Florida tops list of decreasing affordable housing

February 26, 2011 | Naples Daily News / Marco News

TALLAHASSEE – In Florida, roughly 855,000 working households had a severe housing cost burden in 2009. This represents 33 percent of all working households, a significant increase from 30 percent since 2008, a new study reports.

The number of working households spending more than half of their income on housing rose by nearly 600,000 nationally in one year’s time – from less than 10 million in 2008 to more than 10.5 million households in 2009, according to The Center for Housing Policy’s annual report, “Housing Landscape 2011.”

Florida has two of the top five metropolitan areas with the highest share of working households with a severe housing cost burden in 2009:

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach: 42 percent
Orlando-Kissimmee: 35 percent
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif.: 37 percent
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif.: 35 percent
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif.: 34 percent

In addition, Jacksonville has 25 percent with a severe cost burden and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area has 29 percent, a 6 percent and 3 percent increase, respectively.

The cause is job loss. Florida’s high unemployment and underemployment rates force families to use an increased proportion of their household income on housing. For example, when one person in a household loses their job the family’s income decreases; however, their housing costs remain the same causing the cost-burden.
The other three states where the share of severely cost-burdened working households both exceeded the national average and experienced a statistically significant increase between 2008 and 2009 were Arizona, New Jersey, and New York.

“The housing burden for Florida would significantly be reduced if the Legislature appropriates the Sadowski Housing Trust Funds for Florida’s housing projects,” said Jaimie Ross, Florida Housing Coalition Board president. “The projected documentary stamp collection is $192.7 million for appropriation in fiscal year 2011-12. This translates to approximately 15,000 jobs with an economic impact of over $1.4 billion.”