26 Lucky Families Hit the Big One, Claim Chance to Buy First House

During her 17 years in government-subsidized apartments, Maria Avalos dreamed the American Dream of home ownership, knowing all along that it could never come true.

This is, after all, San Diego, the least affordable housing market in the United States when average income is compared to housing prices, according to one study. No place for a single mother of two taking home $980 a month to aspire to even a small piece of property.

“I’ve hoped, I’ve dreamt of it, but I knew it was never going to be possible,” said the 35-year-old clerical worker. Prices “are so high, they’re so expensive. For me, being a single parent, I just couldn’t afford it.”

Then Avalos hit the lottery. Not that lottery, but a little-known contest held last year by the San Diego Housing Commission, under which Avalos and 25 other families were chosen from among nearly 300 applicants for the chance to purchase government-subsidized homes at dramatically reduced rates.

Commission’s First Project

Under the demonstration project, the first of its kind operated by the commission, first-time home buyers earning between $16,000 and $25,000 a year were required to make a 3% down payment, cover closing costs and qualify for at least a $30,000 loan at 7.5% interest. The commission finances the balance of the mortgage by providing interest-deferred loans at 3%.

Twenty-six of the homes in South San Diego’s Mercedes Hills development were reserved for low-income buyers under a deal with the developer, Stonehaven Corp., which built 126 units on 17.5 acres of city-owned land between Coronado Avenue and Beyer Boulevard. The remaining 100 homes were sold at market rates.

The housing commission uses the money the developers pay to purchase each lot to provide the low-interest loans that make the purchases possible, said Mary Jo Riley, commission spokeswoman.

Avalos saved for the down payment, qualified for the loan and moved into her three-bedroom home Dec. 1, just in time to give her 17-year-old daughter and 13-year old son the Christmas gift they thought they would never have.

“I wanted to have the kids in a place of their own,” she said. “The environment is a lot different. They’re happier. They can call this ‘my place, my house.’ ”

“There’s a dream,” agreed Carlos Calderon, who closed escrow on his four-bedroom home Wednesday and began to move in the same day. “I like to give my sons a better life. It’s better for them. I think they feel better that they own their own home.”

On Friday, a third family that recently moved into Mercedes Hills was having its home blessed by a priest.

Payment Plan

The Avalos home on Camino Regalado, which cost $97,251, is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, unit, with a two-car garage and a fireplace. Avalos put news

down $3,900, which included closing costs, and pays $349 a month for her mortgage, home insurance and property taxes--$40 more than she was paying for rent.

The housing commission finances the balance through a $64,456 second-trust deed. Under the rules, Avalos must repay the second-trust deed when she sells the home or finishes paying the first one 30 years from now.

“I know that I am going to be here, probably, for the rest of my life,” she said. “It’s a good opportunity that I got. I wish that everybody could have the opportunity that I have. I know there’s a lot of people who were worse off then me, and I wish they could have gotten the same opportunity.”

Commission officials also realize that there are many people who are better off than Avalos, earning too much to qualify for government subsidies but too little to ever own a home in San Diego County, where the average price of a new single-family home is $208,300, according to Market Profiles, a housing market research firm.

Focus on Rental Properties

Housing commission executive director Evan Becker sympathizes with those who might say that the program is unfair and acknowledges that most of the homes the commission provides are rental units. Since its inception in 1979, the commission has helped build or rehabilitate more than 14,000 low- and moderate-income apartments throughout the city.

An ownership program “isn’t going to happen every day, and I guess, to be frank about it, it’s not going to be the highest priority of the housing commission.”

But Becker believes that “there’s still room there for us to experiment with the home ownership objective for low-income families.” The commission is working on a similar program in Southeast San Diego.

“There’s an attitude that goes with home ownership that’s a good one,” Becker said, adding that ownership “builds strong neighborhoods, strong communities.”

Avalos, who said that cars were stripped and vandalized at her old apartment complex, doesn’t dwell too much on that, but said she appreciates the safety of her two-car garage and the quiet of her new complex.

“It’s a very quiet neighborhood,” she said with satisfaction. “I left my car open the other day, and I’m surprised that nobody got in it.”