A South Florida family is settling into a brand new home this week, one they would not have been able to afford without some help from a popular Miami-Dade County program.
One phone call changed the Garcia family’s lives. Now, Jose Garcia can’t stop smiling. The civil engineer just moved his family into a brand new, four-bedroom house in Southwest Miami-Dade.
“I love everything,” he said. “I can see that the quality, the finishes in this house are really, really nice.”
Garcia was able to purchase the four-bedroom home below market value thanks to the county’s Dream Homes Lottery. Applications opened in July 2024, and the initiative offered aspiring homeowners a chance to purchase one of two available homes on Southwest 296th Street in Miami.
Miami-Dade County will announce the winners of the Dream Homes Lottery on Friday.
Each home features four bedrooms and two baths, with sizes of 1,813 square feet and 1,777 square feet, respectively. The purchase price is $394,000.
“To place it into context our median home value in Miami-Dade county is close to $600,000 — many families individuals young find that median price to be an impossible goal to attain,” Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins said at the time.
The county said it received 23,483 applications.
“Some day someone called me [and said], ‘We need to talk to you about the lottery… do you want the house?'” Garcia recalled with a smile. “Of course I want the house!”
Garcia’s 19-year-old daughter Laura, a college student, showed NBC6 her room.
“I love that it just feels so open, and everything does feel good quality. The vibes are amazing and the area is also really amazing, so I’m just really happy overall. It feels like my forever home,” she said.
The county has plans to offer more affordable homes to South Florida families in the future.