$290,000 houses with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms near Gig Harbor? These two need buyers
There usually would be a waiting list of potential buyers for the $290,000 homes Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity just built near Gig Harbor.
But of the three new homes west of the Narrows, the nonprofit only has a family for one.
It’s actively looking for two more families interested in the 1,400-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath homes on 58th Avenue near St. Anthony Hospital.
The organization estimates the monthly payments would be about $1,600.
The income threshold is 50 percent of the area median income or below, but Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity CEO Maureen Fife said the organization raised it a couple months ago to allow more families to qualify and help find buyers for the remaining homes.
Now, first-time home buyers are eligible if their household income isn’t more than 80 percent of the area median income. That figure depends on the size of the family. For a family of two the limit is $68,800. For a family of eight it’s $113,550.
They’ve tried hard to find someone to qualify, Fife said.
“It just seems like such a great deal,” she said.
It’s hard to find a one- or two-bedroom apartment for $1,600 a month, Fife said, let alone a three-bedroom house.
“Affordable housing is top of mind right now for everyone, I think,” Fife said. “... For home ownership in particular, it’s very, very difficult.”
The median closed sale price of an existing single-family home in Pierce County last month was $550,000, The News Tribune reported.
“The income that you have to have to support that mortgage payment is significant,” Fife said.
Asked why she thinks the organization had trouble finding buyers for the Gig Harbor-area homes, Fife said: “I think that the last year, if you’re a person that is lower or moderate income, if you have sort of watched the news at all, you hear a lot about the cost of housing, the cost of a $500,000 house. Or the interest rates that are so high and are just now starting to come down.”
She said people also worry about their credit score.
“I think, to a degree, it takes the brave individual to go to the financial session where you put it out on the table and you get to see what you can qualify for,” Fife said.
A family needs a credit score of at least 620 to qualify for the Gig Harbor-area homes.
The family also must have either lived or worked in Pierce County for a year or more and must put in at least 100 hours of “sweat equity.” That work can be improvements to their new neighborhood, such as landscaping, or work at other Habitat for Humanity sites.
The homes have a yard, a daylight basement and Energy Star appliances. They were built using sustainable concrete practices, which also helps reduce noise.
Anyone who is interested in the homes can call 253-627-5626 and dial extension 108 to apply.
‘Investing in people’s long-term stability’
This is the first home Habitat for Humanity has built west of the Narrows in years.
“It’s been a while since we’ve built in the harbor,” Fife said. “If you look at the cost to build in the city limits of Gig Harbor, we have never built there. We have never built in the city limits of Gig Harbor, because of the impact fees.”
Chapel Hill Church in Gig Harbor helped sponsor the project financially and with volunteer hours.
The church recently finished paying off its own building, and without the mortgage found itself in a position to help,” said Chandra Hallam, the church’s local outreach coordinator.
“I moved here about seven years ago, and it’s grown a lot, and property values have gone up a lot,” Hallam said.
Home ownership brings stability for families, she said.
“They can keep it for years and years for the next generation,” she said. “We like the idea of investing in people’s long-term stability.”
Rich Phillips, who used to be the chair of the Gig Harbor chapter of Habitat for Humanity, said he’s helped Hallam with the project.
He led the chapter from 2006 to 2011, he said. It’s since been disbanded. Now projects are done directly through Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity.
Phillips said he thinks, including the three new houses, Habitat has built about 17 homes in the Gig Harbor area since the late 1990s.
“We had a time where we were building two homes a year,” he said.
The lot for the new project was purchased years ago when he was chair, he said, but the location made it difficult to develop.
It’s on a slope, above state Route 16 near the Purdy exit. They had to widen the access to the property to make sure fire trucks could access it in an emergency, and that work required a retaining wall.
“The costs were just astronomical,” he said.
He’s excited to see the organization build west of the Narrows again.
“I’m more interested in helping people in the Gig Harbor area, and the stuff across the bridge wasn’t as appealing to me,” he said.
He thinks until now the last Habitat house in the Gig Harbor area was built in 2011 or 2012.
“They couldn’t afford to build homes here and build homes in the Tacoma area, so they decided to concentrate on the Tacoma area and serve more people,” he said. “I understand that.”
Asked about future Habitat projects west of the Narrows, he said it’s a big ask.
“I hope there will be more houses in the Gig Harbor area, but the problem is to get the affordable lots now, we end up having to go pretty far out on the Key Peninsula.”
That means there’s limited public transportation. With limited job opportunities deep on the Key Peninsula, costs are higher for families to commute to work.
Phillips just finished working on the new project.
The last day for volunteers was April 6, he said. It was a landscaping day, which meant it was safe for families with kids to help. The youngest volunteers helped shovel dirt and plant.
“The biggest hole they could fall in was the one they dug,” he said.
