Can you buy in Channel Cove?

Home Trust of Skagit Director Jodi Monroe and Melissa Luke, executive assistant, are spreading the word that homeowners are needed for the five homes that will be built in their Channel Cove development near Caledonia Street and Maple Avenue. They met with seven interested people July 10 in Mount Vernon to introduce their program.

Monroe is an enthusiastic proselytizer for home ownership, which she notes “is the number one way in the country to build wealth.” They’re not from the government, exactly, but her nonprofit is here to help, she says, acting as a resource to help already qualified homebuyers through the process of home purchasing, including $50,000 in gap financing that completes a buyer’s purchasing budget.

Home Trust makes purchasing possible for people living in Skagit County earning up to 80% of the area median income: $42,560 for one person and $70,550 for a six person household. An application starts the process that includes prequalifying for a loan and a home buyer’s education class, prequalifying for a loan, getting pre-approved from a lender and working with Home Trust staff through steps leading to home inspection.

The seven attendees had various motivations for buying, from needing to downsize from too expensive housing to currently living with parents to wanting a home and yard for their children, to owning a business but sleeping on a futon, either their own or at their family’s home.

Several attendees were in various stages of the process, from having the application filled out to taking the homebuyer’s class, to getting financial counseling from staff. “You have to walk in and obtain a mortgage,” she told the group. Home Trust staff will support applicants in that process to get them “bankable.”

Monroe went through the numbers: The Channel Cove homes will be three bedroom, two baths and 1,300 square feet. They are priced at $225,000 and financing will be for $175,000. Home Trust provides $50,000 in gap financing.

Monroe expects environmental assessments to be done by summer’s end and construction to start in the fall, depending on weather. The builder, BKY Construction, finishes homes in 120 days she says, but time needs to be added to each side. The homes will be move-in ready next spring. They will be turnkey, with a stove and dishwasher included.

She pledges her organization as a resource to help the potential homebuyer through the process.

Luke told the group “Housing is your number one sense of security. You have to have that roof over your head.”

She and Monroe will do what they can to get five families to own home in their La Conner development.

As a community land trust, Home Trust of Skagit, owns the land underneath the homes,

Home Trust of Skagit has owned the Channel Cove neighborhood since 2011 and the Summerlynd neighborhood and scattered housing in Mount Vernon.