What's New With Montgomery County Maryland Real Estate?
Do you know what is currently going on with Montgomery County real estate? There has been a Montgomery County Task force assembled and they are recommending that there be large changes to the approach to affordable housing within Montgomery county boundaries. This task force has made suggestions including new loans for these buyers, subsidies for county employees, and an increasing number of apartments that will be affordable. In their current proposal this task force is asking the County Officials to implement higher fees that would be needed to be paid by commercial builders. Their reasoning is that last year the county officials put the burden on new home builders by more than doubling the taxes that they would have to pay. They are also suggesting that Montgomery County expedite the review process for these new developments that have affordable housing thereby allowing quicker changes to the master plan of the county at the same time eliminating some of the fees that these developers would incur. Currently Montgomery County defines affordable housing as homes that cost no more than 30% of the household’s monthly income. Also another fact to note about the current affordable housing situation is that these homes are rapidly fading.
Even with this plan having supporters there are always going to be critics. Currently one of the Panel Members, Wayne Goldstein, the President of the Montgomery County Civic Federation, does not support this new proposal. He believes that this plan can further chip away the current relationship that allows the builders to get around established communities master plans which in the long run, control how the community will end up looking. Currently the builders already feel like they are overwhelmed by the regulations and taxes that they believe discourage new builds. Some of the builders went as far as saying that adding taxes in our current environment is a bad idea
Montgomery County’s past and current affordable housing program
Currently the program that the county currently has in effect requires that mainly anyone trying to build more than 20 units at market rate they must set aside at least 12.5% of the units for moderate income consumers. This program has not been successful in its ultimate purpose, often developers have gotten away with not accommodating these moderate income families by buying there way out by putting money into a housing fund instead. These developers who did not obey the rules in very rare cases actually got fined.
According to Roselle George, the research manager for the county’s planning agency from 1995 to 2005 the number of affordable houses in the county dropped from 90,000 to 55,000. Also majority of the affordable homes in this county are located in its eastern quadrant and in the northern areas of Germantown. Currently the panel has suggested there be an office established to help coordinate an affordable housing program.
