Between skyrocketing assessed values and insurance costs, plenty of longtime homeowners say they're being squeezed out. Is the county doing enough to keep Bradenton affordable for working families, or is it already too late?
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Add your commentMy wife and I are both teachers in the district. Combined income around $98k. We cannot buy a house in Bradenton anymore. We have been renting the same place off Cortez Road for four years and our landlord just told us he's selling because his own costs are too high. So now we're looking at a two-bedroom condo for $320,000 that needs a new roof and is in a flood zone. This is what the workforce housing crisis actually looks like in real life. Nobody in county government seems to care as long as the luxury condo permits keep rolling in.
Born and raised on the Southside, my parents bought their house on 26th Street West in 1987 for like $62,000. The assessed value last year was $340,000. They're retired on a fixed income and the tax bill plus homeowners insurance has basically become their second mortgage. Save Our Homes helps but it doesn't come close to covering what insurance has done to them. This isn't a hypothetical for me — it's my family's actual life right now.
^^ The millage rate being lower doesn't matter much when your assessed value doubles in five years, friend. A lower percentage of a much bigger number is still a bigger number. That's the whole point everyone is making.
moved here from chicago two years ago for remote work and even I can see this is getting out of hand. my neighbor — retired postal worker, lived in his house since 2001 — told me his insurance alone went from $1,800 to $6,400 in three years. that's not growth tradeoffs thats just people getting crushed
I want someone — anyone — to explain to me what the Manatee County Commission has actually done in the last three years specifically to address workforce housing affordability. Not vague platitudes, not ribbon cuttings, not 'we commissioned a study.' Concrete actions. I'll wait. I've been waiting since 2021.
The real villain nobody wants to talk about is Citizens Insurance and the state legislature gutting reform. Manatee County commission gets the blame but Tallahassee set this house on fire years ago and now everyone's surprised it's burning. Vote accordingly in November. That's all I'll say.
used to live off 44th Ave E before I had to move to Palmetto just to afford rent and honestly Palmetto aint bad but thats not the point, the point is I grew up in bradenton my whole friend group is in bradenton my kids school was in bradenton and i had to leave because of numbers on a spreadsheet somewhere. thats just a sad way to lose a community
I actually looked this up and Manatee County has one of the LOWEST millage rates in the state of Florida so technically property taxes here are a bargain compared to most counties. People need to get their facts straight before blaming the commission for everything.
Okay but can we be honest for a second? A lot of the 'middle class being pushed out' crowd are people who bought at 2019 prices and somehow expected Bradenton to stay a sleepy little nothing town forever. Growth has tradeoffs. You want better restaurants, better infrastructure, better schools? Costs go up. That's just math.
Nah it was always gonna be retirees here tbh. Was like that when I was a kid in the 90s too. Nothing new lol
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