Florida Realtor • June 2022 • UPFRONT

Homeownership triumphed during the 2022 Florida legislative session, which ended on March 14. Working closely with state lawmakers, Florida Realtors^® successfully advocated for $362 million for housing programs. This amount also includes $100 million for the organization’s 2022 priority, the Hometown Hero Housing Program.

The Hometown Hero Housing Program is a new revolving loan program for qualified firefighters, law enforcement officers, teachers, nurses and other hometown hero professions. The program reduces the upfront costs for these homebuyers by providing 0% interest loans to help with downpayment and closing costs. The loan is repaid once the home is sold, rented or refinanced, creating a continuous homeownership cycle for some of Florida’s most essential workers.

Florida Realtors also worked with the Legislature to ensure Florida voters have a chance to further support hometown heroes via Amendment 3. If voters approve during the November election, the amendment will grant an additional homestead property tax exemption on $50,000 of the assessed value of homestead property owned by teachers, law enforcement, firefighters and other essential workers.

These two homeownership initiatives are in addition to the $262 million that lawmakers allocated to the State and Local Government Housing Trust Funds, which fund the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) and State Apartment Incentive Loan programs (SAIL). These long-standing affordable housing programs provide homeownership and rental assistance to low-income Floridians.

In addition to these homeownership- related accomplishments, Florida Realtors also achieved other notable successes. These include:

• Over $1.6 billion for the Everglades and water quality—The 2022-2023 fiscal year budget includes money for Everglades restoration ($425 million), Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration ($450 million), springs restoration ($75 million), beaches ($50 million), Biscayne Bay ($20 million), the Wastewater Grant Program ($125 million) and the Resilient Florida Grant Program ($470 million).

• New protections from harmful local ordinances. Business owners will be able to recover damages if a local government creates or changes an ordinance that causes a reduction of at least 15% of the business’s profit.

• Preventing unlicensed real estate activity—The Legislature allocated up to $500,000 in the 2022-2023 fiscal year budget to combat unlicensed real estate activity.

THE HOTTEST NEIGHBORHOODS IN FLORIDA

Eight of Redfin’s 10 hottest neighborhoods of 2022 are in Florida, and seven of those eight are in the Sarasota metropolitan area alone, according to a new report from Redfin.

Redfin analyzed and ranked U.S. ZIP Codes by year-over-year growth in listing views on Redfin.com.

The neighborhoods in Florida are:
South Sarasota
East Venice
Englewood
Venice
Nokomis
The Meadows
Weston
Downtown Fort Myers

70% of all homeowners in the United States have a degree: 40% have at least a bachelor’s, while 30% have some college or an associate’s degree. More than 80% of those with a degree in Education, Industry/Technology and Agriculture are likely to own a home compared to just over 65% of IT/Mass Media grads and Art grads.

Become the Real Estate Expert

Want to become the local real estate expert? According to real estate coach Glenn Bill, with University of Attitude, “Kiwanis Clubs, Rotary Clubs, Realtor^® clubs, business clubs, networking groups and chamber of commerce groups are always looking for speakers. Speaking is free, but you can make a lot of money speaking.”

He says to, “Simply prepare a 10- to 15-minute value message.” That value message should include information on what’s happening in the local real estate market, and “include what I consider to be the three best values in our marketplace.” Bill says that groups are looking for speakers all the time. “I encourage you to target local clubs and audiences and begin speaking and educating people on real estate. Then you become the expert.”

Can Boomers Afford a Home in Your County?

With home prices soaring, homeownership seems to slip further and further away these days. Point2Homes looked at the top counties in Florida to see which generation will find it easier to buy a home in that area.

Here are some highlights that might interest you for some of the largest counties in Florida:

• Broward County, with a median home price of $339,750, is out of reach for baby boomers, who can afford no more than $260,747. Millennials and Gen Xers can comfortably afford the median home here with $348,958, and $396,890 as the maximum affordable property price. Gen Z buyers have it the worst: They can only afford $205,336.

• Duval County, despite having a more reasonable median home price of $272,481, is only affordable for millennials and Gen Xers.

• Hillsborough County, With a median home price set at $363,114, makes the area unaffordable for Gen Z buyers, millennials and baby boomers. Gen Xers are the only ones who can afford a home here, exceeding the local median price by $42,543.

• Miami-Dade County has the highest median home price, $499,500, above the affordability amount for each of the four generations, with Gen Zers and baby boomers having the lowest purchasing power ($193,491 and $199,062). Millennials, along with Gen Xers, come closer to affording the median with $340,849 and $383,638, respectively.

• Palm Beach County, with the median-priced home set at $428,725, is unaffordable for three of the generations. It’s only the Gen Xers who can afford a home here, given they can spend a maximum of $476,951.

COMING IN H.O.T.

Real estate agent forms teenage philanthropic group to banish food insecurity for children.

Tony Garcia, district sales manager of The Keyes Company in Homestead, understands the issues in the local schools. After all, his wife, Nancy, was the chair of the education committee for the City of Homestead. She had reached out to local principals to see what the biggest needs were at these schools. What they told her: food insecurity. “The kids would come into school on Monday ravenous because they just don’t have enough to eat over the weekend,” says Garcia. This was in 2019, pre-pandemic. It became even more important when lockdowns were instituted and children who normally got meals from school were no longer getting them.

“In 2019, she started an outreach group called Homestead Outreach Team, or H.O.T. It was a group of teenagers who would do philanthropic work throughout the community—anything from dog rescues to providing backpacks to students,” said Garcia, who currently sits on the board of the 501(c)(3). “We gave about 340 backpacks that year.”

The “minute the pandemic started,” says Garcia, “we realized that the problem of food insecurity was only going to get worse.” Garcia and his wife started a food outreach where they would buy grocery bags of food and the volunteers of H.O.T. would hand them out at the local schools.

The Keyes Company caught wind of the project and “donated funds and bought hot lunches for students in the lower income areas of the City of Homestead.” “We ended up serving 300,000 meals in conjunction with a nonprofit called This Is for the Kids,” says Garcia. H.O.T. works with local organizations and businesses to receive nonperishable food donations to give to kids in need. They sort, pack and distribute bags of food to students who would otherwise go hungry on the weekends.

The group has a special focus on children in need, the military and their families, the homeless, and animals in need. “It’s really made a difference for the school kids,” says Garcia. “We’ve had stories of kids getting on the bus and separating their food by family member to ensure everyone gets something.

H.O.T. raises money through golf tournaments, such as those put together by the Keyes Family of Services and other local fundraisers. They also accept donations through their website homesteadoutreachteam.com. “We’re just here to support the school and the children of this community,” says Garcia

Fair Housing Ad Violations Aren’t Always Obvious

Describe the property, not the potential buyer or tenant. “Ideal for empty nesters” or “perfect for students” raises red flags; “easy walk to train” does not.

Real estate professionals are legally obligated to uphold fair housing laws, and the language and images you use in advertising need to be vetted carefully. Beyond the law, Realtors^® also have an obligation to do so under Article 10 of the Realtor Code of Ethics.

“Advertisements should never indicate a preference or limitation based on a protected class, which at the federal level includes race, color, religion, sex, disability, family status and national origin,” says Mike Rohde, staff attorney at the National Association of Realtors^® (NAR), in the latest “Window to the Law” video, (tinyurl.com/fair-housing-advertising)

“HUD recently expanded its interpretation of sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity, and state and local laws may expand the categories of protected classes further,” he adds.

Rohde provides a tip: When advertising a property, focus on describing the property—not the buyer or tenant. He cautions against using phrases like “ideal for empty nesters” or “perfect for students” that could raise red flags by implying a preference for one demographic over another.

On the other hand, he says phrases like “easy walk to train” or “beautiful Mexican doors” are likely acceptable since they describe the property’s characteristics.

Rohde says a similar rule of thumb applies when Realtors^® describe how they can help buyers or sellers—describe their services and not whom they want to serve. For example, it’s OK for agents to promote their fluency in a particular language or specialization, and the area of the community they serve. But they should avoid indicating a preference for or limitation to the clients they’ll serve, he says.

Real estate ads are judged using a reasonable person standard, which can evolve over time. Once-overlooked words and images, such as the Confederate flag, could create fair housing concerns nowadays.

Source: “Window to the Law: Advertising Within the Fair Housing Framework,” National Association of Realtors^® (April 1, 2022)

NOW YOU KNOW

Nearly 1.7 million homes sit empty in Florida, more than anywhere else in the country. Overall, the study found more than 16 million houses sit empty across the country. Florida’s rank among proportion of home vacancies from the study is also high. The Sunshine State has the sixth largest percentage of vacant units in the U.S. Its 17.13% vacancy rate sits behind only five other states, spread across the North, South, Midwest and Alaska. Source: LendingTree

COVID-19 Slowed Black Homeownership Even More

A study of U.S. Census data found that 15% of Americans are Black, but their homeownership rate is only 10%. Florida cities included in the study ranked about average.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated racial income and wealth inequality in the U.S., according to a new study from Lending- Tree based on an analysis of U.S. Census data.

Black Americans comprise 15% of the population across the nation’s 50 largest metros. But they own only 10% of owner-occupied homes, researchers say. In certain metros, the mismatch is more pronounced.

The study broke down the largest 50 U.S. metro areas, which includes four in Florida. Overall, the Black homeownership rate is better in Jacksonville, Miami and Orlando than it is nationally, but less in Tampa. However, the overall homeownership rate gap—total Black population vs. the percentage of Black homeowners—is lowest in Tampa.

• 25. Tampa: 12.17% Black with a 6.98% ownership rate—a 5.19% population/ownership gap

“Unfortunately, the issue of low homeownership rates among Black Americans is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon,” says Jacob Channel, LendingTree’s senior economic analyst and the report’s author. “This is especially true given that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionately large economic impact on Black Americans, and may make it even more difficult for some who identify as Black to buy a home.”

The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) issued a report in February—Black Homeownership Remains Disparately Low—that found similar results.

Overall, LendingTree researchers found that Black Americans make up a larger share of the population in metros with the largest differences in the percentage of Black owner-occupied homes.

Source: “Black Americans Own Disproportionately Small Share of Homes in 50 Largest U.S. Metros,” LendingTree (April 5, 2022)

SMART IDEA. According to Zillow, some 75% of recent homebuyers have regrets about their new home. About onethird say it’s because the home needs more work or maintenance than expected. A similar percentage regret buying a home that is too small. Zillow has a checklist homebuyers can download to make sure they find and buy the home of their dreams—no regrets. Pass it along to the buyers with whom you’re working. Go to zillow.com/resources/stay-informed/find-your-dream-home/