The Animas City Park Overlook townhouse unit 501 at 166 E. 3rd St. purchased by the city of Durango to be resold at a below market rate has a new potential buyer.
Resident Tim Dickey was awarded the first chance to close on the home, offered at $399,000 with a deed restriction.
The townhouse, built in 2023, has two bedrooms and three bathrooms and has a footprint of about 1,332 square feet. The city purchased the unit for $547,000 in April to resell in order to offer an additional workforce housing unit at the Animas City Park Overlook development.
The development was built with 12 market rate units and 10 deed-restricted units, six of which are workforce-qualified and four of which are income-qualified for workers earning less than 125% area median income. The 2024 area median income for a two-person household in La Plata County is $106,100, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.
The city and mortgage assistance nonprofit HomesFund conducted a randomized lottery on Monday to determine which of nine prequalified homebuyers would be first offered the opportunity to close on the home.
There were originally 10 applicants, but one dropped out before the lottery, Pam Moore, HomesFund executive director, said.
Dickey was not present at the lottery, but several other prospective buyers attended it at the HomesFund office on Monday.
Whitney Mick, 49, mother to Charlie, 10, said she entered the housing lottery to try her chances at getting a home in town. She currently lives with her mother, Jessica Cox, at Dalton Ranch in Hermosa.
“I am residing with my parents,” she said, adding a nervous laugh. “So yeah, I’m ready for an opportunity to get housed.”
Mick, who works at Axis Health System, drew the fourth lottery number, meaning if for whatever reason the first three applicants selected do not close on the townhouse, she’ll have an opportunity to do so.
“Durango feels a little bit behind in terms of the affordable housing issues. They're playing catch up. I think this is a great start. So there hopefully will be some other opportunities,” Cox said.
She added she is excited for her daughter and grandson to get a place of their own, but she’ll be sad when they’re out of her home.
Monday’s lottery was the second conducted for the townhouse in question, unit 501. The city and HomesFund had randomly selected a previous applicant, but then put the process on hold after a perceived conflict of interest involving two city employees in a relationship (one of whom worked within Durango Community Development’s Housing Innovation Division) reared its head.
Moore said the lottery process was all around better this time around. The city and HomesFund had more time to spread the word of the housing opportunity, and listed the unit on the multiple listing service database, giving it more exposure.
In May for the last lottery, applicants had just 10 days to enter into the lottery. Conversely, the lottery held Monday was announced in August.
The lottery drawing itself took less than 10 minutes to complete. Moore lamented that, saying the applicants put in a lot of work just to ensure they were eligible to purchase the deed-restricted unit, including completing an eight-hour homebuyer education course offered by HomesFund, obtaining a prequalification letter from a lender and having an income verification performed by HomesFund.
“It is a lot of preparation,” she said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
A previous version of this story stated an incorrect sale price for Animas City Park Overlook townhouse unit 501. The correct price is $399,000.
