Middle-income housing is the focus of Domus, a development company launched by Portland developer Jack Soley in partnership with nonprofit affordable housing provider Avesta Housing and Tim Hebert, CEO of Hebert Construction in Lewiston.
Construction is strong for affordable and market-rate housing, driven by government subsidies on the one hand and strong rates of return on the other.
Construction aimed at middle-income buyers is stymied by skinny margins, says Soley.
“The schoolteacher, the police officer, the firefighter, the nurse — they are left behind in this struggle to find housing in probably one of the most challenging periods of the housing crisis that we have ever seen in this state,” Soley says.
