- April 17, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
As Manatee County works to rewrite its comprehensive plan, a group of millennial-aged employees, called M^3 for Manatee Millennial Movement, is advocating the county find ways to make living in the area both affordable and desirable for young professionals under age 33.
The group presented its findings, based on a countywide survey, on millennials and workforce housing to Manatee County commissioners May 5.
To assess the challenges ahead, the East County Observer broke down housing- and millennial-related statistics in Manatee County and asked local officials if East County is prepared to meet the future needs of the millenial demographic.
Babyboomlet
Another name for millennials or Generation Y, typically described as individuals born from the early 1980s to early 2000s.
Why it matters
21% of Manatee County’s workforce consists of millennials
... while 45% of Manatee’s workforce are baby boomers preparing for retirement.
What do millennials want In workforce housing?
Simone Peterson, a millennial in Manatee County’s Neighborhood Services department who is working on the project, said these attributes mirror the tastes of baby boomers.
41% of Manatee households are considered “cost burdened,”meaning they pay more than 30% of their income for rent or mortgage costs. Statistics from the Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse show that in 2013, 57,745 of Manatee County households paid more than 30% of their income on housing, while 28,027 households, or 20%, spent more than 50% of their income on housing.
30% of 139 respondents answered that down payment and credit both were preventing them from owning a home.
Six percent said they had no interest in owning a home, while others attributed non-ownership to a lack of a stable job (4%), will be moving (7%) and other reasons (22%).
$47,072
The median household income over the past 12 months in Manatee County, according to the 2011-13 American Community Survey Three-Year Estimates (2013 inflation-adjusted dollars)
$201,600
The maximum sales price for a home, regardless of household size, to be considered workforce housing in Manatee County, per its affordable housing programs.
$57,300
The annual median income for a family of four in this Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Bradenton, Sarasota and North Port; that makes the maximum mortgage amount $248,839. A $32,100 annual salary would be considered 80% of the annual median income for one person and would put maximum rent at $803 per month, or a mortgage at $110,041.
79%
of residents surveyed said they wanted to see more affordable housing ...
... approximately double any other housing category presented in a Manatee County survey. Nearly 40% of respondents wanted to see more apartments and 35% wanted to see more townhomes. Other categories, including duplexes, condominiums and manufactured homes, ranged from 8% to 23%. Only 7% of respondents wanted more options for luxury homes.
Heather Williams
Chairwoman, Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance Young Leaders Alliance
“Millennials don’t want this huge commute. They want to be close to where they work and be able to go out and enjoy restaurants and other activities. The millennials I work with, many of them will, in the next few years, be expanding their families. They want areas to do things with family and not having to drive all over the counties to get to them. You want it to be more convenient and more central.
Early on in my career, my husband and I moved away in 2004 because the east wasn’t built up and west was so expensive. Now, I think the prices have come down some, but from what I’ve heard, the prices are going up. There’s not enough inventory in the price range millennials can afford.”
Ben Bakker
Chairman, Manatee Chamber Young Professionals Leadership Committee
“I think in regard to a solution, we need to look at this from all angles. We can’t expect developers to come into town and be a charitable organization and build this kind of housing on their own dime. I also think it’s not right to expect some handout from the government. I think we need to be creative in solutions on how we can make this happen. Everybody needs to have a little skin in the game.
When we start seeing millennials move here and stay here, we’ll see businesses coming here. If they don’t see they have a workforce here for them, they are going somewhere where there is. We need to have the housing first. That will keep the millennials here. It’s up to us.”
Vanessa Baugh
Manatee County District 5 commissioner
“We don’t have a lot of what would be called affordable housing in Manatee County, so it is something we need to look at. How can we successfully build affordable housing? We had some in Lakewood Ranch. Neal Communities built Central Park, but over time, those prices go up. We need to look at that and say, ‘How can we achieve affordable housing?’ To do that, I think we are going to look at density, which a lot of people aren’t in favor of here. We can’t stop people from moving here, so the bottom line is we have to deal with what the market gives us.
I don’t know what (Lakewood Ranch) has planned for the area, but I believe they are looking at some affordable options.”
Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch isn’t as focused on attracting millennials as it is in solving the workforce housing issue, in general.
Richard Bedford, SMR’s vice president of planning, said the company’s focus is on making homes affordable for teachers, firemen and the deli worker at Publix, for example.
“We’re really trying to find ways to make workforce housing available,” he said.
SMR is currently talking to a few developers who offer such products because SMR is required, based on existing development approvals, to build 366 workforce housing units somewhere east of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, between state roads 64 and 70. Units likely will be apartments or smaller townhomes, and will be constructed in the next two to five years.
SMR also has plans for a downtown urban center with high density residential, roughly at the northeast corner of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and S.R. 70, but that will not be developed in the foreseeable future, Bedford said.
Approvals in Sarasota County require it to build 2,037 of 5,144 units as affordable or workforce housing. Those units must sell or rent at or below 120% of the area median income of $57,300 for a family of four. Development approvals specifically require SMR to build 366 units at 80% AMI, 927 units at 100% AMI and 744 units at 120% AMI.
