County is hoping to buy 100 homes
Commissioners OK spending $15M; many of the houses to be in affordability program
Harris County will spend $15 million to buy more than 100 single-family homes, many of which will go into the county’s Community Land Trust program to provide and preserve long-term affordable housing.
The homes will be purchased using federal American Rescue Plan Act funding.
The Harris County Community Land Trust aims to make home ownership attainable for county residents earning less than 80 percent of the Houston area’s median income and who otherwise would struggle to buy a house. Under the 4-year-old program, the buyer purchases and owns the house, while the land it sits on is owned by the trust, dramatically reducing the buyer’s purchase price.
Buying a property through the land trust can take $100,000 off the list price because the homebuyer is paying only for the cost of the structure. It also stabilizes tax bills for buyers because owners do not pay taxes on the land, which is the portion of the taxable value that is most likely to climb over time.
Each property in the land trust program has a 99-year renewable ground lease, guaranteeing the housing will remain affordable in the long term. If the homeowner decides to sell the house, the land trust will buy it back or find another income-eligible buyer to purchase the home.
“A Community Land Trust can be a great tool to provide low-income families the opportunity to become homeowners where land prices are significantly higher,” said Julia Orduña, the Southeast Texas regional director at the nonprofit low-income housing advocacy group Texas Housers. “This can offer families a choice to live in these areas. We hope this program is made available in all residential areas in the county to maximize the choice of where to live.”
The Harris County Community Land Trust can acquire single-family and multifamily properties located anywhere in the county.
Around 40 homebuyers currently are in the land trust’s pipeline, actively working with real estate agents to look for homes and lenders to get mortgage-qualified, according to the county.
The $15 million allocation, unanimously approved by the Commissioners Court, is part of
a broader countywide plan to commit more than $200 million in ARPA funds to affordable housing.
“By investing in singlefamily home acquisitions, we will create equitable housing outcomes for residents by moving privately owned housing into our Harris County Community Land Trust to avoid speculation, promote shared ownership and create permanently affordable housing,” Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis said in a statement. “This preserves affordable homes and creates wealth-building opportunities through home ownership.”
So far, the land trust has taken an owner-driven approach in which a buyer works with a real estate agent to find a home that costs up to $275,000, then works with the land trust to reduce the sales price. With the ARPA funding, the program also will be able to identify and purchase homes, then market and resell them to buyers at a discounted cost, entering the land in the trust.
"This is a big deal," County Judge Lina Hidalgo said after the vote to approve the funding at Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s not enough, but it’s progress.”
In 2021, the countywide median sales price of a home was $285,000, about twice the price the county’s median renter could afford to purchase, according to the Kinder Institute for Urban Research’s 2022 State of Housing in Harris County and Houston report.