Permanent Affordability
Habitat homeowners have always paid an affordable mortgage. If a homeowner decides to sell their home, Habitat has the opportunity to buy it back and sell it to another Habitat partner.
In recent years, however, real estate prices have increased at unprecedented rates, making it very expensive for Habitat to buy homes back from Habitat homeowners. Additionally, when Habitat sells that home to a new Habitat partner, the home must be re-priced to make it affordable again. That means raising more funds to cover the gap between the market price of the home and an affordable mortgage.
Habitat’s new Permanent Affordability program helps mitigate that challenge. In very simple terms, here’s how it works.
Permanent Affordability maximizes our community’s investment in each Habitat home by paying it forward.
Habitat owns the land and sells the house to an eligible buyer at a below market rate.
In exchange for getting an affordable mortgage, the buyer agrees to a fixed appreciation rate. This enables the buyer to build wealth and helps keep the house affordable for future buyers.
In this way, each homeowner “pays it forward” to the next buyer.
If you have questions about Permanent Affordability, we welcome them. Please reach out to us at info@habitatejc.org.
Our vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live