The flagship home of an affordable housing program is now on the market, with an open house scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 22 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. and Friday, Oct. 23 from 3 to 6 p.m.
The three-bedroom, one bath house at 714 Seventh Ave. SW in Pipestone, listed for $59,000, is being sold by the nonprofit Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership (SMHP), whose mission is to supply adequate, safe, sanitary and affordable housing for people in southwest Minnesota.
To carry out that mission, one of the organization’s latest programs is to buy foreclosed property, rehab it and get it back on the market. And the first property the organization purchased on speculation under the program was the Pipestone home.
“We were able to make some good improvements to the property and can resell it with some special financing for the buyers,” said Lisa Onken, director of real estate development.
The right buyer would have a household income that’s 80 percent of the statewide median. A family of four would qualify, for example, with an income of $58,400 or less.
In addition, “there are zero percent mortgages for those who need it and closing cost assistance,” Onken said.
The Pipestone foreclosure was SMHP’s first acquisition, but the rehab took awhile and during that time, the SMHP acquired and sold a Fulda foreclosure and is working on a sale of another foreclosure in Montevideo.
“We try to just limit it to one per community and see if it sells,” Onken said. “If we get this one sold, we hope to do more in Pipestone.”
Earlier this year, First Farmers and Merchants National Bank in Pipestone received $500,000 from Federal Home Loan Bank Des Moines on behalf of SWMHP for the affordable housing program. SMHP had identified the potential negative impacts on communities that have several foreclosed properties.
“The whole program was designed so we can acquire foreclosed property that’s vacated and then turn it around without having the home sit empty,” Rick Goodemann SMHP executive director, said when the funding was announced earlier this year.
The Slayton-based nonprofit SMHP formed in 1992 as a non-profit community development corporation serving 30 counties in rural Minnesota and is a partner with the Pipestone Economic Development Authority on Whispering Winds, and the apartment complex’s 18-unit neighbor, Prairie Winds, opened in April of this year.
