As Wall Street freezes Floridians out of home ownership, talk of reform ripples through Tallahassee

Florida in Five: Five stories to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Photo credit: Manu H

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Welcome to another installment of Florida in Five: Five* stories you need to read from the past week in Florida politics.

For my money, the most surprising — and intriguing — moment of last week’s swearing-in ceremony for the Florida Legislature came partway through House Speaker Danny Perez’s first speech as leader of the state House.

Floridians, Perez said, “want to own their homes, not be tenants to private equity firms.”

The Miami Republican was referring to a rising threat in cities across the country: Mass acquisition of single-family homes by private-equity firms, Wall Street investment banks, and large corporations, who use all-cash bids to beat out offers from regular homebuyers and then covert the homes into rental properties. These high-volume corporate buyers suck supply out of an already-constrained housing market, which drives up prices for the remaining inventory — and freezes more first-time homebuyers out of the market entirely.

The impacts extend beyond locking people out of homeownership and blocking families from building inter-generational wealth. Corporate consolidation in housing markets is also associated with rising rents, poorer maintenance, and higher eviction rates.

The problem is particularly acute in fast-growing Sun Belt cities like Atlanta, Charlotte, and Phoenix — and, of course, here in Florida. A first-of-its kind analysis by the Tampa Bay Times, which has been publishing a series this year called “Buying Up the Bay,” found that corporate real-estate investors now own more than 117,000 single-family homes across Florida.

Large companies own roughly 27,000 homes in Tampa. Investor purchases of single-family homes make up a quarter of all sales in Jacksonville.

After his speech, Perez met with reporters who asked him if private-equity home ownership is an issue he wants to address during his two-year tenure atop the state House.

“It is. It’s a concern of mine,” the 37-year-old Perez responded. “My concern is that — maybe not my generation — but the next generation of Floridians aren’t going to be able to stay in Florida because the cost of being able to purchase a home, begin your family, begin your business, is going to get out of reach.”

Now, Perez didn’t propose any potential solutions. His office declined to do so, too. “The speaker made clear today that this isn’t about him announcing policies, it is about engaging members in a conversation,” a state House spokesperson said after the speech.

We’ve also seen other House speakers promise to take on powerful special interests in the past — only to slink away two years later having failed to follow through. Richard Corcoran, the House Speaker-turned-New College president, started his tenure off by talking a big game about ending tax subsidies for big companies like Universal Studios — and yet Universal continues to cash in.

But the threats posed by corporate control of housing markets have become a big concern. And not just on the left: Right-wing thought leaders like Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and media personality Tucker Carlson have also sounded alarms about the problem. So there seems to be a chance for real reform here.

And there are plenty of policy options. Lawmakers in other states grappling with the issue — including California, Colorado, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, among others — have a proposed a variety of ideas, from capping the number of homes a single investor can own to taxing high-volume buyers to giving first-refusal rights to individual buyers or affordable housing nonprofits.

Of course, if Danny Perez or anyone else is going to get something done, they’ll have to overcome reform-resistant lobbying by the big corporations and institutional investors profiting off the current system. Earlier this year, for instance, a Wall Street analyst asked senior executives at American Homes 4 Rent Inc. — which owns 60,000 homes in 21 states — about the prospect of federal or state legislation to curb corporate housing consolidation.

“This is where having a robust government affairs function and getting in front of it and having the relationships at both the federal and the local levels is very, very important,” responded CEO David Singelyn, in remarks first reported by Jacobin. “And we have invested a lot into that program.”

*To paraphrase Barbossa, five is more what you’d call a guideline than an actual rule.

No savings for you but millions for a campaign contributor

Florida Gov. DeSantis’ Canadian Drug Import Plan Goes Nowhere After FDA Approval (KFF Health News)

Forcing people to pay higher insurance prices

Citizens Insurance expects to end the year ‘well under’ 1 million policies (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) ($)

See also: State-run Citizens insurance had worst rate of paying Floridians’ claims (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: Florida regulators issue subpoenas to insurance industry critic (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

Same swamp, different gators

When Pam Bondi Protected Foreclosure Fraudsters (The American Prospect)

See also: Inside the Lobbying Career of Trump’s New Chief of Staff (New York Times) ($)

This stuff is about to go nationwide

Republicans Target Social Sciences to Curb Ideas They Don’t Like (New York Times) ($)

See also: Florida again argues books ban are 'government speech,' not prohibited by First Amendment (Tallahassee Democrat) ($)

See also: 2 Corcoran critics ousted from board that oversees New College donations (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: Florida’s top public health official recommends nixing community water fluoridation (Florida Phoenix)

Florida fallout

Trump likely will abandon Biden’s plan to protect workers from extreme heat, experts say (Creative Loafing)

Perspectives

Letting Florida lawmakers use lobbyist planes is swampy behavior (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

New faces in Legislature face old questions (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) ($)

To save a river, Florida small town’s activists oust every incumbent (Florida Phoenix)

Another sugar cane harvest season and my community continues to get burned (Palm Beach Post) ($)