Housing Leadership Council of Palm Beach County


5/11/2008 \| No low-cost units built 2 years after rules adopted Two years after Palm Beach County started requiring more affordable housing in one of Florida's most expensive real estate markets, none of the reduced-price homes has been built. View Complete Article>>

5/07/2008 \| Study: Housing costs outstrip funds for most Miami-Dade households Home prices may be declining in Miami-Dade County, but they still exceed the reach of the majority of the county's households, a study commissioned by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce said. View Complete Article>>

3/24/2008 \| Home sales unexpectedly rise in February After falling for six straight months, sales of existing homes posted an unexpected increase in February. But the median home price tumbled by the largest amount on record. View Complete Article>>

3/19/2008 \| Jupiter to discuss development that will have affordable rentals JUPITER- — The town council is set to review development proposals tonight that, if approved, would add a new subdivision and church along Central Boulevard. View Complete Article>>

3/12/2008 \| Hundreds seeking housing money overwhelm Boca Authority BOCA RATON — A crowd of some 500 people waiting for hours this morning for housing voucher applications were dispersed by police in riot gear at the Boca Raton Housing Authority when the applications ran out sooner than expected. View Complete Article>>

3/10/2008 \| $5 million grant to boost affordable housing Armed with a $5 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties plans to tackle the need for affordable housing. View Complete Article>>

3/04/2008 \| Miami Herald Business Monday keeps tabs on Tallahassee When news got out last week that Citrix Systems was thinking about moving at least some operations out of Florida, we heard the all-too-familiar reasons bandied about -- the quality of schools and the local labor force weren't up to standards. View Complete Article>>

2/25/2008 \| Good month, bad year for Palm Beach County home prices In a hopeful note for the housing market, Palm Beach County's median home price rose slightly in January compared to December. View Complete Article>>

2/12/2008 \| Homes in Bubble Regions Remain Wildly Overvalued If you own a home in a former bubble region like California or southern Florida, there's bad news… and really bad news. View Complete Article>>

2/11/2008 \| Weird stuff that hurts your credit What seems smart, like moving a balance to a lower-interest credit card, can ding your credit scores. Here are some of the other hidden threats to your credit and how you can fight back. View Complete Article>>

2/04/2008 \| Opposition: Hometown Democracy will miss ballot The Hometown Democracy amendment won't make the November ballot, leaders of the group Save Our Constitution said Friday. View Complete Article>>

2/04/2008 \| Middle-income households still struggle with affordable housing Affordable homes will continue to remain out of reach for middle-income households in some cities, even as home prices are falling at the national level, according to a study of select metropolitan areas released today. View Complete Article>>

2/04/2008 \| HUD secretary urges homeowners to get help to avoid foreclosure Some took notes frantically, as if in a college classroom. Others sunk their heads in their hands as if to hide their confusion and desperation. View Complete Article>>

1/30/2008 \| Phoenix Closes $470M in Work Force Funds Phoenix Realty Group, based here and in New York City, has completed the capitalization of two real estate private equity funds totaling $470 million that will finance work force housing in the Greater L.A. area and in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut. View Complete Article>>

1/23/2008 \| Despite real estate woes, most can't afford houses Given the numbers of property owners scrambling to sell or lease homes and condos they can no longer pay for, affordable housing might seem to be a moot issue. Not so. View Complete Article>>

1/22/2008 \| Palm Beach County school district gives teachers housing money Like many beginning educators, the Highland Elementary teacher makes less than $40,000, not enough money to save for a down payment on a house. View Complete Article>>

1/21/2008 \| Study: Palm Beach County homes still unaffordable Eighty-six percent of households in Palm Beach County cannot afford to buy a median-priced home here, according to a study released today by the Housing Leadership Council of Palm Beach County. View Complete Article>>

12/18/2007 \| Renters welcome: But they won't cover your mortgage Turmoil in local housing markets could make a perfect storm anywhere else seem like a pleasant breeze on a soft spring day. View Complete Article>>

12/18/2007 \| Builders, contractors vent over permitting process Contractors, engineers and architects let years of pent-up frustration explode today over what they say are unreasonable delays in permitting in the city, calling the process "brutality," "ridiculous," "horrible" and say it's "killing the city." View Complete Article>>

12/18/2007 \| Martin commission delays vote on development fees Martin County commissioners today put off a vote on whether to increase development fees until at least until next summer because of the recent housing market slump. View Complete Article>>

12/14/2007 \| Boca Raton Workforce Housing Law Gains Approval Even as local real estate prices start tumbling from their record levels of a couple of years ago, Boca Raton on Tuesday passed a local work force housing law. View Complete Article>>

12/14/2007 \| State blasts Boca Raton's work force housing plan DCA state review of Boca Raton's proposed work force housing law found the plan lacked "meaningful" guidelines and even suggested the city consider mobile homes as an option. View Complete Article>>

11/09/2007 \| Lake Worth CRA Accepting Proposals LAKE WORTH — The agency that is overseeing Sixth Avenue South's transformation from blighted roadway to city gateway is now seeking a suitable affordable housing proposal for the area. View Complete Article>>

10/15/2007 \| Housing Crisis As middle-income residents struggle to buy homes, developers in the tri-county area get busy with projects that include workforce housing. View Complete Article>>

10/08/2007 \| Affordable Housing Crisis Holly Pokress loved her job as a teacher of gifted kindergartners at Addison Mizner Elementary School in Boca Raton. The problem was she couldn’t pay her rent without help from her parents, and she suffered sticker shock when she looked for a cheaper p View Complete Article>>

10/08/2007 \| Workforce Housing Projects Get $10M Boost Two Palm Beach County residential projects have each received a $5-million loan under a pilot program aimed at encouraging the development of work force housing. View Complete Article>>

10/03/2007 \| Conference Planned - Real Estate Development Trends for the Treasure Coast - 6th Annual Conference ULI Southeast Florida/Caribbean is hosting Real Estate Development Trends for the Treasure Coast - 6th Annual Conference View Complete Article>>

9/21/2007 \| Numbers Give Insight on Work Force Housig There's no ignoring the message of cold numbers, and Ned Murray's housing surveys have helped South Florida officials make sense of the region's affordable housing needs. View Complete Article>>

9/19/2007 \| U.S. Sugar lends housing assist to lift Clewiston View Complete Article>>

9/17/2007 \| Buyer regret haunts housing Many can no longer afford the deals they struck during the boom. View Complete Article>>

9/14/2007 \| Affordable housing still a challenge View Complete Article>>

9/14/2007 \| Housing America’s Workforce Act View Complete Article>>

9/12/2007 \| Where does all the money go? In S. Florida, it's goes for housing View Complete Article>>

9/07/2007 \| Lake Worth Area Developer Pulls Plans For Affordable Homes (FLSUNSEN) View Complete Article>>

8/29/2007 \| As house sellers remain dug in, buyers wait for price fallout View Complete Article>>

8/29/2007 \| View Complete Article>>

8/13/2007 \| Least Affordable U.S. Real Estate Markets View Complete Article>>

8/02/2007 \| Florida Housing's Board of Directors Meeting September 21st View Complete Article>>

8/02/2007 \| Employer-Assisted Housing View Complete Article>>

8/02/2007 \| Florida Housing Coalition 2007 Statewide Annual Conference September 5-7; Omni Orlando View Complete Article>>

7/27/2007 \| We have moved our new offices are located in the Community Foundation Building located in City Place, 700 South Dixie Highway Suite 107 West Palm Beach View Complete Article>>

7/26/2007 \| Ft. Lauderdale Developer Tackles Issue of Workforce Housing View Complete Article>>

7/26/2007 \| Dudley Homes residents decry nearby development View Complete Article>>

6/11/2007 \| Banking on your home to fund your retirement? It won't be easy Aside from their homes, half of households within 10 years of retirement age have accumulated no more than $88,000 in retirement savings, according to the Congressional Research Service. That could translate into $653 a month for living expenses, if conve View Complete Article>>

6/10/2007 \| Tax reforms faces snags Floridians like the existing law that protects homeowners from steep property tax hikes and aren't eager to give breaks to the businesses and second-home owners who have been socked the hardest by property tax increases, a new poll says. View Complete Article>>

6/08/2007 \| Planfor 579 homes in Ag Reserve moves ahead The zoning commission approved the rezoning of 579 acres west of Florida's Turnpike. Most of the land would be preserved according to development guidelines in the Agricultural Reserve, while 579 homes are proposed on about 202 acres. View Complete Article>>

6/06/2007 \| Homestead exemption cheaters targeted Facing large budget cuts as a result of tax relief proposals in Tallahassee, Palm Beach County commissioners said Tuesday that the property appraiser's office should be doing more to stamp out homestead exemption fraud. View Complete Article>>

5/25/2007 \| Water district managers awash in coziness Water is increasingly scarce, but there's no shortage of strangely cozy relationships atop the agency managing this historic drought. View Complete Article>>

5/25/2007 \| Local home sales, prices, continue to fall The median price of an existing single-family home in Palm Beach County fell 3 percent last month, to $376,300 from $386,500 in April 2006, the Florida Association of Realtors said Friday. View Complete Article>>

5/25/2007 \| Housing doldrums keep home sales flat in South Florida View Complete Article>>

5/20/2007 \| Foreclosure crisis looms Part 1 Thousands of homeowners in Broward and Palm Beach counties can't make their monthly mortgage payments and are getting sternly worded letters from lenders who threaten to seize their properties and resell them, likely at a loss. View Complete Article>>

5/17/2007 \| Workforce housing efforts gain traction with local employers Local employers answered a call Wednesday to come to the Affordable Housing table. Led by the Housing Leadership Council of Palm Beach County, area businesses joined lenders and nonprofit community agencies in roughly equal numbers at the Marriott hotel. View Complete Article>>

5/17/2007 \| Controversial housing plan heads to final vote The Palm Beach Gardens City Council is scheduled to cast a final vote tonight on a measure that would increase how many unrelated people can live in a multifamily home with three bedrooms, or two bedrooms plus a den. View Complete Article>>

5/16/2007 \| Foreclosure Scam Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. Local man got hit by what's called a White Knight scheme. View Complete Article>>

5/15/2007 \| Foreclosures hold steady in PBC, soar in St. Lucie County n Palm Beach County, 774 properties entered some stage of foreclosure in April, compared with 733 in April 2006, RealtyTrac said today. There were 784 properties in some stage of foreclosure in March. View Complete Article>>

5/14/2007 \| As real estate market loses sizzle, landlords offer more deals The rental sector will lose some of its sizzle in 2007, analysts say. Short-term investors who can't sell homes and condos bought during the housing boom will try to rent them, helping create more vacancies and less rent growth across the region. View Complete Article>>

5/12/2007 \| Tax plan focuses on value of home Just days after legislators deadlocked over tax reform, House Speaker Marco Rubio backed away from his proposal to replace property taxes by hiking the state sales tax. View Complete Article>>

5/12/2007 \| Lake Worth targets slumlords in effort to fix overcrowding A mandatory $500 fine for landlords who violate the dwelling space requirements of the Standard Housing Code is expected to pass on second reading at Tuesday's commission meeting. View Complete Article>>

5/10/2007 \| Riviera domain lawsuits to end Two legal advocacy groups that sued the city last year over its use of eminent domain will withdraw their lawsuits today, and declare victory for local businesses and homeowners. View Complete Article>>

5/09/2007 \| Drought forces 2 coastal cities to clamp wells Water managers battling the drought have shut down public wells in Lantana and Lake Worth to protect them from saltwater contamination. View Complete Article>>

5/08/2007 \| Champion for homeless now faces own housing woes Westgate Tabernacle Pastor Alan Clapsaddle has fought for his church's right to house the homeless and worked to find them a more permanent place to live, but he's nearly lost that battle personally. View Complete Article>>

5/05/2007 \| Village diverges from 4 cities, backs grove's plan for homes In a swift departure from four other municipalities, Wellington's village council on Thursday backed Callery-Judge Grove's plan to create what amounts to a new town in Palm Beach County's midsection. View Complete Article>>

5/05/2007 \| Will commission take wild out of west? Key vote coming up County commissioners on Monday are scheduled for a final vote on Callery-Judge Grove's proposal to build 10,000 homes in an area known for farms and rural home lots. View Complete Article>>

5/05/2007 \| Grove officials, critics argue over traffic projections The traffic projections surrounding Callery-Judge Grove's proposal have been the biggest sticking point for the 10,000-home multiuse project.Critics say the projections aren't high enough. View Complete Article>>

5/04/2007 \| Gardens advances proposal for employer backed housing A new program that those in the business community say will help some of the city's biggest employers find their workers affordable housing was endorsed by the council Thursday. View Complete Article>>

5/04/2007 \| Storm model raises doubts f the U.S. were hit with a catastrophic hurricane, there is a 19.5 percent chance it would strike the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton area. View Complete Article>>

4/29/2007 \| Homesteaders' perk cools public passion for Crist's tax war Save Our Homes have had little incentive to complain about rising local government budgets or the concomitant rising tax burdens on their neighbors who are unprotected by the constitutional amendment. View Complete Article>>

4/26/2007 \| Tighter water restrictions take effect in West Palm Beach The city was granted emergency access to water by the South Florida Water Management District on Friday, a measure that requires West Palm Beach to impose the most stringent restrictions on water use in the county. View Complete Article>>

4/26/2007 \| Zoning panel backs 10,000-home 'new town' in Loxahatchee citrus grove The Palm Beach County Zoning Commission endorsed a development plan to transform 4,000-acre Callery-Judge Grove into new neighborhoods, schools and business parks along with a Main Street-style town center with shops, restaurants and offices. View Complete Article>>

4/26/2007 \| Palm Beach County appriaser sues 300 homeowners who protested assessments The battle between Property Appraiser Gary Nikolits and those who govern Palm Beach County expanded Wednesday when Nikolits sued more than 300 property owners who are protesting tax assessments. Among them: County Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock. View Complete Article>>

4/25/2007 \| Property tax talks deadlock, sales tax hike sticking point TALLAHASSEE — Negotiations over property tax reform turned heated Tuesday as state lawmakers from the House and the Senate again showed little enthusiasm for settling differences between their plans. View Complete Article>>

4/25/2007 \| Schools budget seeks more property tax cash Even as lawmakers work to prevent local governments from taking advantage of the recent run-up in property values to collect more money, they have agreed on a schools budget that does exactly that same thing. View Complete Article>>

4/25/2007 \| Crist raps property-tax jumps, vows to help irate homeowners Gov. Charlie Crist told a crowd of more than 300 angry homeowners Tuesday that he will not back down until Florida lawmakers reduce property taxes dramatically. View Complete Article>>

4/25/2007 \| Sales, prices of existing homes in Palm Beach County continue slide South Florida's housing market continues to disappoint, with buyers hesitant to make offers and sellers struggling to cope with the unsettling slide. View Complete Article>>

4/25/2007 \| Palm Beach County cities to fight 10,000-home plan for Callery-Judge Groves The "new town" on the block has city leaders from Wellington to West Palm Beach worried about road-choking traffic stretching from a Loxahatchee citrus grove to the coast. View Complete Article>>

4/24/2007 \| Home sales decline in PBC, Treasure Coast The Treasure Coast posted the biggest drop in single-family sales last month - 41 percent year over year - as the housing boom continue to deflate. Homebuyers closed on 338 single-family homes in Martin and St. Lucie counties last month, compared with View Complete Article>>

4/23/2007 \| Sellers Offer to Take Back Second Mortgage Worried sellers are again considering financial incentives, including taking back a second mortgage to entice buyers. View Complete Article>>

4/22/2007 \| Owners late with home payments. Foreclosure rates expected to jump in South Florida A deluge of South Floridians are falling behind on their monthly house payments, raising fears that many of the delinquent property owners will lose their homes to foreclosure this year and next. View Complete Article>>

4/19/2007 \| Fannie, Freddie Plan to Help Distressed Borrowers The heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac told a House Financial Services committee Tuesday that they are devising new types of loans to help distressed borrowers. View Complete Article>>

4/18/2007 \| Feds Urge Lenders to Work with Troubled Borrowers In a published statement, federal bank regulatory agencies said they “will not penalize financial institutions that pursue reasonable workout arrangements with borrowers who have encountered financial problems." View Complete Article>>

4/16/2007 \| Do you have enough insurance on your home? According to Jeanne Salvatore, senior vice president of the Insurance Information Institute, "Homeowners should contact their insurance agent or company representative at least once a year to make sure that their insurance is up to date." View Complete Article>>

4/12/2007 \| Mortgage mess could delay South Florida housing market rebound The subprime mortgage mess could delay a much-anticipated rebound this year in the housing market across South Florida and the nation, industry officials said Thursday. View Complete Article>>

4/05/2007 \| Boynton May Give Final Okay to Law requiring Affordable Housing for Middle Class Boynton Beach – It's a grim story shared by thousands of prospective home buyers across Palm Beach County: finding an affordable place to own and live in. View Complete Article>>

3/27/2007 \| Could employer-assisted housing be the future for South Florida? "Employer-assisted housing is the new buzz, the coming thing," said Jaimie Ross, president of the Florida Housing Coalition. "South Florida will see it first because that's where housing prices are highest, but it will work its way up." View Complete Article>>

3/27/2007 \| ISSUE: Trust fund faces allocation limit. Want to hear something really ridiculous? At a time when housing is less and less affordable for working people,the Florida Legislature has capped the amount of revenue that is supposed to flow into the Sadowski Act's State and Local Housing Trust Fund. View Complete Article>>

3/27/2007 \| House speaker resists calls to lift cap on housing money TALLAHASSEE — Two years ago, lawmakers rewrote a 1992 pledge that set aside money from a tax increase on home sales for affordable housing, and instead diverted much of that money to the state's general fund. View Complete Article>>

3/23/2007 \| AFFORDABLE HOUSING: Follow the leader Charlie Crist has again proved that he's listening to the people who elected him. View Complete Article>>

3/20/2007 \| County weighs fee on luxury homes to aid workers A fee to help build affordable housing may be tacked onto the cost of new luxury homes in PBCounty. County officials are surveying 3,500 residents to determine whether there is a link between luxury homes and the county's workforce housing crisis. View Complete Article>>

3/14/2007 \| Housing Crisis: South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board ISSUE: Mobile home residents getting desperate. View Complete Article>>

3/14/2007 \| Mecca Farms regains agricultural zoning .....the future of Mecca Farms took another twist when commissioners revealed a new proposal that would divest the western citrus grove of its development rights by leveraging future property taxes in yet-to-be-built adjacent communities. View Complete Article>>

3/12/2007 \| Lawmakers predicted to have about $1B less for 2007-08 budget TALLAHASSEE — State economists today revised their forecast for the coming year and gave lawmakers and new Gov. Charlie Crist about $1 billion less to spend in the 2007-08 budget than they had originally planned. View Complete Article>>

2/27/2007 \| Boca lags, Delray soars in affordable housing market Call it a modern day “Tale of Two Cities.” For several years, Boca Raton has been struggling with the issue of affordable housing. An ordinance addressed the problem has long been in the draft stages, but has yet to see the light of day.But across the View Complete Article>>

2/20/2007 \| Plan would end tax on homestead property TALLAHASSEE - House Republicans are developing a proposal to eliminate property taxes for all homesteads while increasing the sales tax by a few pennies to make up the difference.The plan, which has quietly gained favor among House leaders in recent... View Complete Article>>

2/20/2007 \| Tax swap: Raise sales, cut property? TALLAHASSEE -- Republican leaders in the Florida House are floating a radical tax overhaul that would eliminate property taxes paid by homeowners in favor of a 3-cent increase to the state sales tax. View Complete Article>>

2/16/2007 \| Students disappearing in Palm Beach County due to soaring cost of living More than 2,000 students have left Palm Beach County schools since last October and 1,800 more are projected to leave by next October, according to statistics the school district released Monday. View Complete Article>>

2/16/2007 \| Palm Beach County may allow some developers to skip affordable housing Developers might get a free pass from affordable-housing rules in the pricey new neighborhoods spreading across Palm Beach County's Agricultural Reserve. View Complete Article>>

2/16/2007 \| The U.S. Housing Market: Did we hit rock bottom? Webcast Date March 8, 2007 Time 2:00 - 3:00 PM Eastern Time View Complete Article>>

2/16/2007 \| Here's help for home buyers With a deluge of properties for sale throughout South Florida, prices are flexible, interest rates reasonable, and sellers are offering incentives to seal a deal. View Complete Article>>

2/16/2007 \| Real Estate Review: Tackling a ‘dire’ affordable housing crisis The nonprofit Housing Leadership Council of Palm Beach County is launching aggressive initiatives this year to promote the construction of affordable housing. View Complete Article>>

2/11/2007 \| Multifamily Surges in South Florida LAKE WORTH, FL-If Chicago-based Laramar Group’s move is any indication, activity in South Florida’s multifamily market will be robust in the coming months. View Complete Article>>

2/09/2007 \| Condo craze gives way to rentals ORLANDO — The condo craze is over, developers declared here today. That may be hard to tell given the number of condominium buildings still under construction in areas like downtown West Palm Beach, but builders and developers attending the.. View Complete Article>>

2/06/2007 \| Affordable Housing Without Subsidies BUILDING affordable housing in New York has always been a challenge; rarely, if ever, has it been achieved without government subsidies. But with a new mixed-income condominium building going up... View Complete Article>>

2/05/2007 \| Palm Beach County high on wrong list of housing The Housing Leadership Council of Palm Beach County has documented that the ratio of median home prices to median income is 7-1. View Complete Article>>

2/02/2007 \| Real Estate Review: Urban Forum - Real estate downturn has an upside Lagging sales have motivated the developer of a Boynton Beach condo and townhouse project to partner with the city and allocate 50 of 180 units to buyers who qualify for more than half off the market price. View Complete Article>>

2/02/2007 \| Workforce housing group targets South Florida for pilot project A new organization formed to tackle the nation's lack of workforce housing is to initially focus its attention on Southeast Florida and two other regions. View Complete Article>>

1/31/2007 \| Housing group addresses affordability View Complete Article>>