During the Wednesday night City Commission meeting, elected officials were updated on the Affordable Home Construction Loan Program. The program has funding totaling $1 million from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) and the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA).
In July 2020, the City Commission approved the Affordable Home Construction Loan Program to help finance small-scale private developments. The initial investment from the AHTF was $750,000 and the CRA subsequently approved $250,000 for projects within the Greater Frenchtown/Southside (GFS) redevelopment district boundaries.
The program was created in hopes of helping people whose income is below the Tallahassee metro area’s median income of $76,400, according to statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
In 2020, Leon County’s average sale price for a home was $256,080 which is up from the previous year by $10,000. As it stands currently, the average household with the current median income can obtain a market rate mortgage of about $200,000.
However, for those who earn less than the median income the purchase options continue to diminish due to “very low inventory of affordable options, rising cost of construction, and lack of financial resources for down payment and closing costs.”
With the approval of the AHCLP, applications are accepted on a rolling basis for private and non-profit developers, for up to a $175,000 loan per project and up to two concurrent loans per applicant. Once constructed, full repayment of the loan is expected within 18 months of the date of the agreement.
Since the AHCLP launched, seven applications have been successfully submitted and five of those have been awarded loans. Two of the loans are for projects located within the CRA’s GFS Redevelopment District boundaries.
City Commission Discusses Affordable Home Construction Loan Program added by Lynsey Kirk on
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@ Gabriel , I am running for Leon County Commissioner District 5. (Kristin Dozier).
@Hope: Agree with your assessment of D. HAWKINS.
YOU can not buy INTELLIGENCE
Either you have it or you do not. Of course, only if you are wired that way.
Which incumbent seat have you focus on Mr. HAWKINS?
@Voltaire:
YOUR entire comment- Priceless
Thumps Up Thumps Up
Government has no place in private real estate development period. What we are effectively doing is using public funds to pick winners and losers amongst private enterprises based on what… perceived benefit to the community? According to whom and using what metric? If a buisness development is valuable and needed in a community it will survive and thrive if not it will fail and something better suited to that area will take its place- that’s the essential nature of free enterprise and something we seem to have forgotten. By creating projects under artificial conditions we are essentially attempting to grow watermelons in a desert. Sure it can be done but the initial input needed is tremendous and ultimately the entire project becomes increasingly infeasible long-term as you constantly battle the prexisting external conditions prohibitive of your ventures inception and which necessitated artificial conditions in the first place.
David, you absolutely can make developers build 155k homes for 100k. By using taxes and paying them 200k.
I show 687 homes for sale under 200k. And lots more to rent. Why do we need to build more?
Wow, David! I am impressed I think that is more work I have seen any candidate or elected official combined ever do in the last 20 years. Good job!
You will find this on my Campaign Web Site (I will need to update the $Numbers on the site).
For the 2016, 2018 and 2020 elections, a major topic has been Affordable Housing. When I think Affordable Housing, I am thinking Sigle Family Homes for Low Income & Blue Collar Families, for under $100,000 but, I know that is now wishful dreaming on my part, or is it? When I listen to the Candidates talk about Affordable Housing, they are throwing around prices like $200,000.00 to $250,000.00 and complaining about how Developers keep building Neighborhoods with $250,000.00 to $450,000.00 Homes. Low Income Families and MOST Blue Collar Families can not afford a $200,000.00 Home and the reality of it is, we have to face the facts, there is no such thing as Affordable Housing any more when it comes to New Single Family Homes unless it is a small Townhouse.
I have done the Math, to build a simple plain jane, basic 3/2 Home using basic materials, nothing high end, not even a Garage or Carport, and I even used very conservative prices, adding it all up, the cost of an 1/8 of an Acre Lot, Site Prep, a Mono Slab Foundation, Framing, Trusses, Sheeting & Roofing, Basic Exterior Siding, Sheet Rock, Basic Vinyl/Carpet Flooring, Basic Windows & Doors & Door Hardware, Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC & Ducting, Basic Kitchen & Bathroom Cabinets, Sinks, Tubs & Toilets, Basic Appliances, Basic Fixtures & Lighting, Basic Trim, Painting Inside and Outside, Light Switches and Plug Outlets, a Parking Pad & small Patio, basic Land Scaping plus, I added $10,000.00 for the things I may have missed and I came up with $155,000.00 for just Labor & Materials. That’s with OUT adding in the Profit Margin. You can not make Contractors build $70,000.00 to $100,000.00 Homes when they cost $155,000.00 and up to build them. What I consider Affordable Housing for the Lower Income and Blue Collar Workers is impossible, it can not be done and, the same can be said for a new 3/2 Town Home.
So, when it comes to Affordable Housing, maybe it is time to think outside the Box. There are a lot of older Homes on the market that need work priced between $25,000.00 to $50,000.00 and spending another $20,000.00 to $50,000.00 rehabbing it gets you into a very nice Home for $45,000.00 to $100,000.00 in less time then it would take to build one from the ground up and cost half as much. There are many Banks that will do creative Mortgages and something like this might fall into a Construction type Mortgage where one part pays for the Property and another part pays for the Rehab and when it is finished the two parts come together into one Mortgage. It is a win win because you are Rehabbing a Home and a Community as well as Improving Property Values.
Scam city…
Vector the automated airport collection company made some generous contributions to several of our esteemed City Commissioners Rocky Hanna HAA HAA styled perfectly legal non traceable accounts. What else can we take away from this non-senseical approval of that company?
We could have hired several black workers to collect those fees for what we are going to pay Vector you know. But those unemployed black workers did not contribute to our Commissioners (who are mostly white) HAA HAA styled accounts.
Those darn white leftist Commissioners.
The “Affordable Housing” narrative is one of the biggest tax dollar and developer scams working today. Years and years and years of talking about it and campaign promises… and millions upon millions of tax dollars spent and allocated… and a total of notta, zip, zilch of an impact.
An example of a typical scam starts with a Board approved zoning (units per acre increase) change with the Developer promising to build a 150 unit complex with 10 units dedicated to “Affordable Housing”. The 10 units are typically located in the rear of the complex near the dumpsters and utilize the scratch & dent leftover appliances, mismatched materials, leftover scraps, and less-than-stellar workmanship. Although the rent is lower than the rest of the units, it is usually not that “affordable”. The renters eventually move out or are evicted for non-payment… then the units are refurbished and join the rest of the market-priced units. Profits are maximized and campaign coffers remain supplied… and we start all over again with the call for more affordable housing. Rinse and repeat, and around the mountain we go… again.
… but hey… at least they tried right?