South Florida crisis: when even your own children can’t afford to live here | Opinion

A few months ago, I came home one evening to find my wife curled up in bed, her eyes bloodshot and tears on her face.

I asked her what was wrong.

She looked at me and said one of our daughters had just called. She and her husband had made a difficult decision. They were moving to Raleigh, North Carolina, with our 1-year-old grandson, Lucas.

The reason was painfully simple. They could not afford to buy a home in Miami-Dade County.

Home prices in Broward County were a little lower — not much — but the commute would have been punishing. She works in Brickell, and his job is in Wynwood.

The prospect of our daughter moving her young family far away was heartbreaking. But it was not new for us.

Two of our older daughters had already moved to Central Florida several years ago. They, too, could not afford South Florida housing prices.

“Dad, I don’t have $2 million in my bank account,” my daughter, Bianca, a public school teacher, told me.

If you’re keeping score, that means two daughters in Central Florida and one now heading to North Carolina. But the farthest move of all belongs to our daughter Ashley, who now lives in the region of Umbria in Italy.

Ashley and her husband once had their eyes on a home in Doral. It needed work, but it was spacious and located in a pleasant gated community. The price felt high, so they kept looking.

Their search eventually took them across the Atlantic.

To my disbelief, they found a property about two hours outside Rome. The picturesque house — really a villa — sat on six acres of land and included a guest house, wine cellar, pizza ovens and grapevines. It looked like something out of the film Under the Tuscan Sun.

And it was cheaper than a fixer-upper in Doral.

Our family’s story is far from unique.

Over the past decade, South Florida has become one of the least affordable housing markets in the United States when local incomes are compared with housing costs. The median price of a home in Miami-Dade now exceeds half a million dollars, while rents surged dramatically after the pandemic.

For many households, housing alone now consumes far more of their income than economists consider sustainable.

The broader financial picture is even more sobering.

More than half — 54% — of Miami-Dade households now live paycheck to paycheck, the highest rate among Florida’s major metropolitan areas. And for many residents, the housing crisis extends beyond what traditional statistics capture.

An estimated 66,000 people in Miami-Dade are considered “hidden homeless.” These are residents who are doubled up, temporarily living in someone else’s home because they cannot afford housing of their own. Others cycle through extended-stay motels or short-term arrangements that keep them out of official homelessness counts but still reflect deep economic instability.

Meanwhile, Miami continues attracting global wealth. High-profile billionaires such as Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin have purchased property in South Florida in recent years.

Miami remains one of the most dynamic and vibrant communities in the country. Our culture, diversity, and entrepreneurial energy continue to draw people from around the world.

But the strength of any community ultimately depends on whether the people who grow up there can afford to stay.

Right now, too many cannot.

The night my wife told me our daughter was leaving, that reality became impossible to ignore. Because when families who grew up here, love this place and have good-paying jobs feel they have no choice but to leave, the affordability crisis stops being an abstract policy problem.

It becomes deeply personal.

Eliott Rodriguez is the former news anchor at CBS News Miami and a Democratic candidate for Florida Congressional District 27.