A new report addressing home affordability – which was cited by the Wall Street Journal – shows that it takes longer for home-buyers in the City of Tallahassee to save for a down payment to purchase a home than in a number of other Florida cities.
In January 2019, one of the top priorities set by the Tallahassee City Commission was affordable housing.
The report, by the real-estate firm Unison, calculated how long it would take to save up a down payment on the median home in a given city by saving 5 percent of the city’s gross median income per year.
Nationally, the gap between income and home value has been rising. Using Unison’s methodology, it took nine years to save up a down payment in 1975. Now it takes 14.
What about Tallahassee?
The chart below lists information for Tallahassee, selected Florida cities and other comparable cities.
To accumulate a 10% down payment for a 2018 median priced home in Tallahassee – by annually saving 5% of Tallahassee’s median household income of $42,531 – would take approximately 9 years.
Under the same scenario, it would take a potential home buyer in Miami 18 years to save the required down payment.
Looking at other Florida cities, it takes home buyers in Tallahassee one year longer to save a down payment than in Gainesville, Tampa, Orlando and Panama City, two years longer than in Pensacola and three years longer than in Jacksonville.
Among the sixteen cities selected for comparison, Tallahassee ranks as 5th least affordable. For the components used in the methodology, the median home value in Tallahassee ranks 7th highest among the selected cities and the median household income ranks 12th highest.
In two cities – Pensacola, & Jacksonville – the median household income is significantly higher than in Tallahassee and the median home price is lower than in Tallahassee.
Looking at other comparable cities in the South, Tallahassee fares better in the affordable measure than Boulder, Colorado, Greenville, South Carolina, and Austin, Texas. Tallahassee lags behind eleven other cities in the table, which include Nashville, Baton Rouge, and Chattanooga.
Report: It Takes Longer to Save for a Home in Tallahassee added by Steve Stewart on
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No one SAID your first Home has to cost $180,000. You can always buy a nice Home in a nice area for $80,000 to $90,000, spend some time fixing it up and about 5 to 8 Years later sell it for a big Profit and buy a bigger nicer Home. That’s how a lot of people do it, that’s how I am doing it. At the same time, you work hard, move up the ladder, earn more money and that makes it easier.
What’s REALLY stunning about those figures is Miami has the highest median house price in Fla, and the LOWEST salary! Sure glad we escaped from that place 30 years ago!
I did the math. Thats $2000 saved per year over 9 years to save 10% down (18,000). Someone who makes 42k can ONLY save 2000 a year? Thats barely $200 a month. Stop having kids, get an extra job, cut spending, and you can cut that to 2 years.
Oh please, not that tired old meme. You could just as easily say that Democrats created more prosperity, because the money is in cities governed Democrats and the poor, rural areas are governed by consrvtive Republicans.
Stating the obvious, the cities on the chart where it takes the longest time are run by Dems. And the ones at the bottom of the list, which require the fewest years of savings, are run by conservative governance.
Actually, Jax, Pensacola, AND Miami are all run by Republicans, who’ve dominated local politics for at least 20 yrs…you idiot.
Both the City and the County have talked about improving Blighted areas but has done nothing about it. If they REALLY want to help create Affordable Housing they can solve two problems at once. New Construction Loans are usually “# Part Loans”. Land Purchase Loan, Construction Loan and then they combine the two into a Purchase Loan. They need to work with a few Banks and do something similar. There are a LOT of Homes needing to be remodeled in blighted areas that are for sale really cheap, around $25-30 Thousand Dollars. The Bank makes a Property Laon, then a Remodel Loan and then combine the two into a Purchase Loan. If they can purchase the Home for $30,000 and then remodel it for $35,000 they have a new Home for just $65,000.
that makes perfect sense so they won’t do it. Also, most younger people want a perfect house right off the bat, and aren’t even willing to WORK at improving the house. Thankfully my daughter & her husband WANT an older home that they can repair/upgrade over time.
Wouldn’t it be better to help with the down payment and help people get into existing homes with established neighborhoods rather than trying to create a new (affordable housing) development which will not have the advantages of a developed neighborhood.
I applied for and was approved for the full “Down Payment Assistance” the City offers BUT, the problem that I found out was, they are super strict on what you can buy. The Home has to be with in the City Limits and it must be perfect, not needing any repairs. That includes a Driveway with NO cracks in it and a fairly newer Roof. If it needs repairs they must be done before it is inspected. I must have looked at about 50 Homes in my price range and NONE of them meet their guide lines. So I walked away from the Money they offered and found a Home out side the City Limits that would have passed their inspections and bought it. The County has talked a little about doing the same but that’s ALL they have done so far.
Isn’t Tallahassee’s population made up mostly of Under Paid Government Employee’s, Senior Citizens, Low Income Families and Students?