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Habitat for Humanity Finds Buying is Cheaper
| Fri Jul. 10, 2009 1:33 PM PDT
Charlotte, North Carolina, has found a silver lining in the housing crisis:
Charlotte's Habitat is among the first in the nation to start buying up houses in troubled neighborhoods where up to a third of the homes are vacant due to foreclosure. Average cost: $38,000 to $55,000, less than half the original price.
"We're getting them as low as $30,000, knowing we'll put in $10,000 of repairs," said Meg Robertson, an associate director with Habitat. "To build a new one is over $60,000 … we're $20,000 to $30,000 cheaper per home."
So what about Habitat's commitment to sweat equity? To having energetic volunteers "build houses together in partnership with families in need?" Robertson told the Charlotte Observer that she thought it was more important to house as many people as possible.
Besides, subdivisions built in the boom are already falling apart on their own or at the hands of vandals, so there should be plenty of sweat required to restore and maintain them.
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Comments
I work for Habitat. In our
Submitted by Bill (not verified) on Sat Jul. 11, 2009 6:15 PM PDT.
I work for Habitat. In our area we the potential homeowners must fall in the 30-50% median income range, work, have decent credit and complete 350 hours of "sweat equity".
What is not mentioned is that often the local government asks us to buy the forclosed properties.
Homeowner orientations are open to the public if anyone would like to learn more about the way Habitat operates.
