The Tampa Bay Partnership has found households spend 54 cents of every dollar on housing and transportation. A new and extensive housing affordability study will help the partnership evaluate housing affordability issues. JP Morgan has committed $250,000 for the partnership to identify the regions housing stock and the number of homes that will be needed to keep pace with unparalleled growth.

The investment funds five years of affordable housing research in Pinellas, Pasco, and Hillsborough Counties. The partnership’s 2023 regional competitiveness report displayed the challenges Tampa Bay faces with the influx of new residents depleting housing supply and straining transportation systems, resulting with area living costs to soar nearly 30%.

That same report has also underscored the need for the housing study, with median home prices reaching $400,000 in Tampa Bay and the average resident earning just $57,000 annually. Tampa Bay has experienced growth this past year incomparable to any other. Additionally, the three counties are in talks to form a regional Metropolitan Planning Organization. According to Bemetra Simmons, president of the Tampa Bay Partnership 54% of local incomes go towards transportation and housing affordability, and the study could aide these efforts.

The five-year study will first define and categorize available or proposed attainable housing units, then asses the number of new homes needed to sustain the region’s growth, and then present public and private stakeholders with findings and gather feedback. The assessment is expected to release in August 2025.

Relating to the need for this study is research conducted by Market Stadium ranking Tampa Bay as one of the most gentrified cities in the United States. If you are unfamiliar with the term, Gentrification is a demographic and economic shift that displaces established working-class communities and communities of color in favor of wealthier newcomers and real estate development companies (as defined by National Geographic).