As Housing Costs Rise, Palm Beach County Looks To Prevent Middle Class Exodus

Soaring Palm Beach County housing costs are driving teachers away from the county — and the school district is anxious to stop it, writes Lois K. Solomon of the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.

The district has begun a lecture series featuring Realtors, credit counselors, Florida home inspection experts, bankers and other agencies to its 22,000 employees they can afford a home — even as median prices hit $400,000 last year. Although the district succeeded in hiring 1,700 new teachers for the current school year, recruiters say many candidates are rejecting Palm Beach County because the cost of living is too high. Indeed, Palm Beach real estate prices have shot up drastically and are not expected to slow down. Employers in other fields are getting the same message.

“We are seeing signs all over the place. We’re actually late. We should have done it sooner,” School Board member Bill Graham said.

Palm Beach County also has been attempting to attack the problem, encouraging builders to reserve a portion of new neighborhoods for more affordable homes, which officials define as $275,000 or less. The school district seminars will be similar to talks given to employees of Palm Beach Community College and the city of Lake Worth, according to Jennifer Butler, vice president for government affairs for the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches.

“I’m always surprised at the basic questions people ask, and that’s okay,” said Butler, who added that most homebuyers don’t realize local agencies offer “free money” for down payments — as much as $20,000 — to people with an assortment of incomes.

Many prospective buyers focus on their credit reports and believe that alone will be good enough to allow them to get a Florida home loan, but they also need to think about how their credit will affect the mortgage rate they are given.

“For some, buying a home is a short-term goal. For others, it could be five or 10 years away,” said Christie Hardcastle, a financial educational specialist at Consumer Credit Counseling Services. “The things they will learn are skills they need, whether they buy a house or not.”

The school district has developed relationships with Realtors and apartment complexes that have volunteered to assist teachers, but the seminars represent the first organized effort at attacking the housing crunch. They district wants its citizens to learn there are options out there, and attack the perception that home ownership is impossible, even if a single-family home might not be an employee’s first home.

Educating the workforce on the subject is a good idea, as the region’s middle-class citizens will need to be as resourceful as possible. In order to get a foothold into the South Florida real estate market, which continues to escalate beyond their means, more and more residents of places like Palm Beach must be smart as well as fortunate. Knowing how to secure the best rate on a Florida home loan and to improve one’s credit report is a great place to start.