Palm Beach Housing Deal: Civil Servants Receive Price Reductions
While a slower housing market across the state may open up the pool of Florida home mortgage applicants, this will certainly do so, as well: Blatantly lowering home prices for civil servants.
EH Building Group is doing just that.
The Palm Beach Gardens-based builder is knocking five percent off the cost of a home for teachers, firefighters, police officers and city and county employees. Those workers are most often cited as being priced out of the South Florida housing market.
“We thought it was the right thing to do,” said Eric Zichella, an EH spokesman.
An ideal affordable housing solution
The program is valid through next June. EH is building at Pipers Cay in West Palm Beach, as well as communities in Fort Pierce, Port St. Lucie and Fort Myers. Pipers Cay townhouses on Summit Boulevard sell in the mid-$200,000 range.
Jessica Moore, the first lower-income buyer under the program, is a teacher in Port St. Lucie. She saved $11,745 off the price of a $234,900 single-family home in the area.
“That’s pretty significant,” Zichella said. “For some people, it means the difference between [buying] and not being able to.”
Bob Kanjian, who will be sworn in to the Palm Beach County School Board in November, said school district officials are having a hard time attracting new teachers because they can’t afford to buy homes on a $34,000 starting salary. A Florida home loan is out of the question at that income level for most.
“We need more [builders] to get this idea going,” he said. “A lot of people talk about affordable housing, but very few are doing anything about it.”
EH also says it will work with discount recipients on lowering their down payments.
Expanding the plan
In east Fort Lauderdale, developer Zach Finn is planning similar discounts to civil servants who buy one- and two-bedroom condominiums.
“We want to keep the bread and butter of our community living in our community,” Finn said.
South Floridians used to be able to find nice homes for $150,000 or less, but the huge run-up in prices during the past five years has kept many middle-income consumers from buying. The median-priced existing home is $390,100 in the Palm Beach County housing market and $380,400 in Broward.
To address the lack of affordable housing, Tallahassee and other cities are starting to force builders to set aside a certain number of lower-cost homes through zoning laws. Palm Beach County commissioners are considering a measure, as well.
