Broward County Real Estate - More Affordable Housing Grants Are Needed

With the housing crunch creating a ripple of problems for the overall US housing sector, home developers in South Florida are finding it increasingly harder to sell homes, and are now seeking out alternatives to lower the price, and entice home buyers again.

An innovative housing initiative, the Mike Davis Community Workforce Housing Initiative pilot program, which was named after a former state legislator from Naples, has been in existence since 2006, and the funding, amounting to $62.4 million, is planned for use in funding housing projects in neighborhoods that are close to employers, services and transportation. This program is one of a few noted to help people in industries such as police, education and health care.

One Way To Make Housing More Affordable Is Through Granting Subsidies

According to housing industry professionals, the only way to make housing affordable for ordinary people is to get large subsidies. One noted area developer has been noted to have applied for $4.3 million from the state to subsidize a townhome and apartment development in the city of Fort Lauderdale. If that housing project gets approved for funding, the unnamed developer plans to use the funds to reduce prices off their 25, two- and three-bedroom town houses near downtown Fort Lauderdale by $100,000.

At present, market prices for the townhomes in this area have ranged from s $250,000 to $350,000. The Florida Housing Finance Corporation notes that applicants will know by July of this year, at the earliest, if their projects are approved for funding, although the state says that it's quite too early to predict how many of the developments will get the money. The developer who applied for the assistance says that even though housing prices have come down, they haven't come down enough yet.

In Miami-Dade, existing single-family home median prices went down by 15 percent in January from $395,900 the year before to $336,800, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. In Broward County, the median dropped 14 percent from $364,500 to $314,200. Miramar is banking on getting the funding so that it can make the price of its townhomes at its Town Center affordable. Lowell Homes in Miami has started selling the residential units in the Town Center -- townhomes in the $300,000- to $400,000-range and condos from the mid-$200,000s -- in spring 2007.

Why The Need For More Affordable Housing Grants

For businesses and state governments, the lack of affordable housing programs also creates a lot of pressure on hiring decisions, schools, taxes, suburban sprawl, congestion, pollution, emergency services and natural resources. And although every state has a housing finance agency, which is aimed at helping first-time home buyers, and many urban centers and some large businesses have housing assistance programs, the figures today show that a lot more needs to be done.

In a study of the largest metropolitan areas in the US, the most distressed and cash-strapped homeowners are located in California, Florida and New York City, as home prices here have risen and have been out of the budgets of many. In some metropolitan centers, at least half of the homeowners are spending up up 30% more of their monthly incomes just to pay for their homes.

Currently, housing projects in areas like Pembroke Pines, Miramar, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beach, Coral Gables and North Miami are applying for funding, and of the 49 state projects that have applied, 19 are located in the Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

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