Developer Waterways of Naples recently sold 16 attached villas at its Bristol Pines project for $165,000 to $185,000, Krumbine adds, and Lennar Homes and Pulte Homes offer specially priced units to buyers based on income. A future project involves a partnership among hospitals and government groups to provide housing for essential area workers. Other communities are taking similar steps to help workers. It will be a long time before salaries catch up with housing costs, says Delores Conway, director of the Casden Forecast at the University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate. But creative housing policies can lower costs. Among possible solutions: * Higher density housing: Taller buildings put more units on a footprint. In August, the Los Angeles City Council agreed to allow slightly taller buildings. * Smaller units: San Francisco buyers snapped up 900 sq. ft. units much smaller than many builders' 1,200 sq. ft. units. * Zoning: Adaptive reuse and progressive zoning policies can allow old factory sites, for instance, to be used for housing and mixed-use projects. * Transit-oriented growth: Locating condos or apartments near transit stops may lower costly parking requirements, with savings passed to buyers.
September 1, 2007