EVERETT — A different approach to homeownership wants to rise in Everett.
A local Community Land Trust nonprofit bought close to 11 acres near 3rd Avenue W. and Everett Mall Way that was once a hideaway for homeless camps. The site is across from the Fulton’s Crossing Apartments.
It’s a project from the nonprofit Homes and Hope Community Land Trust. The land trust’s CEO, Kim Toskey, said about 20 homes are planned here.
Community Land Trusts are disconnected from the real estate market in two distinct ways: One, it sells the houses at controlled prices while leasing the land underneath. (A mobile home park operates the same way.) Two, the land trust uses deed restrictions to keep home values deflated using price controls. The same deed restrictions restrict who can buy a home to low- and moderate-income Snohomish County residents, who would most likely finance the home under a 30-year mortgage. If you buy a home here, it may increase in value, but the deed restriction would bar you from selling it for a great profit.
The homes would be small. Modestly priced. Modern. Single-family.
The homeowners would be people who are low- and middle-income, and ready to move upward in the American Dream.
The houses will be limited to families earning no more than 80 percent of the average median income, which is no more than $85,000 a year on average. Deed restrictions let the land trust use income caps to limit who qualifies as a buyer.
Part of the intent is to use the home as a stepping stone for renters priced out of buying a home in today’s market, and to try to keep the monthly mortgage cost similar to the price of rent.
By removing the land from the home’s value, it lowers the purchase price of a house “by 30 to 50 percent,” a booklet from the Northwest Community Land Trust Coalition says. These particular homes might sell for about $100,000 less than a comparable house in Everett, Toskey said. (A quick real estate search for homes sized between 1,000 and 1,250 square feet found prices ranged basically between $325,000 and $440,000.)
The nonprofit Homes and Hope Community Land Trust bought the land in August off of the Everett Housing Authority for $10. It was cleared of debris in September by volunteers. They still will need to cut down the trees and plot out a neighborhood that crosses North Creek.
A small number of homes will be reserved for people renting space from the Everett Housing Authority’s housing stock who are in the position to buy their own home.
The Snohomish County-based land trust’s other, 9-house venture is also in Everett off of 108th Street. The plan there is a quiet, low-sensory stimulus neighborhood for people with autism and PTSD, Toskey said.
Community land trust supporters say the model gives equitable housing and permanency. Assuming families move on average every seven years, by using price controls then seven or so families can have an affordable home over the course of 50 years, and more if the house lasts longer than that, the Northwest Community Land Trust Coalition says.
Because of their affordability, foreclosure rates for homes within the land trust are 90 percent lower in economic downturns, according to Democracy Collaborative, a research center on equitable economic policies.
The idea of land trusts is nothing new. The first was established some 50 years ago, Toskey said. Today there are more than 200 land trust organizations in the U.S. In Washington state, land trusts are in Skagit, Whatcom, Spokane, Chelan and King counties as well as the San Juan and Lopez islands.
The Homes and Hope Community Land Trust was established in 2018.
