Oct. 18 – Hearing Mike Loftin tell it, presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, who touted a plan for a down payment assistance program during a televised debate, prompted him to cheer up.
“Less than 10% — and I’m going to say this in less than 30 seconds — of the homes built in America are for the first-time buyer,” Loftin, CEO of local mortgage lender Homewise, noted during a roundtable discussion on Friday.
Concerns about a shortage of affordable housing continue to simmer in northern New Mexico, especially in Santa Fe, where rental costs have risen significantly in recent years as home ownership becomes out of reach for many workers.
Panelists convened by Democratic U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández gathered Friday at the Stewart Udall Center for Museum Resources for a roundtable discussion on homeownership. They discussed the challenges that exist in affordable housing, expanding homeownership opportunities and what can be done in the future.
“We need to flip that script. We need to make it easier to build homes for locals and workers than to build a multi-million dollar mansion on a mountaintop that actually pushes affordability in the wrong direction,” says Daniel Werwath , housing policy. advisor to the Governor’s Office.
Fernández said “property ownership was something New Mexicans took for granted for centuries,” before people from other states began moving to the Land of Enchantment, driving up prices.
Now, concerns about the housing stock and housing in general continue to drive political discussions in the state. Both Leger Fernández and U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich — both of whom are up for re-election this year — held housing-related events this week.
The Home of Your Own Act, which was introduced in Congress by Leger Fernández in June, would expand a limited pilot project to provide a one-time $30,000 down payment grant to first-time homebuyers who qualify for the program and create a new home. National Homeowner Assistance Grant Program at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. On Friday, Leger Fernández highlighted the pilot program, which she said has benefited 35 people.
“I don’t think we’re going to get this bill through the House of Representatives this year, right? Unfortunately, the House of Representatives hasn’t done much this Congress, under Republican leadership,” Leger Fernández said in an interview after the forum.
Leger Fernández said Santa Fe is in the middle of a housing crisis.
“If you can’t figure out a way to make sure that the people who grew up here, who work… can afford to live in the community, you lose the community. …Right now that’s under threat in Santa Fe,” she said.
Former state Rep. Sharon Clahchischilliage, a Republican and member of the Navajo Nation who is running against Leger Fernández in the 3rd Congressional District race, said in a telephone interview that she “knows that housing is really needed in New Mexico.”
She talked about how she would work to bring money to “ultra-rural” communities in the district that continue to struggle with electrical infrastructure, something that limits the ability to build. Clahchischilliage also said she believes the economy plays an important role in people’s ability to own a home.
“We need to get more money into people’s pockets,” she said. “If we want to move the economy, people need to be able to spend money. Taking money away from people with higher taxes and over-regulation is what needs to be addressed.”
Leger Fernández and Clahchischilliage are far from the only ones expressing concern about the impact the housing shortage is having on New Mexico communities.
“What’s really holding us back is we don’t have housing inventory that we can easily go to when we have families that want to come home,” said Jamie Navenma, president of the Southwest Tribal Housing Alliance. “Historically, we tell our children to go away and come back, but often they go and because there aren’t many homes to return to, they stay where they are, and there is language loss. and culture.”
Addressing the housing crisis has been a goal of the city of Santa Fe, which recently released a draft of its five-year housing plan and last year proposed a 3% excise tax on the value of home sales over $1 million to provide a revenue stream to create affordable housing initiatives. Supporters estimate that the tax, which has been suspended due to legal issues, could raise as much as $6 million a year.
Santa Fe County has also made it a priority to grow its affordable housing stock. The Affordable Housing Program aims to make housing more affordable for working families through down payment assistance, roof repair and replacement, and eviction prevention. County commissioners opted to spend $11 million on the program this year, a big increase from recent years.
