With Miami-Dade housing prices climbing, it’s time to expand home-buying assistance | Opinion
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 home-ownership market. In March, 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.
As a county commissioner, I’ve tried to create home-ownership projects in District 5, but have been stymied because of an outdated cap the county has applied for more than a decade. This self-imposed limitation has locked up tens of millions of dollars for affordable housing rather than activating it to solve the problem. I’d like to fix that.
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 home ownership. The county can use these funds flexibly. It could construct single-family homes, build condos for sale rather than apartments for rent or provide financial assistance to a first-time home buyer. But the county artificially caps the price of a home that can use these funds at $205,000.
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 cannot create financially viable home-ownership properties. Instead, they build rental units.
This also means that a teacher who has found a home or condo for $275,000 is shut out of the county’s first-time home-buyer program for help with a down payment and mortgage. Instead, they continue renting.
I’ve been watching the negative impact of this cap since I was elected in 2018. In those three years, the county has funded completed construction of fewer than 50 home-ownership units, and fewer than 200 loans were closed in the first-time home-buyer program. These numbers are shocking given the current housing crisis and that millions of dollars are sitting on the table waiting to be activated. Clearly, the formula must change to give residents a chance at owning a home and building family wealth.
At the June 10 meeting of the Public Housing and Community Services Committee, I plan to propose removing the cap and, instead, using a formula suggested by the state of Florida setting the maximum sales price this year at $299,000. This would add 2.5 times the number of units available for first-time home buyers. It would also allow building upward of 80 units on a county site I’ve identified in District 5.
It’s time to tap into these grossly underutilized dollars for home ownership to stimulate construction of new units and give more families access to the American dream of owning a home.
Eileen Higgins represents District 5 on the Miami-Dade County Commission.