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| June 20, 2004 |
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AFFORDABLE HOMES OPEN FOR FAMILIES:
EL RIO DEVELOPMENT LETS FIRST-TIME BUYERS ACHIEVE OWNERSHIP DREAMS
OXNARD, CA – Mayra Witt's garage is still stacked with boxes. Her free time is still spent on the slow process of unpacking. Her walls are still bare of pictures and keepsakes. |
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But in the midst of the clutter, she calls her recent move exciting.
Witt, an assistant principal at Channel Islands High School, is a new resident of Sonria, a 38-home, mixed-income El Rio community that held a grand opening Saturday morning.
The development is the result of a partnership between the city of Oxnard and Community Dynamics, a Santa Monica developer. To address affordable housing needs, 22 of Sonria's 38 homes were sold well below market prices -- $187,000 to $197,000. The remaining 16 homes were sold at face value.
Ground on the community was broken in May 2003. A lottery last summer pulled 22 names, including Witt's, from a pool of 227 Oxnard and El Rio residents who wanted to purchase homes.
For those who began moving in this month, the community has allowed them to grasp previously out-of-reach dreams. Many had packed rented apartments and had hopes of someday affording a home of their own.
"I was working hard on trying to save, and waiting for the opportunity," said Witt, who moved from Wisconsin to California, where home prices were three times higher. "We were very fortunate ... very fortunate."
The average home in Ventura County has topped a half-million dollars. It's a place where a family of four living on less than $54,000 is considered low-income.
But here, at Stroube and Detroit Streets, affordable housing consists of two-story, Spanish-style homes painted gold, cream and beige, the colors of muted metal. There are arched windows, arched doorways. Tiger lilies and ferns form front-yard gardens. Benches, street lamps and trees line medians between rows of homes.
Here, said Community Dynamics President Loren Bloch, live families of firefighters, teachers and factory workers. They are people who could buy a home three decades ago but have since been shut out of the market. They are people others would be proud to call neighbors. It's a community of first-time home buyers.
"The (affordable housing) problem is so huge, we're making a dent," he said. "I think this makes a difference."
To reduce the odds of owners selling their low-priced homes at a profit, the community comes with resale restrictions for 10 years.
Monica Lopez, 24, and her finance, Rodrigo Flores, 24, hope to move in a few weeks. Their name was pulled from the lottery, as was Lopez's sister's. The couple is set to marry in August. They said owning a home will be a perfect start to their life together.
"I never thought it would be possible until this opportunity came along," Lopez said. "We're finally moving out of an apartment ... and paying for something that's really going to be ours."
To qualify, families of one to six people needed incomes of $39,550 to $65,550. They needed good credit, $5,000 in savings and evidence of checking and savings accounts.
Carlos Martinez, 28, qualified. He lives in an apartment where his wife and two daughters sleep in one bedroom. It lacks space for the children, Monique, 6 and Jasmine, 1. But homes the family looked at elsewhere came with mortgages of $2,300 to $3,000 per month.
At Sonria, his monthly mortgage is $1,400. The house has a nice yard. There is space for his girls to play in the back. There are three bedrooms -- one for the parents, one for each little girl.
"Hopefully," he said with sly smile of anticipation, "they will get used to it."
By Erinn Hutkin, ehutkin@VenturaCountyStar.com
Story Copyright © 2004 The Ventura County Star |
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