Gainesville Has Less Affordable Housing Than Other Florida Metro Areas

Across the country, a crisis has been developing in the lack of affordable housing. This is because wages have generally stayed the same while home values increase. This, in turn, increases rent costs for families that are earning the same wages. Many essential workers have been left without options for affordable housing in the communities they serve. Unfortunately, here in Florida, it is worse than anywhere else in the country.

The Alligator reports that Florida has the highest cost burden rate for renters in the entire country. Worse still, Gainesville has the highest cost burden for renters out of all metropolitan areas in Florida. Gainesville tenants spend an average of 65 percent of their income on rent. For reference, the Department of Housing and Urban Development defines rent as a “cost burden” when it exceeds30 percent of a family’s income.

The situation has recently become even worse than these statistics show. These cost burden analyses are based on the 2016 American Community Survey. Between 2016 and 2020, most property values continued to rise (thus increasing rent) while wages remained largely stagnant. And all of this was prior to the economic crisis caused by the prolonged coronavirus pandemic. Now, more Florida tenants face eviction than at almost any point in Florida’s history. Eviction and foreclosure moratoriums have helped keep some families off the street, but these are only temporary measures.

Affordable housing is a large, systemic problem that must be addressed with bold and wide-reaching solutions. Until then, the experienced Casselberry and Oviedo eviction and foreclosure attorneys at Quattrochi, Torres, and Taormina are hereto help. Call 407.452.4918 or contact us online today to schedule your free consultation. We help Florida families find the legal and financial resources they need to stay in their homes and reduce the spread ofCOVID-19.