South Florida – Housing Market – Courtesy: Shutterstock – Image by pisaphotography
According to a Zillow survey, Florida has surpassed New York to become the second-most valuable U.S. housing market.
Four Florida markets are among the top six where home prices have increased since the epidemic began: Tampa (+88.9%), Miami (+86.6%), Jacksonville (+82.4%), and Orlando (+72.3%).
According to Mark Jones, a town architect with LRK, the increase in home prices in Florida is a direct result of the state’s growing population and housing market shortage.
“It’s supply and demand, and then when you look at who is moving here it’s the baby boomer generation, the wealthiest generation,” Jones said. “When you put that on top of higher interest rates, people staying in place in their existing homes and lowering the pool of available homes, it certainly is a means to inflate the price.”
After the Great Recession, new home production drastically decreased, creating a housing deficit. However, as builders work to reduce the shortfall and more homes enter the market, Florida’s affordability is eroding.
“There’s a cost to this growth,” Jones said. “Whether it’s higher property taxes for those of us here, whether it’s a tax on the infrastructure, the lack of affordable housing is one of the number one pieces. How do we solve that with this growth and this increase in property values?”
As the developer of the well-known communities of Celebration, Baldwin Park, and Oakland Park in Central Florida, Jones and his company are well-versed in what it takes to successfully launch a new project.
“A development coming in, as long as it has the factors of good planning principles that create diversity but also creates open space and the accessibility of that open space, it can work,” Jones said. “It’s really thinking through how we solve the problem without just going out and overdeveloping to just accommodate the masses coming in.”
Stories that matter are our priority. At Florida Insider, we make sure that the information we provide our readers is accurate, easy-to-read, and informative. Whether you are interested in business, education, government, history, sports, real estate, nature or travel: we have something for everyone. Follow along for the best stories in the Sunshine State.
Mike has more than 30 years of experience in marketing and public relations. He once owned his own agency and has worked with some of the largest brands in the world.
