Community Housing Trust

What is the Community Housing Trust?

The Community Housing Trust (CHT) is a program that helps people with modest incomes buy their first homes. Since 2009, all of INHS’ for-sale homes have been part of the Community Housing Trust. By using a special ownership structure, INHS is able to keep CHT homes affordable, not just for the first buyer, but for all future buyers as well.

How does it work?

The CHT is a “shared equity” program: the homebuyer purchases only the house and the Trust owns the land. The homeowner has a 99-year lease on the land, with a small monthly land rent. This arrangement greatly lowers the purchase price of the home, and INHS can provide other financial assistance to further reduce the buyer’s costs. And because most CHT homes receive a special tax assessment, the property taxes can be much lower than a market rate house. INHS ensure that all CHT homes are built or renovated to be energy efficient and environmental sustainable, another way that operating costs are kept low.

In exchange for these financial benefits, CHT homeowners agree to limit the amount of profit they can take from their homes when they are sold. CHT homes have a resale value that is capped at 2% increase per year. This allows the homeowner to build wealth in their properties, while still ensuring that the home remains affordable for future owners.

How is it funded?

At this moment, CHT homes cost on average more than $400,000 each to develop. We sell these same homes for only about half that amount—between $150,000 and $210,000 recently. INHS receives grant funds from a variety of sources to help fill the gap between development cost and selling price.

The challenge is that costs of real estate development are increasing faster than the availability of grant funding sources, which are also becoming more competitive. We are constantly seeking new and creative funding sources, because as housing prices continue to rise, the demand for affordable for-sale housing will only grow.

The permanent affordability of CHT homes means that the grant funds utilized to build them will benefit not one but many lower-income households for generations to come!

Is the CHT Right for Me?

Are you interested in learning more about the Community Housing Trust, and if CHT homeownership is the right fit for you? Watch this video and take our 5-question questionnaire to find out!

If you prefer to read through the content in the video, view the materials here and take the questionnaire here.

Snapshot of the CHT

  • 70 total CHT homes
  • 46 units in the City of Ithaca, 22 in the Town of Ithaca, 1 unit in the Town of Dryden, 1 in Seneca Co.
  • As of December 2023, 24 CHT homes have changed ownership
  • 94 households have benefited from the 70 CHT homes

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