As Florida Home Prices Drop, Housing Discounts Decrease

A developer who vowed to give public service workers that took out a Florida mortgage loan a $30,000 discount on new townhouses in the city will instead be giving them a $10,000 credit.

City commissioners have approved a request by Centerline Homes to scrap the original discount and substitute the lower credit after the developer showed that starting prices for the units have dropped by at least $50,000 due to the housing market slump.

The 145-townhouse Calabria complex at University Drive, south of Miramar Boulevard, was going to price units starting at $319,000. Under the agreement approved last year, 21 units set aside for firefighters, police officers, government employees and teachers were going to start in the ballpark of $289,000.

But the slow housing market has prompted an overall drop in prices. Now a two-bedroom townhouse at the complex is going for about $260,000. With that in mind, city leaders on April 4 approved Centerline’s alternate proposal, which will give 26 public service workers the $10,000 credit they can apply toward the cost of lots, upgrades or closing.

The community’s first homes are supposed to be finished by March 2008, and about seven units set aside for public service workers were still available as of Tuesday. The townhouses, which come with a garage, are two-story and three-story, and the complex will be attached to retail development along University Drive.

City leaders said at the April 4 commission meeting that their primary focus was to make sure there is still an affordable housing component to the project.

Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman urged the developer to restrict owners from buying discounted townhouses and renting them out as an investment.

The developer’s representative, Brenda Yates, said language in the deed restrictions ensures these specific public service units are owner-occupied.

Vice Mayor Winston Barnes said while he supports having the units set aside for public service workers, he hopes teachers, who make a lot less money than firefighters and police officers, can really take advantage of the discounted units when they begin the Florida mortgage process.

SOURCE: The Sun-Sentinel