Another group squeezed by Sarasota's housing crisis: young professionals

When it came time to plant roots after graduating from University of Florida and working several jobs, Jackie Smith knew she wanted to be in her hometown of Sarasota.

She’d be close to family, old friends and the beautiful beaches of her youth – a great place, she felt, to one day raise kids of her own.

But following a year of house hunting and scouring rentals, Jackie, 32, realized there was scant space here for young professionals like her. The only decent options she could afford were out in family-oriented suburbs, far from nightlife and opportunities to meet other single people her age.

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“Even if I could make the numbers work,” Jacki said, “would I want to be in that location, as a young person, starting my life?”

While the current housing crisis in Sarasota and Manatee counties is affecting thousands of residents across age groups and income levels, young professionals like Jackie in their 20s and 30s are feeling particularly squeezed out.

Despite making relatively high salaries for their age, steep rental costs make it difficult to save. Starting homes for singles are way out of reach. And even when young professionals do find rentals within their budget, what is available often runs counter to their life goals.

The result, community leaders fear, could be a surging brain drain.

That’s exactly what happened in Jackie’s case: Late last year, she moved to Washington D.C.

“I love Sarasota and would love to be in Sarasota, but the justification for paying that amount, when I wouldn’t get half the things I would get in this area (D.C.) – it wasn’t worth it,” said Jackie, a director of product management for a national nonprofit.

Instead of encountering long waiting lists and exclusive condos downtown like in Sarasota, she easily snagged a one-bedroom apartment for $2,000 a month in walking distance to parks, groceries, restaurants and pubs.

Her building offers roof-top mixers, a pool and a gym – all steps from D.C.’s extensive public transportation.

“If we’re talking about trying to retain young single talent or come there and stay there and meet people and start families,” Jackie said of Sarasota, “that doesn’t work out.”

'Breaks my heart'

It’s a challenge that many local employers have been struggling with.

From Sarasota Memorial Hospital to the school district to private businesses, administrators report difficulties recruiting young professionals to the region, all while the talent that is here is leaving the area.

“We’ve seen quite a few declines in offers after they review the cost of housing in this area,” said, Rachel Evans, senior vice president of human resources for PGT Innovations, Sarasota County’s largest private employer.

That includes high-paying posts for IT analysts, marketing specialists and jobs in accounting. Some young recruits attempt to negotiate remote or hybrid positions or commutes – offering to fly in and stay at hotels for part of the month, which in some cases can be less expensive than living here, she said. Others scramble to find roommates or resort to short-term rentals, like Airbnb.

The tight housing market exacerbates difficulties posed by a nationwide labor shortage, Evans added. In response, PGT has invested in training programs for Sarasota students while offering generous employee benefits and amenities, such as an on-site health clinic at its Venice headquarters.

“We’ve done a lot of additional things to opt people in,” Evans said of young professionals. “But unless we price these positions outside of the market, they just can’t afford to come here.”

Her own son – a recent college graduate with a finance degree – has decided to move out of the area due to the lack of affordable housing close to people his age.

“It just breaks my heart, but I understand,” she said.

While PGT’s headquarters are staying put, these problems are causing the company to look elsewhere as it expands. Recently, it chose a Fort Myers site for a new manufacturing center. And a forthcoming initiative with Corning Incorporated will take place in another state.

Evans predicts a worsening crisis for the region if it fails to develop a robust crop of professionals among Millennials and Generation Z before more Baby Boomers retire.

“If we can’t provide housing that they can afford,” Evans said, “we are going to lose generations of business knowledge. And eventually, that is going to really stunt the growth of business in the area.”

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'A community issue'

Heather Kasten, president and CEO at the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, said the record labor shortages combined with the lack of affordable housing already is a “double hit” driving up costs and prices for everyone across the board.

“This is a community issue,” she said.

While a number of promising housing initiatives are on the horizon, those could take several years or more to come online, she noted.

For now, the chamber fosters community and comradery for young talent through its Young Professionals Group. It includes monthly After Hours gatherings, quarterly professional development opportunities, annual events and a young professionals summit.

“I know that they do crave the ability to be with others in their age bracket, and that is something that we are really working on at the chamber,” Kasten said.

“These are people who are going to want to be leaders, and we want their input, and we need them in community leadership positions,” she added. “This is a very important demographic for the future of our community.”

David Sessions, CEO at Willis Smith Construction, agrees. His company actively seeks young people fresh out of college for entry-level management positions -- mentoring them into middle management and senior staff.

Yet the ongoing recruiting challenges threaten to exacerbate an industry-wide shortage of senior professionals. That shortage already is forcing the company to be selective in the projects it chooses -- turning a number of them away.

"I would love to pursue a few more of these opportunities," Sessions said. "But we don't have the capacity."

'I was quite naïve'

Sarasota is not alone in this crisis. Nationwide, young people have struggled to get a firm footing amid skyrocketing rents and soaring home prices.

One recent study found that a third of all Millennials and Gen Zers moved back home during the pandemic. Two years later, more than 66 percent were still there. Most of them stayed out of financial necessity, focused on paying down debt and saving for a house.

That didn’t do the trick for Jake Wong, born and raised in Sarasota – which saw some of the highest increases in housing costs in the country over the past four years.

Currently an assistant superintendent at Willis Smith, he moved back home with his parents after graduating in 2020 from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor’s degree in integrated business.

Unlike many of his peers, Wong had no college debt. He and his then-fiancé planned to save for a house while both rose in their respective professions.

Armed with a healthy deposit, they soon found themselves outbid on $400,000 homes by buyers paying more than $130,000 above the asking price – in cash.

“We were in the most optimal position we could have been in, but the house prices were still too much,” Wong said.

After the couple broke up, Wong abandoned the idea of becoming a homeowner. For now, owning a home as a single person seems completely out of reach.

After trying to rent an apartment in downtown Sarasota -- someplace walkable, without long commutes -- and finding one-bedroom units going for up to $3,000 a month, Wong, 25, did what a lot of young professionals do: he found a roommate.

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Like Wong, 24-year-old Logan Butler works at Willis Smith, where he’s now a project manager.

Recruited to the company straight out of Auburn University in Alabama, Butler was shocked when he went to look for housing – deciding, like Wong, that he’d have to put off his goal to buy a house.

“I was quite naïve in terms of how much it would cost to live here,” Logan said.

Based on his experience in Auburn, he originally hoped to rent a comfortable apartment for $600 a month close to downtown, a nightlife and people his age.

“I wanted to be in a location where it was easy to make other personal relationships,” Logan said. “It is very difficult for somebody like myself, moving here without knowing anybody.”

They now split $2,400 in monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Lakewood Ranch.

Logan is happy with the arrangement, which offers adequate space at 1,200 square feet, along with amenities like a pool and gym.

But both young men would prefer to be downtown.

While they love their jobs and plan to stay in the area, they hope community leaders will carve out reasonably priced housing downtown for young professionals – a move, they believe, that could attract more businesses catering to their generation.

Otherwise, Jake thinks, more peers like his old college friends will continue to flock to places like St. Petersburg and Tampa.

“For someone young and aspiring and wanting to meet new people and find a career,” Jake said, “I don’t know if this is the right place.”

This story comes from a partnership between the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. Saundra Amrhein covers the Season of Sharing campaign, along with issues surrounding housing, utilities, child care and transportation in the area. She can be reached at samrhein@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota's affordable housing crisis hits young professionals