Habitat for Humanity has home available, more in the works

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

Habitat for Humanity has a small home available in Columbia Falls that surprisingly, hasn’t drawn much interest, director MaryBeth Morand said during a tour of the property last week.

The modest two-bedroom, one full bath home has a fenced yard, a back porch. Located on 19 Mitchell Way off the Truck Route, the single-floor home also includes all major appliances.

Morand suggested it might be a good option for a teacher or millworker, with or without a small family.

A prospective homeowner does have to meet some income requirements. Household income for up to four people can’t be over $70,700 and for five people or more $93,350.

Habitat has always been about building and maintaining affordable homes for working-class people. The Habitat  subdivision on Mitchell Way was started some 14 years ago and completed about 10 years ago. The original homeowners of the subdivision had to provide “sweat equity” by helping build their own homes. Volunteers also helped.

But the homes come with deed restrictions that put a cap on the amount of equity a homeowner can build over time. For example, a homeowner won’t acquire any equity in the first five years and then it’s a sliding scale after that. 

This keeps potential buyers from simply “flipping” homes. Homes also cannot be bought and rented to another party.

The expected mortgage on this home is about $200,000, at just 2% interest, Morand said. With taxes and insurance, that’s a monthly payment of less than $1,000 a month.

In addition, all the homes in the neighborhood utilize super-efficient heat pumps. Electric bills run less than $20, Morand said.

The home is in excellent condition with fresh paint. It was being used by Americorps volunteers prior to being put on the market.

Habitat is also planning on building more homes in Columbia Falls in the near future. They’re working with the Northwest Montana Land Trust to build a home on Third Avenue East near Columbus Park and are in the planning stages to build several homes on the old baseball fields at Railroad Street.

“We’d like to buy more land,” Morand said.

They’re also building new townhomes in Kalispell. 

The Columbus Park property has drawn interest from several families, but the Mitchell Way property, not so much.

To learn more about the Mitchell Way property, go to: habitatflathead.org/homeownership