Home Prices Hurting Florida Middle Class
A surging housing market is widely considered to be a good thing, as long as you are on the ownership side. From the standpoint of prospective first-time buyers - many of them middle-class professionals - the Central Florida real estate boom has effectively priced them out of the market.
Consider the median home price in the following Florida cities:
- Orlando — $250,000
- Daytona Beach — $227,000
- Melbourne — $225,000
- Ocala — $157,500
With the above prices commonplace for homes these days, professionals such as teachers, nurses and police officers can’t afford to buy. Teacher Stephanie Juiliano is one of many whose dreams of home ownership have been placed on hiatus due to the rapid increase in housing costs, and who may have to think about a new career path as a result.
“Something needs to be done. I mean, two years ago, I was able to afford a house, but now, the prices have doubled,” she said.
It’s actually gotten that bad for many middle-class workers. Even after Juliano was granted help with a down payment — $15,000 — from a state-funded program, she still couldn’t afford the mortgage and had to turn it down. She could probably afford around $110,000 on her salary, and with the median home price in the area currently at $157,000 (half cost less, half cost more), pretty much all properties are out of reach.
Community housing experts say state money is running dry, but are working with county commissioners to increase the amount of money that we loan to prospective buyers in similar situations, according to Marion County community services director Evelyn Rusciolelli. Some other possible solutions being considered include requiring builders to incorporate affordable housing in their projects. That idea is on the table in Miami-Dade County, where a provision to make builders pay into an affordable housing trust fund is also being considered by officials.
Good news for people like Juliano may come in the form of rising mortgage rates across the state and country. As loans become more expensive, the demand for Florida real estate may finally cool off, and thus result in lower home prices. Then again, higher interest rates will mean bigger monthly payments on the borrowed sum. Hopefully, a balance will return to the market in the near future that will allow more middle-class Floridians to invest in their future through real estate.
