Palm Coast has more Zone A than any market we have measured, and Zone A is the one you cannot price from the map. Twenty one percent of our sample landed in it.
Check any Palm Coast lot in secondsFlood zone, wetlands, soil, owner and zoning, in one search.See how it worksWe sampled 121 points on an even grid across Palm Coast on 15 September 2026 and ran each against the same public layers the app queries: FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer, the US Fish and Wildlife National Wetlands Inventory on the point and within 500 feet, and the USDA soil survey. Soil figures come from 117 of those points, because the survey does not cover open water. These are measured numbers, not estimates.
Zone AE and Zone A are both special flood hazard areas, and people treat them as the same thing. They are not, and the difference costs money.
Zone AE comes with a base flood elevation, a published number your finished floor has to clear. You can read it off the map, work out the fill, and price the insurance before you offer.
Zone A comes with no elevation at all. FEMA has mapped the hazard without studying it in enough detail to publish a number. Somebody has to pay a surveyor for an elevation certificate before the fill, the pad design or the insurance premium can be worked out. On a cheap lot that survey can be a meaningful share of the purchase price.
Twenty one percent of Palm Coast sampled Zone A, against six percent Zone AE. No other market we have measured comes close to that ratio.
Seventy four percent Zone X, twenty one percent Zone A, six percent Zone AE. Twenty six percent of the grid sat inside a special flood hazard area, and most of that is the unpriceable kind.
Twenty six percent of the sample had wetland mapped directly on the point, the second highest of any market we have measured, and eighty percent had wetland on the lot or within 500 feet. ITT platted Palm Coast across pine flatwoods and tidal creek drainage in the 1970s, and the drainage did not go anywhere.
Fifty three percent poorly drained, twenty three percent very poorly drained, eighteen percent somewhat poorly drained. The median seasonal high water table sat twelve inches down.
Three quarters of the market is poorly drained or worse, which on many lots means a mounded septic system rather than a conventional one. That is a real number in a builder's quote and it is worth knowing before you agree a price.
Flood zone first here, and specifically which flood zone, because the difference between A and AE changes what you have to spend before you can build. Then wetlands, then soil. Flagler County publishes its parcel and zoning layers and the app reads them directly.
Mostly Zone X, but with an unusual amount of Zone A. Of 121 evenly sampled points on 15 September 2026, 74% were Zone X, 21% Zone A and 6% Zone AE, putting 26% inside a special flood hazard area. The Zone A share is the highest we have measured anywhere in Florida.
It means FEMA has mapped a flood hazard but has not published a base flood elevation for it. Zone AE tells you the number your pad has to clear. Zone A does not, so a surveyor has to establish it before anyone can price the fill or the insurance. It is the hardest zone to underwrite from a map, which is why 21% is a big deal here.
Frequently. 26% of sampled points had wetland on the point itself, the second highest we have measured, and 80% had wetland on the lot or within 500 feet. Palm Coast was platted by ITT across pine flatwoods and tidal creek drainage, and a lot of that drainage is still between the blocks.
Generally not without work. 53% of our soil samples came back poorly drained and another 23% very poorly drained, with a median seasonal high water table 12 inches down. That is a mounded septic system on many lots rather than a conventional one.
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