The city of Durango and HomesFund, a mortgage assistance nonprofit, will conduct a drawing on Oct. 21 to determine the order in which prospective homebuyers will have the opportunity to purchase Animas City Park Overlook townhouse unit 501.
The city purchased the unit for $547,000 in April to sell it to a Durango worker or workers with a deed restriction at below market rate for $399,999. The city and HomesFund conducted a lottery in December 2022, at which time prospective buyers were selected – and all seemed well.
But in July, the city pulled the brakes after a possible conflict of interest surfaced along with questions about the city’s processes.
“The application process for the city-owned unit was put on hold so there was no appearance of favoritism after the only application filed previously was from a city employee,” city spokesman Tom Sluis said, adding the city applicant was able to reapply.
Townhouse unit 501 was placed back on the market at the same reduced price in August.
Since then, 10 qualified applications have applied to purchase the townhouse, said Mike French, city housing and tourism coordinator.
The selection process to determine the order applicants will be reviewed will be a double-blind drawing, he said. Applicants qualified for the drawing by meeting income, employment and residency requirements, and by attending a homebuyer course offered for free by HomesFund.
“Qualified candidates have also been able to provide a pre-approval letter from their funder for the value of the home. All applicants should be eligible for an additional $50,000 mortgage assistance loan on this opportunity made possible by the city of Durango and HomesFund from our Fair Share program,” French said.
The double-blind drawing will be held at 2 p.m. Oct. 21 at the HomesFund office. French and HomesFund Executive Director Pam Moore will conduct the drawing, with French assigning random numbers to the applicants and Moore selecting random numbers for the order of succession of applicants. He said that will determine the next applicant to be offered a contract should the first selected applicant be unable to secure a contract for the townhouse within 30 days.
cburney@durangoherald.com
A previous version of this story misstated that a city applicant was pulled from the lottery process for selecting a prospective homebuyer for a city-owned townshouse. The process was paused because of a perceived appearance of favoritism, but the city employee was able to participate once the process resumed.
