent: what the market looks like
Start with the unfurnished market, the only part of the stock anyone measures. Zumper's rent research for September 2026 puts the median one-bedroom at $1,495 and the median two-bedroom at $1,750, from 293 active listings, both down 14 to 16 percent on September 2025. RentCafe, using managed-building data to 31 August 2026, is higher: $1,550 for an average 755-square-foot one-bedroom and $1,874 for an average 1,118-square-foot two-bedroom, roughly flat year on year.
Furnished monthly rentals appear in neither index, and nobody publishes an average for them. They sit above those figures: the owner supplies furniture, kitchen, linen and usually utilities and internet, and they cost most from January to March. The one sourced furnished price is a listing, not an average: in September 2026 monthlyrentalsbyowner.com advertised a furnished 755-square-foot two-bedroom at St. Augustine Beach for $2,500 a month. Numbeo's St. Augustine page, updated 5 June 2026 from 15 contributors, reports $1,800 a month for a one-bedroom apartment in the city centre and $1,650 outside it; those figures are reported by contributors, and Numbeo does not say whether the apartments are furnished.
Historic district, Anastasia Island, and west of the San Sebastian
- The historic district. Walkable, old stock, competing directly with short-term visitor demand.
- Anastasia Island and St. Augustine Beach. Zumper's September 2026 figures give a median one-bedroom of $1,762 and an overall median of $1,966, about 18 percent above the St. Augustine one-bedroom from the same source and month. Only 13 listings, so treat it as indicative.
- The mainland, west of the San Sebastian. Newer stock along US 1, SR 16 and SR 207, and a car is not optional. RentCafe's 31 August 2026 neighbourhood data puts Tuscany Village at $1,782 and St. Augustine Heights at $1,691, five and ten percent below the city average.
Electricity, water and internet
This is Florida Power & Light territory. Under the settlement the Florida Public Service Commission approved on 20 November 2025, setting rates for 2026 through 2029, FPL's typical 1,000-kWh residential bill for most of Florida went from $134.14 to $136.64 a month in 2026. Air conditioning here is not only about heat: July and August both average 77 percent relative humidity, so the unit runs at night too, for dehumidification. No reliable St. Augustine summer average is published; ask the owner for last July's and August's bills.
Water, sewer, rubbish and stormwater inside the city come from the City of St. Augustine. For fiscal 2026 the monthly base charges were $16.81 water, $18.29 wastewater, $29.88 garbage and $10.81 stormwater; from 1 October 2026 they rise to $17.40, $18.93, $31.13 and $11.26. The St. Johns Citizen reported that as about $62 a year more for a representative 1,800-square-foot home using 3,000 gallons a month. Consumption is billed on top. Addresses outside the city are on St. Johns County Utilities, a different schedule.
Comparison sites list AT&T Fiber at $35 to $95 a month for 300 Mbps to 5 Gbps, and Xfinity at $40 to $50 for 300 Mbps to 1 Gbps, in 2026. Numbeo's contributors reported $76.67 in June 2026 for a 60 Mbps-plus connection. For a stay of a few months, a new installation is rarely worth it; confirm the line is live and in the rent.
Groceries, and a centre priced for visitors
Groceries are near the national average: AreaVibes' 2026 modelled data puts the St. Augustine grocery index 2.3 percent above it, PayScale says five percent. Numbeo's June 2026 sample gives $4.50 for a dozen eggs and $11.23 per kilo for chicken fillets. The full-size supermarkets are on US 1 and SR 16 on the mainland, not inside the old town, which matters if you live downtown without a car.
Eating out downtown is another matter. Numbeo gives $21 for an inexpensive restaurant meal, $75 for a three-course meal for two mid-range, and $5 for a half-litre draught beer. St. George Street and the bayfront are priced for someone who eats there once.
Parking, the Sunshine Bus and the drive to Jacksonville
Parking in the historic district is the cost most renters do not see coming. The city's Historic Downtown Parking Facility on Cordova Street charges $20 per vehicle per entry from 7am to 5pm and $5 per entry from 5pm to 9pm. City street meters and lots are $2.50 an hour with a four-hour limit. St. Johns County residents who register at ParkStAug.com pay $3 per garage entry and $0.50 an hour on the street, but that needs proof of residency, so a short-term renter should not assume it. The garage sells a monthly pass at $32 before tax, the cheapest way out if a downtown rental has no dedicated space.
The Sunshine Bus Company, the county service, charges $2 one way, $4 a day and $30 a month, half price for over-60s, people with disabilities, Medicare and Medicaid holders and students, exact change only. It is a deviated fixed-route county network, not a city grid or a car replacement. Jacksonville International is about 52 miles away, roughly an hour's drive.
Flood zones, insurance, and how they reach the rent
The city's flood hazards page states that about 90 percent of city residents live in a floodplain, and that Hurricane Matthew in 2016 flooded Davis Shores, Lincolnville, the historic districts and parts of the Abbott Tract, and Hurricane Irma in 2017 many of the same areas. A separate city page, on tide check valves, estimates tidal, or "sunny day", flooding of low-lying areas and streets "12 to 16 times per year", worst when a nor'easter coincides with a king tide. The estimate is undated; it has been on the city's site since at least May 2022 and was still there in October 2026.
A tenant does not insure the building; this reaches you through what the owner pays. St. Johns County's 37,877 NFIP flood policies averaged $788 a year as of March 2026, below the Florida single-family average of $1,363, helped by the county's Community Rating System Class 5 discount of 25 percent. Homeowners insurance is heavier: local agencies put a typical northeast Florida home of 1,800 to 2,500 square feet with $350,000 to $500,000 of dwelling coverage at roughly $2,800 to $4,000 a year in 2026, with some St. Johns County estimates reaching $5,000. Citizens Property Insurance cut homeowners multiperil rates by an average of 8.8 percent statewide effective 1 July 2026, its first decrease since 2015. Ask the owner which flood zone the property is in and, for a ground-floor unit near the water, what happened in 2016 and 2022.
Prices and rates move: the city's utility rates change on 1 October 2026, and FPL's are set annually through 2029. Every figure here was checked in September 2026. Ask the owner for recent bills rather than trusting any published average, including this one.