EATONVILLE, Fla. — Eatonville is considering adding a new option to provide homeownership opportunities to residents.
With developers continuing to move into the town and the future of the Hungerford property still up in the air, the town has been concerned with its community getting priced out of its neighborhoods.
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The mayor said a community land trust could be a way to protect Eatonville, its history and create generational wealth for the town.
More than 60 percent of Eatonville families rent homes, owned mostly by people from outside the area. The town is considering a solution to take back its community by creating a community land trust.
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“The community land trust is very similar to a condo association,” said Camille Reynolds, the executive director of Winter Park’s Hannibal Square Community Land Trust. “So in a condo, you own what’s inside the four walls, but you don’t own the land.”
Reynolds said her CLT has placed 31 families in Winter Park and expects to place another 59 this year.
“When someone buys a home in a CLT, they buy the improvements. But they leased the land in a 99-year ground lease, it is an exclusive lease to the homeowner, they have exclusive rights to the land,” she said.
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Reynolds says the CLT can be launched through a local government or community organization.
“CLTs work better in areas where the housing price point, the median housing price point doesn’t match up with the median income,” Reynolds said.
To keep purchasing prices low, the buyer only pays for the home, not the land and there’s a cap on how much a home can be sold for.
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There are state and national guidelines and agreements all CLTs have to follow that can’t be changed without homeowners’ votes.
Homes available through the CLT would not be advertised on the usual housing websites, instead you have to reach out to the organization itself.
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