Former HUD secretary

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- March 9, 2005 -- Former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Henry Cisneros says housing prices are unlikely to drop, and that creates a dearth of affordable housing.

..He notes that rapidly increasing home prices are forcing lower-income families to remain on the sidelines, something Cisneros calls a "gap in access to the American wealth creation machine."

Some participants saw a glimmer of hope in the onslaught of new condominiums going up in South Florida. An increased supply could, some day, put downward pressure on prices and increase the number of affordable homes. But even optimists admit that, for now, the opposite seems to be true and prices continue to drive upward.

In Broward County, for example, home prices rose 35 percent in one year to a median price of $306,000. In Miami-Dade, prices rose 21 percent to $298,000. Meanwhile, the rate of homeownership in Miami-Dade of 62.5 percent trails the national average of 67.3 percent.

Source: Miami Herald, Gregg Fields, March 8, 2005.