Deal of a lifetime on new homes for working-class-type incomes -- call city at 286-5872

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Jim Hamblin struck gold by sheer luck.

The 40-year-old computer network administrator, meteorologist and, at times, professional college student, still can't believe his good fortune.

In early December, he was a renter who had all but thrown in the towel on trying to buy a house here he liked in the $130,000-plus range.

Now, he's moved into a brand-new, $178,100 home, thanks to a relatively moderate income and a once-in-a-lifetime city/state program of subsidies designed to replace some of the 1,300 homes the city lost to the June 2008 flood.

Pay attention: A similar second-in-a-lifetime city/state “single-family new-home construction” program with attractive buyer subsidies is in the offing.

“What's the catch?” was the first question out of Hamblin's mouth in early December when his Realtor first told him about the program.

There aren't many catches other than having a moderate, working-class-like income and, at the same time, an ability to get a mortgage.

But there are questions:

-- Has the Cedar Rapids program been promoted well enough for potential buyers or have those aware of it through connections with builders or others really had an advantage? The city of Iowa City has come up with a creative, even entertaining lottery to try to make their program better and fairer.

-- To date, nearly all of the new Cedar Rapids housing units have gone up in preexisting, unfinished developments on the edge of the city. Can city officials, who dislike “urban sprawl,” steer more of the building toward the core of the city?

-- Have the subsidies been too large for an “affordable” housing program that, city officials say, is better defined as “attainable” housing or work-force housing? Buyers of 40 of the 184 units in the 2009 round of building in Cedar Rapids received subsidies of or near $54,000. It would take about 14 years of payments to erase that much mortgage principle in a typical 30-yer mortgage.

Hamblin was among the last of the new owners in Cedar Rapids who took possession of newly built homes, condominium units or townhomes in the 2009 version of the subsidized, replacement housing program. A late modification to the Cedar Rapids version of the state program gave Hamblin a 15-percent subsidy or about $27,000 – not the up to 30 percent subsidy which reached $54,000 for some who bought $180,000 homes -- toward the cost of his new home, at 2128 25

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Hamblin doesn't begrudge those who got an even better deal. “I'm just thrilled to get the 15 percent,” he says. “I would not have been in a position to get this if it had not been available.”

In the last several weeks, city officials and homebuilders have been meeting and preparing for a second round of home construction, and the builders now have until March 12 to submit proposals to be part of the program.

Buyers can apply beginning in April if they must meet an income-test to qualify for the program. Call 286-5872.

The same Iowa Department of Economic Development program is going on in other disaster-affected cities in Iowa, but not to the extent that the building is going on in Cedar Rapids.

In Iowa City, 40 houses, condominiums and townhomes went up in the first round, and Iowa City will have 37 in the new round.

Tracy Hightshoe, a community development planner with the city of Iowa City, says it became apparent early on in the first round of building in Iowa City that those connected to the builder community knew best about the program and so had people connected to them applying to buy the new homes. In the end, 60 people qualified to get one of the 40 homes, so the city of Iowa City set up a lottery so no one was guaranteed a unit or, if they were in the top 40, a specific unit they otherwise might have had an inside track on.

Hightshoe says she was surprised more buyers didn't apply for the first round of building, but she doesn't expect the same thing to happen in the second round, thanks, in part, to the first-round lottery.

“Our council chambers were full when we were drawing the numbers,” she says.

In Cedar Rapids, Paula Mitchell, a housing services supervisor, says her office's role on the buyer side is to make sure potential buyers are qualified and then to let them know which builders are building units. The buyer then works with the builders to close a purchase, she says.

Tim Waddell, division administrator for the Iowa Department of Economic Development, says individual cities can run the single-family new-home construction program as they see fit.

The federal Community Development Block Grant funds being used for the program, he points out, are intended to help meet flood-related housing shortages and don't need to go directly to flood victims.

Cedar Rapids, which has lost some 1,300 homes to the 2008 flood, needs the program to replace some of what was lost. Adding the new houses to a city, he adds, causes a “domino effect,” freeing up homes now in place at lower and higher price points as owners of those homes move into some of the new ones.

“Because of that, building any kind of new units helps everybody,” Waddell says.

Cedar Rapids City Council member Chuck Swore says the single-family new-home venture has and will continue to help provide post-flood “affordable” housing opportunities for both buyers and builders that would not otherwise have been available. The program has come along, too, he says, at a time of an economic downturn when builders have needed it to keep working.

“I think it's timely and I think it's fair,” Swore says.

To qualify for the new round of building, a buyer must have an annual household income of 100 percent or less of the area median income, with half of the residential units going to those with annual household incomes of 80 percent or less of the area median income.

In dollar figures in Cedar Rapids, 100 percent of median household income is $47,300 for a single person; $54,100 for a two-person household; and $67,600 for a four-person household.

At the 80-percent level, it is $37,850 for a single person; $43,300 for two; and $54,100 for a four-person household.

In the 2009 round of building in Cedar Rapids, 70 percent of those who purchased new homes or housing units with a cost under $150,000 had median household incomes at or below 80 percent. At the same time, 54 percent met the 80-percent standard for homes over $150,000 to $180,000, according to city figures.

In this year's round of building in Cedar Rapids, the program will require that 125 of the units be built at a cost not to exceed $150,000, allowing 110 others to cost up to $180,000.

The subsidy for buyers is 25 percent, which will equal $45,000 for those buying $180,000 homes.

The hope of the City Council is that more of the residences in the second round will be built closer to the core of the city where homes were lost in the June 2008 flood.

In the first round, most of the building took place on the edge of the city because of the rush to replace flood-damaged housing stock and because the periphery is where developers had lots to build on.

This time, the council has established a three-tier system, with builders in the core or first tier able to see a profit of 15 percent in tier one in the core of the city and a profit of 10 percent if they build in tier two or three outside the core.

Drew Retz, vice president in Cedar Rapids of Jerry's Homes, says the homebuilding effort likely has failed to help a lot of flood victims directly because many of them living on fixed incomes or moderate incomes can't qualify for mortgages even with the program's subsidies.

At the same time, he calls the size of the subsidies in the first round, which reached $54,000 for a $180,000 home, “just ridiculous.”

It made sense at the end of the first round of the program to reduce the subsidies from 30 percent to 15 percent to spread what money was left over more people, Retz says. With the second round of building requiring more homes to be built at $150,000 or less and with buyer subsidies limited to 25 percent, the program now should provide access for more people, Retz says.

Kyle Skogman, president of Skogman Homes, says he supports the City Council's push to get more of the new homes in the second round of construction closer to the core of the city.

Building on the city's periphery worked last year, he says, because the city needed to replace housing quickly where lots were available.

“Now the city can act a little more patiently to get the units where they need them,” Skogman says.