Sales to launch at long-vacant Homestead site

Vacant for years, 60 weed-covered lots in Homestead are poised to see new life as affordable housing.

Caribe Homes, which owned the lots, caved during the housing crises and was forced to liquidate its assets. But the newly revived firm, led by Fernando Martinez, has regained control over the former strawberry fields and plans to launch pre-construction sales at the forthcoming single-family home community, dubbed Leeward Isles II.

“I’m trying to create affordable housing, considering the lack of inventory [for sale] and that prices around Miami have been driven up,” Martinez, a past residential president of the Miami Association of Realtors and principal at FM Realty, as well as Caribe, told the Miami Herald.

Prices at Leeward Isles II will start at $179,900 for a 1,830-square-foot, four-bedroom, two-bathroom home.

“People who want an affordable home will come to Homestead,” Martinez said. [Miami Herald] – Christopher Cameron