Realtors distort the IZ program . . .

Have you heard these ads on the radio?

When you buy a house through Madison's Inclusionary Zoning Program or IZ as its called, everything’s not included.
Like those of us making less than $50,000 a year, we're not included.
At nearly $200,000 these so called affordable homes are out of reach for me.
Also not included, the 700 homes already for sale in Madison that cost less than most of the IZ homes. IZ only applies to new homes.
And a return on an IZ home investment, that’s also not included because you’ll have to give a chunk of the appreciated value back to the City.
The funny thing about IZ is that the units are not included in most Madison neighborhoods, most IZ units are scattered on the edges of the city and in a few highrise buildings.
What does an IZ home include?
Higher home costs for the rest of us and a photo op with the mayor.
Call the mayor and your alder. Tell them you want an affordable housing program that works. Tell them to repeal IZ and replace it with a downpayment program or a program that helps people fix up existing homes.
Tell them Inclusionary is Delusionary.
Paid for by the Wisconsin Homeowners Alliance

It pained me to listen to hours of am radio talkshow crap, but I finally got a tape of the ad. The most important thing to realize is, who paid for the ads. As Lisa Subeck points out, its a front group for the realtors. Once you understand this, you can see why this is what they are advocating for. But what is much more concerning to me, is how willing they are to mislead the public. Lets dissect the ad.

Like those of us making less than $50,000 a year, we're not included.

Interesting, lets look at the facts. (Click on income limits)
These are the MAXIMUM income limits, most of them under $50,000 per year.
Remember homes are sold to people at 80% or 70% and rented to people at 60% or 50% AMI.

At nearly $200,000 these so called affordable homes are out of reach for me.

Again, lets look at those pesky facts.
Currently, only one type of home, a 4 bedroom at 80% AMI is at that nearly $200,000 range.

And a return on an IZ home investment, that’s also not included because you’ll have to give a chunk of the appreciated value back to the City.

This was one of their best talking points with the Zach Brandon model that was in the ordinance. For months, we have had a better proposal. In fact, we had the fundamentals of it last November. The council could have fixed this in the ordinance, but for political reasons, they refused to do so.

Also not included, the 700 homes already for sale in Madison that cost less than most of the IZ homes. IZ only applies to new homes.

Yes, IZ only applies to new homes. But their analysis of if these homes cost less than IZ homes is flawed. First, they don't include condo fees and many of the homes they count as affordable are condos. The cost of the condo fee is supposed to be calculated into the price of an IZ home. Second, they don't consider the bedroom size of the homes available.

The funny thing about IZ is that the units are not included in most Madison neighborhoods, most IZ units are scattered on the edges of the city and in a few highrise buildings.

There's nothing funny about this, that is how the program is set up. We are trying to make sure that we correct the mistakes made in other neighborhoods and that in all new neighborhoods, we have a broader range of housing options available to people. What's so funny about that? Over the years, as more neighborhoods get more new housing, this will change.

What does an IZ home include?
Higher home costs for the rest of us and a photo op with the mayor.

Giggle. I'll skip over the snarky "photo op" issue and go to the "higher home costs for the rest of us". The current ordinance has a waiver option that allows a developer that has a project that is not financially feasible to build off-site, provide money to the city in lieu of building the housing or reduce the number of units that they need to produce. Therefore, the costs of IZ should not be shoved off on the other homeowners as they would like you to believe. With the changes to the ordinance that are being proposed, we have made quite a bit of progress with the development community and have a proposal to essentially make sure that their profits are not reduced due to IZ.

Call the mayor and your alder. Tell them you want an affordable housing program that works. Tell them to repeal IZ and replace it with a downpayment program or a program that helps people fix up existing homes.

Ooooo, I love this one! As I've said earlier, I'll support these programs in addition to IZ and I'm waiting for a serious proposal to come forward. And . . . as I've described before we do have some of these programs in place, we could simply add more money to them come budget time.

It boils down to the same old misleading crap from the Realtors. I actually contacted two of the members of the board for the group that is running these ads. One of them got back to me and claimed that they were running the ads because "It's simply a way to get the public involved." Well, if you want to get people involved, start with the facts. Oh, and by the way, no one has called me so I'm not sure its an effective way to get people involved.