Editorial: Rising costs should force action on housing affordability

GateHouse Media Capital Bureau correspondent John Kennedy reported last week that the percentage of Florida households owning homes has now plunged to “its worst level ever seen, with data going back more than three decades.”

State economist Amy Baker told the Legislative Budget Commission that while home prices and sales have rebounded from the depths of the Great Recession, more Floridians are now being forced to rent in an extremely tight and costly market.

“What isn’t back to normal is the homeownership rate,” she said.

According to the latest figures, 64.1 percent of Florida households owned homes in 2017, slightly above the current national average but down from the state’s 66.3 percent average of the past 34 years.

Before the housing collapse, the record high was 2007, when 72.4 percent of Florida households were homeowners.

Let this serve as a reality check on the usual, feel-good message that job growth and low unemployment are the indices that matter when it comes to measuring a strong economy. It takes a little off the shine of becoming a $1 trillion economy, as declared by the Florida Chamber of Commerce in July, when the vast majority of jobs being created don’t pay enough to qualify you for the American Dream of homeownership.

Though no doubt painful for business boosters to admit, it is a hard truth that Palm Beach County — indeed, the state of Florida — is in the midst of a full-blown workforce housing crisis. One that, in its own, way threatens to choke off our access to talented job applicants and the companies that want to hire them.

Yet even with such a bleak report, it remains difficult for this threat to the middle-class dream of owning a home to grab public attention in an election year dominated by toxic algae blooms on both of the state’s southern coasts.

It should. Because there are solutions.

All is not sunshine and beaches with the Florida economy. At least not when it comes to housing affordability.

GateHouse Media Capital Bureau correspondent John Kennedy reported last week that the percentage of Florida households owning homes has now plunged to “its worst level ever seen, with data going back more than three decades.”

State economist Amy Baker told the Legislative Budget Commission that while home prices and sales have rebounded from the depths of the Great Recession, more Floridians are now being forced to rent in an extremely tight and costly market.

“What isn’t back to normal is the homeownership rate,” she said.

According to the latest figures, 64.1 percent of Florida households owned homes in 2017, slightly above the current national average but down from the state’s 66.3 percent average of the past 34 years.

Before the housing collapse, the record high was 2007, when 72.4 percent of Florida households were homeowners.

Let this serve as a reality check on the usual, feel-good message that job growth and low unemployment are the indices that matter when it comes to measuring a strong economy. It takes a little off the shine of becoming a $1 trillion economy, as declared by the Florida Chamber of Commerce in July, when the vast majority of jobs being created don’t pay enough to qualify you for the American Dream of homeownership.

Though no doubt painful for business boosters to admit, it is a hard truth that Palm Beach County — indeed, the state of Florida — is in the midst of a full-blown workforce housing crisis. One that, in its own, way threatens to choke off our access to talented job applicants and the companies that want to hire them.

Yet even with such a bleak report, it remains difficult for this threat to the middle-class dream of owning a home to grab public attention in an election year dominated by toxic algae blooms on both of the state’s southern coasts.

It should. Because there are solutions.

That’s why the Palm Beach Post Editorial Board, for the better part of two years now, has sounded the alarm about our county’s worsening shortage of available workforce housing and chided stakeholders to step up to fix it.

From builders and developers to towns and cities to county leaders, the Editorial Board — and affordable housing advocates in our community — have challenged them all to do better.

Because the $350,000 median price of a single-family home is out of reach of 75 percent of county households. Because rents on two-bedroom apartments are well north of $1,900 a month. And because few 30-something middle-

class households can scrape together the 20 percent down payment for a $276,000 home — the starting price at the most affordable new-home developments in the county.

It is good see some answering the call. Last month, the Palm Beach County Commission, led by Mayor Melissa McKinlay, approved 250 new “workforce housing” apartments and townhouses to replace a rundown shopping plaza on U.S. 1, just south of Juno Beach. But commissioners know that’s far from enough.

Even the Florida Chamber Foundation in its Florida 2030 report, which the pro-business group began rolling out this year, carries a rather dire warning about a housing affordability crisis. The 28-page report’s research includes townhalls involving more than 10,000 Floridians asking for their “input on what Florida needs to get right to succeed in 2030 and beyond.”

The report overwhelmingly cites “affordability of housing” as the biggest “weakness.” What’s more, the crisis is “getting worse” and affecting “three key populations prevalent and critical to Florida’s future, young families, retirees and critical workers such as teachers, first-responders, nurses, construction workers and professionals in midskills jobs.”

As we’ve said previously, Florida lawmakers can begin by stopping their annual raids of millions of dollars from the Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Fundsto plug holes in the state budget. This diversion of trust funds is an obstacle to local governments like ours that need affordable workforce housing to attract new business growth and keep current government employees close to the communities they serve.

Job growth and low unemployment are good. But it will obviously take more to complete workers’ vision of the American Dream.

Article last accessed on October 1, 2018 here. A print-ready version is available here.