Weekly Special | October 27, 2025

The Eighteen Years That Built This Crisis

There’s a quiet story unfolding across Tallahassee, one hidden in the rooftops that aren’t being built.

If you look at the data from the past 15 years, it tells a sobering truth: new home construction has slowed to a crawl. For a while, we didn’t notice. After all, the skyline looked steady, the neighborhoods familiar. But behind that calm exterior, supply stopped keeping up with demand.

Now, the results are showing up in our everyday lives. Home prices are climbing faster than incomes. Renters are chasing fewer available homes. And the dream of homeownership, once Tallahassee’s heartbeat, is slipping out of reach for more families every year.

What happens next? We’ll likely see homeownership rates drop, while apartments take over the residential needs of people earning at or even above the median income.

For many, “starter home” will become a memory, not a milestone.

But this isn’t just an economic issue. It’s a community one. Because when fewer people can own, fewer people stay. And when fewer people stay, Tallahassee loses the neighbors, teachers, and small business owners who make it home.

If we want affordability, stability, and a thriving future, we have to start building again, wisely, and soon.

Why Are Builders Not Building More Builders won’t build without profit, and costs have soared alongside Florida’s rising minimum wage. Today’s new homes average $428K, far above the $150K–$250K range Tallahassee needs.

Our local leaders must come together to solve this if we want to preserve homeownership. It will take leadership, action, and courage to make housing attainable again for the people who call Tallahassee home. {READ MORE HERE}

This issue went with a longer report on our blog: read the full blog post. The original one-page Weekly Special PDF is still available.