” : I was interested to read the recent article on the city of Oceanside increasing the in-lieu fee for affordable housing to $20 per square foot. Seems straightforward enough.
But wait, a developer builds a product, and then sells it, at a profit. So the real payer of that fee, plus the developer’s mark-up, of course, is the buyer of the market-rate unit. At $20 per square foot, that adds at least $38,649 to the buyers’ mortgage cost over 30 years assuming a 5 percent interest rate.
At the $38 fee per square foot that one consultant said could be justified, that adds $73,436, thus making housing less affordable. And why is this a good plan?I just read the article explaining how anyone in Oceanside that builds a 2,500 square-foot-home will in 2024 be required to pay the city an extra $50,000 if the home isn’t affordable.
So, whoever buys the house will pay that extra $50,000 amount, and receive absolutely nothing in return. That’s the government way to create affordable housing.Hal Valderhaug