As someone who is both a zoning and land use attorney in private practice and a public policymaker in my role as a Broward County commissioner, one of the questions that I get asked frequently is why housing is so expensive in Broward County. There are many reasons, but probably one above all others – space. We don’t have any more.
I’ve served in public office (representative, senator, mayor of Broward County, county commissioner), and I’ve changed a lot of laws. One law that I can’t change is the law of supply and demand.
Over the last 25 years, the population of Broward County has increased at a rate of about 14,000 people/year. Today, because of more people living alone and fewer children, the average number of people per housing unit has fallen to 2.1 persons/housing unit. I’ll round that to two people/unit. With 14,000 new people/year and two people/unit, we need 7,000 new housing units per year just to keep up with population growth. If we build more than 7,000 new housing units per year, that should restrain the growth in housing prices. If we build fewer than 7,000 new housing units per year, the law of supply and demand mandates higher prices.
In other areas of the state and country, if housing prices grow too high in the urban core, we simply build out into the suburbs/exurbs another mile (water permitting). In Broward County, we can’t do that, as we’re fully built out. Sharks to the east of us, alligators to the west of us, and north and south are fully developed. There’s only one direction left to build – vertically. And that is more expensive than one- or two-story housing.
The rising cost of construction is another major problem. New condominiums used to be seen as an affordable option. Today, few, if any, new condominium units are available in Southeast Florida for less than $800,000, and $800,000 units would be rare. Construction costs have surged by 20% to 30% or more over the last few years, and that’s not even accounting for new costs due to tariffs.
I don’t need to tell anyone about the dramatic rise in windstorm insurance costs. South Florida’s homeowners’ insurance rates (including condominiums and rental apartments) are among the highest in the nation and have gone up far faster than the rate of inflation.
South Florida has among the worst affordable housing issues anywhere in the country. It’s important to note how affordability is calculated. It’s not based strictly on price. Affordability is calculated based on the percentage of the population in an area that can find housing within a certain percentage (typically 28% PITI) of their gross monthly income. South Florida has a bad combination of relatively high home prices and relatively low incomes, which leads to high levels of unaffordability.
Does this mean that affordable or workforce housing is out of reach? Not necessarily. There are many affordable housing programs to help individuals or developers. There are programs to assist developers with more density or financial help, although the financial help programs require affordable housing components. There are statewide programs like the Live Local Act or Broward-specific programs such as the Geller Amendment. In future articles, I’ll write about these and other programs.