Tempest Manthei is just the kind of person that the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition (WMRHC) had in mind when it launched its “Good Deeds” housing buy-down program on a pilot basis earlier this year.
On Sept. 20, Manthei became the first beneficiary of the program when she closed on her new home in Glenwood Springs.
The Valley View Hospital nurse and single mom said it couldn’t have happened without the 30% contribution toward the home purchase price from the WMRHC’s Good Deeds fund.
“The ability to stay in Glenwood, and to be able to live and work and play and attend my children’s sports and school events, all in the same town, is priceless,” Manthei said in a news release announcing the first buy-down under the program.
“I have a wonderful job, but realistically, I was not going to qualify to buy a home in Glenwood as a single mother with my income,” she continued. “The program and its contribution has changed the trajectory of my life for the better.”
WMRHC is already on track to tell more of those stories in this first year of the program, which local government leaders from Aspen to western Garfield County hope to continue and expand upon in future years.
Four additional homes are under contract and more are in process, providing hope to other professionals in the community, including a school administrator, a nonprofit employee, an HVAC technician, a landscaper, a children’s social worker and a local government employee, that they will be able to secure a home in the region’s tight and extremely expensive housing market, WMRHC Executive Director April Long said.
The demand is high for prospective homebuyers who are employed locally to obtain some assistance in buying a home — especially those who fall outside income requirements or are on long wait lists for other affordable housing programs.
“You have to attend one of our webinars in order to apply, and so far I’ve had over 40 people at each of the three webinars that I’ve hosted,” Long said.
That has in turn resulted in 75 requests for applications, she said.
To qualify, a buyer must prove that they work for a locally based employer and are not working remotely for an outside company, and agree to having a deed restriction placed on the property.
The Good Deeds program is being offered for the first year after $2 million in funding was provided by local governments, including $1 million from Pitkin County, $450,000 from Aspen, $250,000 from Snowmass Village, $200,000 from Glenwood Springs and $100,000 from Carbondale.
With that, WMRHC is able to provide 30% of the cost to purchase a home that falls within a certain price point — up to $1.2 million in Carbondale/Glenwood Springs, $1.5 million in Basalt, Snowmass and Aspen and $800,000 in western Garfield County.
In turn, a deed restriction is placed on the home maintaining a maximum resale price at 70% of the home’s value at sale, with a 3% appreciation cap.
The beauty of a buy-down program is that it adds units to the existing deed-restricted affordable housing stock without new construction, WMRHC board co-chair and Carbondale Trustee Colin Laird said.
“We knew there was a lot of demand for (deed-restricted) housing, but we just don’t have enough affordable housing units to meet that demand,” Laird said. “With the dynamics of how expensive it is to build new units, this is a way of creating deed-restricted units without new development.”
So far, the homes that are under contract or purchased through the program, and situated between New Castle and Carbondale, range in purchase price from $548,000 to $1.1 million.
The current construction price for just one affordable housing unit in Pitkin County is approximately $1 million, and would likely take years to complete, Long said.
The program models the successful Good Deeds program in neighboring Eagle County, where 76 new deed-restricted units have been added to the county’s affordable housing stock in three years.
By the end of October, WMRHC expects to have five new deed-restricted units added to the affordable housing mix at a cost of approximately $1.2 million.
But it will need additional funding to accomplish that goal, and not just from local governments, Long and Laird both acknowledged.
In addition to reaching out to local governments and brainstorming a possible dedicated funding source in the future, continuation of the program will likely hinge on obtaining support from the private sector, including philanthropic entities, they said.
“We would love to have a match for what these local governments are putting in,” Long said.
She said Pitkin County officials have also indicated that the county would be willing to continue to support the program through its proposed ballot initiative in the Nov. 5 election that seeks a dedicated property tax for affordable housing needs, should it pass.
But one hindrance to putting local dedicated tax dollars into the Good Deeds program is that it would most likely just benefit new deed-restricted units in that jurisdiction, where the WMRHC program includes multiple jurisdictions spread across three counties.
Long said City of Glenwood Springs officials are also in discussion about using a portion of that city’s dedicated affordable housing fund to offset some of the WMRHC’s 30% contribution to buy-downs within city limits.
Laird said the WMRHC board has had discussions about exploring a regional real estate transfer fee, instead of a tax. But those conversations are preliminary and such a funding mechanism likely a ways off from becoming a reality, he said.
For now, WMRHC is actively seeking individual contributions and additional funding sources to continue the program. Tax-deductible donations can be made by visiting www.wmrhousing.org
Any prospective homebuyers who would be interested in participating in the program can find more information at wmrhousing.org/gooddeeds