It was no easy feat for Francisca Amaya to buy a house in Longmont.
She, her two kids and her mother lived in a trailer before the 2013 flood hit. With flood relief money she received, she and her mother began looking for a home with her Realtor Marta Loachamin of ERA Tradewind Real Estate in Longmont.
As home prices in Boulder County rise, Loachamin said being a Realtor can be about “figuring out how we can be creative.”
Amaya works at Rudi’s Bakery in Boulder, and her mother, Adela Loya, works “cleaning in the afternoons” at IBM, Amaya said. By combining the flood relief money, a down payment assistance program and their two incomes, they were able to qualify for a loan. Even so, there was a lot of competition for homes in the price range they were searching for.
“I had to look around for a whole year for a house with a price I could qualify for,” Amaya said. “Every time I found a house, someone would come in behind me and offer more.”
Her advice for others: “I would tell them to look outside Longmont.”
The days of $250,000 turn-key homes and $150,000 condos and townhomes in Longmont are over. This was confirmed by a 2017 home affordability study in Longmont.
“There is no entry level housing being constructed and there hasn’t been any for several years,” concluded the report’s authors, Amy Aschenbrenner, CEO, Longmont Association of Realtors, and Kyle Snyder of Land Title Guarantee Co.
“Now there’s not a single family home available that doesn’t need work,” Loachamin said. “Do they have to widen their search, add a commute to their daily lifestyle, which has a cost in time, gas money and car maintenance?”
One of Loachamin’s clients who qualified for an affordable housing program, but who didn’t want to get on a waiting list made a different choice: “Now, he’s living in Greeley.”
Amaya said what kept her in Boulder County was the assistance she got that she was able to add to her and her mother’s income.
Despite the difficulties, she likes the family’s new home.
“The thing I like about the house is it’s not too big or too small for my mom, a girl, a boy and me. We’re all very happy.”
