Developers Question Affordable Housing Crisis; Wonder About Lack of Florida Mortgage Loans

The real estate market has slowed and Florida home mortgage rates are on the rise. There’s no arguing that fact - except that local developers are sort of trying to do so. They believe affordable housing should be selling like crazy around Collier County.

Employers know all too well that it is expensive to live in Collier County because they have a hard time recruiting employees. Individuals won’t even consider a Florida mortgage loan in the area and it confuses many experts.

“We’ve had more than 40 candidates refuse to relocate here because they can’t make ends meet,” said the Vice President of the Naples Community Hospital Human Resources Department Brian Settle.

The need for affordable housing in Collier County is something that many people have at least heard about. Phil McCabe of Gulf Coast Commercial says the affordable units in his new East Naples condo complex, Botanical Place, are not selling very well.

“I think it’s all lip service,” said McCabe. “My position is the situation is not as desperate as we’re led to believe.”

Like others that write in to newspapers, it seems McCable is under the impression that Florida home mortgage demand should be higher; the market actually isn’t all THAT bad. His condos are priced at $125,000, yet he cannot get human resource departments at major employers to even call him back.

“If I were an HR director, I would be all over this, but they’re not. Maybe the need isn’t there,” said McCabe.

Botanical Place isn’t the only condo complex that is currently looking for buyers. A broker with Naples 701 said that sales are slow right now. They’ve recently converted apartment complexes into condos which are now selling for less than $150,000.

Collier County Commissioner Frank Halas says that along with a soft economy, people that would buy affordable housing often have bad credit - or none at all.

“Oh there’s definitely a need for affordable housing,” said Halas. “I think the big thing is making sure people have good credit. Because if you don’t have good credit, your [Florida mortgage rates] go extremely high.”

To qualify for Botanical Place and other affordable housing, Collier County rules say that you need to make between $25,000 to $42,000. This, of course, can also hamper the situation. A solution to finding Florida home loan buyers may be to relax such income guidelines.