Development offers chance for ownership

Thistle nonprofit manages 1,000 affordable homes

Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 17, 2007 at midnight

Text size

More Local News

More stories »

LONGMONT - Susan Tatum's new house is quiet and safe, energy-efficient and clean - and when the wind blows it doesn't sound "like the roof is about to blow off."

Most importantly, it's hers.

Tatum, a first-grade teacher and single mom, is the first resident of Blue Vista, a new affordable-housing community with a green ethic.

"I love it here," said Tatum, who moved into the 1,500-square-foot house three weeks ago from a 700-square-foot four-plex she was renting.

"It makes better sense economically to own your own house. Beyond that, there's the pride in ownership," Tatum said. "My daughter was going to play with her cousins today, but they said, 'No, let's go to Aunt Susan's. She has the skateboard park and the rec center.' "

Blue Vista is being developed by Thistle Community Housing, a Boulder-based nonprofit that manages 1,000 affordable homes in Boulder and Adams counties.

Some of those houses are rented to low- and moderate-income families. But increasingly the model is home ownership.

Tatum, whose mortgage payments are $1,025, qualified because she earns 60 percent of the $81,000 median household income in Boulder County. So, she paid $151,000 for the home, which looks like a large single-family house, but actually is one of two homes that occupies the building.

The actual value of the house is about $197,000.

Thistle contracted for 199 homes in the development. One hundred are sold to those of moderate income at a discount. The other 99 are sold at full-market value.

The builder was paid as if all 199 homes were sold at full-market value. Thistle makes up the difference through grants from local and federal governments, foundations and individual contributions.

Tatum likes that anyone visiting the subdivision wouldn't be able to tell who is living in a subsidized home and who isn't, because structurally, they're all the same.

More than anything, she likes the sense of community.

"Three weeks here and I know my neighbors better than I knew anyone at my old place," she said.

And why not? The rules say anyone buying a house at a subsidy needs to put in 320 SHOP hours - that's self-help opportunity program. So, Tatum and her neighbors build each other's fences, paint cabinets and help finish each other's basements.

"We've all finished our 320 hours, but still, every Saturday we're out there helping somebody with something," she said.

At a time when the average new house in unincorporated Boulder County is 6,600 square feet, and the county commissioners are considering charging extra for excessive square feet, it's easy to forget that as recently as the 1970s, the average house in the nation was 1,500 square feet.

The current issue of Builder, the magazine of the National Association of Homebuilders, has a special section on the affordability crisis. It notes that while wages rose 31 percent between 1997 and 2006, home prices rose 83 percent.

That has put first-time home ownership out of reach of not just the poor, but increasingly, the middle class.

In many large American cities, only about 20 percent of the families can afford a median-priced home, according to NAHB data.

That's why more and more cities and counties are partnering with nonprofits like Thistle to find ways to keep nurses and cops, beauticians and teachers in the communities where they work.

Thistle's Community Land Trust leases the land to homeowners like Tatum for 99 years, and it's renewable after that.

When Tatum decides to sell, she'll realize some of the appreciation on the house, but not all of it. If she sells it in, say, 10 years, the price can't exceed 60 percent of the median family income in 2017.

Luther Green, Thistle's director of development, said it's important that the homes stay affordable for the residents, so his company made sure that the windows, furnace and insulation were of high quality.

"Sustainability is the cornerstone," Green said. "We're close to the rec center, bike paths and an RTD stop. We also are 29 percent more efficient than the codes call for."

Susan Andre, resource development manager for Thistle, said if Tatum lives there 30 years, she'll probably save $22,000 in today's dollars because of the extra energy efficiency.

There has never been a foreclosure in a Thistle community, Andre said, largely because homeowners are educated about mortgages, and Thistle is careful about "not letting them get into an unsustainable situation."

Some people are reluctant to move into a subdivision that includes affordable housing, worried that their property values won't appreciate. But Andre noted that at Thistle's Buena Vista community in north Boulder, the full-market-value homes enjoyed the same percentage uptick as other homes in Boulder, rising from $275,000 in 2000 to $360,000 in 2005.

Thistle Community Housing

• Year established: 1989

• Partnerships: Boulder County, Adams County, private home builders

• Income needed to buy a -median-priced home in Boulder County: $89,430

• Annual income of Thistle -clients: $43,500

• People served: 11,500

• Total homes: 1,000; 785 rentals, 215 home ownership opportunities

• Community investment: $63 million

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-442-8729

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News