- October 24, 2024
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Palm Coast locals often complain about rising residential development, but the influx of people trying to move into the city means it's doing something right, a city councilman said on Flagler Broadcasting's Free For All Friday on April 29.
"They love our weather, they love our schools, they love our environment — everything about Florida, Flagler, is the reason why people are coming here."
— MARK LANGELLO, builder and county planning board member
"We can't help the fact that people want to move here," Councilman Ed Danko said. "We've done a good job. We've created a great environment, a great city: We have the beach, we have the weather, we have all sorts of things, so of course people are going to want to come here, and I think that proves how successful we've been."
Demand for single-family homes in Northeast Florida continues to drive rising home prices, with the median sales price in the Flagler-Volusia area in March 2022 reaching $338,991 — up 23.3% from the year before, according to data from Florida Realtors. Closed sales are down slightly — 1.7% — from this time last year.
Still, the Flagler and Volusia County markets remain more affordable that much of the rest of the state: The median single-family home price in Florida as a whole was $396,558 in March, and Realtor.com recently named the Miami area as the most unaffordable in the nation for rentals, and median single-family home prices in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan statistical area are now $540,000, according to Florida Realtors.
That can make places like Palm Coast look like a bargain.
Builder Mark Langello, also a member of the Flagler County Planning and Development Board, said the influx has been sustained by people selling their homes in more expensive areas of the country, then moving here.
"People up north have been selling their houses for higher prices than what we sell our houses down here," Langello said. "So they sell their houses for $500,000, $600,000 up north and even out west, and they come here and they're buying houses for $300,000, $400,000 on average. So they want to be here. They love our weather, they love our schools, they love our environment — everything about Florida, Flagler, is the reason why people are coming here, so our demand is just through the roof."
"If we want to bring in more economic growth, we have to have the rooftops to do it."
— ED DANKO, Palm Coast city councilman
The demand has been present for years, he said, but COVID-19 has contributed to staffing shortages in the building industry.
"There's not enough homes out there already built," he said. "When we're trying to build a home, the cost keeps going up. There's not enough available land that can satisfy the need in a massive way."
The developments being built in Flagler are relatively small, he said.
"To the local people who say, 'Well, I think those are huge' — go to Orlando, even Daytona, you'll see some massive developments trying to take care of this need," Langello said. "But we can't keep up with the demand, and that's a national problem. There's not enough homes and dwellings in America for the amount of people we have."
Although locals often complain about dense developments' impacts on the environment, he said, clustered development is often more environmentally friendly that sprawl.
"When I lived in Southern California, that's what that whole part of the state was — it's just sprawling developments of these houses and then strip malls, and houses, strip malls: There's no more green space," he said. "But cluster development and taller buildings — tighter where people are, leaving more open space — is actually best for the environment. And people probably can enjoy it. But intuitively, they say, 'We don't want a tall building. And why are you putting those things there? Why do you want to build an apartment?' Well, if you don't build an apartment for 100 people, then you've got to have 100 lots. So what's better?"
New developments, he said, pay for their effects on local infrastructure and schools by paying impact fees to local government.
"Those developers are paying 100% of the cost of putting all the roads, all the sewers, all the lines — the city isn't taking one bit of burden on all those new developments that you see come up," he said.
Danko said municipalities have limited options under Florida law for impeding development.
"Property owners have rights in the state of Florida, and if your property is zoned for that type of development, we can't stop you," Danko said. "You have every right to develop it. And there is a demand now for these houses, and we're going to see more people moving here."
He noted that a magazine, Retirement Living, had recently voted Palm Coast the best city in the country to retire. Development, he added, has its pluses.
"If we want to bring in more economic growth, we have to have the rooftops to do it, and that's something that people forget," Danko said. "But if I'm going to build a store or a factory or whatever, if I don't I have the business, I don't have the rooftops, I'm not going to build it here.. ... But what I've been telling people, because I get a lot of complaints about our development ... If you want to live someplace where there's no progress, no development, I suggest you go find Brigadoon. And that way you can wake up one day every 100 years, and nothing will change throughout your whole life. But this is not Brigadoon."
