by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
The Jacksonville Housing Commission recently released a new report on local affordable housing and the news isn’t good.
The report describes the increasing challenges confronting people like teachers and police officers, who typically make $35,000 per year or less in an entry-level position and have difficulty passing the $50,000 annual income level even after years on the job. They earn more money than individuals typically targeted by affordable housing programs, but as the report points out, “more people and more workers at higher income levels are unable to afford housing.”
The report includes data compiled by the University of Florida’s Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing. According to 2005 figures, more than 81,000 households in Duval County paid more than 30 percent of their income toward housing costs.
A household is considered “cost burdened” when more than 30 percent of its income goes to housing costs, which include rent or mortgage payments, taxes and insurance.
“It’s a striking contrast,” said Wight Greger, deputy director of Jacksonville’s Housing & Neighborhoods Department. “Incomes are not keeping up with housing costs.”
The cost of housing has surpassed increases in wages for years.
According to the Florida Association of Realtors, the median sales price for a single-family home in Duval County in May 2006 was $200,000 – a 17 percent jump compared to the year before. In the five-year period that ended in December 2005, home prices in the county went up more than 76 percent, while family incomes in Jacksonville increased by only three percent per year in the same period.
“We’ve been watching the gap closely,” said Greger. “It has been pretty scary stuff for the past two years, but now it’s slowing down. I think we’re past the pinnacle of real estate inflation.”
Greger said Jacksonville is in an enviable situation despite its affordable housing issues.
“We’re fortunate to have lots of resources and opportunities other cities in Florida don’t have,” she said. “No other city government in the state is consolidated. That gives us an advantage because all the funds – about $15 million this year in federal and state money – flow through this office [Housing & Neighborhoods]. And we don’t just do something with it, we leverage it.”