My partner and I Co in this House.
What started as a house I
would say maybe all three
of us, me and Allison and Reckis
is quickly becoming a home.
When we got this place
is like we're gonna be able to paint
our walls like I don't know what
else homeowners do.
Wait and Dansky is ready for the paint.
The space when we first moved
in I was like wow it's like.
Well, it's well,
steps like I was so excited.
I was like wee but yeah,
just definitely a favorite
room in the house.
But most of all happy for the
new title homeowner. Yeah,
I think I feel like there's some
amount of relief of like we're not
going to get kicked out the landlord's
not going to just increase rent.
It's just like a little bit more breathing
room that I didn't know was possible.
Possible only through boulders,
affordable housing program.
The median price of a home in
Boulder is more than $1,000,000,
but for people who income qualify,
yeah like Hayden.
The Affordable housing program
is basically another housing
market but with different rules.
You have to make
enough to qualify for the loan
so you can afford the house,
but you can't make enough where
you go over the income payment.
There are no bidding wars in this program,
no offering over list price,
no waiving inspections,
and for every available property
a sort of lottery system. So we
are kind of in this like holding our breaths,
we were putting our name into every
house we qualified for for the last year.
Boulder says there are about 160
people certified and looking for
a home right now with more than
700 properties in the system.
Only eight are on the
affordable market today,
so this property was home for nine
years and one of them belongs to Jason.
English he and his wife bought
this affordable townhome in
Boulder almost a decade ago.
You know my wife is in in grad school
and I had just finished grad school
and our budget was pretty limited
since then. They have grown their careers,
their incomes, even their family,
and now it is time to move on. We
wanted to get a A market home and
give an opportunity for people
with tighter budget to be in
the affordable homes program.
In the affordable housing program,
the city sets the price and limits
appreciation on a property. This
two bedroom, 2 bathroom,
1800 square foot townhome is on the
affordable market for $332,000.
Single family homes in this neighborhood
sell for north of 1,000,000.
Jason was grateful to live here.
Yeah, this was way better than renting.
I mean renting, you're just
throwing away your money.
But so yeah, we we've built appreciation.
We have equity in the home.
We've increased our income
and we're able to move on.
Moved on, even entered the
traditional housing market.
The home we just bought in
gun barrel we got for 950,000.
Yeah, I would say.
Totally successive story.
I mean we did live here for 9
years as quite a while and I'm
very grateful for the program.
That allowed us to buy a
decent house in the city of
Boulder on a middle income
and after 2 long years of waiting.
It's just like I was so shocked.
I was like Hayden's turn finally arrived.
I just froze. That's like gonna
like couldn't breathe and I was
like and I like called Alice and
my partner and I was just like they
picked us and they were like what
like yeah I couldn't.
I was I couldn't breathe not just a
house but a place to truly call home.
Yeah, then another level of security
that again, I never imagined.
Now in this program there are income
limits and asset limits to qualify for
each of the properties in this program.
For pricey Boulder, though,
these numbers might surprise you.
A single person making all the way
up to $105,000 could qualify for
some properties and for a family of
four in some cases up to $150,000.
These are 6 figure incomes we're
talking about in an affordable market,
but it shows you where the state
of things is. It really does.
It was such a full circle moment too
to see is that the English family.
The fact that they were in affordable
housing and then you know they worked
their way up worked hard and now
almost about what $1,000,000 home?
That's what it's about, right?
It's the idea that they had something they
could afford at the time they bought it.
And then they built their lives
like so many people in this program
may move on to do other people.
Maybe they don't, but at least allows
them a chance at homeownership in
a city where there's no way they
would ever be able to do that.
So it's a great program. One option,
alright, Jennifer, thank you.