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A national housing developer makes strides in efforts to modernize more than 650 affordable housing units in rural New Mexico while ensuring they stay in the affordable housing pipeline.
Affordable housing developer Community Preservation Partners announced that it has completed the last of three phases of a long-term project to renovate 654 units in 20 properties in 10 New Mexico counties. The latest phase includes 218 units in affordable residential complexes in Las Vegas, Portales, Artesia, Belen and Ruidoso Downs.
While affordable housing in growing urban areas often receives more attention, Karen Buckland, vice president of development at CPP, said remodeling existing projects in rural communities will help keep these properties available to existing residents and evacuate in a changing national Landscape to prevent.
“In these rural communities, these affordable housing projects often house the poorest of the poor,” Buckland said. “If they’re finally pushed out, then there’s really nowhere for them to go.”
Nationwide, the median sales price for a single family home in New Mexico was $ 270,000 in August, up from $ 232,000 at the same time in 2020, according to data from the New Mexico Association of Realtors. Only four New Mexico counties saw year-over-year decrease in average sales prices.
Buckland said rising costs in urban areas have pushed some residents into smaller communities, which in turn reduces housing supply and displaces residents already living in those communities. The COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding increase in remote working have compounded this trend, Buckland said.
“COVID has really opened the eyes of many communities,” she said.
Buckland added that affordable housing projects in rural communities can find it particularly difficult to attract funding from investors. For this reason, CPP, the development arm of the investor WNC & Associates for affordable housing, is trying to bundle residential projects in order to make them more attractive to investors.
Buckland said the entire New Mexico portfolio cost approximately $ 63 million, which was paid off through a mixture of bonds, loans and tax credits.
Each of the units will get new, energy-efficient windows, appliances and plumbing, as well as new cabinets and floors, Buckland said. The complexes will also receive new facilities for the public areas, including play equipment, benches and pavilions.
Buckland said she hopes the projects will be completed by next August. Buckland said current residents will not be permanently evicted but noted that CPP can pay for residents to stay in hotels or with friends and family while their units are being built.
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