New affordable housing in South Florida is on the market — but not for long
A South Florida developer has targeted first-time home buyers for its project in Naranja, a community bordering Homestead.
And it sees demand outpacing supply for its nearly completed development.
The Faith Group is expecting to finish all of its 143-unit Paradise Gardens project at 14505 SW 260th St. by late March, according to the company’s chief financial officer Roland Faith. The first 25 town homes — each offering four bedrooms and three bathrooms in approximately 1,500 square feet — are expected to be done in February.
It presold each of its units for $200,000 within 60 days in 2017, but with some of the buyers pulling out of the purchase closer to completion, 10 units are on the market again, now ranging from $235,000 to $250,000. The Faith Group already has 50 people on a waiting list for the 10 units in south Miami-Dade.
“It’s easier to get an FHA [Federal Housing Administration] loan at $250,000 or less,” Faith said. “That’s where we tried to keep it at.”
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The FHA, part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Housing, administers federal loans for buyers looking to purchase a primary residence. Each county in the country has a loan cap depending on the size of the home. Loans in Miami-Dade County can range from $5,000 to $718,750.
The FHA loans are popular for first-time home buyers since the agency accepts low credit scores and a down payment of 3.5% instead of the the traditional 10 % down payment, said George Jalil, broker president of Real Living First Service Realty ERA Powered.
Targeting first-time home buyers, Faith said, “We priced these accordingly to compete with Lennar.”
The South Florida home builder Lennar spent millions over the years buying land in Homestead. It has developed and planned single-family homes and town houses in the area.
Paradise Gardens has an average five-person household, Faith said. He sees two parents and an in-law financially supporting the home, along with two kids. Buyers are coming from Kendall, Homestead, Doral and Hollywood.
How could the Faith Group afford to build attainable housing?
Developers in Miami often overlook building attainable housing because of land costs, Faith said. But his firm bought acres of agricultural land, where Paradise Gardens is rising, for $5.5 million in 2018.
The firm also adapted construction methods its parent company, the Homestead-based Brickless Construction Corp., exercised in its projects in Brazil. It built Paradise Gardens solely with concrete, skipping bricks and fabricated its electrical wiring outlets offsite. The electrical wiring was hung in blue and red tubes, tied around steel frames, and hung and installed simultaneously as concrete was poured. The traditional method calls for an electrical contractor to prepare and install the electrical wiring for each unit on site.
Fewer construction materials, time, money and contractors were needed to complete the project, Faith said.
The model has been so successful that Faith Group plans to break ground on more town homes and condos in the area in April.
This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 7:07 AM.
