There’s a quiet building boom taking place in South Florida: new buildings going up are being built within neighborhoods of the poorest families.
The 2009 federal stimulus package and other government programs aimed at fixing the housing crisis have helped boost the affordable housing sector, which uses government funds to build rental communities for low-income residents. It’s the only sector of South Florida’s housing market in which demand is outpacing supply.
More than 25 affordable multifamily projects either recently completed or under construction in Miami-Dade and Broward counties can be accounted for. With the recession and foreclosure crisis having hit so badly the South Florida homeowners, many of them not only turned into renters, a huge number of the middle-income residents fell into the low-income bracket. This in turn resulted in a higher shortage of low-priced housing options that already existed even before the recession.
This obvious shortage on the one hand plus the surplus of high end properties on the other, made several builders expand their survival views opting to, at the same time, assist the less fortunate segment of the population by implementing building projects that not only provide affordable housing but also provide a new breath of revitalization to the areas where the new buildings are being built.
Profit margins for affordable developers are generally lower than for luxury builders - rent prices are set based on income restrictions - and are far below market rates. Private developers are able to survive on such low rents because much of the development cost is subsidized by the government.
Another positive side for these government-subsidized housing projects: they create jobs for South Floridians. Many of the jobs go to people who live in the communities where affordable housing is located — that’s often a requirement for receiving federal funding.
The 2009 federal stimulus package and other government programs aimed at fixing the housing crisis have helped boost the affordable housing sector, which uses government funds to build rental communities for low-income residents. It’s the only sector of South Florida’s housing market in which demand is outpacing supply.
More than 25 affordable multifamily projects either recently completed or under construction in Miami-Dade and Broward counties can be accounted for. With the recession and foreclosure crisis having hit so badly the South Florida homeowners, many of them not only turned into renters, a huge number of the middle-income residents fell into the low-income bracket. This in turn resulted in a higher shortage of low-priced housing options that already existed even before the recession.
This obvious shortage on the one hand plus the surplus of high end properties on the other, made several builders expand their survival views opting to, at the same time, assist the less fortunate segment of the population by implementing building projects that not only provide affordable housing but also provide a new breath of revitalization to the areas where the new buildings are being built.
Profit margins for affordable developers are generally lower than for luxury builders - rent prices are set based on income restrictions - and are far below market rates. Private developers are able to survive on such low rents because much of the development cost is subsidized by the government.
Another positive side for these government-subsidized housing projects: they create jobs for South Floridians. Many of the jobs go to people who live in the communities where affordable housing is located — that’s often a requirement for receiving federal funding.
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