Irvine Community Land Trust’s First For-Sale Homes Coming Soon
Sixty-eight homes available. Over 5,000 hopeful homeowners.
At the June 21 Irvine Community Land Trust (ICLT) meeting, the ICLT board discussed the progress of what will be ICLT’s first for-sale housing development. All previous ICLT developments have been rentals. Over 5,000 people have registered as potential homeowners in this new townhome development. However, only sixty-eight homes will be available.
These homes will be available for occupancy in 2022. Qualification criteria for hopeful homeonwers can be found in the link in the Notes section at the bottom of this article. This ICLT housing development, which is located near the 133 freeway and Irvine Boulevard, is called Sage Park.
Selection Process
ICLT will develop a priority list by using an electronic lottery system. Lottery selection will occur on July 1, 2021, and the deadline for registration to be included in this lottery is June 30, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. NeighborWorks* will then work down the list until they have prequalified 68 potential buyers for these townhomes. These hopeful homeowners will have three lenders from which they can choose to work.
Selling Price
ICLT anticipates that the selling price of the Sage Park affordable homes will be approximately $425,000 to the low $500,000s. ICLT Director Asturias pointed out that although these prices might be less than affordable for some, they are about $300,000 less than median priced homes in Portola Springs.
Various factors will go into determining the selling price of these affordable homes, and one main factor is that the selling price of affordable housing is tied to the median area income. So as the median income of an area goes up, the price for affordable homes in that area will increase. Likewise, the price will go down if the median area income goes down. HUD determines the median area income numbers and makes periodic adjustments to these numbers.
Something to Ponder
HUD has determined that the median area income on which the selling price for Sage Park homes will be based has increased from its previous determination. Therefore, ICLT will be able to sell the Sage Park homes at a somewhat increased price from what was previously anticipated.
The ICLT board seemed pleased with this increase, since it will be good for the economics of ICLT. However, it does make “affordable” housing somewhat less affordable. This brings up the question of whether or not this is a good factor to use in determining affordable housing prices. But that is a discussion for another time.
Notes
- Details on the Sage Park affordable housing development can be found on ICLT’s website.
- Information on the Irvine Affordable Housing Ordinance can be found on the City of Irvine’s website.
*The Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, doing business as NeighborWorks America, is a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization that supports community development in the United States and Puerto Rico. The organization provides grants and technical assistance to more than 240 community development organizations. NeighborWorks America provides training for housing and community development professionals through its national training institutes.—Wikipedia
