Concerned South Florida Resident: Builders Contributed to Housing Market Inflation

It’s becoming very apparent how important affordable housing is to future generations of South Florida residents. Five years of skyrocketing home prices sparked by record-low Florida mortgage rates have now left the region in a state of flux, with many concerned for the future of the paradise they call home.

Marlin Farnsworth, a junior in high school from Miramar, Fla., has his own theory as to how the affordable housing crisis occurred — and what we must do to fix it. Here’s what he writes in an editorial to the Sun-Sentinel:

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I am a junior in high school and am considering becoming a business and/or economics major in college. The recent inflation in the Florida housing market concerns me and others in my community who cannot afford a home of their own.

I fear that when I am out of college and ready to purchase a home, I will not be able to afford to live here, and will be forced to move.

In response to a recent article about Lennar Corp.’s quarterly profits being down 39 percent, I believe that this market crash is the fault of home builders such as Lennar, which have allowed this inflation to occur.

The profit decrease is merely inflation catching up with the people who have stimulated it over the past five years. Affordable housing is non-existent in South Florida today. People who own homes can’t afford to move [due to outrageous increases in property taxes] and those who do not own can’t afford to buy.

According to the Sun-Sentinel article, “Many new home buyers are now either holding back or demanding cheaper prices.”

In my opinion, it is about time home buyers did so. Until either salaries of the average person drastically increase, or the cost of housing goes down, the earnings of companies such as Lennar Corp. will continue to decrease as people will not be able to afford to live here.