PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — It’s a perfect storm of bad real estate news.
More people moving to Florida, driving up housing prices amid a dwindling supply. Nationwide, Tampa Bay was ranked as the 14th most overvauled market.
Add in the pandemic and people losing their jobs, and a crisis has emerged.
On this week’s To The Point Already, Spectrum Bay News 9’s Rick Elmhorst and Roy De Jesus talk housing affordability in the Bay area with a local renter and real estate professionals.
Gloria Wolfe is a wife, nursing student and mother of three experiencing a housing crisis in Pinellas County.
Wolfe said she and her family had to move out of their rental home due to the owners selling. That left her and her husband overpaying on a new place that was too small for their family of five.
“As soon as I landlord found out we were getting assistance, we got an eviction notice,” Wolfe said. “We had been living in that house for 12 days.”
She added that explaining to her landlord that her and her husband both were working, he allowed them to stay on a month-to-month lease.
Meanwhile, property manager Nicole Townsend with Smart Properties Management said skyrocketing prices and rents is only part of the problem.
“I have tenants that reach out daily,” Townsend said. “It’s hard to see these families (and) we have no inventory. Everything that we have is rented before it hits the market. It’s (a home) in the rehab stage and we already have deposits and five applications on the property.
“We have lists and lists of people for apartments and single family homes all across the board waiting for residency. There’s more renters than properties available.”
ABOUT THE SHOW
Spectrum Bay News 9 anchor Rick Elmhorst sits down with the people that represent you, the people fighting for change and the people with fascinating stories to ask the hard questions.