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We can now celebrate Miami-Dade County residents having more flexibility at homeownership. At last week’s Board of County Commissioners meeting, the Board approved my legislation for District 5, to adjust the County’s artificially imposed sales price cap for homes in its affordable housing programs.
It’s no secret that Miami-Dade County has a housing affordability crisis. Residents face some of the most expensive rents in the country when compared to their salaries, as well as a skyrocketing homeownership market. In March 2021, the Miami Realtors Association reported a $450,000 median sales price for a single-family home, up from $370,000 the previous year. Even the price of condominiums is jaw-dropping, averaging over $367,000 in 2019.
Let me explain what we just accomplished.
Funding for the County’s affordable housing programs comes from many sources, including federal, state, and local sources. State law mandates a portion of its money be used for homeownership. The County can use these funds flexibly. It can now construct single family homes, build condos for sale rather than apartments for rent, or provide financial assistance to a first-time home buyer.
The County’s Public Housing and Community Development department surveyed its recent infill projects. Construction costs ranged from $224,000 to $254,000 per unit, even when land was acquired at no cost. Capped at $205,000, developers and most non-profits could not create financially viable homeownership properties. Instead, they built rental units.
Now, this means that a teacher who finds a home or condo for $275,000 has more options with the County’s first-time home buyer program for help with a down payment and mortgage.
I’ve been watching the negative impact of the cap since I was elected in 2018. In those three years, the County has funded completed construction of less than 50 homeownership units and fewer than 200 loans were closed in the first-time homebuyer’s program. These numbers are shocking given the current housing crisis but now the formula has changed as of last week to give residents a chance at owning a home and building family wealth.
I had proposed to remove the cap and use a formula suggested by the State of Florida setting the maximum sales price this year at $299,000. And it was approved. This now adds 2.5 times the number of units available for first time homebuyers. It also allows building upwards of 80 units on a County site I’ve identified in District 5. The ordinance will become effective in ten days. We are now able to use these underutilized dollars for homeownership to stimulate construction of new units and give more families access to the American Dream of owning a home.
