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ROWLETT RAMBLINGS

I keep on keeping on

3/12/2017

1 Comment

 
I will soon be submitting a petition to City Council requesting that they further explore the need to create the financing tools to provide aid in funding housing for Senior Citizens and Workforce citizens.   The proposal calls for the creation of a Housing Financing Corporation.  Many communities in our area have them.  We don't. 

Although I typically oppose most types of government aid housing (not all), this program has real merit.  It is not near the typical subsidy aid one conjures up in their mind.  Aid in this case comes from the structure of the development financing package.  Tax Credits are sold to purchasers and Tax exempt bonds are sold to other purchasers to finance the housing.  These tax credits and bond sales provide funding for much of the cost of construction, therefore reducing rent rates and mortgage payments.

This is not low income housing.  It is relatively new multi-family and single family detached housing that any community can be proud to have in their portfolio of housing options for their citizens.  This is relatively new financing for Seniors and Workforce citizens.  Workforce citizens include firemen, policemen, small business managers, workers in everyday jobs.  In other words, people you're around every day. 

These needs are created by the wildly escalating housing costs, but modestly rising incomes.  Currently, an average family income will not qualify the family to purchase an average priced home in Rowlett.  The HFC helps out.

Be assured, this writer is not advocating that our "officialdom" get anywhere close to managing development financing or making loans or mortgages to anyone.  I am advocating that our City Council take the necessary steps to create the Corporation that will house the experts needed to make the Housing Finance Corporation work.  To the best of my  knowledge, our City Council members have never underwritten a car loan, let alone several housing mortgages or an apartment complex.

Below is a link to information that could provide you much more information than I can in a blog site.  Most of the information is about nearby communities and the North Texas area.  Please read to understand what I'm talking about.  Rowlett needs this.  Click below.


http://ncthousing.com/about/
1 Comment
Jennifer WIlson
3/13/2017 10:39:39 am

One other important question to ask is regarding financing of the new construction versus current construction costs. When developers and owners find that their construction budget does not match up to the bids that they have received from GC's and Subs, they go through a process called "Value Engineering." This is a process to eliminate and change items from the design team to bring a project into budget. I am sure their marketing brochures make the building and surrounding land look beautiful and welcoming to the neighborhood, but is that the true bill of goods we are buying? Value Engineering always hits the landscape and exterior very hard--they may want to have a masonry exterior (especially with the FBC requirements the city has set), but if there is no money for that, the exterior will be downgraded to much cheaper materials--making it look more "warehousey" and less "Office building-ey". The same is true for the landscape; they may want to beef up the landscaping around the site, but since it is at the end of the project and there is no money left over to plant what is on the plans--the pretty arhcitectural site picture hanging in the marketing trailer doesn't match what is actually planted on site. Trees are smaller, less plants in the beds, irrigation is deleted, gravel pathways are eliminated. So I am most interested in their budget and their construction schedule, because if it is going to be built on the site, I want to be assured that the end result matches the pretty pictures that they are going to be showcasing at Thursday's meeting.

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