Soaring land prices and escalating building costs created a housing crisis for the median income wage earner. In the past 10 years the median price of a house has tripled, whereas work force wages have been flat or seen marginal increases over the same period.
Builders and speculators have flooded the area with houses that far exceed the number of prospects that can afford to purchase them and this excessive inventory will likely remain unsold until market prices rebound.
Case in point, until recently entry level pricing for new houses started at $225,000, which would require a minimum annual income of $75,000 to qualify for the purchase price. Yet, this income demographic represents less than one fifth of all the potential home buyers.
Is there any wonder why we have a glut of housing inventory when the vast majority of new homes built since 2003 were priced beyond the financial resources of middle income households?
While it seems counter intuitive that there would be a housing shortage with hundreds of properties for sale. The fact remains that new construction of single family homes, in middle income price points, have been virtually non-existent for the last five years.
This would explain why the Florida “Community Development Office” and the “Affordable Housing Study Commission” acknowledge that safe, decent, affordable housing for families that earn between $40,000 and $65,000 a year is the state’s fastest growing and most pervasive challenge
