Florida looks good from here

This time of the year, here in Arkansas, it's wet and chilly. We are supposed to get sleet starting Thursday night and into Friday morning. Whether it will stick or not is yet to be seen. It's this time when I think of Florida and how nice it must be not to have to endure such weather, especially in southwest Florida.

The affordable housing market there, though, has been having a problem lately. Investors are building residences, but they aren't always affordable to the working class people. But that's about to change. For an approximate investment of $285,000, an investor can build a duplex unit and that cost includes the land, the building, the site improvements, the closing cost, and the interest during construction. Looks like a pretty good package to me.


Even better is the fact that it can be financed for 85%-90% of the appraised value and no payments made during construction. Resale value of the completed project is about $325,000, which means that the investor gets a pretty good return and the project still winds up being affordable housing. This is good for the area because it means that shop owners will be able to find and hire employees. Why? Because those people can now afford housing near the businesses and it's those people who will be working in the businesses