Matt Durand of Arden Home Services LLC of Owatonna, is working to offer affordable housing to qualified buyers. Single family homes for first time buyers are in demand for workers in Dodge County.
Durand has experience in commercial, residential and environmental construction and has been involved in construction labor as well as project management. He has built custom homes in the metro area in the $300,000 to $500,000 range and now wants to help provide more affordable housing in the rural communities.
The steps for this include attending an eight-hour program of homeowner education to prepare the buyer to apply for a USDA home mortgage. Under these guidelines a family of three or more with an annual income of less than $129,000 will qualify for the mortgage and the free quarter acre lot.
The house is a 1,008 sq. ft. 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom rambler built on a full unfinished basement, with an attached two car garage. The price of the home is $260,000 and are offered only through the USDA financing and not through a realtor. Each house is complete with all finishes and standard appliances and interior walls are painted white. The basement is not finished but can be completed by the homeowner later to include two additional bedrooms, a bath and a family room. All homes are a standardized floor plan.
Durand will build the basement and finance the construction once the mortgage has been approved. The house is a modular home built by Dynamic Homes, which assembles the structure in their climate-controlled factory and delivers the home to the final site in two sections. They are set on the foundation by a crane and secured together and then sided and the ridge cap finished. The garage is then built on site. Matt is currently building one of these homes in Owatonna for himself as a way to test the program personally.
Durand has plans to get three families qualified for this program this winter so construction can begin in the spring of 2023. Under his program at this time he has nine lots available in Claremont. The lot is offered by the city under a Tax Increment Financing program so the new homeowner is not assessed for the water, sewer and street costs.
You can find out more about this program by going to the City of Claremont website, www.claremontmn.com and clicking on the Empty Lot Program. There you can find more information and an application to fill out to start your quest for your own home. This is a great way to get into a new home for the beginning buyer or even the couple who are downsizing after the children have left home. You can purchase a new home and build equity for the future.
