House for $125K below appraised value? Community land trust sells 1st home in Asheville

ASHEVILLE - The Asheville-Buncombe Community Land Trust ― the only model of its kind in Western North Carolina, according to land trust Executive Director Anna Zuevskaya ― has sold its first home, paving the way toward more affordable homeownership opportunities in Asheville.

A three-bedroom, single-family home in the Shiloh neighborhood was sold in July to Asheville native Nikita Lindsey for $125,000, half the price of its $250,000 appraisal value, Zuevskaya said.

The home was originally built by Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity in 2016, according to Buncombe County property records. The community land trust acquired it in 2020.

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According to July data from Canopy MLS, the average sales price of a home in Buncombe County is $596,722, and the median sales price is $475,000.

The land trust was established in 2018 as a nonprofit with the goal of creating and protecting permanently affordable housing as a response to the damage caused by centuries of racist real estate policies and practices.

“It was a long journey,” Zuevskaya said of the sale, but it paves the way for others to purchase homes in the land trust's inventory.

In order to ensure permanent affordability, the community land trust retains ownership of the land on which the home sits, allowing the nonprofit to control the cost, and sell the house itself to an income-qualified buyer.

Currently, the trust owns four other parcels: Two homes in the East End that it will renovate and sell, Zuevskaya said, and two vacant parcels on Wyatt Street, also in Shiloh, slated to be built on.

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“Especially (for) homeownership opportunities, there is no other model like this that provides permanent affordability for homeownership," Zuevskaya said. Typically, homes will be sold at $100,000 less than the traditional real estate market, she said.

Sasha Vrtunski, Asheville's affordable housing officer, said the land trust is "creating a net" around buyers, most of whom are first-time homeowners.

“We don’t have rent control in North Carolina, we don’t have some of the other tools that other places have," she said. "Affordable housing organizations or developers have developed most of the other models of affordable housing (in Asheville), and this is the one we’ve been missing."

It's a strategy to develop a pipeline of affordable units, she said, and right now, the land trust is building that stock.

Vrtunski was on the trust's board for several years and now serves as the city staff liaison.

She said the first sale is an exciting milestone, and one she hopes will elevate the land trust's profile in the community, "and help people understand how the land trust can work and that it’s a viable path to homeownership."

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As part of its 2016 affordable housing bond, the city dedicated $1 million to the community land trust in 2018, which has helped fund many of the property acquisitions.

Lindsey's new home on Caribou Road is located in one of Asheville's historically Black neighborhoods. Restoring affordability to the properties, particularly in areas of the city that were redlined, is a key mission of the nonprofit, Zuevskaya said.

These are the places most impacted by urban renewal, gentrification, and the price hikes of the last five to 10 years, she said.

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"Our focus is is to ensure that people can return to those neighborhoods that they have potentially been displaced from in the past," she said.

This was echoed by Vrtunski, who said the land trust works to "turn the tables" on decades of lack of investment in these neighborhoods, helping people stay in their homes or move back to the communities their families are from.

“It’s trying to reclaim those areas, and get folks in there and stabilize a neighborhood,” Vrtunski said.

Lindsey is a first-time homebuyer, and Zuevskaya said they worked closely together for about nine months ahead of the sale.

“She was ready, she was excited, she was just on top of everything,” Zuevskaya said. In order to qualify for the land trust's homeownership program, there are a number eligibility requirements, the primary of which are: income, assets and securing a mortgage.

Program applicants must have household income of 80% area median income or below, which is $45,000 for one person household and $51,400 for a two-person, according to the land trust's website.

“Being a new homeowner is one of the best feelings I’ve ever experienced. It has been an amazing journey for my daughter and I," Lindsey said in an Aug. 19 release from the land trust. “I am not only building equity for my immediate family, but I am also getting the opportunity to generate wealth for those who come after me.”

What comes next for ABCLT?

In the coming months, Zuevskaya said the land trust will put out a request for proposals for both the renovations of existing homes and construction on its vacant parcels.

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The nonprofit is also slated to get two lots from the city of Asheville, one in Montford at the corner of Chestnut and Young streets and the other on Lufty Avenue in West Asheville.

Also in the works, West Asheville's Firestorm Books has purchased the former site of Dr. Dave's Automotive — and plans to donate the newly acquired land to the trust. Zuevskaya said they are in the beginning stages of that process.

If acquired, it would be the first commercial property in the land trust's inventory.

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. 

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville land trust paves way to affordability with $125K home sale