- The cost of home ownership is going up in Midtown Tallahassee.
- First-time home buyers are looking to other parts of the city to settle.
- Watch the video to understand why this is happening and what options you may have.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
If you're looking for a home, some Midtown Tallahassee realtors say the time might be now. I'm Shamarria Morrison, your Midtown neighborhood reporter.
I found that this year in Tallahassee builders put in more permits to build single family homes than this time last year, but it's not as much as we saw two years ago.
So, do more houses being built mean lower prices for a home in Midtown? Not quite.
Kyle McAllister is starting to settle into adulthood. "I just finished EMT school." Next step is a job and eventually a home.
"When we get a job and like, we have some stuff in our bank accounts, then we'll start looking at housing."
McAllister's 21. Based on the National Association of Realtors 2023 he will likely buy a home for the first time in about 15 years.
"The first-time home buyer is not only getting older and older the first-time home buyer is having to have a higher and higher salary." Nationally the typical first-time buyer was 35 years old this year, slightly down from 36 last year. Kristie Perkins is a Tallahassee realtor.
"We don't see as many first-time home buyers going to Midtown like we used to simply, because the cost of houses there being almost the cost per square foot of as new construction. And the houses are older and that means more money to repair."
The reality of first time home buying looked vastly different for Betty and Mark who own a home in Midtown.
"I bought a house when I was young in my late 20s, and I've just parlayed that cash in, get the equity out, get something bigger, get something bigger sell when the time is right, make a profit and roll on."
When it comes to buying a new home in his 20's McAllister says. "It's attainable, but the pricing is not what I would like it to be like, obviously, I can work awful hours, like 80 hours a week, and then eventually save up enough to buy a house but it's just putting myself through so much pressure."
Pressure he's not the only one feeling.
Perkins says in the Benton Hills neighborhood in Midtown a mortgage could be about $4,500 a month. And she says that’s $2,100 more than five years ago.
