New-build apartment complexes charge what the market will bear. The market will bear such a high price because the zoning code restricts supply by limiting where the apartments can be built and mandates expensive amenities (most notably, dedicated parking spaces).
Relax the zoning code and more, cheaper, apartments would be built.
I would also add on that Florida is very atypical (oh no, I am a prejudiced elitist!). if only because of the high probability of flooding and hurricane damage coupled with insurance companies actively leaving the state.
Although I acknowledge that those issues are real and important, I’m skeptical about assigning too much weight to them in terms of causes of high housing costs. Frankly, prices in most other parts of the country are similarly bad even without those factors in play.
For newly constructed apartment complexes: it is 100% a very high weight. Because the companies building those aren’t stupid. They know these won’t be up for decades making profit over time. They need to make back their investment before the state sinks or the building becomes condemned.
Houses? Those are pretty much normal, if a bit under, national average last I checked. Because the bank doesn’t care. If your house gets washed away then they get some FEMA cash and you are still on the hook for the mortgage on the sewage stained remnants of your foundation.
New-build apartment complexes charge what the market will bear. The market will bear such a high price because the zoning code restricts supply by limiting where the apartments can be built and mandates expensive amenities (most notably, dedicated parking spaces).
Relax the zoning code and more, cheaper, apartments would be built.
I would also add on that Florida is very atypical (oh no, I am a prejudiced elitist!). if only because of the high probability of flooding and hurricane damage coupled with insurance companies actively leaving the state.
Although I acknowledge that those issues are real and important, I’m skeptical about assigning too much weight to them in terms of causes of high housing costs. Frankly, prices in most other parts of the country are similarly bad even without those factors in play.
For newly constructed apartment complexes: it is 100% a very high weight. Because the companies building those aren’t stupid. They know these won’t be up for decades making profit over time. They need to make back their investment before the state sinks or the building becomes condemned.
Houses? Those are pretty much normal, if a bit under, national average last I checked. Because the bank doesn’t care. If your house gets washed away then they get some FEMA cash and you are still on the hook for the mortgage on the sewage stained remnants of your foundation.