\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

By David Lyons<\/div><\/div>\n

On top of supply-line problems and worker shortages, developers say local governments\u2019 construction fees make it almost impossible to build affordable housing.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2013 Out-of-state buyers might be igniting home prices in South Florida, but developers say local government fees are adding fuel to the fire. In some cases, the fees \u2013 known as impact fees \u2013 are tacking $90,000 onto the price of newly constructed house, according to the Gold Coast Builders Association.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The fees help pay for schools, roads, and water and sewer systems needed in new developments. But the builders group, covering Broward and Palm Beach counties, says many of the fees charged by local governments are too high and inconsistently applied.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, since the onset of the pandemic, counties, cities, school districts and other taxing agencies have been excessively increasing impact fees, driving up construction costs,\u201d the association said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ken Johnson, a Florida Atlantic University real estate economist, said Florida has some of the highest impact fees in the nation. The fees, coupled with rising costs for materials, land and labor, are making it unprofitable to build homes that sell in the $300,000 range.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe homebuilders are right,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cImpact fees are probably one of the major contributing factors to our inability to deliver workforce housing. With impact fees the way they are, there are very few incentives to develop in those price ranges.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Home prices this summer have reached historically high levels in South Florida, according to new Realtor data. The median sales price in July stood at $500,000 in Palm Beach County, $495,000 in Broward County and $515,000 in Miami-Dade.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Johnson asserted that Impact fees \u201chave become a hidden tax. It\u2019s hurting our ability to deliver housing inventory.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

KT Catlin, the association\u2019s executive officer, said some builders have walked away from projects after concluding that fees made prospective developments too expensive for them to build and still make a profit.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time you layer in all of the regulatory fees imposed in that area, you might not be able to build for what the individuals living in the area can afford,\u201d Catlin said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

State law curbs fees<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
The concerns come nearly three months after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that bars local governments from increasing fees more than once every four years and limits those increases to 50%.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Any increases between 25% and 50% have to be spread over the four-year period. Smaller increases will be phased in over two years. The law also retroactively limits increases that were implemented since Jan. 1. Local governments seeking to exceed the fee caps need to conduct a study outlining \u201cthe extraordinary circumstances\u201d for the increase.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
The bill was opposed by the 1000 Friends of Florida, a nonprofit growth management organization. After the bill\u2019s signing, the group predicted existing residents would bear the brunt of costs tied to new development through higher taxes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Jane West, policy director for 1000 Friends, said the bill went too far. She was surprised by the association\u2019s outreach now that bill has become law. \u201cThis is stunning,\u201d she said. \u201cThey got everything they wanted.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure what the expectation is in terms of paying for growth,\u201d West added. \u201cIf that is a cost to be shifted exclusively onto the taxpayers, that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to be looking at \u2013 somebody\u2019s got to pay for it.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
The law came about after Hillsborough County almost doubled its fees in one year, said David Cobb, a Fort Myers-based analyst for Zonda, a real estate consulting and research firm.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cThat sends a shock wave through the industry,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s really the consumer who pays for these.\u201d Cobb said that if a community\u2019s leaders are looking to address the lack of affordable housing in its area, \u201cit\u2019s pretty hard to do when you\u2019re paying 40 and 50 and $60,000 in impact fees.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a certain logic to impact fees if you\u2019re building out in the suburbs and you\u2019re going to need police and fire and schools and that sort of thing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just how it\u2019s managed.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
The history of fees<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
Impact fees have been fixtures in South Florida development for decades.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
They\u2019ve taken the form of developers paying cash, making land donations or actually constructing roads and utilities. Instead of raising taxes on everyone who lives in a city or county, developers have borne the costs of roads, parks, school expansions and water and sewer systems. Any fees they paid to local governments had to be allocated to the projects for which the money was designated.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
But these days, money has a tendency to seep into purposes for which it was not intend, the Gold Coast builders argue.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Onward and upward<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
Despite the new law and the association\u2019s lobbying efforts, brokers believe the fees \u2013 and the ensuing hikes in home prices \u2013 will continue.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think impact fees are going to decrease. They are going to increase,\u201d said Tomas Sulichin, president of the commercial division of Related \/ISG real estate firm in Miami. The prices of new apartment rentals are also going up as a result of fees, he said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Mike Pappas, president and CEO of The Keyes Co., acknowledged the fee process is \u201ctedious\u201d and not friendly to builders who are already under the pressure of rising materials, labor and land costs.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cYou start stacking those on top of each other, and you get the highest prices you\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u00a9 2021 South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
Go to Source<\/a>
\nAuthor: kerrys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By David Lyons On top of supply-line problems and worker shortages, developers say local governments\u2019 construction fees make it almost impossible to build affordable housing. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2013 Out-of-state buyers might be igniting home prices in South Florida, but developers say local government fees are adding fuel to the fire. In some cases, the fees \u2013 known as impact fees \u2013 are tacking $90,000 onto the price of newly constructed house, according to the Gold Coast Builders Association. The fees help pay for schools, roads, and water and sewer systems needed in new developments. But the builders group, covering Broward and Palm Beach counties, says many of the fees charged by local governments are too high and inconsistently applied. \u201cUnfortunately, since the onset of the pandemic, counties, cities, school districts and other taxing agencies have been excessively increasing impact fees, driving up construction costs,\u201d the association said. Ken Johnson, a Florida Atlantic University real estate economist, said Florida has some of the highest impact fees in the nation. The fees, coupled with rising costs for materials, land and labor, are making it unprofitable to build homes that sell in the $300,000 range. \u201cThe homebuilders are right,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cImpact fees are probably one of the major contributing factors to our inability to deliver workforce housing. With impact fees the way they are, there are very few incentives to develop in those price ranges.\u201d Home prices this summer have reached historically high levels in South Florida, according to new Realtor data. The median sales price in July stood at $500,000 in Palm Beach County, $495,000 in Broward County and $515,000 in Miami-Dade. Johnson asserted that Impact fees \u201chave become a hidden tax. It\u2019s hurting our ability to deliver housing inventory.\u201d KT Catlin, the association\u2019s executive officer, said some builders have walked away from projects after concluding that fees made prospective developments too expensive for them to build and still make a profit. \u201cBy the time you layer in all of the regulatory fees imposed in that area, you might not be able to build for what the individuals living in the area can afford,\u201d Catlin said. State law curbs fees The concerns come nearly three months after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that bars local governments from increasing fees more than once every four years and limits those increases to 50%. Any increases between 25% and 50% have to be spread over the four-year period. Smaller increases will be phased in over two years. The law also retroactively limits increases that were implemented since Jan. 1. Local governments seeking to exceed the fee caps need to conduct a study outlining \u201cthe extraordinary circumstances\u201d for the increase. The bill was opposed by the 1000 Friends of Florida, a nonprofit growth management organization. After the bill\u2019s signing, the group predicted existing residents would bear the brunt of costs tied to new development through higher taxes. Jane West, policy director for 1000 Friends, said the bill went too far. She was surprised by the association\u2019s outreach now that bill has become law. \u201cThis is stunning,\u201d she said. \u201cThey got everything they wanted. \u201cI\u2019m not sure what the expectation is in terms of paying for growth,\u201d West added. \u201cIf that is a cost to be shifted exclusively onto the taxpayers, that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to be looking at \u2013 somebody\u2019s got to pay for it.\u201d The law came about after Hillsborough County almost doubled its fees in one year, said David Cobb, a Fort Myers-based analyst for Zonda, a real estate consulting and research firm. \u201cThat sends a shock wave through the industry,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s really the consumer who pays for these.\u201d Cobb said that if a community\u2019s leaders are looking to address the lack of affordable housing in its area, \u201cit\u2019s pretty hard to do when you\u2019re paying 40 and 50 and $60,000 in impact fees.\u201d \u201cThere is a certain logic to impact fees if you\u2019re building out in the suburbs and you\u2019re going to need police and fire and schools and that sort of thing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just how it\u2019s managed.\u201d The history of fees Impact fees have been fixtures in South Florida development for decades. They\u2019ve taken the form of developers paying cash, making land donations or actually constructing roads and utilities. Instead of raising taxes on everyone who lives in a city or county, developers have borne the costs of roads, parks, school expansions and water and sewer systems. Any fees they paid to local governments had to be allocated to the projects for which the money was designated. But these days, money has a tendency to seep into purposes for which it was not intend, the Gold Coast builders argue. Onward and upward Despite the new law and the association\u2019s lobbying efforts, brokers believe the fees \u2013 and the ensuing hikes in home prices \u2013 will continue. \u201cI don\u2019t think impact fees are going to decrease. They are going to increase,\u201d said Tomas Sulichin, president of the commercial division of Related \/ISG real estate firm in Miami. The prices of new apartment rentals are also going up as a result of fees, he said. Mike Pappas, president and CEO of The Keyes Co., acknowledged the fee process is \u201ctedious\u201d and not friendly to builders who are already under the pressure of rising materials, labor and land costs. \u201cYou start stacking those on top of each other, and you get the highest prices you\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d he said. \u00a9 2021 South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC Go to Source Author: kerrys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}