A home of their own

By KRISTI ALBERTSON

Some builders put emphasis on affordable housing

The Daily Inter Lake

A little more than a year ago, Jeff and Julie Eayrs' rental home on Second Avenue West in Kalispell got a little crowded when baby Silas joined his sister, Aizel.

The two-bedroom house was too small for the growing family and they were tired of putting money into someone else's investment.

"We realized each year we were spending $10,000 toward nothing. Of course it was toward living, but we weren't getting any interest on it, whereas if you buy a home you can," Julie said. "We kind of just wanted to make a wise investment, so we decided to buy."

But with a $31,000 annual income, their selection was slim.

As of mid-October, the median home price in Kalispell was $208,000; in the greater Flathead Valley, it was $185,000. Most homes were out of reach for Eayrs and her husband, even with a home loan.

"We could only qualify for $117,000," she said, "and you can't qualify for anything nice for that much."

Their dilemma is familiar to many in the Flathead. Wage growth has failed to keep pace with skyrocketing property values, making it difficult for people to purchase their own homes.

But affordable housing - defined by the federal government as housing that consumes no more than 30 percent of a household's income - does exist in the valley.

Randy Jones Construction is building six-plex condos starting at under $120,000 in Columbia Falls, where the median home price is $197,000.

"It's absolutely the most affordable housing in the Flathead Valley," Jones said.

He has built homes in the valley since the mid-1980s. As a general contractor, he will build whatever people want, but Jones says he prefers working on low-cost homes to building ritzy mansions on the hill.

"I just like building for flatlanders, regular people," he said. "It's just regular homes for regular people, and that's what these [the condos] are. Our main goal in building these is affordable housing."

In Whitefish, where the median home price is $315,000, affordable housing tends to be more expensive.

Rob Pero is building 1,375-square-foot homes that cost about $275,000.

"They're single-family homes, what I call starter homes," he said.

Not long ago, Pero was able to build less expensive houses, but it's harder to do so now.

"We've done some other townhouses for $110,000, $120,000 a couple of years ago, when things were a little cheaper," he said. "Land prices keep going crazy. Things keep going up, so it's kind of hard to keep things affordable."

There are more affordable houses available in Whitefish; the Whitefish Housing Authority has helped many people get into homes. But Pero says agencies like that have access to funds he doesn't use.

"They go for government grants, things like that, which I don't do," he said. "I just kind of build on the low end of the market."

Like Jones, Pero also builds expensive homes for customers who can afford them. He estimates about half his time is spent on affordable housing.

He says he's able to build affordably because he doesn't have to buy land. For builders coming in now and paying full retail for the land, "building affordably is impossible," he said.

"I bought land five, six, seven, eight years ago, so my land prices are a lot less. I was buying land yesterday, when it was cheaper."

It was a lot cheaper more than a decade ago when Kalispell-based Ron Terry Construction opened for business.

"The homes we've built in 12 years have probably more than doubled in price to the buyer at the end - and cost to us," said Merna Terry, Ron's wife and vice president of the company. "Lately, in the last year or two, costs of both the land we buy and the materials have just rapidly increased."

Impact fees are another factor, she said. Paying the city of Kalispell to offset the increased demand on its infrastructure costs as much as $7,000 per house.

Even so, Terry said she and her husband try to keep their homes affordable. At the low end, their houses cost $135,000 to $155,000. The most expensive homes cost upwards of $240,000.

"That's always been what we do, just because we like working with people," she said. "When it's their first home, they get all excited. And they can afford something they didn't think they could."

The company often builds for single mothers or couples preparing for their first baby. She remembers building for one woman who had lived in a trailer house for 20 years.

"She said to me, 'This is the first winter I've been warm all winter,'" Terry said. "So that's just really cool."

Some of the company's clients find funding through the Glacier Affordable Housing Foundation, which has been processing loans for low- to moderate-income first-time home buyers since 1996.

"It's a really neat program for people who may have pretty good credit but can't afford to buy a home on their own," Terry said.

Eayrs and her husband fell into that category, so they turned to the foundation for help. After completing "a whole bunch of paperwork" and attending a nine-hour first-time home buyers' class, they received $40,000 to put toward a down payment on their $184,000, 1,300-square-foot home.

"By doing that, they enable someone like us, who can't afford to be in this nice of a home, to get into this nice of a home," Eayrs said.

They were also able to secure $5,000 in extra "scholarships" through Glacier Bank to put toward their closing costs. Eayrs said they only paid $640 when they closed Nov. 17.

Jones is implementing a similar program for his Columbia Falls condos. He's offering $2,000 to help buyers pay for closing costs and hopes to get people into homes for little or no money down. It costs about $900 a month to live in the three-bedroom condos, he said.

Eayrs said the mortgage on her family's new home is similarly priced. It's only $100 more for the mortgage than what they were paying for rent in their old home - and now they're building equity.

"And what they do through the program, they clock us in at an interest rate that can't go up," she said, adding that their 6 percent interest rate "is really good for a home."

If they someday sell their home, Eayrs and her husband will have to pay back the $40,000 they received plus a small percentage of their profit. If they live there forever, she said, they won't have to pay anything but the monthly mortgage.

But at the moment, moving is the furthest thing from their minds.

"We love everything about it," Eayrs said. "We absolutely love it. We are in heaven here."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com