Report: Manatee County Now Less Affordable Than Sarasota County
The Manatee County housing market continued to be among Florida’s most expensive in 2005, even less affordable than Sarasota County, the Bradenton Herald reports.
Manatee was the eighth least-affordable among the state’s 67 counties while Sarasota ranked 11th that year, the University of Florida’s Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing said in its “State of Florida’s Housing” report released last month.
The rankings are based on a formula that uses sales price data collected from county property appraisers and median household income figures.
Manatee County’s rise caught some local affordable housing advocates off guard Friday.
“I’m surprised that we’re among the least affordable, but we do know we’ve been struggling with this issue for the last several years because of the prices in the county,” said Suzie Dobbs, Manatee County’s affordable and workforce housing coordinator.
But Manatee has been steadily climbing up the ranks of the state’s costly counties, according to the Shimberg Center’s housing affordability index. Manatee was 14th-highest in 1999, became more expensive than Sarasota in 2003 and cracked the top 10 the following year.
Manatee’s ascent largely was caused by the county’s home prices climbing faster than Sarasota’s, making Florida mortgages harder for residents to afford county-wide.
“Manatee County and Sarasota County had similar real median sales prices in 1995, but recently Manatee County has experienced a higher real increase and now a single-family unit cost (sic) around $50,000 more than in Sarasota County,” the report said.
Dobbs said Manatee’s median household income also continues to lag behind Sarasota’s, which might also explain the widening affordability gap in Manatee.
The Shimberg report did not specify the sales price and income amounts used to calculate the rankings, which are for 2005 - the peak of the Southwest Florida housing market boom.
According to data collected for the Manatee Association of Realtors, the median sales price for single-family homes reached a peak of $349,900 in August of that year.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimated Manatee’s median household income that year was $44,414 - meaning half of households made less than that amount, and half made more (and a Florida mortgage would be a tall order in that range).
Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys, had the state’s least-affordable housing market in 2005, the Shimberg report said. The most-affordable was Liberty County, in the Panhandle.
Statewide, the number of counties considered less affordable than the state average jumped from 15 in 2003 to 49 two years later.
“These numbers point to a lessening of affordability in Florida in 2005,” the report said.
SOURCE: Bradenton Herald
