My son and I tried our hand at affordable housing. The construction costs kept going up. The major problem is greedy land owners not willing to sell their lot for a reasonable price. A house we were building then selling for $150,000 was ending up costing more than that to build. Suddenly we were forced into a $200,000 home almost over night. Add to that city sales tax of 2%; as if they didn’t get enough on the taxes paid for materials bought, building fees, sewer connection, and impact fees. The last one we sold cost us $5,000 out of pocket to sell. Our dream of providing affordable housing went poof. As did the dream of many potential homeowners.

Through my company, Long Realty, I donate a substantial amount of money to Habitat For Humanity. That’s one way of helping. Plus many of the Realtors in our office go out to help build the homes we support.