Housing Experts Propose Smaller Lot Sizes as Solution to Florida Crisis
Housing experts gathered in St. Petersburg to discuss reducing lot sizes as a solution to Florida’s housing crisis, citing Houston’s success in creating affordable starter homes.
ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA — Housing officials and policy experts gathered this week to discuss how reducing minimum lot sizes could help address Florida’s affordable housing crisis, pointing to successful examples from Texas cities as potential models for the state.
The Florida Housing Solutions Summit took place on April 22 in St. Petersburg, organized by the Florida Policy Project, a think tank created by former Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes after he left the Legislature in 2023. The forum addressed housing affordability as Florida faces slowing domestic migration due to rising home costs.
The average median sale price of a home in Florida now ranges between $375,000 to $417,000, according to real estate data. That represents a significant increase from an average of $253,000 before the pandemic.
Houston’s Success Story
Brita Wallace, general counsel to the group Texans for Reasonable Solutions, highlighted Houston’s experience with lot size reduction as a case study for Florida policymakers. After Houston reduced its minimum lot size in the late 1990s from 5,000 square feet to as low as 1,400 square feet, the city saw substantial development of affordable housing options.
Between 2007 and 2020, 34,000 town homes were built in Houston following the policy change, Wallace reported. The median assessed value of a typical new single-family house in Houston is $540,000, while the median price assessed value of a town home is $340,000.
“The result of this policy was … creating housing that’s more like your starter home price point in Houston,” Wallace said, making homes more attainable for “your average person in Houston.”
Declining Starter Home Market
The panel discussion comes as starter homes have become increasingly scarce across the United States. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, starter homes used to account for about 40% of all new homes in the country, but that figure has dropped to under 10%.
The summit featured multiple housing policy experts, including former GOP state Sen. Jeff Brandes, Charbel Barakat, vice president and counsel for D.R. Horton, and GOP state Rep. Danny Nix. Officials acknowledged that no single policy represents a “silver bullet” to cure Florida’s affordable housing crisis.
Timing and Context
The Florida housing forum took place just days after The Wall Street Journal reported that net domestic migration to Florida has slowed following an influx of wealthy residents from other states that helped drive up home prices statewide.
Austin, Texas, was also mentioned during discussions as another city that has amended its development code to ease regulations for accessory dwelling units, sometimes called granny flats or in-law units, as part of broader housing affordability initiatives.
The Florida Policy Project’s summit is part of ongoing efforts by state policymakers and housing advocates to identify practical solutions to address housing costs that have priced out many middle-class residents from Florida’s housing market.
