PRIEST RIVER — The Kaniksu Land Trust has lifted two significant restrictions connected to its affordable housing partnership project, The Village at Riverview Ridge, on Tuesday. 

The trust, alongside its two partners LEAP Housing and Bonner Community Housing Agency, removed the two of the largest limitations for applying the residence and housing size requirement. Previously, applicants needed to have an address in Bonner County and be a household of at least three to qualify for one of the three-bedroom, two-bathroom homes. 

Katie Egland Cox, executive director of the Kaniksu Land Trust, said the changes were implemented to ensure Priest River residents who needed the housing got the first chance at them. As the project as gone on, Cox said they found the abundance restrictions left a small pool of applicants. 

"As we were coming up against all these brick walls in doing this work, we realized that we really needed to start pulling some of these restrictions just to make this project available to anybody within our region that needed this housing,” Cox said.  

One of the challenges that Cox said they uncovered throughout the process was the lack of hope many eligible homebuyers had in the market. She said that aspect combined with high interest rates, credit card debt and the high cost of living left many eligible applicants out of the process.  

“For me, it was eye opening to go through this process and see you cannot just build it, and they will come,” Cox said. “There are so many different barriers in the way for people to get to the part where we get to hand them the keys.” 

Cox said she was under the impression that once the community saw the lower prices of housing, they would have plenty of applicants, but that the process has been a learning process. Brian Woodward, chief operations of officer at LEAP Housing, said the development in Priest River was an experiment on the number of restrictions. 

“What we just attempted to do and doing in Priest River has thrown many more variables into the mix to see how the market would accept it,” Woodward said. “What we have found is that the market is not accepting it, even though we know there is an insatiable need for affordable home ownership.” 

While some restrictions were eased, applicants still must make 120% of the area's median income or below to qualify. Cox said the intent with the project was to provide housing to a “missing middle” of people in the region who made enough to make their way but not buy a house in the current market. 

In LEAP’s other community land trust housing development in Boise, Woodward said the income requirement is the only one the organization put into place. Cox said without the two other restrictions, KLT feels like there are more than enough applicants they can move forward with on the four open homes. 

In addition to the easing of restrictions, KLT also announced partnerships with Mountain West Bank and Idaho Central Credit Union to improve the affordability of the homes. Cox said the support from Mountain West Bank is allowing KLT to offer up to $50,000 in down payment assistance, which could lower monthly mortgage payments by as much as $400. 

With the full down payment assistance, the cost of a home would come down from $270,000 to $220,000, more than $400,000 less than the median housing price in the Sandpoint metro area, according to data from Zillow.  

Cox said LEAP helped secure an offer from ICCU that caps the homebuyer’s loan at 3% interest, nearly half of the current national interest rate. She said these partnerships will be game-changing for the affordability of the homes. 

"You can’t find a better price for a brand-new home anywhere in Idaho,” Woodward said. “That’s the full kit and kaboodle for someone who wants to own a home and get out of paying monthly rent. That, in many cases, far exceeds the cost of a monthly mortgage.”