Housing cost worries reappear

We can all cheer the real estate recovery, but some business owners are starting to watch rapidly rising home prices with alarm.

The concern was summed up in a recent quarterly survey of business executives by Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. In the comment section of the survey, an undisclosed executive says the flip side to rising residential home prices is the ability to attract and retain employees.

“Affordable housing is very quickly becoming an issue once more, as it was in the 2003 to 2006 time period,” the business executive wrote. “It is not just about policemen, firemen, teachers, and restaurant/hotel workers. It impacts almost every business. If employees have to drive 45 minutes to get to work, or if some potential employees don't move here due to lack of proper housing, it ultimately impacts business and the local economy.”

Home prices have been rising at double-digit annual percentage rates in the Fort Myers area since last year as banks foreclosed on fewer homes and buyers returned to the market.

For example, the median price of an existing single-family home in the Fort Myers area rose 21% in July to $163,000 from the same month in 2012, according to the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach.

“We are just now starting to see government and business leaders begin to discuss the issue again, which means it is probably two to three years away or more, before any meaningful actions will be taken,” the executive writes.