Florida lacks affordable housing despite building boom, UF report shows

The recent spike in newcomers moving to the Sunshine State has made it harder to find affordable housing, a new report from the University of Florida’s Shimberg Center for Housing Studies found.

In 2022, the state added 125,000 single-family homes and 39,966 multi-family rental units, a vast improvement from the years immediately following the 2008 housing market crash. Still, it’s not enough to keep pace with the more than 450,000 people who moved to Florida in 2021 and 2022.

That lack of supply has made housing more expensive, said Anne Ray, manager of the Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse.

Last year, the statewide median price for a single-family home reached $400,000, surpassing the inflation-adjusted peak prices from 2006. A home then would have cost around $376,000 in today’s dollars.

“In some of the urban coastal counties and in really strong vacation areas, you have median home prices over $500,000,” said Ray. She pointed specifically to Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

In Pinellas, median prices ranged from $400,000 to $499,999. The median for Hillsborough was $350,000-$399,999. Pasco came in at $300,000-$349,999.

The report also measured the lack of affordable rental housing for people at different income levels.

The need was greatest among the lowest earners — people working in retail, restaurants and other low wage jobs. In 2022 there were 515,146 households across the state making up to 30% of the area median income, but only 244,121 rentals that they could reasonably afford.

Finding an affordable rental has become a challenge even among traditionally middle-class earners like construction workers, mechanics or teachers.

The report counted more than 1.5 million households making up to 80% of the area median income, but just 1.46 million rentals that this group could afford. Ray explained the gap is even more severe when you factor in the higher-income renters who are competing for the same apartments.

Of those 1.46 million affordable rentals, more than 1 million were being rented out by people who made above the 80% area median income.

“Having more vacant units to choose from gives everyone in the market room to breathe,” Ray said.

But that’s only one part of the solution. The state will also need to find ways to keep existing housing affordable, Ray said, whether that’s by renovating blighted homes, providing subsidized housing or offering rent assistance and foreclosure prevention programs.