“It was affordable housing, affordable childcare, and built-in community all at once, it was awesome”!
We got married in College. I graduated first and got a teaching job while Adam was still in school. We’d been married 3 years and had a little baby and we were living on a teacher’s salary. Some of our friends who were in a similar situation had bought a house through the Lawrence Community Housing Trust. That got us thinking that home ownership might not be as far off as we thought it was.
We began looking at our budget and realized home ownership could be possible.
We had friends living across the street who also had kids. Adam set up his school schedule so that he and our neighbor could take turns watching the kids. It was affordable housing, affordable childcare, and built-in community all at once; it was awesome!
What made it really affordable and attainable for us is that the LCHT program provided a newly constructed, energy efficient home. The initial cost of the home was subsidized by $30,000 and LCHT helped us receive the lowest mortgage loan rates. We grew our family, I got a better job, my husband got a better job; we built equity and saved money. All of this made it possible for us to thrive as a family.
We’ll be moving to Chicago soon for Adam’s new job and we’ve realized how spoiled we’ve been here in Lawrence with this program. Our cost of living in Chicago will be about four times as expensive and that’s for a rental.
When we sell the house we’ll be able to take with us our initial down payment and the equity we have in the mortgage along with the appreciation. This will certainly help make our next step in housing more affordable as we prepare for our move to Chicago.
– Karen and Adam Buhler
