Miami Seeks $2.5B for Affordable Housing
The Miami-Dade mayor said she will ask voters in November to approve $2.5 billion in property tax backed bonds to build much-needed affordable housing.
MIAMI – Affordable housing in Miami is hard to find. Home prices rose 11% as of November 2023, according to CoreLogic, and a University of Florida housing analysis showed the Miami-Dade area was short over 90,000 affordable housing units.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava plans to propose a $2.5 billion property tax-backed debt package, $800 million of which will go directly toward affordable housing. The bond for the proposal will go up for a vote in November.
Since 2020, Cava and her administration have renovated three public housing developments sponsored a first-time homebuyer program that provides below-market loan rates and plans to start developing more low-income housing with $40 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Zillow data indicates the average home in Miami costs over $522,000, which the Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index shows is 56% more than the median-priced home in the United States. The National Association of Realtors® also reports that in 2022 the Miami metro area had the largest inbound population gains across the country, rising nearly 60% from 2019.
Experts say that home building has not kept pace with that influx of people. Additionally, the county has seen an increase in wealthy homebuyers, like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, which has pushed up home prices amid low inventory, leaving middle-income households with fewer options.
Source: Fortune (03/05/24) Lake, Sydney
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