Homestead Community Land Trust News

Directions to Homestead Office

Directions to Homestead Community Land Trust Office:

El Centro de la Raza Building
2524 16th Avenue South, Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98144

From Link Light Rail:

Get off the train at the BEACON HILL STATION - we are only a block away!
Exit the station via the elevators - you will see the large El Centro de la Raza building to your right.
Walk EAST on 16th Ave S.
The entrance to the El Centro building will be midway down the block.

From I-5 Northbound:

Take the WEST SEATTLE FREEWAY/COLUMBIAN WAY exit, exit number 163.
Keep RIGHT at the fork in the ramp.
Merge onto COLUMBIAN WAY S.
Turn LEFT onto South SPOKANE ST.
Turn LEFT onto BEACON AVE S.
Turn LEFT onto S LANDER ST.   
Turn LEFT onto 16TH AVE S.

From I-5 Southbound:

Take the W SEATTLE FWY/COLUMBIAN WAY exit, exit number 163A.
Keep LEFT at the fork in the ramp.
Merge onto COLUMBIAN WAY S.
Turn LEFT onto South SPOKANE ST.
Turn LEFT onto BEACON AVE S.
Turn LEFT onto S LANDER ST.   
Turn LEFT onto 16TH AVE S.

From I-90 Westbound:

Take the RAINIER AVE. SOUTH exit, exit number 3A.
Merge onto RAINIER AVE S/WA-167.
Turn RIGHT onto S MCCLELLAN ST. Turn RIGHT onto 21ST AVE S.
Turn LEFT onto S MCCLELLAN ST.
Turn LEFT onto 17TH AVE S.
Turn RIGHT onto S MCCLELLAN ST.
Turn RIGHT onto BEACON AVE S.
Turn LEFT onto S LANDER ST.   
Turn LEFT onto 16TH AVE S.

From Downtown Seattle by Bus:

Metro Route 36

(Downtown Seattle, Pacific Medical Center, Beacon Hill, Jefferson Park, VA Hospital, Rainier Beach )

Click here for a map of our office location.

“This is Mine!” Coming Full Circle, Coming Home

By Rebecca Lane, Development and Communications Director

David Evans has come full circle. From the brownstone in Boston in which he spent his childhood, to the beautiful new condo in a heritage building in Madison Park, David feels like he’s come home.

When David moved to Seattle, the meteoric rise of housing prices was just beginning its most recent round. While dreaming of a place to call his own, with maybe a yard for a dog, David looked and looked and looked…and then knew he had to stop looking. Despite a stable job as a full time professional chef at an upscale and well known establishment, everything was out of reach.  Recalling his childhood home, David reflected upon the similarities between Boston and Seattle. The feel of this city, the topography, its streets and neighborhood names all reminded him of home. Finding his home in Seattle had become a dream deferred.

The evening of November 19, 2008 changed everything for David. At a Homestead Advantage program information session, he decided to apply that night.  Having done his research into affordable housing programs, David knew he was a fit for Homestead, and community land trust ownership.  He qualified, and met with Tonya Hennen, his real estate agent (he calls her a Real Estate Goddess!).

Less than six months later, David has moved into his beautiful condo, with a view of the Cascades and Lake Washington. His home is the second place he saw, on the first day of shopping for a home he knew he could finally afford thanks to the Advantage program. The building is like his childhood home. The neighborhood is walkable, and he can ride his bike or take public transit to work - no long car commute. This means David will be able to stay in his enviable job for years to come, pay a mortgage at a reasonable rate, and remain protected from the vagaries of a fluctuating market.

David loves to cook classic French and Italian cuisines. Hazelnut soufflés were his most recent innovation.  He is twenty years into his profession, and is still young. Now that he’s moved in to his own home, he can follow other dreams - he’s learning to play electric guitar. He is enthusiastic about being a Homestead owner, and a part of a community of homeowners. He looks around every morning and realizes that “this is mine!” Welcome to the community David!

Another CLT Benefit: Protection of Homeowner Equity

By Laura Evans, Homeownership Program Manager

Homeowners who purchased with assistance provided by Homestead Community Land Trust enjoy a little more peace of mind in today’s struggling housing market.   While traditional homeowners who purchased their homes at the peak of the market have seen their equity erode, buyers using Homestead’s program have their equity investment protected. 

The chart below illustrates a comparison between buyers using Homestead’s program and a traditional buyer. In this scenario, each purchased a $300,000 home in 2005 and each needs to sell in 2008. Their home values have fallen to $290,000. The Homestead seller preserved their original downpayment investment in the property, and grew their assets slightly. The traditional seller lost their original downpayment and lost an additional $30,000 of assets. 

                                                    Homestead      Traditional
                                                    Buyer               Buyer

2005 Home purchase price              $300,000           $300,000 
Closing costs                                  $   8,000           $  12,000 
Cost to purchase                            $308,000           $312,000 
     
Homestead contribution                 $100,000           $    - 0 - 
Cash Downpayment                        $    6,000          $    6,000 
1st Mortgage @ 6% interest            $202,000           $306,000 
     
Home sales price (2008)                $208,000            $290,000 
Mortgage payoff amount                $194,090           $294,380 
Realtor commission (6%)                $    - 0 -             $  17,400 
Other seller costs (3%)                   $    6,240           $    8,700 
Cash to seller from sale                 $    7,670          -$  30,480 
     
Seller change in assets                $    1,670       -$  36,480 

This is another reason why CLT homeownership is an excellent pathway for families seeking a home of their own and a safe, secure way to build equity.

Join the Conversation!

Seattle Times' Aubrey Cohen's blog discusses homeowner equity protection. 

Homeownership Program Update

By Laura Evans

We have starting holding Advantage Program Orientations in Spanish!  Attending an orientation is the first step towards Community Land Trust homeownership.  The first session in Spanish will be held at St. James Place in White Center and the next one at El Centro de La Raza on Beacon Hill.  Please stay tuned for dates and times and tell your friends.

Ahora nosotros ofrecemos nuestra orientación Advantage en español.  Teniendo en cuenta que una orientación es el primer paso para poder comprar una casa con nuestro programa, la ofrecemos en español.  La primera orientación la daremos en St. James Place en White Center y la siguiente orientación en Centro de la Raza en Beacon Hill.  Por favor estén atentos a los horarios y avísenles a sus amigos.

A well deserved congratulations to our newest Homestead Homeowners.  We have seen such perseverance and heart in recent months - you have inspired us all.  Congratulation to Coung, Loi, Kendra, Susan, Ahmed, Safiyo, Tom, Catherine and Justin.    We hope you are happy in your homes and thank you for your help in keeping our city affordable.   

The White Center community now has its first Community Land Trust home!   Just blocks from the neighborhood's business district, this 3 bedroom, 2 bath home is the newest addition to Homestead's portfolio.  The family who purchased the home had been renting just a half mile away and are now homeowners in their community.   Stay tuned for their story.

Homestead's Office has Moved

Homestead Community Land Trust moved to its new office space on Saturday, August 16th.

We had outgrown our Spruce Street office in the Central District just as the building was being prepared for redevelopment.  We are excited to join other Seattle non-profit partners at our new office space located in the El Centro de la Raza building on Beacon Hill.

Please join us for an Open House at our new office on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm.

A special thank you to all the generous volunteers who helped us move and set up our new office space!

Rebecca Andrews
Doug Bolken
Homestead Staff:  Kristin Bolken, Laura Evans & Sheldon Cooper
Esther “Little Dove” John
Scott McClay
Mark Moupoux
Scott Olmsted
Drew Paxton
Dee Taylor
Frank Video
Adam Wiener

Homestead's New Office Location

2524 16th Avenue South, Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98144

Expansion to White Center

We are excited to announce we are expanding our Advantage Homebuyer Program to White Center!

White Center is a community tucked between West Seattle to the north and the City of Burien to the south.  Expanding the boundaries of our program to White Center seems like a natural extension of our work in the Delridge neighborhood where our first home became part of the Land Trust back in 2002.      

White Center has one of King County’s greatest concentrations of cultural diversity and a history of strong community-based organizations like the White Center Community Development Association that have been leading a neighborhood planning efforts focused on preserving the diverse character of the area while encouraging community investment. By helping create and permanently preserve affordable homeownership in the area, Homestead is supporting White Center’s vision that it remain vibrant, diverse, equitable and strong as it grows.    

To make expansion into White Center possible, Homestead has forged a new funding partnership with the King County Housing Finance Program. King County funds are combined with funds from the Washington State Housing Trust Fund, Washington State Housing Finance Commission, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle. Combined, these sources allow the Advantage program to assist buyers with purchase assistance of up to $100,000 per household.

If you or someone you know would be interested in buying a home in White Center, please contact me. We have purchase assistance available now to help eligible households purchase homes and create stability, equity and legacy for their family, as well as a legacy of permanent affordability for White Center. 

Laura Evans
Homeownership Program Manager
206-323-1227 ext 111   

Homeownership Program Update

By Laura Evans, Homeownership Program Manager

A lot has been happening on the homebuyer front!

With Homestead’s help, 4 more households were able to purchase homes in Seattle with 2 more in contract to close by the end of the month.  With these 6 homes added to the trust, the neighborhoods of Capital Hill, Ballard, Northgate, Rainier Beach and Judkins Park will have another permanently affordable home as part of their housing stock.   Welcome new homeowners and thank you for all your hard work and for partnering with Homestead to keep our community diverse and strong!    

We are also excited to report that we are now allocating our newest round of purchase assistance funds.  In this round, we are offering $100,000 on average per household to help bridge the affordability gap.  If you or someone you know would be interested in purchasing a home with Homestead Community Land Trust, please contact us to find out about eligibility and the next steps.                

Besides growing Seattle’s stock of affordable homes, we are also supporting over 30 future homeowners in becoming, as we call it, “purchase ready”.  With the tightening of the guidelines in the mortgage industry, it is even more important to keep credit scores and consumer debt in check.  We have a committed and motivated group of households on our waiting list who are taking the steps to making their dream of owning a home come true.   

Finally, a big thank you to the real estate professionals and lenders who work with Homestead Community Land Trust and our clients -- we couldn’t do this without you.   Thank you to Jeff Green, Tonya Hennen, Will Kemper, Jeff Wood, Margaret Adams Curry and Kelly Dodd.   

Homestead Advantage Program Update

By Laura Evans

We are excited to announce that Homestead will be able to offer purchase assistance funds through our Advantage Program to a new group of homebuyers starting this fall.  We just received word of new public funding commitments totaling just over $1,000,000 from the City of Seattle, King County and the State of Washington.   A portion of these funds, through our partnership with King County, will allow us to expand the Advantage Program to the greater White Center area providing more options for our homebuyers as they look for homes.      
 
And in other news….we have our first home resale!   Homeowners Johan and Jill and their son Elias will be moving to Olympia this fall for Johan to attend a Masters in Teaching Program.   Their 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath Central District bungalow will now be home to a second family at a price far below the market value.  The home is just under 1000 sq. ft., has bamboo floors, 9 ft ceilings and off-street parking.  The home was built with green design features in 2005, the same year it was brought in to the land trust.   

After 3 open houses, multiple orientation sessions, and many meetings with our lender partners, we now have a pool of potential buyers ready and excited for the opportunity to purchase this home.  In our next installment we will bid farewell to Johan and Jill and introduce you to the new homeowners!  Stay tuned!   

And last but not least, a big congratulations to our five new homeowners -- Dejene, Mulunesh, Fawn, Janna and Frank all are in the midst of settling in to their new homes.   We are thrilled that they successfully purchased homes in Seattle and are part of keeping our city affordable.  Thank you, homeowners!

   

Homestead Welcomes Laura Evans, Homeownership Program Manager

The position of Homeownership Program Manager for Homestead Community Land Trust has proven to be an exciting and challenging role for me.   Born and raised in the Seattle area, I have been a first-hand witness to the increasing prices of Seattle’s housing, watching as the prices soar above an attainable level for the majority of its residents.

I am a strong believer that access to safe, stable, and affordable housing is a fundamental human need and part of the foundation of a strong community.   Homestead Community Land Trust is on the brink of facilitating three new homeowners to meet this need, with another 15 homeowners expected to realize the same dream by the end of the year with the support of HCLT.  Needless to say, it is an exciting time to be joining the organization. 

Working within HCLT’s homeownership model, I see that a vibrant, diverse, and caring community in Seattle can be cultivated, one homeowner at a time.   I am honored to be participating in building community in this way and look forward to continuing the work of HCLT in supporting those who might otherwise be pushed out of our city, as they gain a foothold in the market and make the leap to homeownership. 

Homestead Community Land Trust expands options to include condos

By Clara Berridge

Bellingham’s Kulshan Community Land Trust was the first of the ten community land trusts in Washington State to make condominium ownership an alternative affordable option to single family homes. As of January 2007, Seattle’s Homestead Community Land Trust is the second!

Affordable condominium ownership is good news for Seattle; it’s an appealing option according to individuals for whom home upkeep and yard maintenance is a major deterrent for owning. And, with County homes within reasonable reach only for households earning $115,000 or more, land trusted condos are designed to help fill a giant gap of affordability. The median King County home is $435,000, while the median condo goes for $264,900.* This difference of over 170 grand makes a huge difference. In fact, that difference is nearly the amount of money the median-earning household falls short of affording a single-family home.

Another reason HCLT’s new role as steward of condos is good news for Seattle is because condos are quickly losing their status as an affordable option; in 2006, the rise in condo prices was sharper than that of houses. Now is the time to get those condos into the land trust before soaring prices cut more people out of the market – even despite the help of Homestead.

So how can a community land trust incorporate a single condominium unit? Under the legal arrangement HCLT has for single-family homes, the land the house sits on is owned by the CLT and leased to the homeowner. The lease agreement specifies that the home must be occupied by the homeowner and if and when the time comes, sold according to a formula that ensures perpetual affordability. For a land trust condo owner, these specifications don’t change, only the legal tool used to enforce them. Because the land trust doesn’t own a physical piece of property, the condo is stewarded through an affordability covenant. Thus, a condo that costs $250,000 on the market today will be can be purchased by an individual or family who can afford approximately $160,000, as HCLT brings $90,000 in purchase assistance. In ten years if the owner decides to sell, according to the resale formula, the seller would gain about $75,000 in equity while a new buyer would save approximately 58% over the (anticipated future) market rate.

Homestead Community Land Trust was lucky to be able to borrow legal documents prepared by the Kulshan CLT for their own condo agreements and tweak them to fit Seattle. This type of support between CLTs is fostered by the NW Community Land Trust Coalition, connecting CLTs of the Pacific NW through a shared mission to provide for affordable resident- and community-controlled land and housing in perpetuity. The coalition is just the mechanism to connect creative juices as CLTs look for more innovative ways to offer solutions to a housing crisis that touches all of us and prevents thousands of working people from investing in their communities through owning.

*Source: NW Multiple Listing Service as cited in P-I article Aug 8, 2006