Southwest Florida needs to build more homes in order to meet local job creation.
According to the National Association of Realtors, there is a shortfall of 13,609 new single-family homes in Cape Coral/Fort Myers and a shortfall of 3,020 homes in the Naples/Immokalee/Marco Island areas.
NAR’s Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun, said that the recession hurt the housing market by accelerating price growth and made it difficult for buyers to afford a home. “Without the expected pick-up in building as job gains rose in recent years, new and existing inventory has shrunk, prices have shot up and affordability has eroded despite mortgage rates at or near historic lows.”
While building has been on fire in Southwest Florida since the recession ended, the 7,315 single-family permits pulled from 2013 to 2015 in Collier County, and the 9,462 pulled in Lee County, were inadequate to meet the need. That is because Lee added 36,683 jobs during the period and Collier added 16,433.
So, the ratio of employment over total permits was 3.9 for Lee Country and 2.2 for Collier County.
