CHARLOTTE COUNTY — In Charlotte County’s hot housing market, $20,000 is apparently small potatoes.
It’s the figure that county government is offering property owners to fix up their hurricane-damaged homes in an effort to spur affordable housing.
The county’s pilot program has several catches: Homeowners must spend $40,000 of their own money to get the houses back on the market, the sale price can’t top $140,000 and the buyer has to have a low or moderate income.
So far no one has taken the bait, highlighting the challenge that Southwest Florida faces in grappling with a dearth of affordable housing in a sizzling real estate market.
Hurricane Charley destroyed nearly 11,000 homes in Charlotte County and damaged another 30,000.
It’s a huge hole to fill, and community leaders have been talking about ways to make a dent in the problem.
A task force on work force housing is finalizing a list of recommendations that it will present to the Charlotte County Commission next week. The suggestions come as area home prices continue to break records.
The median sales price in the Charlotte-North Port area increased to $197,000 last quarter, a 32 percent increase, figures from the National Association of Realtors show.
And from newspapers to public benches, advertisements still promise quick cash for damaged houses.
The $20,000 offer from the county is a trial balloon. The pilot project has cash for just eight property owners, using money left over from another project.
But the county’s housing coordinator, Loraine Helber, hopes it would help get a handful of houses fixed up and sold at prices that moderate-income families can afford.
To sell to a family of four, for example, a seller hoping to get the $20,000 incentive from the county is limited to selling to families with $39,350 or less in annual income.
Helber thought at least a few people would be interested.
“Apparently that’s not the case,” she said Wednesday.
Only a few callers have responded to a recent newspaper ad about the county’s offer.
Just two took a serious interest. But even they balked at the $140,000 cap on the selling price. Both were counting on selling their two-bedroom houses for $10,000 to $20,000 more.
There just aren’t that many houses going for $140,000, said Jim Crumbaugh of Prudential Village Realty Place.
“I don’t see them standing in line” for the county’s offer, Crumbaugh said. “I think it’s designed to reach an extremely small crowd.”
Some property owners are fixing up houses for their own use, Crumbaugh said. Some are landlords looking to rent out their properties again after repairs are made. And still others might not even be in the state anymore.
Crumbaugh suspects that some owners with damaged property have returned north.
Helber’s not giving up. She said any idea is worth a try as the county, still recovering from Charley, struggles with the affordable housing issue in today’s real estate market.
A modified version of her pilot project could make its way into the county’s hurricane housing recovery plan, due in July.
Helber’s thinking a higher cap on selling prices might attract some interest.
By John Heys
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