You know your parent’s interest rate was likely 10%-13% if they bought in the late 80s-90s.

Also if you look at Broward and most of the south east coast of Florida it is heavily land locked between the ocean and the everglades. Meaning most / all of the buildable land has already been built. That is why there is not as many new homes around.

Florida stopped most of the large scale dredging, canal, drainage and “reclaimation” work in the 1980s with the various environmental acts. Those works in the previous decades is the ONLY reason Ft Lauderdale and Miami exist in the first place, just so you know.

New homes are built where land is inexpensive generally, because otherwise you have to buy an old house and knock it down, adding expense, which means that new homes in these sorts of area trend towards the higher range to make them economically viable.

Because of that new homes are in the suburbs or outskirts, which for the reasons I mentioned above are much more difficult to site in south east Florida.

Also the area you’re talking about in the northeast sounds like Trenton or Princeton NJ area. No one’s excited to move to Trenton. Plus, a quick look at a satellite will show you there is tons of land available. Which again is not an option in Broward.

So basically what you’re complaining about is the fact that you are not able to buy an inexpensive brand new starter home in an area that physically doesn’t have the space available (low supply) that much of the world wants to live in (high demand).

Basically, what you see in the Florida housing market is a result of many of these historic forces and compromises. I’m sure you wouldn’t complain about low square footage in Manhattan, you’d just admit that that would be the trade-off to live there. So it is in Broward and Miami Dade.