The Solution to Miami's High Living Costs

That is why I am proposing this solution: we must raise wages so that they increase faster than inflation/the cost of housing and assets. It is one of the best solutions that exists to mitigate the current issue we are seeing in Miami. We don't want anyone to be left behind; we are a community that is undivided and united as one, and must therefore do all that is possible to help one another.

Why This Will Work

Now, you must be wondering to yourself while viewing my solution: “WHAT?! You’re crazy!” or even something along the lines of, “Wages are fine in Miami, there’s nothing wrong with them.” Though this is entirely understandable a reaction and completely valid to feel, it is imperative that one views all of the available evidence before having any convictions on the subject.

The links from my previous statements are not just there to make me look smart, nor is it there to make it seem like I want to bore you; all of that is evidence supporting my points. It’s a bit peculiar to think that two recent graduates can’t make enough money to sustain a home, right? What’s more is that these are people who have graduated from college, not just an individual working a job at a gas station or a minimum wage job. What does that say about our city? Well, I have a suggestion: it suggests that the prices for housing are much too high, even for the average man.

This recent phenomena is true! Sheila Dewan from The New York Times explains that if rent takes up more than 30 percent of your income, it is not affordable; and now the question comes into place: what is the percentage for Miami? Well, Dewan answers that: Miami’s rent consumes about 43 percent of the household income; in fact, even dual-income professionals are suffering. This only reinforces the idea that housing is much too unaffordable, and the problem lies too much within the income, but it does not stop there. The problem also deals with the insatiable demand for luxury condos in Miami, and this makes it more difficult to create more affordable housing projects for the middle class.

There is low supply on affordable houses, whilst there is high supply in luxurious housing. Supply for luxurious housing will not go down, because so long as that demand exists, the more luxurious houses there will be. If there will only be more luxurious homes, it would be unfair to the workers building them to lower the price of it; therefore, this brings up the idea of raising wages again. It is the best possible solution that will keep all parties happy.

If you’re still not convinced that there is a problem with the cost of living, however, then maybe this will be able to show you why we need this raise in wages. Samantha Sharf, who works for Forbes, explains that Miami’s rent prices are not too high, but the low pay causes for most of the income to go to the rent. The problem becomes more apparent when Sharf even describes Katrina Perez, one of Miami's citizens, problem with what she describes as "an ultra-tall luxury condominium is coming up next door. Soon it will block her view and likely lead to a hefty rent increase." The source of the problem comes from the luxurious condos that are, as stated before, in high demand and what rich individuals buy the most. What’s more intriguing here is the claim: Manhattan and San Francisco are more affordable to live in than Miami.

Another solution that has been proposed in the past was the idea of expanding guest house zoning as proposed by Anthony M. Graziano. What this basically means is that we should be adding more guest houses on land that is owned by single-families in wealthy neighborhoods. This certainly does not sound bad! It is a rather excellent idea that I believe is just as good as raising wages, but the only issue that comes might be that these houses can be offered in guise of a haven but can be manipulated to then become more detrimental than beneficial to the one renting the home. Not only this, but many single-family likely cherish and treasure the idea of privacy above helping someone for too long, and therefore this would be perturbing for that family. The idea is to have all parties content.

In the previous link, another proposed solution is to buy and renovate existing housing. Though this is not a bad idea in theory, it is going to be far more difficult to execute and may even cost more money. The business sector and real estate agencies will have to pay a lot of workers to renovate the homes, which is already a huge cost that will make the problem harder to solve: we will be fixing unaffordable housing at an abysmally slow rate and, while immediate results are impossible, we should take the solution with the less cons and average speed: raising wages in Miami. Another problem that exists with this solution is that, unexpectedly, houses may be renovated and might even be sold higher than they originally were, only creating a larger problem!

So What Does This Mean?