Construction started in January on Dayton View Commons II, a $7 million project to build 32 long-term lease-to-own houses. Eleven houses are now occupied. All of the homes should finish construction and be leased by August, said Steve Naas, president of CountyCorp, which manages the HomeStart program, a partner on the project.
Renters qualify based on income and can buy the house at a market discount in 15 years.
“The demand for the housing has been so good that we have a significant list of interested families,” Naas said. “This is just a complete transformation.”
Dayton View II is the final planned phase of a larger housing project in this part of the city that has spanned more than a decade.
The typical residents moving into the lease-purchase homes of Dayton View II are families earning $20,000 to $40,000 a year, but who couldn’t qualify to buy a home for some reason, said Greg Smith, a project manager for Oberer Companies.
Salem Crossing, a phase of 60 single-family homes started in 2002, has 14 remaining lots for sale to build.
A 30-unit senior apartment building and a 50-unit public housing development of single-family homes and duplexes were completed in 2003 and 2004.
Plans in 1999 were for 240 total housing units, Smith and Naas said. By the time Dayton View II and Salem Crossing are finished, 172 housing units will have been built.
Lease-to-own homes weren’t part of the original concept.
“We kind of came up with Dayton View Commons, that concept, four to five years ago when we realized a lot of people coming to buy homes in Salem Crossing had jobs, wanted to buy, wanted to live in the community, but they faced obstacles to buying a house. The lease-purchase was the solution,” Smith said. CountyCorp, Oberer Companies, Greater Dayton Premier, Ohio Housing Finance Agency, Nationwide Insurance and Ohio Capital Corp. for Housing are all partners in the housing development.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-551 or clevingston@coxohio.com. Follow this reporter on Twitter @ChelsLevingston
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