Affordable Housing Woes Stifling Economic Growth in Central, Southwest Florida

The Tampa Bay Partnership recently released a Regional Economic Scorecard, measuring five categories of the area’s competitiveness and attractiveness to business and investment.

The scorecard answers the question of how Tampa Bay is doing, using five crucial economic driver categories — employment and workforce; income and productivity; housing; innovation; and education.

Cities and counties within the Tampa Bay Partnership — including Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Lakeland, Sarasota-Bradenton, and Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota counties — were compared to other markets in the U.S. Atlanta, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Raleigh-Durham and Dallas.

Key points on the scorecard for this corner of Florida, according to the Partnership, include:

• Job creation continues to be a real strength for Tampa Bay.
• A tightening labor market will challenge employers.
• Wages still lag behind competition but are growing at a faster rate.
• The lack of affordable housing is one of the most serious issues facing the region.

Overall, Tampa Bay received a scorecard ranking of 3.

Charlotte scored a 1, Raleigh-Durham a 2, Dallas scored a 4, Jacksonville a 5, and Atlanta scored a 6. In the last category, however, Tampa Bay scored a troubling 2.

This illustrates what we have been reporting for some time as far as the situation permeating through the Southwest Florida housing market is concerned.

Now, things are progressing to the point where parts of the Central Florida housing market — once considered a safe haven from the rest of the state’s housing problems — are starting to feel the heat as well. The strong economy providers reason for hope, but without reasonable housing to accommodate the workers necessary to drive that economy, we are facing a crisis.

“The ability of industries to create quality jobs, increased average wages, affordable housing for all residents, support for innovative activities, and provide high quality education are critical to a vibrant region,” the scorecard said.

Over the past five years, Tampa Bay has created more net new jobs than all five comparison regions combined. But in the first quarter of 2006, the median prices of existing single-family homes in Tampa and vicinity was $232,000, a shocking 40 percent higher than metropolitan Atlanta and 60 percent higher than Dallas.

Tampa Bay also had the lowest median household income of all the comparison regions, making it hard for residents to afford adequate Florida mortgage financing.

These factors combine to make rental affordability and housing affordability the lowest ranking among the comparison regions, and will need to be addressed.