Rosie Dominguez, a single, working mom, has finally achieved her dream of owning a three-bedroom home in Tempe.
"I am beyond happy," Dominguez said. "I am a single parent, and with my income, I thought I would never own a home."
Dominguez has been living in her new home since October, after the Tempe non-profit agency Newtown made it possible.
The agency's new homebuyer assistance program, created by Tempe residents in 1994 in order to address unmet housing needs in the city, was designed to help increase the supply of quality, affordable housing in Tempe. The program helps low-income families and individuals purchase, develop and resell their homes. It focuses on a geographic area that includes 10 northwest Tempe neighborhoods, from Priest Drive to Mill Avenue and Broadway Road to Rio Salado Parkway.
Newtown's homebuyer program is the first organization in Arizona to help families become homeowners.
Luis Fernandez, an ASU justice studies graduate student and NewTown board member, said housing around ASU is extremely high because college students are willing to pay the high prices.
"Buying a home in Tempe is really outrageous for the median family income," Fernandez said.
According to NewTown, the median price of a Tempe home was $148,725 in 2001, meaning a family would need an annual income of around $44,000 to purchase a median priced home. However, the median income for Tempe households was $36,049. NewTown said that according to this data, half of all Tempe households cannot afford to buy a median priced home in Tempe.
Dominguez, the first NewTown homebuyer, said she and her children are very comfortable in their new home.
"For me and my circumstances, this was a great opportunity to be a homeowner - I had to jump on it," she said. "Right now this has been heaven-sent."
NewTown acquires property using Community Development Block Grant funds provided through a contract with the City of Tempe and then renovates the homes using a line of credit from Bank One and the National Bank of Arizona.
Fernandez said NewTown separates the house structure from the land it is on and puts the land into what is called community land trust. The community land trust allows the community to preserve the land so that no one else can buy it for 100 years.
"We sell the structure without the land," Fernandez said. "The land is leased to them, so then they can own the house, just not the land."
Ruth Jones, a NewTown board member and ASU's executive assistant to the president's office, said NewTown serves to coordinate and facilitate neighborhood participation in community planning, development and other community building activities.
"CDCs (NewTown's Community Development Corporations) take on an evolutionary role in communities, generally building support slowly and in focused ways," Jones said. "This is a real asset to Tempe and a resource for Tempe to access in constructive ways."
Reach the reporter at erin.hawksworth@asu.edu.
