The American Dream of home ownership in East Austin is now out of reach for many low-to-moderate income families because of nightmarishly-high property values. But, a new City of Austin program is coming to the rescue. The Neighborhood Housing and Community Development (NHCD) Office is making mortgage costs affordable through its Community Land Trust program (CLT). The program, which is administered through the Austin Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC), allows families to buy homes and lease the land where they’re located.

Eight homes have already been sold to first-time home buyers through the City’s CLT program in the neighborhood near East 11th Street just east of I-35. Two of them are historic and all have been remodeled and renovated. Click below to watch a video of the block party that was held on August 7th to welcome the new homeowners to the neighborhood.

CLT home buyers must be:

• At or below 80% Median Family Income for the Austin Area (MFI)
• Currently employed and have maintained employment for the past two years
• Able to get a mortgage through the approved CLT lender
• A graduate of a housing counseling class provided by the City of Austin or Frameworks Community Development Corporation (CDC)
• A first-time homebuyer
• Interested in living in the designated area where properties are located
• Have a minimum of $1,000 in savings to contribute to the purchase of a home

In 2013, the City partnered with affordable housing nonprofit Frameworks CDC to implement the CLT program. Frameworks serves as the real estate listing agent for homes and helps educate and counsel potential home buyers. “AHFC has a longstanding relationship with Frameworks to provide Homebuyer Counseling for Spanish speakers,” said Letitia Brown-Moore, Neighborhood Program Manager for the City of Austin. “Frameworks was also instrumental in identifying a lender that would originate loans under the community land trust model.”

AHFC now has several newly-constructed homes available for sale through the Community Land Trust program. Click here to see a photo gallery of before and after photos of some of the renovated homes that have already been sold.