As mobile home parks disappear throughout the Broward County, Pembroke Park town has taken a stand to preserve this form of affordable housing. (more…)

Building homes for those who can’t afford the median sale price of $250,000 in the Central Florida housing market may be the wave of the future.

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As community leaders debate housing options with prices attractive to working families and first-time home buyers, those potential Florida mortgage seekers find themselves investigating old housing stock in developments that were once desirable, then declined, and now look good again.

Because, well, they’re there - and they’re affordable.

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Recent housing headlines have been ugly: Foreclosures. Declining Florida mortgage activity. Low sales. Eroding home prices.

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Perhaps, the Daytona Beach News-Journal surmises, state legislators wrestling with how to revamp the property tax system should spend some time with Linda Fitzgibbons.

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Home builder George Glance wants to price homes reasonably in the Central Florida housing market.

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U.S. Senate critics of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are seeking to link the mortgage finance companies’ profit-making investments to low-cost housing.

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Townhomes priced at less than $200,000 are now for sale in the new town of Ave Maria in east Collier County, the News-Press reports.

However, the 326 affordable housing units at Pulte Homes’ Middlebrooke at Ave Maria are only being offered to buyers who meet income requirements.

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City officials in Pembroke Pines are preparing to move forward with a new affordable housing study despite claims by the area builders association that working people have no problem finding places to live.

Area home builders are using old and flawed data, city officials believe, adding that a new study would show whether the need exists. It also would show, they say, how the city can best help working people.

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It’s a story shared by thousands of prospective home buyers across Palm Beach County: finding an affordable place to own and live in.

In Boynton Beach alone, the numbers are staggering.

An assessment by Florida International University’s Metropolitan Center projected the city could have a shortage of 10,800 work force homes by 2025, if measures to spur building of affordable homes aren’t created.

On Tuesday, commissioners will consider giving final approval to a work force housing ordinance that would require a developer requesting higher densities to create housing that serves mostly essential, middle-class workers such as teachers and police officers who can’t afford Florida mortgages at market rates.

“There’s a need everywhere for workforce housing,” said Mayor Jerry Taylor. “The city’s being pretty proactive.”

Under the proposal, a buyer’s household income cannot exceed 120 percent of the median household income set for Palm Beach County. For a family of four, that would be $77,280.

Gerone Powell, interim executive director of the Boynton Beach Faith Based Community Development Corp., works daily with would-be home buyers who ask for Florida home mortgage help.

“In the past month, I’ve had four police officers from the city of Boynton and one from the Sheriff’s (Office) inquiring about down payment help,” he said. “Two years ago, that was unheard of.”

Developers would be required to set aside 10-20 percent of their projects for workforce housing, which could not look any different from market-rate homes. Three-quarters of those units would be available for moderate-income buyers and a quarter would be for low-income buyers.

To ensure affordability, each would have a 30-year restrictive covenant preventing the buyer from flipping the property and profiting from its market value.

However, in the case of luxury developments with a majority of home sale prices of $500,000 or more, the developer might have the option to pay into a trust. The required payment would range from $80,000-120,000 in lieu of each affordable housing unit.

While the prospect of offering more affordable Florida home loan payments to residents is good, those optional payments are too high, said Christopher Roog, director of governmental affairs for The Gold Coast Builders Association.

The group also would like to see impact fees waived for work force homes and is concerned that the costs of the market-rate homes would rise as they subsidize the workforce housing.

Even though the ordinance is voluntary - developers would be subject to it only if they ask to build at higher densities - the high costs of land force developers to build more units to make projects viable, said Vice Mayor Jose Rodriguez.

“I guarantee nobody’s going to build at those (current) density levels,” he said. “I think the ordinance is perfect for the times we’re in.”

SOURCE: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel