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Housing

Quality, attainable housing for Florida’s workforce

Challenges

While the demand to live in Florida is the envy of our peers, it has had a negative impact on the availability and cost of housing. In 2023, Florida had the highest percentage of cost burdened renters (defined as households spending more than 30% of their income on rent) in the country.

Percentage of Cost-Burdened Renter Households: Florida and its Economic Peers

To make matters worse, Florida also had the greatest percentage of severely burdened renter households (greater than 50% of income spent on rent) in the country, with close to 1 in 3 Florida households (30.7%) falling into this category.

Just ten years ago, Florida metropolitan areas were more affordable than their competitors. The median home price-to-median income ratio was lower (better) in Miami than what a household would face in the metropolitan areas of New York City, Boston, and Seattle. Today, the opposite is true, with many of Florida’s regional economies being surpassed by their peers in terms of the affordability of home ownership.

Home Ownership Becoming Less Attainable in Florida Compared to Economic Peers

Opportunities

The State Legislature rightly focused on the housing affordability challenge in 2023, passing into law the Live Local Act, which

Appropriated $711 million for housing projects, the largest investment in housing ever in state history
Created a tax credit incentive program for corporations to invest in affordable housing
Provided regulatory flexibility regarding zoning, density, and height to incentivize and allow for streamlined development of affordable housing in commercial, industrial, and mixed-use zoned areas
Refocused Florida’s housing strategy in ways that make housing more attainable.

Appropriated $711 million for housing projects, the largest investment in housing ever in state history
Created a tax credit incentive program for corporations to invest in affordable housing
Provided regulatory flexibility regarding zoning, density, and height to incentivize and allow for streamlined development of affordable housing in commercial, industrial, and mixed-use zoned areas
Refocused Florida’s housing strategy in ways that make housing more attainable.

The Legislature also made important refinements to the Live Local Act in 2024, including recommendations made by the Council of 100.

This will help the Act accomplish its original intent and further the private sector’s ability to be part of the solution.

Florida is the place to solve and scale solutions to increase access to quality attainable housing.

With the nation’s leading housing developers, investors, and a smart, engaged state government.

with the nation’s leading housing developers, investors, and a smart, engaged state government.