City of Lakes Community Land Trust

Description

A community land trust (CLT) is a nonprofit, community-based organization that works to provide perpetually affordable home ownership opportunities. In the truest sense, a CLT acquires land and removes it from the speculative, for-profit, real estate market. CLT’s hold the land they own "in trust" forever for the benefit of the community by ensuring that it will always remain affordable for homebuyers.

CLT’s provide permanently affordable housing by owning the land of a particular property but selling the home on the land to an income-qualified buyer. The homeowner then leases the land from the CLT through a 99-year, renewable ground lease.

The ground lease connects the homeowner to the community and to keeping the house permanently affordable by including a resale formula that determines the home’s CLT sale price and the homeowner’s share of the home’s increased value at the time of sale.

This mechanism facilitates the initial investment made in the home by public and private subsidy sources remaining with the home to make it affordable to subsequent, income-qualified buyers.